Borges’s Pierre Menard and Schnitzler’s Herr Huber: Language as a Topos in Fiction (2024)

Leal, A. (2021). Borges’s Pierre Menard and Schnitzler’s Herr Huber: Language as a Topos in Fiction. in The rhetoric of topics and forms (Band 4, S. 557-571). De Gruyter. The many languages of comparative literature https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110642032-042

Leal, Alice. / Borges’s Pierre Menard and Schnitzler’s Herr Huber: Language as a Topos in Fiction. The rhetoric of topics and forms. Band 4 Berlin : De Gruyter, 2021. S. 557-571 (The many languages of comparative literature).

@inproceedings{29408bad23674ead907bc5ff46585ead,

title = "Borges{\textquoteright}s Pierre Menard and Schnitzler{\textquoteright}s Herr Huber: Language as a Topos in Fiction",

abstract = "Can we force language to unequivocally represent reality by attaching little notes to everything and everyone around us with their names? Can we use natural languages (or develop a universal language) in such a way as to render a text perfectly stable and repeatable? These are the main questions that the protagonists raise in a novelette by Arthur Schnitzler, “Ich” (1927), and a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, “Pierre Menard: Autor del Quijote” (1939), respectively. And should these two tasks prove possible, what would that mean for translation? Would the criteria for one-to-one equivalence finally be fulfilled? In this article, which celebrates the “literary turn” in translation studies, we will look at the two aforementioned works by Schnitzler and Borges, and entertain some thought-provoking ideas on both protagonists{\textquoteright} peculiar notions of language, as well as on their consequences for translation.",

keywords = "Borges, Language, Schnitzler, Translation",

author = "Alice Leal",

year = "2021",

doi = "https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110642032-042",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-3-11-064148-6",

volume = "4",

series = "The many languages of comparative literature",

publisher = "De Gruyter",

pages = "557--571",

booktitle = "The rhetoric of topics and forms",

}

Leal, A 2021, Borges’s Pierre Menard and Schnitzler’s Herr Huber: Language as a Topos in Fiction. in The rhetoric of topics and forms. Bd. 4, De Gruyter, Berlin, The many languages of comparative literature, S. 557-571. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110642032-042

Borges’s Pierre Menard and Schnitzler’s Herr Huber: Language as a Topos in Fiction. / Leal, Alice.

The rhetoric of topics and forms. Band 4 Berlin : De Gruyter, 2021. S. 557-571 (The many languages of comparative literature).

Veröffentlichungen: Beitrag in Buch › Beitrag in Konferenzband › Peer Reviewed

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AU - Leal, Alice

PY - 2021

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N2 - Can we force language to unequivocally represent reality by attaching little notes to everything and everyone around us with their names? Can we use natural languages (or develop a universal language) in such a way as to render a text perfectly stable and repeatable? These are the main questions that the protagonists raise in a novelette by Arthur Schnitzler, “Ich” (1927), and a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, “Pierre Menard: Autor del Quijote” (1939), respectively. And should these two tasks prove possible, what would that mean for translation? Would the criteria for one-to-one equivalence finally be fulfilled? In this article, which celebrates the “literary turn” in translation studies, we will look at the two aforementioned works by Schnitzler and Borges, and entertain some thought-provoking ideas on both protagonists’ peculiar notions of language, as well as on their consequences for translation.

AB - Can we force language to unequivocally represent reality by attaching little notes to everything and everyone around us with their names? Can we use natural languages (or develop a universal language) in such a way as to render a text perfectly stable and repeatable? These are the main questions that the protagonists raise in a novelette by Arthur Schnitzler, “Ich” (1927), and a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, “Pierre Menard: Autor del Quijote” (1939), respectively. And should these two tasks prove possible, what would that mean for translation? Would the criteria for one-to-one equivalence finally be fulfilled? In this article, which celebrates the “literary turn” in translation studies, we will look at the two aforementioned works by Schnitzler and Borges, and entertain some thought-provoking ideas on both protagonists’ peculiar notions of language, as well as on their consequences for translation.

KW - Borges

KW - Language

KW - Schnitzler

KW - Translation

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Leal A. Borges’s Pierre Menard and Schnitzler’s Herr Huber: Language as a Topos in Fiction. in The rhetoric of topics and forms. Band 4. Berlin: De Gruyter. 2021. S. 557-571. (The many languages of comparative literature). doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110642032-042