Translation, Pornography, Performativity: Experimenting with That Dangerous Supplement

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Douglas Robinson (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen) Xiaorui Sun

Translation, Pornography, Performativity

Experimenting with That Dangerous Supplement

Douglas Robinson (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen), Xiaorui Sun

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English

Routledge
11 April 2025

Sociolinguistics; Translation & interpretation; Literary theory; Literary studies: general; Feminism & feminist theory

Series: Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies

Robinson and Sun’s book goes in search of the neglected metaphorics of translation in pornography using poststructuralist rethinkings and reframings of porn (and masturbation) from Jacques Derrida to Judith Butler.

In his 1684 “Essay on Translated Verse,” the Earl of Roscommon attacked “want of decency” in translation metaphorically by comparing it to picking up prostitutes in the park (“raking the park for stews”) instead of hanging out with “troops of faultless nymphs.” Sex work, and the graphic representation of sex work that Nathaniel Butler was the first to call “pornography” in print in 1638, is used as a metaphor for non-normative translation, which in Robinson and Sun’s hands becomes experimental translation.

En route to that goal, the authors take us through Butler on performativity and resistance, Derrida on supplementarity and iterability, and Haun Saussy’s innovative application of Derridean citationality to the use of a target-cultural “sponsor” or “bondsman” for translation. They take detours through Charles Baudelaire’s “Une charogne” and J.G. Ballard’s “The Drowned Giant.”

They deal with the performativity of pornography (and translatography) in Part I, the “unnatural” iterability of masturbation (and translation) in Part II, and experimental translation in Part III.

The theory-littered path this book takes through the metaphorics of translation will be of interest to scholars and students of translation studies, especially experimental translation and translation theory, but also media scholars interested in the philosophical complexities of performativity.

By: Douglas Robinson (Chinese University of Hong Kong Shenzhen), Xiaorui Sun
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
Weight: 450g
ISBN: 9781032981154
ISBN 10: 1032981156
Series: Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies
Pages: 130
Publication Date: 11 April 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface Part 1: The Performativity of Pornography (and Translatography) 1. Pornography and Performativity 2. The Perlocutionary Effect 3. Translation as Resistance and Cooptation Part 2: The Unnatural Iterability of Masturbation (and Translation) 4. That Dangerous Supplement 5. Materializing the Body 6. Dead Performatives (Come Back to Life) Part 3: Toward Experimental Translation 7. Zhuangzi Inside Out 8. Experimental Translation 9. Conclusion

Douglas Robinson, Professor of Translation Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, is one of the world’s most productive and most respected translation theorists. Xiaorui Sun is Doug’s Ph.D. student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.