Re-missions

Abstract

Derridean thought places the inescapable fate of meaning on the vital notion of “dissemination”. The text, the word, what is said or written, the gesture made or refused, everything is always subjected to interpretation. Whatever text we produce, it will always entail a reply or a reaction, it never escapes the other’s reading. Our aim here is to deal with what Derrida referred to as the endless postponing of meaning, in other words, the closure that never happens. I propose therefore a deconstructive approach to the relation between translator and language, based on Osmyr Gabbi Jr.´s translation of the text Entwurf einer Psychologie, published by Imago Publishers in 1995. The main purpose is to investigate to what extent the act of translating is an interaction between psychoanalisys and deconstruction. In this translation, Gabbi Jr. adds 531 translation notes which, at diff erent moments, go far beyond what we traditionally recognize as “translator notes”. Gabbi Jr. uses these notes to clear up the meanings of words, phrases or expressions, as well as to present theoretical refl ections on psychoanalytical questions. My refl ection on this tranlastor´s use of the notes – which I have called re-missions, that is, sending the reader back from one note to another – intends to understand the eff ect upon the reader generated by such strategy. With notes and re-missions, the translator presents an apparently safe map to guide the reader through misunderstandings and doubts in an attempt to stop dissemination and avoid the free dissemination of meanings. However, such dynamics ends up by frustrationg its creator and materializng a complex web of dissemination, of lack of control, dramatically showing the uselessness of any attempt of stopping the proliferation of meanings. Keywords: Translation. Deconstrucion. Pchoanalysis. Dissemination.