Metaphor, Translation, and Intertextuality in Hans Blumenberg's
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Foundational Ambiguities: Metaphor, Translation, and Intertextuality in Hans Blumenberg’s Metaphorology by Spencer J. Hawkins A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Comparative Literature) in the University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Andreas Gailus, Co-Chair Associate Professor Silke-Maria Weineck, Co-Chair Professor Vassilios Lambropoulos Assistant Professor Benjamin Paloff Professor Yopie Prins ! ! © Spencer Hawkins 2014 ! Acknowledgements I would like to thank the individuals whose care, advice, and solidarity supported the writing of this dissertation, the sign marking the end of my seven year !"#$%&%'$ at the University of Michigan. Thanks to Silke-Maria Weineck, sculptor of minds, who brought the toolkit out for my scholarly formation. She knew when to nudge, when to chisel, and when to let sit. Without her suggestion to translate the book Das Lachen der Thrakerin and her guidance with the project, I would not have discovered the thought-provoking problems and welcome rigors that translation offers to a budding scholar. Andreas Gailus has been a mentor by bringing insight, time, and attention to my work. Without his criticisms on my drafts, I would not have developed confidence as a self-editor, and without his affirmative words, I might have lost that bit of confidence. Also a brilliant and insightful reader was Yopie Prins. At key moments, I kept writing because her concrete praise and criticism oriented me in my work. Benjamin Paloff helped me see that writing an annotated translation afforded opportunities to make original claims, and he generously shared his own theoretical insights on the practice of translation. And the open-minded thoughts, shrewd advice, and kind regard shown by Vassilios Lambropoulos gave me the courage to keep thinking at stressful, perplexing moments. ! ""! Besides my dissertation committee, many other brilliant scholars contributed to this project—especially to the translation portion of the project: William Roby generously shared his insights on the style, content, and organization of my translator’s introduction. Clara Bosak-Schroeder advised me on how to translate the Church Fathers’ Latin—a language that still holds many mysteries for me. Elizabeth Platte discussed key concepts with me, such as Early Christianity and protohistory. Sarah Buss shared her thoughts as a philosopher on which passages in my translator’s introduction needed elaborations or examples. An anonymous reviewer gave me the criticism and encouragement I needed to make the manuscript publishable. Manfred Sommer repeatedly read problem passages from the translation, compared them to the original German, and gave illuminating rationales for any corrections he had. Paul Fleming filled a chapter draft from the translation with his marginal comments, which then guided my translation work. Then, when the time came, he reviewed the manuscript and gave careful instructions for revising my critical annotations, which was one of the most complex tasks of preparing the translation. Thanks to Bloomsbury series editor Imke Meyer for her insightful, encouraging email correspondence during the process of developing my translation for publication. Encouraging correspondence with Blumenberg’s other translators Paul Fleming, Steven Rendall, Robert Savage and Robert Wallace have given me added confidence in the translation project. And thank you to all of those who helped me time and again as a writer and as a thinker. thanks to Jim Porter for starting the grand conversation about ideas with me in my first year of graduate school and for sharing his Ann Arbor home and library with me during that same year. Thanks too to David Halperin for his consistent patience, insight, ! """! and supportiveness. And Anne Carson reminded me to stay bold as a writer, no matter how much discipline I have accumulated while writing a dissertation. Raymond McDaniel reminded me what a reader wants—which is of course not always what I spontaneously felt like giving. I would also like to acknowledge the members of my Sweetland Dissertation Writing Group: Khaliah Mangrum, Beatriz Zengotitabengoa, Joshua Shipper, and Peng Zhang. They showed such generosity with their insights and helped me think about how my work could appeal to a wider readership. Thanks to John Rowland and Leann Wilson for their learned commentary on the final draft of the dissertation. Finally, a loud and proud “Yose!” to my cohort, Y•O•S•E, a big-hearted and erudite group and the non plus ultra of zany times. There are two German institutions, run by good and helpful people, without whom I could not have completed this project: “Transformationen der Antike” at Humboldt Universität whose members oriented me and gave me stimulating dialogue during my 2011 stay in Berlin, and the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach, where people helped me access numerous archival materials, and where I was able to learn a lot very quickly about how Blumenberg worked. My family’s influence, trust, and support were also a necessary condition for my confidence as a dissertator. Scholarship is obscure to those uninvolved, but my father’s doctoral training in music stood as a model because my own love of learning is kindred to his. I also found my step-mother Wendy, my brother Raymond, and my paternal grandparents very kind and supportive in the obscure heights to which I trucked during these Lehrjahre. My mother and my maternal grandparents have been generous and incredibly present in my life over these years. Thanks to my mother for being so patient ! "#! and responsive as our relationship has grown and changed over my years on the other side of the country. My aunts and uncles, Jimmy, Rick, Sonia, Michael, Crystal, Chris, and Kay, have been nurturing to me, each in their own way. And finally, Lindsey, my original partner in fighting ennui, thank you for being the first good person to think with. And the light was a few lumens brighter in my study these last few years due to my steadiest source of brilliance: Ann Marie Thornburg who shared her ideas daily, as a sweet love and a fellow scholar. Her vast imagination and sharp sensitivity to rhetorical excess honed my own thinking in the most pleasant way: through daily conversations. Margaret, Jason, and Francesca were also incredibly supportive allies along the way. ! #! ! Contents Acknowledgements ii Abstract x Introduction: The Tense of Translation 1 Chapter Outline 8 German to English: Translating German difference into the global language 13 Metaphors for translation, metaphors in translation 22 The role of historical timing in the capture of metaphor in translations 24 Blumenberg on translation 27 Translating the lifeworld into theory 33 The invisibility of intellectual debt in philosophy 40 Translation’s invisibility within philosophy 48 Translating philosophy 53 ! "#! ! Chapter 1: The Moment of Metaphorology 60 The teacher: Ludwig Landgrebe 66 The primary source: Edmund Husserl 69 The tormented self: Martin Heidegger 75 The world history of the imagination: Ernst Cassirer 80 What humans want: Arnold Gehlen 86 Reading the horizons of the past: the Poetics and Hermeneutics Group 89 The new hermeneutics of metaphor 93 Metaphorology today 103 Chapter 2: Translation and the Suppression of Sources 108 Micro-translations in The Laughter of the Thracian Woman 111 Translating Plato 115 Gender in translation 130 Affiliation as translation 138 Chapter 3: On Translating Polysemy in Twentieth-century German Phenomenological Texts 146 naheliegend, obvious or just close at hand? (Blumenberg) 153 Grund, ground or reasons? (Heidegger) 161 ! "##! ! Strom, stream or flux? (Husserl) 171 Conclusions 182 Appendix: The Laughter of the Thracian Woman: A Protohistory of Theory by Hans Blumenberg, translated, with a critical introduction and annotations, by Spencer Hawkins 188 Translator’s Preface: Blumenberg’s Tropes 188 Understanding and its others 189 Reoccupation, a catachresis for catachresis 192 Ones of a kind 196 Critical Introduction 199 The evolution of an anecdote 206 How to take the ridicule against philosophy seriously 215 From spatial to temporal distance: astronomy and history 221 Blumenberg’s thought 226 Why read metaphorology 236 Note on the translation 240 Annotated Translation 246 About this book 246 I. Theory as exotic behavior 252 II. Socrates is transferred into protohistory 260 ! "###! ! III. Knowledge about heaven and competence on earth 277 IV. The theorist between comedy and tragedy 293 V. Reoccupations 307 VI. Astrological predominance 338 VII. Applause and scorn from the moralists 352 VIII. As adopted by historical critique 376 IX. From cursing sinners to scorning Creation 395 X. Tycho Brahe’s coachman and the earthquake in Lisbon 408 XI. Absentmindednesses 419 XII. Where Thales had failed, according to Nietzsche 438 XIII. How to recognize what matters 467 XIV. Interdisciplinarity as repetition of protohistory 492 Works Cited 497 ! ! #$! Abstract This dissertation contains three distinct texts: 1) an investigation of twentieth- century German philosopher Hans Blumenberg’s metaphorology, which develops a theory of translation based on Blumenberg’s theoretical insights into metaphor, 2) a translation of The Laughter of the Thracian Woman: A Protohistory of Theory by Blumenberg, and 3) a critical apparatus for the translation, consisting of a critical introduction, translator’s preface, and annotations. Through their interplay, the assembled texts both exhibit