Deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and the teaching of translation

The main goal of this paper — originally published in Portuguese in 1993 — is to propose a reflection on a key question often associated with the training of translators: What kind of knowledge should future professionals acquire in order to produce successful translations? As it examines logocentric notions of knowledge and meaning from the perspective of contemporary, post-Nietzschean thought, with special emphasis on Derridean deconstruction, this paper explores similarities between traditional notions of translation and pedagogy, both founded on the possibility of stable meanings that could be objectively separated from the language and the circumstances in which they occur. Such notions and what they imply for the kinds of relationships that define and constitute both translation and pedagogy are also further questioned from the perspective of some key insights from psychoanalytic theory as it undermines the rationalist notion according to which knowledge is something that might be completely grasped or mastered. As a general conclusion, the paper emphasizes the importance of developing a critical apparatus within the classroom that will allow both students and teachers to constantly evaluate their relationship and the power dynamic that create their community as well the roles they play in the production and transference of meaning in such a community, a production which is central to both translation and pedagogy.