ABSTRACT
In the course of his lectures and seminars, Derrida often reflects on the idiomatic properties of individual languages, exposing these by asking how particular words or expressions might be translated. Examples include lectures given in English such as ‘The Force of Law’ and ‘Heidegger’s Hand’ as well as the French-language seminar on Hospitality. The reflections provide a way in to the philosophical problems around which the lectures themselves turn, and show translation being used to enrich philosophical thinking and debate. Derrida refers to such moments of intense focus on individual words as ‘prowling’ or ‘harrying’, a repeated action or attempt at translation that is driven by passion and that threatens to consume. To understand this metaphor, we explore Derrida’s envisaging of texts, oeuvres and entire languages as organisms that can be cut into and which regenerate themselves, focusing in particular on ‘What is a “relevant” translation?’.
