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The Role of Plato's Republic in Shaping and Understanding

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The Role of Plato's Republic in Shaping and Understanding Retranslating Philosophy: The Role of Plato’s Republic in Shaping and Understanding Politics and Philosophy in Modern Greece Effrossyni Fragkou Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the PhD degree in Translation Studies School of Translation and Interpretation Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Effrossyni Fragkou, Ottawa, Canada, 2012 2 Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the help, contribution, and support of a great number of people who held my hand along the difficult path of its creation and during its different stages. I am particularly greatful to one of the greatest professors I ever had the pleasure and privilege to work with and thanks to whom I received my very first initiation in Translations Studies, the late Daniel Simeoni. I am also intellectually indebted to professors Claude Tatilon, Alan Baudot, and Maria Pateli for showing faith in my capacities and encouraging me to follow my dreams. I am also very greatful to Karen Van Dyck, Dalie Giroux, Salah Basalamah and Francisco Gonzalez for their valuable comments. I have been very fortunate to be surrounded and loved by a great number of people, such as friends, co-workers, and family all of whom provided practical, financial, intellectual and moral support when I needed it the most. I am particularly greatful to Mehdrad, Tony, Elsa, Markos, Lola, Manos, Denis, Kostas, Marianna, Despina; all my friends from Multi-languages; my clients who gave me work when I needed the extra money; and the various publishers who showed faith in my translations and decided to publish them. I would also like to thank the Greek State Scholarship Foundation for its funding and my co-workers from Koraes Public Library in Chios, especially Aristoula, Dora, Maria and Anna. I am extremely greatful to my directors Mr Kalogerakis, Mrs Vlysidou and Mr Konstantinides from the Board of Secondary Education of Chios and the 4th Middle School of Chios for showing understanding and for being more than accommodating with 3 my schedule. They were the ones who ensured better working conditions so that I would be able to concentrate on my thesis while teaching and doing some important translation work. There are no words to express my gratitude, appreciation, and respect to my very best friend, Marielle Godbout. She has been standing by me since the very first day I started my PhD programme at the University of Ottawa. She has been the best advisor, the most reliable, honest, trustworthy and warm-hearted friend, a true inspiration, an excellent editor, a critical reader of my work, an extremely generous person who opened her home and her heart to me and my family. This thesis would not have been possible without her help and constant encouragement. I will be forever indebted. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been given the opportunity and the privilege to undergo this research under the supervision of two amazing professors, Annie Brisset and Jacques Bouchard. Their intellectual and academic caliber made me humble in front of the wealth of knowledge they so generously shared with me. Their guidance had been unparalleled and their complementary fields allowed me to expand the scope of my methodological and research perspective as well as my approach vis-à-vis the Translations Studies. Our discussions evolving around my research topic were always inspirational and engaging. Their immense psychological support, in addition to their academic guidance, has been extremely appreciated. It is thanks to them that I reached the finishing line. I only hope I will be able to make them proud and as such to repay them for all they have done for me. 4 I would also like to thank my sister and my brother-in-law for their support and patience, especially during the most challenging times of my work. Finally, I would like to publicly voice my indebtness to my parents for being the best, most generous, most supportive and most engaging parents a child could ever dream of or have. Everything I am, everything I do, and everything I will ever accomplish, I owe to them for they made sure —through all kind of sacrifices, hardship, as well as endless hours of work, guidance and sleeplessness— that my dreams and that of my sister materialized. It is only fair that this research be dedicated to them as a token of my immense love and infinite appreciation. 5 To Stergios and Mary, my parents, my beacons! 6 Abstract This thesis seeks to advance a new hypothesis for addressing retranslations, namely that the traditional explanation according to which translations become outdated and must be renewed can no longer account for all the aspects of the retranslation phenomenon. I propose to view retranslation as a means of transforming documents into monuments, of unearthing the mass of elements they contain and of making them relevant to the present and to the future. Retranslations become a source of inspiration for original philosophical texts, hence new philosophical trends or schools of thought, and for commentaries on the translation and its agents, all of which reflect the place and time where they emerge, thus shaping symbols of self-representation, collective consciousness, memory, and identity. I test this hypothesis through the exploration of 20th century Modern Greek retranslations of Plato’s Republic and through the examination of the diachronic and synchronic values of key political and philosophical elements of Plato’s system within the retranslations. These retranslations reflect not only how Plato’s philosophy is perceived by the modern Greek philosophical and political environment, but also whether they represent and prolong the canonical discourse on classical philosophy or introduce a more critical turn. I explore a case of a philosophical text whereby key elements of the Republic become a source of inspiration to answer basic questions of justice and polity from a modern point of view. 7 I conclude that retranslations project the aspirations, fears, and values of the time and space in which they emerge while using the openness of the text to add extra layers of interpretation and meaning. Almost all retranslations and their corresponding paratext maintain a consistent referential relationship with one another and with other political and philosophical texts produced during the same period. The link that ties these texts together is not necessarily chronological. It also depends on the discursive approach adopted; the translator’s political or philosophical affiliation; the degree of canonicity of each translation and translator, and the prevailing ideologies of the society in which retranslations emerge. A classical work can become either a vibrant document used to promote, sustain, and revive dominant discourses on politics, national identity or philosophy or, alternately, a reactionary document that voices concerns over the relevance of the canonical or traditional discourse with which the original is equated. 8 Résumé Cette thèse présente une nouvelle hypothèse sur la retraduction et la façon dont celle-ci est vue par les traductologues. L’explication traditionnelle des traductions qui vieillissent et doivent donc être renouvelées ne suffit pas pour saisir l’ampleur du phénomène de la retraduction ni ses différentes significations. L’étude propose de traiter la retraduction comme la transformation de documents en monuments. Il s’agit d’en faire ressortir les multiples constituants pour voir ce qui les rattache à leur présent et avenir. Les retraductions suscitent de nouveaux textes voire de nouveaux courants philosophiques ainsi que des commentaires : ensemble, ils reflètent l’espace-temps de ces retraductions et forgent des symboles d’autoreprésentation, de conscience, de mémoire et d’identité collectives. Cette hypothèse est testée à partir des retraductions de la République de Platon publiées au 20e siècle en examinant la valeur diachronique et synchronique des principaux éléments philosophiques et politiques du système platonicien tels qu’ils se présentent dans les différentes versions en grec moderne. Ces retraductions ne reflètent pas seulement la manière dont la philosophie platonicienne est perçue dans l’environnement politique et philosophique de la Grèce moderne. On peut voir aussi dans quelle mesure elles prolongent le discours canonique sur la philosophie classique ou bien s’en démarquent par une approche plus critique. Le cas étudié est celui de la République de Platon et de la manière dont les arguments centraux deviennent une source d’inspiration 9 pour répondre aux questions fondamentales sur la justice et la gouvernance qui se posent dans une société moderne. L’étude montre que si la retraduction reflète les aspirations, les peurs et les valeurs de l’espace-temps qui les suscite, l’ouverture du texte original permet de nouvelles interprétations et de nouvelles significations. Les retraductions et leurs paratextes respectifs se font presque toujours écho mutuellement tandis qu’ils sont en résonance avec d’autres textes philosophiques et politiques qui leur sont contemporains. Le lien n’est pas seulement chronologique. Il dépend aussi du statut du traducteur, de son approche discursive, de ses inclinations politiques et philosophiques, du degré de canonicité de la traduction, ou encore des idéologies de la société qui entoure le traducteur et où les retraductions voient le jour. La retraduction d’une œuvre classique peut servir à promouvoir ou à consolider le discours dominant
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