Haun Saussy, “When Translation Isn't Translation"

January 29, 2015
Greenberg Distinguished Scholar Program: Haun Saussy, “When Translation Isn't Translation"
The usual understanding of translation as a substitution of different words in different languages for the same meanings does not apply to situations where a new word has to be created in the target language to convey the meaning, or a word is simply exported from the source language to the target language—two situations that account for much of the traffic between languages. By taking such situations as normal, we can reconceive the relationship between languages and make room for an understanding of translation as citation. Haun Saussy taught at UCLA, Stanford, and Yale before joining the University of Chicago in 2011. His books include The Problem of a Chinese Aesthetic, Great Walls of Discourse and Other Adventures in Cultural China, Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization, and, forthcoming, The Ethnography of Rhythm. He has also edited books on modernist poetry, Chinese women's writing, sinography, and global public health. He is currently a Guggenheim fellow. Established on the occasion of Reed’s centennial with a gift from Dan Greenberg ’62 and his wife and philanthropic partner Susan Steinhauser, the Greenberg Distinguished Scholar Program aims to bring visiting scholars to campus to stimulate and support the work of students and provide faculty with the opportunity for in-depth intellectual exchange with a prominent member in their field.