Translatorial Hexis the Politics of Pinkard’S Translation of Hegel’S Phenomenology
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Translatorial hexis The politics of Pinkard’s translation of Hegel’s Phenomenology David Charlston Most branches of philosophy and many other disci- philosophical texts, it is often merely to criticize their plines in the humanities and social sciences studied lack of consistency, accuracy, rigour and/or fidelity to in the anglophone academy draw on texts written the source text or to praise their style or readability. in languages other than English and therefore rely Contemporary writers on continental philosophy on the products of translation, especially transla- sometimes adapt the text of published translations tions of historical, European philosophy. However, either to fit their own interpretation of the text cited surprisingly little philosophical attention has been or because they claim that the published translations paid to the role of individual translators in mediat- are inadequate to the task.7 Perhaps unwittingly, such ing and relocating philosophical narratives across responses to translated philosophy promote an over- cultural and linguistic boundaries. The blind spot simplified understanding of the nature of translation may be attributable to a long-cherished philosophical and the role played by translators in mediating textu- aspiration to evolve a universal, purely rational or ally encoded ideas. They imply, unrealistically and scientific language and discourse which are, perhaps contrary to the theoretical considerations of transla- implausibly, immune from such translational and/ tion mentioned above, that good or accurate transla- or translatorial mediation and dislocation. Since it is tions can offer neutral and unmediated access to the situated outside the philosophical mainstream, the ideas of the originating author8 or that translators of now well-established interdiscipline of translation philosophical texts should be governed by an attitude studies1 may be able to shed light on an unjustifiably of (greater) subservience9 to the assumed intentions neglected corner of philosophical enquiry. With refer- of the source-text author and/or the convenience of ence to a topical case study of the English translations the reader. In contrast with this trend, the present of Hegel’s Phenomenology,2 the present article draws article aims to encourage a broader, sociologically on textual analysis and social psychology to raise grounded appreciation of what is involved in trans- awareness about the manner in which translators of lating philosophical texts which draws attention to philosophy engage demonstrably, through what I will a hitherto under-recognized human dimension to call their translatorial hexis3 – a post-Bourdieusian the translation of philosophy, described here as the manifestation of the translator’s will to power – in the translatorial hexis. linguistic and social practice of re-describing and dis- The article argues that the anglophone translations seminating putatively universal philosophical truths. of Hegel’s Phenomenology, including the new Pinkard The philosophical study of translation has tra- translation which is taken as an example here, form ditionally focused more on analysing the metaphor an integral part of the historical corpus of literature of translation or investigating theories of hermen- on Hegel and embody, at a micro-textual level of eutics rather than considering translators, translated analysis, culturally determined rivalries central to texts and/or their relationship with such analyses.4 the discussion of philosophy and translation. Trans- Translation theorists have also tended to start from lations should not be thought of merely as tools. cognitive-semantic or hermeneutic perspectives when Seeking to understand the translations in a broader discussing translation and philosophy.5 Such theoreti- contextualization can contribute to the crucial cal approaches have already prompted broader inter- interpretive and philosophical tasks, for example, of disciplinary discussion of translation and philosophy, identifying what Hegel actually claimed in his works, which this article seeks to continue.6 However, when distinguishing this from what others have written philosophers themselves refer to translations of about Hegel at different times, in different languages RadicaL PhiLosoPhy 186 (juL/auG 2014) 11 and under different social and political conditions, by Daniel Simeoni that refers especially to profes- distinguishing between claims Hegel was entitled to sional translators, who are constrained to make make, for example, within the terms of his mature themselves seem invisible by comparison with the system and those which seem to fall short of this cri- source-text author.15 The translatorial hexis expresses terion10 and finally recovering from this analysis what the translator’s linguistic prowess and authority over is still valuable to philosophers and others today. the semantic content of the translated philosophical The translators of Hegel have all, in different ways, text. Like Bourdieu’s use of the term hexis in his been deeply engaged in these tasks, each exhibiting a early ethnographic work in Algeria,16 the translatorial different translatorial hexis, with a different portfolio hexis is physically embodied, but here it is encrypted of masterful and subservient dispositions. symbolically in the text and paratexts to the transla- tion.17 Accordingly, Pinkard’s translatorial hexis is Google Geist discernible in the numerous philosophical, ethical The idea of a translatorial hexis is a development and political commitments encoded not only in the from Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, field, capital and wider context of his philosophical writing and in symbolic power, which is familiar in sociological his translator’s notes but also in the minutiae of his approaches to translation studies.11 It provides a lexical choices and the translational norms under- theoretical tool for analysing and contextualizing lying the translated text. differences between the Hegel translations on the One way of visualizing the field dynamics which basis of what Bourdieusians call a ‘radical contex- form the historical background to the contextualiza- tualisation’.12 It can be compared with but goes tion offered here is to think of zooming in with an significantly beyond the concepts of translatorial imaginary software application such as Google Earth ‘voice’ or ‘presence’ or ‘agency’ invoked in translation towards a historical, ideological map of the world at studies to explain the translator’s ‘visibility’.13 In his the time of each translation of Hegel’s Phenomenology, sociology, Bourdieu stresses the interdependence of say, in 1910, the date of the first English translation apparently free (individual) agency and (institution- of Hegel’s book (Baillie’s), in the late 1970s while A.J. ally) structured distributions of power in the social Miller was working on his translation, and in 2008, space. Bodily gestures, for example, of dominance or the copyright date of Pinkard’s first online draft. subservience, mimic or reproduce social structures. At one level of magnification, we can see the world The translatorial hexis denotes the symbolic stance of political situation, characterized by the oppositions a translator, articulated as an empirically discernible of international power and cultural interpenetration; set of principles and expectations guiding transla- as we zoom in closer, we see party-political, class and torial choices, which is, to a greater or lesser extent, personal competition and conflict; closer still, micro- determined by the background of oppositions defin- scopic rivalries within the sub-field of anglophone ing a specific field or sub-field within the social space Hegelian philosophy between different readings of surrounding the translator. The concept of a transla- Hegel’s philosophy, articulated through philosophical torial hexis also resonates with Bourdieu’s later work14 books and articles; at the closest resolution (perhaps in which he analyses the ‘elevated’ writing styles of we can think of the Google street-view function), we philosophical texts and their translations, especially see individual words and spellings in the translations Heidegger. Bourdieu’s analysis focuses on the ‘conflict which also participate in these rivalries as an embodi- of the faculties’, especially in French universities from ment of the translators’ irrepressible, conscious and the late 1960s onwards, challenging the ivory-tower unconscious will to power. dominance of philosophy in French universities. At this global level, the relevance of Pinkard’s By analogy, the translatorial hexis is construed as new Hegel translation might be contextualized, on a textual embodiment of translatorial dispositions the one hand, with reference to Hegel’s indirect, which relate to the distribution of various forms historical associations with communism, as an influ- of capital or honour within the academic sub-field ence on the thinking of Marx, Lenin, Mao Zedong of anglophone Hegelian philosophy. Oppositions in and Althusser, but, on the other hand, with regard to the sub-field are reproduced by oppositions in and the charges of Eurocentrism and protestant Christian around the text. elitism levelled against Hegel.18 Such accusations (or Significantly, however, the translatorial hexis myths), which mimic the older left-Hegelian/right- contrasts with the ‘subservient’ translator’s habitus Hegelian divide, often relate to the Phenomenology, discussed in a seminal translation-studies paper especially