The (Im)possibility of Translation of a Literary Text: nullum est iam dictum quod non dictum sit prius

Abstract

This paper discusses an emerging concept of literary translation that aims to integrate discursive and cultural elements. After paying attention to the special creativity the translator needs to apply to his or her task, it revises the concept of translation units taking into account some approaches based not only on the word, the sentence and the text, but also on discourse and culture. Following some standard definitions of the literary text, several difficulties of literary translation are specified and analyzed in order to infer the possibility and the challenges involved in this new vision of translation.