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Translation as Inquiry: An approach to the Humanities Translations

Jon Sung-Gi 1

1고려대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Nowadays the humanities translations are practiced by many, but seriously reflected or discussed only by a few. Our relatively poor translation culture is not without relation with this situation, continuing since already long enough. Inquiring a translation is to become conscious, reflective, and responsive about that translation. In other terms, it means to ask incessantly about a translation and about the factors concerning that translation: original text and author and his other texts, the translator's translational attitude and his other translations, if any, among many others. This is why Michel Meyer’s problematology, which is called a “philosophy of questioning”, could be very useful to whom who consider the Translation as ≪Inquiry≫, and moreover as ≪Discovery≫, as a consequence of the inquiries in question. In this article, we begin by explaining the differences between Translation as Inquiry and Tranlation as Discovery, through several examples. After that, we suggest that the literary translation, which remains the center of the humanities translations, should be a sort of model for these translations, principally, by the notion of “oeuvre”, valued mainly in Antoine Berman’s works. Besides, Woodsworth’s discussion about Baudelaire’s translations of Adgar Allan Poe, Dehusses’s proposal about literay translation, inspired by the Quantum Physics, and Boulanger’s application of Theory of Chaos to literary translation, all appear also very suggestive and helpful for the humanities translations. But it must be noted that the approaches to the humanities translations called Translation as Inquiry is not limited to one “method” or “mode”. Rather, it can vary widely, according to the factors such as intention of the translator, genre of the text to translate, socio­cultural context of translation, etc. But, in any case, in addition to being empathic to the author, the translation especially need to be sincere and “devoted” by itself. If we understand the Confusian Chung yung Ethics as an “Situation Ethics”, as suggested by Park Jai­Joo, this Ethics could be fruitfully explored as possible Ehics of The ≪Translation as Inquiry≫ (and Discovery). To conclude, we expect that through such Translation as Inquiry, and through harmonious coexistence of Translation Studies and Translation Criticism, the humanities translations could be flourishing into a Humanities of Translation.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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