After Babel

Aspects of Language and Translation

George Steiner

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN:
  9781480411852
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism Theory

"A brilliant work . . . A dazzling meditation on the very nature of language itself" from the world-renowned scholar and author of The Poetry of Thought ( Kirkus Reviews).
In his classic work, literary critic and scholar George Steiner tackles what he considers the Babel "problem": Why, over the course of history, have humans developed thousands of different languages when the social, material, and economic advantages of a single tongue are obvious? Steiner argues that different cultures' desires for privacy and exclusivity led to each developing its own language. Translation, he believes, is at the very heart of human communication, and thus at the heart of human nature. From our everyday perception of the world around us, to creativity and the uninhibited imagination, to the often inexplicable poignancy of poetry, we are constantly translating—even from our native language.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Content
• Acknowledgements
• Preface to the Second Edition
• One Understanding as Translation
• Two Language and Gnosis
• Three Word against Object
• Four The Claims of Theory
• Five The Hermeneutic Motion
• Six Topologies of Culture
• Afterward
• Select Biliography
• Index of Proper Names and Titles
• About the Author
• Copyright Page