Walter Benjamin’s Approach to Language and Translation: by Wimal Dissanayake

Walter Benjamin's essay, 'The Task of the Translator', has inspired many discussions among students of translation studies. It is a highly original and complex work that raises several important issues related to language and signification. This essay has been interpreted in diverse ways by scholars such as Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man. Benjamin's approach to translation is inseparable from his theologically-inspired philosophy of language.

In this talk, I wish to examine Walter Benjamin's approach to translation and the concomitant philosophy of language from the point of view of a student of communication. Benjamin’s understanding of the concept of linguistic communication is very different from the models forwarded by modern communications scholars. In the second part of the talk, I wish to point out certain affinities of interest between his theory of language and the formulations of some classical Indian thinkers, despite the fact that they come out of very different intellectual traditions. The juxtaposition of these two sets of thinkers, certain epistemological discrepancies notwithstanding, might enable us to understand Benjamin’s aims and interests more clearly.

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UH EWC International Cultural Studies, The Academy for Creative Media and Politcal Science Department

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Kalawaia Moore, 944-7243, culture@hawaii.edu, http://www2.hawaii.edu/~culture

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