Theses on Pure Language and Postliterate Translation: Walter Benjamin and the Experience of Existential Exile in Language and Translation

It is the merit of Walter Benjamin to have spun a thread for what is now considered a desubjectivised theory of translation. In “Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers” (transl. “The Task of The Translator”), he advances the central thesis that all languages share one basic characteristic: slowly but steadily, they all move toward a point of convergence. To designate this point of convergence, Benjamin makes use of the elusive concept of “reine Sprache”. Benjamin’s tread will be taken up in this article, and it will be interwoven with what are coined “instances of postliteracy” as they are encountered in literature, only to form the tapestry that depicts not only the remembrance but also the ever-renewing promise of a purified language that constitutes the essence of a metaphysical exile in language.En «Die Aufgabe des Ubersetzers» (trad. «La tarea del Traductor»), Walter Benjamin da origen a una teoria desubjetivizada de la traduccion. En su ensayo, avanza la tesis de que todas las lenguas comparten una caracteristica basica: todas estan orientadas hacia un punto de convergencia, a saber : hacia el «reine Sprache» (trad. «lenguaje puro»). Siguiendo en los pasos de Benjamin, el presente articulo constituye una reflexion sobre esta nocion esquiva de «lenguaje puro» y desea profundizar sobre la manifestacion del parentesco suprahistorico de los idiomas en lo que se denominan, un tanto paradojicamente, «trazas literarias de postliterariedad». Dichas trazas arrojan una luz sin precedentes sobre el exilio metafisico del ser humano en el lenguaje