Book review. The translation zone: A new comparative literature Princeton-Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006. xii + 298 pp. ISBN 0-691-04997-1 12.95 £. (Translation/Transnation).
Table of contents
This book attempts to redefine Comparative Literature in terms of translation, deemed to have become a key factor in the post–9/11 world. The text begins with twenty theses on translation, the first of which is “Nothing is translatable” and the last of which is “Everything is translatable”. Along the way we have insights like [ p. 178 ]“Translation is the language of planets and monsters” and “Translation is an oedipal assault on the mother tongue”. It’s one of those books. Once she gets into her stride, Apter produces neat chains of such assertions, as in the following:
Reference
Gibson, Morgan
1986 Revolutionary Rexroth: Poet of East-West wisdom. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books. Online at http://www.thing.net/~grist/ld/rexroth/rex-04c.htm.Visited November 2006.