An “energy” of translation theory

ABSTRACT

Jan Januszowski’s (1550–1613) theoretical comment on his Latin-Polish translation of a treaty by Basil Bessarion contains original conceptualizations, notably a specific notion of “energy” of the Latin discourse. This word appears to evoke a conceptualization of a language economy attributed to Latin scholarly writing. But in the specific case of Januszowski’s bilingual edition of the work the lexical prop is also designed to house an augmented vision of translation discussions which interlaces the material and the spiritual in a singular manner. A translation of Januszowski’s theory into the modern idiom of translation studies offers an opportunity to appreciate an older theoretical view for its economy of dealing with language phenomena. This connects with the present moment of translation studies discussions: at the deepest level, the turn to materiality in translation theory revalorizes an economy of discussions about language that is both more modern and more ancient.

KEYWORDS:

• Materiality of communication
• model of semantics
• economy of translation theory
• energija
• interdisciplinary studies

Disclosure statement

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

Note on contributor

Maciej Litwin (PhD, 2014) is an assistant professor at the Department of Translation, Institute of English Studies, University of Wrocław (Poland). Prior to joining academia in 2015, he was involved in the creation and development of Wrocław Academic Hub, a municipal university-industry-government platform. He is currently working on the problem of economy in translation theory, which he investigates as the transition from pre-modern to modern theory, based on Polish, English, and German sources (fifteenth to twentieth century).