Phantoms and Phantasms: The Dialectical Image and the Practice of Translation in Contemporary American Poetry

This paper employs an essentially Benjaminian method to examine recent translations of canonized poetry by contemporary American poets. In doing so, I posit a broadly applicable methodology for the critical study of translational texts. This methodology draws on Benjamin’s concept of the dialectical image as well as Kenneth Goldsmith’s recent problematization of the act of translation in order to consider the relationship between an original text and its translations—the commonalities and dissonances between the literary work and its reiterations. In doing so I suggest that this relationship between the text and its translations can be a productive site of examination for contemporary literary scholarship. Offering a case study for this methodology, this article explores the recent translations of Guillaume Apollinaire by Donald Revell and Ron Padgett as well as Anne Carson’s translation of Sappho. Therein, I consider the ways these translational texts characterize and connect with the poetic past while responding to Marjorie Perloff’s recent call for literary scholarship that engages foremost with literary concerns.