The ends of translation: surviving translating as the (post)human condition

Taking its cue from the relationship between humanism and translation, this paper investigates Derrida's critique of anti-humanism and the critical posthumanism of Braidotti. Both argue that humanism as a model of thought has reached its end, insofar as it remains Eurocentric and subscribes to an idea of human exceptionalism that is no longer tenable in our contemporary world. Both further argue that previous anti-humanist critiques have failed to overcome their own humanism. While agreeing with much of Braidotti's criticism of Derrida, I argue that she goes too far in dismissing his account of language and in overlooking the importance of translation in understanding our human condition. Historical anti-humanism may well declare the end of translation as no longer necessary, but Derrida argues that translation is key to understanding our own situation in the world with others. Braidotti misses the force a model of translating could offer us by herself subscribing to a classically anti-humanist understanding of meaning and language. Taking translating in a more Derridean vein brings us closer to understanding our current human condition, not as exceptional creatures on a hierarchy of existence, but as mutually dependent relational beings, in flux with others and the world at large.