Author(s): George Steiner

Philosophy, Spirituality & Religion

When it first appeared in 1975, After Babel created a sensation, quickly establishing itself as both a controversial and seminal study of literary theory. Indeed, the reactions to the book now constitute a considerable secondary literature themselves.
In this edition, Steiner provides readers with the first systematic investigation since the eighteenth century of the phenomenology and processes of translation both inside and between languages. Taking issue with the principal emphasis of modern linguistics, he finds the root of the
Babel problem in our deep instinct for privacy and territory, noting that every people has in its language a unique body of shared secrecy. With this provocative thesis he analyzes every aspect of translation from fundamental conditions of interpretation to the most intricate of linguistic
constructions.
Like the towering figures of Derrida, Lacan, and Foucault, Steiner's work is central to current literary thought. After Babel is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the debates raging in the academy today.