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| author | Alexander Harris Slotkin |
| title | The Republic: A City in Translation OR No Translation Is Innocent |
| abstract | Many of us think of translation as the process of bringing a foreign author's work into our own language. More often
than not, however, this proves to be a utopian task. As any bibliophile knows, there tend to be more than one translation for any given work, none of which
are identical. Whether these differences boil down to semantics or sentence-structure, it is clear that the common understanding of the word "translation,"
although not altogether useless, has been shown to be inadequate; there are no translations that are equivalent to the original text, evidenced by handfuls
of different translations of the same work. Challenging traditional thinking, I propose reading translations as new works of art, importantly and intimately
related to but distinct from their sources. This thesis illustrates how to read translations as works of art using various English translations of Plato's
Republic. The meat of this thesis, what is discovered during the course of our readings, adds to our knowledge of Platonic philosophy and the nature
of translation. Standing at the intersection of English and philosophy, this thesis studies the construction of new knowledge in each translator's work,
elevates the status of translations, and offers the possibility of opening new and exciting conversations. |
| school | The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University |
| degree | B.A. (2017) |
| advisors | Dr. Sandra Jamieson
Dr. Erik Anderson |
| committee | Dr. Sandra Jamieson
Dr. Erik Anderson
Dr. Marie-Pascale Pieretti |
| full text | AHSlotkin.pdf |
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