Research in Translation Between Paralysis and Pretence

Abstract

This essay adopts a highly but not entirely relativistic position towards the study of transla- \ntion. On the basis of a long list of research questions that may legitimately be asked about \ntwo fragments from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (one original, the other a translation) the essay \nattempts to recapture a fuller sense of the endless complexity of reality and of how provi- \nsional and partial human knowledge of reality is doomed to remain. This implies a criti- \ncism of the monological and self-assertive attitudes which are often displayed by researchers \nhoping to conquer the field. Combining elementary insights from epistemology with an \nawareness of research as a sociological, economic, institutional and psychologically moti- \nvated reality, the essay rejects rigid thinking while accepting the necessity of theories and \nparadigms, and ends up recommending old-fashioned homely ideals such as common sense \nand dialogue.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 39 citations exist upstream.