Übersetzung als Lebensform. Vilém Flussers Impulse zur Translationswissenschaft und ihrer Didaktik

The contribution critically examines the translinguistic practice of the philosopher and media scholar Vilém Flusser (1920-1991) and tries to highlight relevant aspects for translation studies and their didactics. In his early writings The gesture of writing and Problems with translation, Flusser formulates an original conception of translation as a process of (re)thinking. In doing so, the multilingual author starts from an observation of his own writing practice: He wrote a first draft of a text in one language— often German—and translated it himself into the languages he mastered: Portuguese, English, French. At the end of this translational chain there was often a ,self-backtranslation‘ into German. He noticed that the final version differed greatly from the first German draft. Based on this experience, Flusser concluded that every translation is by no means a thoughtneutral operation, since it contributes to the content and formal development of the text. Furthermore, according to Flusser, traces of the previous versions are noticeable in a repeatedly translated text. Thus, one can speak of a palimpsest effect and of a ,multiple layers text‘. Flusser’s experiences with self- and back-translation are embedded in the planned study in the context of his philosophy of language and his hermeneutic practice, which has been partly influenced by techniques of Jewish biblical exegesis (Pilpul). Finally, the question is asked whether and to what extent Flusser’s transcultural thinking can be made productive for today’s translation studies teaching at universities.