Mathematics of Translation: Encounters with Literature’s Excess Interpretive Potential

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article considers literary translators’ use of mathematical imagery to reject notions of discrete language systems in favour of a proliferative view of language variety. Drawing on research by Michael Cronin, Elizabeth Klosty Beaujour and Clive Scott, the discussion centres on how the active process of translation discloses language’s endless meaning-making potential; and, in turn, how this shapes the translator’s autobiographical encounter with the complexity and ambiguity of how they relate to the world around them. To examine how this plays out in practice, particular focus is given to how this encounter is presented in life writing by: (a) self-translators, such as Ilan Stavans, Julien/an Green, and Ariel Dorfman; and (b) translators of other authors’ work, including Jennifer Croft and Kate Briggs. With reference to these case studies, the translator’s task of reformulating an irreducibly plural source text as a finite target text is seen through the lens of mathematicians’ efforts to represent the fractal heterogeneity of the natural world through neat models and formulas. In considering how translators present the value of their practice, the following discussion explores why translation is frequently championed by those who wish to adopt a thorough yet open-minded approach to literary study.