A translation of a text distinctly distinguished by intertextuality – on the author’s translation of Philosophizing ad infinitum by Marcel Conche

Abstract

The analysis in this paper concerns the problem of intertextuality in translation. I used the book Philosophizing ad infinitum by Marcel Conche as the study material. The choice of the text is not arbitrary because this work is distinctly distinguished by intertextuality. First, I provided a brief presentation of Marcel Conche’s figure and works followed with a short description of the phenomenon of intertextuality listing the names of the most prominent researchers who were interested in this notion. Among the numerous intertextual markers present in Philosophizing ad infinitum we can enumerate: citations, typographical distinctions, dedications, attributions and various references to other authors, e. g. thematic, stylistic and ideological references to the thinkers who were important for Marcel Conche. My analysis is mainly concerned with references to Essais of Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne accompanies Conche almost in each chapter of his book, even when it is concerned with a particular thinker. Conche undoubtedly considers this 16th-century French philosopher as his spiritual guide and refers to Montaigne’s oeuvre in two ways: explicitly and consciously (“Marcel Conche explicite about Michel de Montaigne”) and implicitly (“Marcel Conche implicite about Michel de Montaigne”). In the Introduction I posed the question if intertextual elements are difficult to notice in the original text and to translate into another language. Through the analysis we can confirm that a translator needs to get to know the author’s views to decode the explicite as well as the implicite influences of other texts and authors.