Antoine Berman on Retranslation

Abstract

This article is a critical review of Antoine Berman’s contribution to our understanding of
retranslation, the repeated translation of a given text in the same language. It aims to define what
is meant by retranslation and to outline and discuss the explanations that have been suggested by
the French translator and theorist Antione Berman (1942-1991) to account for this phenomenon.
The study evaluates these explanations, showing to what extent they can be considered as
accurate and productive explanations of retranslations and the features related to them. It is
argued in this study that although Berman’s contribution to the understanding of retranslation is
seminal, the explanations he suggested are not sufficient to explain the complicated nature of this
phenomenon.