Von den Möglichkeiten translatorischen Handelns

Eine performative, ausgangskulturorientierte Perspektive am Beispiel Antoine Gallands und der ‚Tausend und eine Nacht‘

Abstract

This article deals with the translation history of the Arabic narratives of the ‘Thousand and One Nights’ from a performative, source culture-oriented perspective. The two-stage nature of the translation process as interlingual/bilingual communication implies a one-dimensional linearity that determines the relationship between source and target text. The effects of translation on the production/reception of the source text fall beyond the conceptual scope of the concept of translation and cannot, in principle, be dealt with in a translation-theoretical framework, resulting in a static-genetic conception of the source text as a “source”. I will use the 'Thousand and One Nights' to argue that a new concept of translation as a performative movement towards the source text can better demonstrate the complexity of translational action and expand the interpretative possibilities of translation as an interaction between a source text and a target text. The role of Antoine Galland and his translation of the ‘Thousand and One Nights’ (Les mille et une nuits) is highlighted.