Derrida Translating

Reconceptualising Literary and Philosophical Translation

By: Kathryn Batchelor

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eBook | 28 May 2026 | Edition Number 1

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For decades, Translation Studies has struggled to engage with Jacques Derrida, whose radical questioning of language seemed to undermine translation theory's foundations. This book reveals a hidden dimension: Derrida's obsessive engagement with translation throughout his career. The text uncovers his "translation reflex" of constant pausing to question how concepts might be translated, demonstrating how this overlooked practice shaped his philosophical thinking.

Examining translation alongside key themes from Derrida's later work including inheritance, mourning, and the messianic, Kathryn Batchelor reconceptualises translation as a philosophical tool, a response to intellectual heritage, and a means of confronting mortality. At the sane time, through close readings of Derrida's Husserl's The Origin of Geometry, "Plato's Pharmacy", and other early texts, she highlights Derrida's surprisingly conventional translation practices.

As the first comprehensive study of Derrida as translator and the first book on Derrida and translation in two decades, this work challenges misconceptions about "anything goes" interpretations while offering insights into translation as a driving force in his development. Essential for scholars and advanced students in Translation Studies, Philosophy, Literary Theory, and Continental Philosophy.