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In this chapter I do three things. First of all, I explore Derrida's translation of a particular word and in so doing I reveal the (im)possible position of the translator. This (im)possibility is key to my claim that subject/other relation is best understood as surviving translating, a claim I will return to in the next chapter. Second, I go on to examine the relationship between translation, political power, and the construction of identity. As I demonstrate, power is deployed through language and translation, a situation particularly evident in post-colonial states. Furthermore, the question of the "law of translation' or the "debt of translation' is a constant concern for Derrida; a law that is intimately linked with the relation between the subject and the other. Finally, I show how the subject/other relation is complicated by Derrida through the impossibility of an absolute border. I do this through an examination of the origins of translation in the figure of the Babel narrative. Under the rubric of this myth, I explore Derrida's interrogation of the proper name and multilingualism. In both cases I show the inherently divided nature of both names and languages and the manner in which their "identity' emerges only through differentiation with multiple others.

DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-57758-0_5

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