Trembling in translation: teachings from Kierkegaard and Derrida about ethics in translation

ABSTRACT

Trembling is a word of relevance in the philosophy of Kierkegaard that was later adopted by Derrida in his development of deconstruction. Kierkegaard used the concept of trembling to describe the experience of Abraham when confronted by the paradox of choosing between his love for God and his love for his son Isaac. Derrida developed this idea when distinguishing between responsibility in general and absolute responsibility, giving rise to many interpretations centred around the need to suspend the ethical. Making use of some readings of Kierkegaard (mostly by Davenport and Simmons) which do not conclude with the aforementioned suspension of the ethical, this article offers a re-interpretation of Derridean thinking in which trembling is put forward as a key concept for a redefinition of translation ethics in a more hopeful sense, as an unavoidable tension between the generality of the norm and the singularity of the event that is translation.

KEYWORDS:

• Kierkegaard
• Derrida
• trembling
• translation ethics
• deconstruction

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Eivor Jordà Mathiasen

Eivor Jordà Mathiasen has a PhD in Translation, after graduating in Philosophy at the University of Valencia and in Translation at the University Jaume I. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and German Philology at the University of Valencia. She has directed the Master in Audiovisual Translation at the European University of Valencia. Prior to her university teaching activity, she was a professional translator.