탈합치와 번역

Abstract

This paper discusses the issues of translation from the perspective of François Jullien, a French philosopher of East-West culture. It, in particular, examines the relationship between translation and the concept of de-coincidence that Jullien suggests. François Jullien’s philosophy of East-West culture is an attempt to think ‘what is not thought’ in Europe through Chinese thought and to shake and disturb European thought. China, as a huge civilization developed outside of Europe, reveals the prejudices or habits of European culture when both sides face with each other. In terms of language and history, China is outside of Europe. Regardless of Europe, it has a high-level of symbol system that expresses thoughts in letters, i.e., a textual civilization in language and history, so it becomes an external standard which is far from European one. China is a theoretical tool for thinking about things that European thought is too familiar with to think about. What immediately reveals this sort of divide or de-coincidence is translation work. Translation activates a kind of “cultural subjects,” who, when encountering other languages and cultures, experience unfamiliarity and then start to de-coincide from their own languages and cultures. These subjects move around between cultures, reflect on themselves in the face-to-face encounters created in this between, that is, écart, and, therefore, come into their existence, which brings about the development and activation of the subjects. Thus, we could call translation one of the specific aspects of existential ethics required in the age of globalization. Today, after two centuries of the imperial age when humankind underwent world-historical cultural changes, we can again sense the lurking dangers of universalism called ‘globalization’ and national cultural relativism. Yet, we can also say that today is humanity’s first opportunity for cultural dialogue. That is because we are the first generation to be able to travel freely between cultures through globalization. Understanding various cultures and activating common intelligence will be the ethical basis in this time of globalization and it is possible through translation.