Translation Beyond Empire: On the Equiprimordiality of Original and Translation.

The article attempts to reply to two main questions: Does the original text have ontological and/or epistemological primacy over its translation? Is the relation between the original text and its translation best depicted as the relation between a primary and a secondary entity? Examining these questions, I claim that the original text and the translation are equally primordial. My argument is that the prerogative to primordiality of the original is based in the relation of meaning to text, whether the meaning is transcendent or immanent to text. I show, however, that this prerogative is not justified in the transcendence or the immanence theory. Having shown its inconsistency, the article explores the reasons why this view of the relation between original and translation has been so influential. My contention is that this view has served translations conducted under the guise of imperialist goals. Translation under the premise of the equiprimordiality takes the form of a circulation of texts, whose workings go beyond the politics of Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]