Translation and interpretation practicing the knowledge of literature : a volume in honour of Angela Locatelli

## Jean-Jacques Lecercle Literature and Interpellation. Introduction to the Theory of Interpellation adapt to as ystem that is anterior and exterior to me-Im ust make mine the accumulated result of the linguistic practicesofprior generations, as sedimented in agrammatical and lexical system. Imust adapt to the commonparlance and adopt it as my own. But having done that, which is the object of al earning process, Ibecome afull-fledged speaker of the language, which means Iamable in turn to adapt the system to my expressiveneeds -this is what we know as style, be it the style of ag roup, ac lass, ag eneration or the inimitable style of the individual speaker. Ican best formulate the stages of this dialectic in French. First stage, la langue parle. Language speaks, the system is at reasury (to quote Saussure'st erm)o fa ccumulatedm eanings, together with am ethod of assembling them in an indefinite number of new combinations. It fixes the limits of the sayable. Second stage, la langue me parle. The system speaks through me, it makes me its mouthpiece,itimposes upon me the words and constructions Imay use to express myself, thereby imposing constraints on my expression. One is remindedofBarthes'scelebrated provocation, la langue est fasciste. Whereby he meant not that the system prevents us from saying what we wish to say, through censorship, but that it imposes its meanings on us. Third stage, la langue me parle again, but in another sense. The system speaks not through me but to me. It addresses me, whereby giving me an address as as peaker, in other words an identity. This is the crucialmoment: Iaminterpellated, at my place,asacompetent speaker of the language, Ihaveappropriated the system, Ihavemade it mine by conformingt ow hatJ udith Butler calls its enabling constraints.Ican therefore pass to the last stage, the stage of style, when je parle la langue,Ispeak language, Icounter-interpellatethe system that has interpellated me, Ican make it say exactly what Iw ant it to say, if necessary by distorting it. Here, we may remember that Deleuze defines style as the practice of a-grammaticality -style expresses the capacityofthe speaker to speak with the system but also against it. And this is, of course, what literature, the art of language, is about. This is where the subjectiveknowledge of literatureissituated: in the dialectics of system and style, of interpellation and counter-interpellation. Asimple example will make thisclear, afamous line from one of Housman's Shropshirelad poems: A volume in honour of Angela Locatelli The book explores the significance of literary translation and interpretation, in the widest sense of terms, as multiple processes of meaning and cultural transfer, by investigating how and why literature can be considered as a repository and a disseminator of knowledge and values. Featuring essays by a number of scholars focusing on a wide range of literary and critical texts of different nations and cultures and encompassing the last three centuries, this book intends to offer a contribution to the study of translation and interpretation as literary processes of cultural and epistemic dissemination of knowledge from both a theoretical and a practical perspective.