翻譯班雅民：閱讀的越界與越界的閱讀

Translating Walter Benjamin: Or Reading and Writing across Borders

本論文以幾個班雅民研究個案為例，試圖探討文化翻譯過程中所牽涉的閱讀與越界問題。論文分成兩部分。第一部分從左派學者伊果頓（Terry Eagleton）的閱讀班雅民切入，除了探討閱讀的政治，也從理論的角度解釋「可譯性」（translatability）與「辯證圖像」（dialectical image）如何都是正在進行的閱讀、書寫、實踐過程，而此過程也可視為一種以未來為主軸的思考模式。第二部分討論近年來美國學界所進行的閱讀與翻譯班雅民計畫，主要以1992年Diacritics的「紀念班雅民」（Commemorating Walter Benjamin）專輯、1996年《班雅民與歷史的要求》（Walter Benjamin and the Demands of History）、2002年《班雅民的鬼魂：當代與文化理論的介入》（Benjamin's Ghosts: Interventions in Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory）三個文本做為討論對象。結論指出，閱讀班雅民之所以成為越界的閱讀，原因不僅因為我們以現在來讀過去、從活人角度看死人留下的文獻、用譯文代替原文，也由於班雅民的作品已經保留可越界的空間。如果他的作品保有「真理」的話，它常游走於文字與真實、再現（representation）與「異者」（Other）之間。

Based on a few critical studies on Walter Benjamin in English and American academia, the present paper examines how cross-cultural readings and writings, what may be called cultural translations, are likely to produce meanings different from the original. To read a certain work is by no means to reproduce its ＂original＂ meaning, if such reproduction is possible at all. Rather, the borders of the work are crossed precisely in the act of reading/writing. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part is a reading of Terry Eagleton's Marxist reading of Benjamin. Apart from highlighting the role of politics in Eagleton's reading, I also read Benjamin's ideas of ＂dialectical image＂ and ＂translatability＂ as the embodiment of a particular thought-mode of the future in which the past has perpetually undergone the process of revision, or revisiting, by the reading, writing or practicing subject. The second part focuses on three studies on Benjamin in the US, which include a special issue called ＂Commemorating Walter Benjamin＂ in Diacritics (1992) and two edited books, entitled ＂Walter Benjamin and the Demands of History＂ (1996) and ＂Benjamin's Ghosts: Interventions in Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory＂ (2002). Toward the end of the paper, I suggest that elements of ambiguity, antinomy or contradiction exist in Benjamin, elements that partially contribute to the interesting intertwinement of reading and border-crossing discussed in the present study. If there is ＂truth＂ in Benjamin's work, it lies in a site of ＂elsewhere＂: between language and reality, or between representation and its Other.