Traduire le lexique philosophique : Une étude qualitative de la traduction des termes philosophiques

Sammanfattning: The aim of this paper is to examine a translation of philosophical text from French into Swedish, with main focus on what is presented as inherent problems when translating philosophical terms. The philosophical terminology is often innovative and reflexive: the specific language usage, the frequent creation of new terms and the nuances of discourse when interpreting meaning are all elements susceptibly problematic when confronted by a translator.   The analysis draws upon our own translation of the article “L’image est le mouvant” by philosopher and art historian Georges Didi-Huberman, in which the author analyses central concepts from the philosophy of Henri Bergson in the light of the evolving art of cinema and related visual inventions at the turn of the century. The analysis is structured according to the interpretive model proposed by translator Jean Delisle, which together with theories on the philosophical terminology allow us to distinguish “discursive presuppositions” in the text. These presuppositions are crucial to the initial recognition of terms, and permit us to discern different types of translational problems in our material. By passing through the successive stages of the analysis model, different aspects of the translation and its problems are discussed in relation to the previous parts.   The analysis emphasizes and illustrates mainly the importance of interpreting discourse when translating philosophy: the unique language usage of the philosopher and the presuppositions of the text are both crucial to the understanding of terms. Due to the provisional definitions of terms and their uncertain delimitations, the translation of philosophical language constitutes a singular act of rewriting in which the translator plays a highly significant role.