For a Theory of Relay Translations

The hierarchical system described by Pascale Casanova in The World Republic of Letters and La Langue mondiale is confirmed by the global phenomenon of relay translations, which attests that international exchanges are rarely bilateral. The study of relay or indirect translations completes what she says about the crucial role of mediators in the mechanisms of literary circulation. Yet the concrete processes of the intervention of the third party are only occasionally studied (in case studies) and are rarely synthesized. They bring into play mere configurations of the international in a non-systemic, but historical and not always deterministic way. This article attempts to theorize a practice that modifies the frames of thought of translation itself.