Rhizomes and the Space of Translation: On Edouard Glissant’s Spiral Retelling

“The intellectual journey,” Edouard Glissant reminds us, “is destined to have a geographical itinerary.” This essay considers Glissant’s insistence on a poetics of landscape in the case of translation, a practice that intertwines linguistic transition with the spatial residue of its etymological meaning, “to carry across.” The first section maps the movement of one concept, the rhizome, as it travels between and beyond the work of Glissant and that of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The rhizome’s travels reveal an uneven political economy of scholarly influence. The second section further examines how Glissant’s discussion of translation articulates a praxis and rhythm of Relation. Considering translation practice alongside Glissant’s notion of a “spiral retelling” brings into relief new political horizons for Caribbean studies specifically and modes of shared life more generally.