%0 Journal Article
%T <em>Translating Others, Discovering Himself: Beckett as Translator</em>
%A Darren Gribben
%J Studi Irlandesi : a Journal of Irish Studies
%D 2011
%I Firenze University Press
%X This paper examines the work of Samuel Beckett in the light of his early work as a translator of the works of other writers.  In his translations for Negro: An Anthology (1934), the Anthology of Mexican Poetry (1958), or commissioned translations for journals such as ¡°This Quarter¡±, early pre-figurings of Beckett¡¯s own thematic and linguistic concerns abound.  Rarely viewed as more than acts of raising money for himself, Beckett¡¯s acts of translation, examined chronologically, demonstrate a writer discovering his craft, and developing his unique voice, unencumbered by the expectations of originality.  This essay posits that Beckett¡¯s works, with their distinctive voice and characterisation, owe much to the global perspective he gained through translating across cultural, continental divides, as well as experimenting with form, which became a staple of Beckett¡¯s own work.  Without formal training or theoretical grounding in translation, Beckett utilises the act of translation as a means of finding himself, revisiting it as a means of shaping his own unique literary voice.
%U http://www.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-sijis/article/view/9711