From Friedrich Schleiermacher to Homi K. Bhabha: Foreignizing Translation from Above or from Below?

Abstract

Antoine Berman has famously shown that Schleiermacher’s formulation of two methods of translating has been seminal in describing translation as an intersubjective encounter process, thus linking textual to cultural translation in the notion of Bildung. Two centuries later, Homi Bhabha makes two points about “cultural translation” strikingly in line with Schleiermacher’s move, especially in the accent put on the difference (and foreignness) of languages, as opposed to the transparent transfer of meaning inherent to the neo-platonic original/copy model. This paper aims to assess the ability of Bhabha’s broader concept of hybridity to offer way out of the weighty problem of the “genius” of languages, and of the idea that foreignizing practice should give the sense of some foreign essence or origin (be it Greek, German, Italian … or Kikuyu).