Literary Back-Translation

Veronique Lane

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Hardback

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English

Edinburgh University Press
07 October 2025

Translation & interpretation; Literary theory; Literary studies: general

Walter Benjamin famously warned against translating translations. Yet, literary back-translations are increasingly being published: whether commissioned by publishers to make celebrated translations of literary works accessible to their original audience, or sponsored by nations and feminist groups working for the cultural reappropriation of texts that first appeared in translation, back-translations are becoming more common. This book argues that the malaise they still generate are their very promise: literary back-translation transforms our conception of translation itself, through the recognition that translations are literary works in their own right, and as such also worthy of an afterlife. It thereby responds to the call of Maria Timoczko's call for new approaches enlarging translation, conceptually as well as ideologically. Literary back-translation reveals translation as much less teleological a process than assumed, a process that should no longer be understood as a balance of forces seeking 'restitution'

as if it were possible

but as a way to enable literary works to travel in both directions, with no preconceived trajectory.

Edited by: Veronique Lane
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781399523042
ISBN 10: 139952304X
Pages: 344
Publication Date: 07 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Veronique Lane is Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Medical Humanities at Lancaster University. She has edited two collections of essays on literary genealogies and translation for L'Esprit Createur (2018) and Translation and Literature (2020), and is the author of Literary Translation and Mental Health (also forthcoming from Edinburgh University Press).

Reviews for Literary Back-Translation

Homing in on what may seem a marginal phenomenon, this thought-provoking book theorises literary back-translation, questions the directionality of translation, and offers case studies probing into the ideological underpinnings of all translating, including indirect translation and retranslation.--Theo Hermans, University College London This volume on literary back-translation contributes provocatively to our understanding of what translation is and does. From the Chinese classic The Dream of the Red Chamber to the poetry and translations of Paul Celan, this collection shows readers how back-translation works.--Thomas O. Beebee, Penn State University