On butterflies and Chinese flavor, or On Virginia Woolf and translation

Abstract

This article aims to analyze Virginia Woolf’s thought on translation and her contributions to contemporary debates on the subject. To this end, it examines her position in four of her essays — On Being Ill, The Russian Point of View, On Not Knowing Greek, and Craftmanship. Drawing on her correspondence with the Chinese writer Ling Shuhua, in which Woolf recommends preserving the “Chinese flavor” of her writings in English, the article explores how Woolf articulates a conception of language grounded in the primacy of the sensorial, the auditory, and the strange. By interrogating the dichotomy between signifier and signified, the article brings her reflections into dialogue with the theories of Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, and Jacques Lacan, highlighting shared concerns regarding the irreducibility of language and the rejection of its transparency. Based on this trajectory, it is argued that Woolf’s conception of translation oscillates between the idea of loss and the recognition of the value of estrangement and linguistic irreducibility. The article seeks to contribute to a repositioning of Woolf’s essayistic work within contemporary debates on translation, language, and alterity.