Synopses & Reviews
When it first appeared in 1975,
After Babel created a sensation, quickly establishing itself as both a controversial and seminal study of literary theory. In the original edition, Steiner provided readers with the first systematic investigation since the eighteenth century of the phenomenology and processes of translation both inside and between languages. Taking issue with the principal emphasis of modern linguistics, he finds the root of the "Babel problem" in our deep instinct for privacy and territory, noting that every people has in its language a unique body of shared secrecy. With this provocative thesis he analyzes every aspect of translation from fundamental conditions of interpretation to the most intricate of linguistic constructions.
For the long-awaited second edition, Steiner entirely revised the text, added new and expanded notes, and wrote a new preface setting the work in the present context of hermeneutics, poetics, and translation studies. This new edition brings the bibliography up to the present with substantially updated references, including much Russian and Eastern European material. Like the towering figures of Derrida, Lacan, and Foucault, Steiner's work is central to current literary thought. After Babel, Third Edition is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the debates raging in the academy today.
Review
"Steiner's subject is extravagantly rich and he ponders it on the most generous scale...his language and his ideas display even-handedness, seriousness without heaviness, learning without pedantry, and sober charm." New Yorker
Review
"He is saying things we cannot afford not to take note of...I greatly admire the intellectual venture which the book represents." Times Literary Supplement
Synopsis
First published in 1975,
After Babel constituted the first systematic investigation of the theory and processes of translation since the eighteenth century. In mapping out its own field, it quickly established itself as both controversial and seminal, and gave rise to a considerable, and still-growing, body of secondary literature. Even today, with its status as a modern classic beyond question, many of the book's insights remain provocative and challenging.
Since the first edition of After Babel, George Steiner has entirely revised the text, adding new and expanded notes, and the bibliography has been completely updated. New prefaces written for the second and third editions set the book in the context of hermeneutics, poetics, and translation studies, and reflect on the implications for translation of recent social, technological, and political developments.
Synopsis
This new edition of George Steiner's classic investigation of the phenomenology and processes of translation inside and between languages has been thoroughly revised and corrected, and remains essential for anyone involved in the theory and practice of translation.
About the Author
George Steiner is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva. His books include
The Death of Tragedy, Language in Silence, In Bluebeard's Castle, and
On Difficulty and Other Essays.