Un unico tradurre: per una banalizzazione della teoria della traduzione

It is usually understood that some particular kinds of texts are ‘more difficult’, are ‘more difficult’ to translate than others, if not virtually impossible, as to translate than others, as not every genre of writing poses the same kinds of challenges to the translator. Being this difference essentialized in many prominent authors, especially in the German modern and contemporary tradition, this paper argues that, by contrast, there is a fundamental common stratum of translating, and that, while differing in certain features, all to-be-translated texts are not different in essence with respect to the kind of problems and challenges they raise. In fact, phenomena such as indeterminacy and vagueness in language, that are usually characterized as pertaining to sophisticated texts, are actually already there in the most basic, everyday, non-literary uses of language. It is therefore argued in favor of a ‘banalized’ view of translating.