Toward a Deleuzean theory of translation: a translation of and commentary on A fuego eterno condenados

Abstract

This translation and commentary thesis presents a theory of literary translation based on the ideas of Gilles Deleuze, informed by and applied to a translation of parts 0, 1 and 2 of the novel A fuego eterno condenados (1994) by Chilean author Roberto Rivera Vicencio. Using an approach based on the iterative development of a theoretical framework and translation, it examines how specific translation problems from the text can contribute to and benefit from a translation theory based on the ideas of Deleuze. Analysing the work of Lawrence Venuti as indicative of a shift by Translation Studies from thinking of translation in terms of equivalence to thinking of it in terms of difference, the thesis builds on Venuti’s research, offering a systematic treatment of Deleuze’s earlier work to theorise translation as the production of simulacra in which the translator creates solutions in the domain of the Actual to a translation problem that exists in the Virtual. It then goes on to examine Deleuze’s later work, written in collaboration with F´elix Guattari, to develop a conceptual framework based on the concept of the texture of prose derived from the principles of a minor, or nomad, science. This framework is used to address specific problems arising in the translation, deriving a series of practical techniques and considerations that can be used to create this kind of texture in the application of a Deleuzean theory of translation to literary texts.