ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the consequences of translating Jacques Derrida into English over the last fifty years. It is argued that the stakes of translating Derrida into English are dramatically increased in recent decades due to what the author calls ‘Anglobalisation’. To highlight these stakes, the translations of Derrida from 1967 to 2017 are divided into four separate historical periods, from the first translations to the latest translations produced by the Derrida Seminars Translations Project (DSTP), with each period individuated by means of its own specific set of translation strategies. Following this, critical issues and topics in translations of Derrida are further explored by examining how several translators of Derrida have rendered his phrase: ‘tout autre est tout autre’, a phrase that Derrida used in numerous writings from the 1990s until his death in 2004. Spivak’s translation of Derrida is also a major focus of the chapter, beginning with the original 1976 translation of Derrida’s Of Grammatology to the recent 2016 fortieth anniversary retranslation of the book. Finally, Bennington’s critique of this 2016 retranslation and Spivak’s response to Bennington at the launch of the book in the UK are examined and critiqued.
