This volume presents selected papers from the first symposium on Hermeneutics and Translation Studies held at Cologne in 2011. Translational Hermeneutics works at the intersection of theory and practice. It foregrounds both hermeneutical philosophy and the various traditions -- especially phenomenology -- to which it is indebted, in order to explore the ways in which the individual person figures at the center of the mediating process of translation. Translational Hermeneutics offers alternative ways to understand the process of translating: it is a holistic and strategic process that enhances understanding by assisting the transmission of meaning in and across multiple social and cultural contexts. The papers in this collection accordingly provide a preliminary outline of Translational Hermeneutics. Gathered together, these papers broach a new discipline within Translation Studies. While some essays explain the theoretical foundations of this approach, others concentrate on practical applications in diverse fields, for example literary studies, and postcolonial studies.

Conducting Hermeneutic Research: From Philosophy to Practice is the only textbook that teaches the reader ways to conduct research from a philosophical hermeneutic perspective. It is an invaluable resource for graduate students about to embark in hermeneutic research and for academics or other researchers who are novice to this research method or who wish to extend their knowledge. In 2009, the lead author of this proposed text was one of three co-founders of the Canadian Hermeneutic Institute. The institute was created as a means of bringing together scholars of hermeneutics and hermeneutic research across disciplines in creative dialogue and conversations of philosophy, research, and practice. An outcome of this was the launch of the Journal of Applied Hermeneutics, with Nancy J. Moules serving as Editor. The work of the institute and the journal make clear that people (both students and professors) seek practical guidance on how to conduct hermeneutic research. This book is a must read for this audience.

Hermeneutics is the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, a behaviour that is intrinsic to our daily lives. As humans, we decipher the meaning of newspaper articles, books, legal matters, religious texts, political speeches, emails, and even dinner conversations every day . But how is knowledge mediated through these forms? What constitutes the process of interpretation? And how do we draw meaning from the world around us so that we might understand our position in it? In this Very Short Introduction Jens Zimmermann traces the history of hermeneutic theory, setting out its key elements, and demonstrating how they can be applied to a broad range of disciplines: theology; literature; law; and natural and social sciences. Demonstrating the longstanding and wide-ranging necessity of interpretation, Zimmermann reveals its significance in our current social and political landscape. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The fundamental aim of translation studies in general is to better understand the practice of translation. Insofar as hermeneutics can be regarded as an approach to understanding the nature of understanding itself (and in this it finds alliances with phenomenology), the task of this volume is to demonstrate that hermeneutics can accordingly provide a means to better apprehend the subtle complexities of translation. At issue are translators’ myriad decisions, reactions, negotiations and compromises as they practice their craft. At stake is translation knowledge – what translators must know, how they know what they know, and how such savoir faire is deployed in specific instances of translation. Essays in this volume address the somatic and the cognitive, questions of experience and expertise, empirical practice, methodological protocols and suitable philosophical models in order to gain better insight into the challenging task of the translator. An additional highlight of this volume is the sustained assessment of Fritz Paepcke, one of the pioneers of what, today, is called translational hermeneutics, Paepcke being a scholar who proposed new ways to consider the delicate, but necessary negotiation between translation theory and translation practice. CONTENTS Anthony Pym: On Erlebnis within Translation Knowledge Holger Siever: Komplexes Denken: Eine Herausforderung auch für die Hermeneutik? Radegundis Stolze: Zur Anschlussfähigkeit der Hermeneutik in der Translatologie Lucia Salvato: Ein hermeneutischer Ansatz zur Versöhnung antagonistischer Übersetzungsorientierungen Anna Pavlova: Kognitive Textverarbeitung und Verstehen fürs Übersetzen Douglas Robinson: The 心 of the Foreign: The Feeling-Based Hermeneutics of Translation as Influenced by Ancient Chinese Thought Mathilde Fontanet: Revisiting the Unit of Translation from the Hermeneutical Perspective Paulo Oliveira: Übersetzung als Aufbau des Vergleichbaren (Auf Ricœurs Pfad mit Wittgenstein und Toury) Karolina Jezewska, Kasia Jezewska, John Stanley: Introspektion unter der Lupe. Phänomenologische und hermeneutische Ansätze im empirischen Vergleich mit Think Aloud und IPDR Masoud Pourahmadali Tochahi: Grundelemente einer Phänomenologie des Übersetzens: Übersetzungsbewusstsein und phänomenologische Analyse von Übersetzungsakten im Ausgang von einem nominalen Ausdruck Mohamed Saki: Hermeneutics and Paratext: Seamus Heaney’s Retranslation of Beowulf Tomáš Svoboda: A Hermeneutic Reading of the Works of Jiří Levý Philippe Forget: Grenzen und Möglichkeiten der (paepckeschen) Hermeneutik Alberto Gil: Der Evidentia-Begriff in seinen rhetorisch-translatologischen Dimensionen. Ein Denkanstoß von Fritz Paepcke Eliane Laverdure: Das Spiel des Übersetzens. Grundzüge einer komparativen Studie John Stanley: Translational Hermeneutics: Understanding (Mis-)Understood?

Despite Martin Heidegger’s influence on twentieth-century philosophy, understanding his way of thinking is difficult if one relies solely on the English translations of his work. Since Gilbert Ryle misjudged his work in a 1929 review of Sein und Zeit, Heidegger’s philosophy has remained an enigma to many scholars who cannot read the original German texts. In Translating Heidegger, Groth points to mistranslations as the root cause of misunderstanding Heidegger. Translators have not achieved clarity regarding Heidegger’s fundamental words, an understanding of which is crucial to gaining access to his thought. Having been mistranslated from the ancient Greek into Latin and then into modern European languages, Heidegger’s philosophies have largely been obscured for two millennia. In this unique study, Groth examines the history of the first English translations of Heidegger’s works and reveals the elements of Heidegger’s philosophy of translation, showing it at work in Heidegger’s radical translation of Parmenides, Fragment VI.

Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur were two of the most important hermeneutical philosophers of the twentieth century. Gadamer single-handedly revived hermeneutics as a philosophical field with his many essays and his masterpiece, Truth and Method. Ricoeur famously mediated the Gadamer-Habermas debate and advanced his own hermeneutical philosophy through a number of books addressing social theory, religion, psychoanalysis and political philosophy. This book brings Gadamer and Ricoeur into a hermeneutical conversation with each other through some of their most important commentators. Twelve leading scholars deliver contemporary assessments of the history and promise of hermeneutical philosophy, providing focused discussion on the work of these two key hermeneutical thinkers. The book shows how the horizons of their thought at once support and question each other and how, in many ways, the work of these two pioneering philosophers defines the issues and agendas for the new century.