Article: Derek Boothman, Critique and Semantic Modification in Gramsci's Approach to Paradigmatic Translation

Boothman, Derek.
Critique and Semantic Modification in Gramsci's Approach to Paradigmatic Translation
Italian Culture - Volume 24-25, 2006-2007, pp. 113-140
Michigan State University Press

A skilled translator should be able not only to translate literally, but also to translate the conceptual terms of a specific national culture into the terms of another national culture, that is, such a translator should have a critical knowledge of two civilizations and be able to acquaint one with the other by using the historically determined language of the civilization to which s/he supplies the informative material. Antonio Gramsci, Letters from Prison Introduction: Translating between Paradigmatic Discourses This paper continues a line of argument, begun fairly recently (Boothman 2002, 2004a, 2004b), that tries to look at certain specific cases of intralinguistic translation in the human sciences. As such it pays particular attention to the remarks on translatability contained in the work of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci and, more important, his application of these to the discourse of various key sources he draws on. Here we shall make no more than passing reference to the ways in which his concepts may be translated into other national cultures; rather, we shall explore the ways in which he modifies concepts from other ideological discourses...

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