Chapter 9 - Translation across Brains and across Time

Summary

Both neuroscientists and literary translators aim to understand how invariance of meaning can arise across different forms. But literary translators must render experiences that are more subtle, more contextual, more entire, than a glimpse of a cat’s tail. Thus, for the neuroscientist who seeks to understand invariances, the goals of literary translation match the highest levels of scientific aspiration. From a neuroscientific perspective, it is fascinating that literary translation is possible at all.