Towards a Structuralist Mode of Poetic Translation

     Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf famously hypothesized in the late 1920s that there is a strong link between the language one speaks and world view, known today as linguistic determinism or linguistic... [ view full abstract ]

     Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf famously hypothesized in the late 1920s that there is a strong link between the language one speaks and world view, known today as linguistic determinism or linguistic relativism (Fromkin, 22). The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis comes out of the linguistic and sociological tradition of structuralism which argues that meaning is created by relationships to (adhering to or breaking) overarching cultural structures. Linguist Jonathan Culler examines what this view of language and culture implies in the realm of literature in his book Structuralist Poetics. Writing after Saussure and Lacan, Culler puts forth that “the semiological approach suggests, rather, that the poem be thought of as an utterance that has meaning only with respect to a system of conventions which the reader has assimilated. If other conventions were operative its range of potential meanings would be different” (Culler, 116). Though the proposal of an irrevocable link between poetry and the language it is written poses exciting insights into the ever-nebulous concept of worldview, a conflict arises when considering the translation of poetry. If poetic meaning arises from linguistic structures, how are these structures to be translated? Can cultural structures be translated? Through the study of structuralist theory and world poetry traditions, I aim to determine a structuralist methodology for poetic translation, if it is a fruitless paradox, or, if completed correctly, it can offer access to a foreign world view.