Edouard Glissant’s Ideas On Translation

Edouard Glissant is an important French philosopher and writer in the 20th century.He was born in Martinique,an overseas region of France.As a creole who once taught at American universities,his ideas have a profound impact in Europe,Africa and America.Influenced by a diversity of cultures,Glissant gradually developed a set of unique theories and opinions about the world throughout his relationships with many thinkers such as Fanon,Cesaire and Breton.Behind this conception of an ideal world is a series of important concepts that either create or re-think,including creolization,relation and tout-monde.Glissant also incorporates the theme of "translation" into his ideas and gives a brand new interpretation of it,which he believes is an important path to the ideal world.Under Glissant’s distinct perspectives of society,culture and mankind,translation is bestowed with new status and connotation,and is playing a more diverse and more important role.In the meantime,it’s also a new angle and approach to learn and undersrand Glissant’s philosophy through research based on translation.This paper seeks to investigate Glissant’s opinions on translation,discuss its theoretical basis and review its characteristics as well as value.Glissant also incorporates the theme of "translation" into his ideas and gives a brand new interpretation of it,which he believes is an important path to the ideal world.Under Glissant’s distinct perspectives of society,culture and mankind,translation is bestowed with new status and connotation,and is playing a more diverse and more important role.In the meantime,it’s also a new angle and approach to learn and undersrand Glissant’s philosophy through research based on translation.This paper seeks to investigate Glissant’s opinions on translation,discuss its theoretical basis and review its characteristics as well as value.This paper has three chapters.The first chapter is to look into the theoretical basis of Glissant’s thoughts on translation.This paper focuses on dissecting Glissant’s theories of "rhizome" and Langage and "pluralistic poetics".The theory of "rhizome" reflects Glissant’s opinions on the "pluralism" of language and identity,the theory of Langage preliminarily shows Glissant’s thinking on the commonness among different languages,and "pluralistic poetics" reveals the "pluralism" that is deeply rooted in Glissant’s philosophy and runs through various ideas of his.By reviewing these three parts,we can clearly grasp Glissant’s understandings of and opinions on language,identity and culture,which are basic elements in translation,therefore making the further construction and understanding of Glissant’s ideas on translation a possibility.The second chapter discusses the originality of Glissant’s ideas on translation.Firstly,compared with traditional translation theories,Glissant’s ideas are based on philosophical thinking and are negligent of practical guidance,which makes it a rather idealized metaphysical translation theory with the features of poetics.Secondly,compared with the Europocentric translation theory,Glissant emphasizes the "opacity" of translation as well as the cultural rights behind it.Thirdly,compared with the translation theories of other post-colonial theorists,Glissant emphasizes the "unpredictability" of translation,which is in the same line as his concept of "creolization".The third chapter attempts to comb through the value of Glissant’s ideas on translation.First of all,his ideas bring a new method and approach to translation studies,acknowledge the independence of translation,highlight the indispensable place of translation in various circles and at different links,and infuse new blood into translation studies as well as expanding new fields and revealing more potentials and possibilities.Second of all,Glissant’s ideas on translation provide certain reference for the connection between "self" and "others",and are of referential significance for the interaction within identities and within cultures.Last but not least,Glissant’s ideas also offer new thoughts for contemporary literature creation concept.The multilingual and multicultural pluralism is not only a necessity for translators,but also a must-have for contemporary literature creators.Glissant’s ideas on translation are hard to categorize as certain theory or system.They are more of opinions on and concepts of translation.This one-of-a-kind thought on translation is produced under special perspective and special context;it breaks the rules and considers translation as a type of poetics.Combing through and discussing Glissant’s ideas on translation have great theoretical value,and are great references for the future development of translation theories as well as the construction of pluralistic identities and the discussion of pluralistic cultural concepts.