Writings on Translation

Abdessalam Benabdelali, Marouane Zakhir, Christian Hawkey , Brahim El Guabli

$190.95

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Seagull Books London Ltd
27 December 2025

Translation & interpretation; Literary studies: general

Series: Elsewhere Texts

An exploration of the philosophical dimensions of translation, celebrating it as a practice that preserves and proliferates cultural differences.

Abdessalam Benabdelali is a revered Moroccan philosopher and translator whose work maps an invaluable history of the status of translation in contemporary Arabic thought and language. Bringing together essays from two linked Arabic works by Benabdelali—On Translation and Hosting the Stranger—this volume represents one of the first extended philosophical explorations of translation by a contemporary Arab philosopher. These works reframe Arabic and European cultural histories around translation to counter hegemonic discourses and celebrate translation as a form of philosophical thought and practice, one that both preserves and proliferates difference.

Whether discussing eighteenth-century European perceptions of Arabic culture, classical Arabic literature and its express intent to resist all translation, or contemporary Arabic authors who write in anticipation of translation, Writings on Translation nimbly outlines the key philosophical questions at stake in translation. It concludes with an impassioned argument for translations that ""host the stranger"" and allow texts to ""lift off and migrate.""

By: Abdessalam Benabdelali
Introduction by: Brahim El Guabli, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Translated by: Marouane Zakhir, Christian Hawkey
Imprint: Seagull Books London Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781803095103
ISBN 10: 1803095105
Series: Elsewhere Texts
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 27 December 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Elsewhere Texts: General Introduction Introduction by Brahim El Guabli BOOK I: On Translation 1.Foreword: The Labyrinths of Translation by Abdelfattah Kilito 2.Introduction: Translation is a Philosophical Question by Abdessalam Benabdelali 3.Translation and Metaphysics 4.Translation and Acculturation 5.In Praise of Betrayal 6.The Double Betrayal 7.The Circle of Translation 8.In the Mirror of the Other 9.The Task of Translation, the Task of Thought 10.The Revival of Poetry 11.The Migration of the Philosophical Text 12.Translation: A Tool for Modernization BOOK II: Hosting the Stranger 13.Introduction: Does the Original Replace Its Translations? 14.On the Untranslatable 15.Self-Translation 16.On the Original as Plurality 17.Philosophy and Translation 18.Writing in Another Language is Another Writing 19.Suspended Translations 20.Isn’t Translation Itself Creativity? 21.Translation and Philosophy in the Arab World 22.Is Translation Always an Instrument of Dialogue? 23.The Draft-Original 24.When the Copy Surpasses the Original 25.On Translating an Untranslatable “Concept” 26.Addicted Translation 27.Translation and the Notion of the Original 28.Exposure 29.The Virtue of Translation 30.The Language of Translation and the Language of the Original 31.Translation and Identity 32.Hosting the Stranger

Abdessalam Benabdelali is a professor in the Faculty of Letters at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, and editor-in-chief of Pensée et Critique. His notable works include Political Philosophy of Al-Farabi and The Mythology of Reality, between Connection and Separation. Marouane Zakhir is associate professor of English at Chouaib Doukkali University in El-Jadida Morocco, where he is also an active member of the Applied Language and Culture Studies Research Lab. Christian Hawkey is a poet, translator, and educator. He has written several full-length poetry collections, including Sift, as well as the widely celebrated genre-defying book Ventrakl. He lives in Berlin, Germany.