Translating Derrida: A question of style: An exposition of processes of translation

Abstract

This thesis is an anthropophagic translation3 of Éperons – Spurs by Jacques Derrida, a translation devouring the ‘original’ text, which will be shown to be already a devouring of other texts in other languages, in the production of an artwork. The process of this translation into a mixture of Maaori and English is written as a filmic script, a form of writing allowing for sound and image to accompany the translation and for translation to accompany sounds and images of Éperons. Questions underpinning the written artwork are, as suggested in Éperons and also in the title of this thesis, questions of style. Here style moves between translation, sounds and images of screenplay and events in the life of a translator – artist - writer, which are both outside and inside the text under translation. A preceding prelude, while not abstracted from the filmic script, will perform as kai arahi, as guide, leading a reader into, and opening processes of anthropophagic translation in a multi-stranded screenplay. Throughout the writing of this thesis, a fidelity to whakapapa, genealogy and process has been paramount and further discussions on fidelity and its other, relating back to the Roman aphorism traduttore traditore4, will form a large part of the prelude.