Translation as foreclosure
Siam’s rediscovery of Asia through the West in the early twentieth century
Published online: 9 October 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.23041.chi
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.23041.chi
Abstract
Negation is an enigmatic function of translation that has rarely been investigated. Instead of delivering the
original text to the new language, translation also negates the incompatible in order to assert the validity of a target text by
preventing access to the original. This form of negation is scrutinised in this article as an act of ‘foreclosure’, a term
originated by Jacques Lacan and later adopted by Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak to describe the disappearance of the ‘native
informant’ figure in European grand narratives even before it enters the Symbolic Order. The renditions of two European,
oriental-themed masterpieces — The Mikado and Der Pilger Kamanita — into Thai show how
translation forecloses the original text by repudiating the source altogether to allow the totality of the Thai language as an
emerging Symbolic Order befitting its time. The foreclosure of the West in these ‘translations’ points to the unconscious desire
and the anxiety for the Thai cultural identity which was repeatedly undermined throughout its contacts with Europe. Translation,
in this sense, serves as a defence mechanism against the encroaching West.
Keywords: foreclosure, negation, translation, Siam, Thailand, psychoanalysis, postcolonial, The Mikado, Der Pilger Kamanita, modernisation
Article outline
- 1.Introduction: Translation’s negation
- 2.Foreclosure: From Lacan to Spivak
- 3.Siam’s rediscovery of Asia: The sermonisation of The Mikado
- 4.Kamanit Wasitthee: Foreclosure through excessive presence
- 5.Conclusion
- Notes
References
References (43)
Agamben, Giorgio. 1991. Language and Death: The Place of Negativity [orig. Il linguaggio e la morte: Un seminario sul luogo della
negatività]. Translated by Karen Pinkus and Michael Hardt. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Chaloemtiarana, Thak. 2009. “Making
New Space in the Thai Literary Canon.” Journal of Southeast Asian
Studies 40 (1): 87–110.
. 2018. Read
Till It Shatters: Nationalism and Identity in Modern Thai
Literature. Acton: Australian National University Press.
Chittiphalangsri, Phrae. 2014. “The
Emerging Literariness: Translation, Dynamic Canonicity and the Problematic Verisimilitude in Early Thai Prose
Fictions.” In Translation and Global Asia: Relocating Cultural
Production Network, edited by Uganda Sze-Pui Kwan and Lawrence Wang-Chi Wong, 207–242. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.
. 2019. “From
Plagiarism to Incense Stick: The Making of Self and the Other in Thai Translation
History.” In A World Atlas of
Translation, edited by Yves Gambier and Ubaldo Stecconi, 105–124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Chongstitvatana, Suchitra. 2006. การเดินทางของปัญญาและจินตนาการในกามนิตของเสฐียรโกเศศ-นาคะประทีป [The journey of wisdom and imagination in Sathiankoset-Nakapratheep’s
Kamanita]. Bangkok: Research Division of Faculty of Arts Chulalongkorn University.
Chulalongkorn, King Rama V. 1966. เทศนาเรื่องนิทานมิกาทุระ [Sermon concerning the tale of
Mikathura]. Bangkok: Rongphim Sophonphiphattanakorn.
Claborn, John. 2014. “W.
E. B. Du Bois at the Grand Canyon: Nature, History, and Race in
Darkwater.” In The Oxford Handbook of
Ecocriticism, edited by Greg Garrard, 118–131. New York: Oxford University Press.
Corelli, Marie. 1975. ความพยาบาท [orig. Vendetta! Or the Story of One Forgotten]. Translated
by Mae Wan [pseud.]. 2nd
ed. Bangkok: Ongkarnkha khong Khurusabha.
Davis, Kathleen. 2001. Deconstruction
and Translation: Translation Theories
Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.
Derrida, Jacques. 1981. Dissemination. Translated
by Barbara Johnson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
. 1988. “Structure,
Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences.” In Modern
Criticism and Theory: A Reader, edited by David Lodge, 108–123. London: Longman.
Fischlin, Daniel. 1994. “Introduction:
Negation, Critical Theory, and Postmodern Textuality.” In Negation,
Critical Theory, and Postmodern Textuality, edited by Daniel Fischlin, 1–37. Dordrecht: Springer.
Freud, Sigmund. 1962. “The Neuro-Psychoses of Defence [orig. “Die Abwehr-Neuropsychosen”].” In The Standard Edition of
The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, edited by James Strachey, vol. 3 (1893–1899), 41–61. London: Hogarth Press.
Gilbert, William S., and Arthur Sullivan. 1997. “The
Mikado.” In The Complete Plays of Gilbert and
Sullivan. Project Gutenberg. [URL]
Gjellerup, Karl Adolph. 1906. Der Pilger Kamanita:
Ein Legendenroman [The pilgrim Kamanita: A
legendary romance]. Frankfurt-am-Main: Rütten und Loening.
. 1911. The Pilgrim
Kamanita: A Legendary Romance [orig. Der Pilger Kamanita. Ein
Legendenroman 1906]. Translated by John Logie. London: William Heinemann.
. 1960. กามนิต
วาสิฏฐี [orig. The Pilgrim Kamanita: A Legendary Romance]. Translated
by Sathiankoset and Nagapradeep. Bangkok: Samnakphim Thaikhasem.
Gombrich, Richard. 2006. Theravāda
Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. 2nd
ed. London: Routledge, pp. 37–42.
Jaroenjitrkam, Prakong. 2002. “กามนิต เพชรน้ำเอกแห่งวรรณกรรมแปลและวรรณกรรมศาสนา [Kamanita:
The supreme diamond of translated literature and religious
literature].” Vannavidas 21: 22–30.
. 1988. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book 1: Freud’s Papers on Technique,
1953–1954 [orig. Les écrits techniques de Freud]. Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller. Translated
by John Forrester. New York: W.W. Norton.
. 1994. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis
(1964) [orig. Le
séminaire. Livre XI. Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse]. Edited
by Jacques-Alain Miller. Translated
by Alan Sheridan. New York: W. W. Norton.
. 1998. Le Séminaire, Livre V: Les formations de l’inconscient (1957–1958) [The seminar, book V: The formations of the unconscious
(1957–1958)]. Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
. 2005. Le Séminaire, Livre XXIII: Le Sinthome (1975–1976) [The seminar, book XXIII: The sinthome (1975–1976)]. Edited
by Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Éditions du Seuil
. 2006. Écrits:
The First Complete Edition in English. Translated by Bruce Fink. New York: W. W. Norton.
Laplanche, Jean and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis. 1988. The
Language of
Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge.
Lawankul, Suchada. 1989. An
Analysis of the Prose Diction in Kamanit. MA
dissertation. Srinakarinwirot University.
Prachathai. 2015. “อ่าน’ ทวิภพ’ จินตภาพแห่งการสูญเสียกับชาตินิยมแนวรักโรแมนติกของทมยันตี [Reading Tawiphop: Thommayantee’s imagination of loss and romantic nationalism].” [URL]
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1999. A Critique of Postcolonial
Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing
Present. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
. 2008. “The Politics of
Translation.” In The Translation Studies
Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti, 2nd
ed., 369–388. London: Routledge.
Stifel, Laurence D. 1976. “Technocrats and Modernisation
in Thailand.” Asian
Survey 16 (12): 1184–1196.
Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The
Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge.
. 2012. “The
Difference that Translation Makes: The Translator’s
Unconscious.” In Translation Changes
Everything, by Lawrence Venuti, 32–56. London: Routledge.