Umberto Eco's Mouse or Rat

Umberto Eco's Mouse or Rat: Translation as Negotiation was published in 2003. It is a collection of essays that circumscribe Eco's thoughts, reflections and attitudes to translation. Focusing on the subtitle of the book, Eco focuses on the eternal controversy associated with translation: what is universal among the languages of the world that makes the activity of translation possible versus what is idiosyncratic to each language/culture, making translation a constant process of loss verging on impossibility.

"Translation is a phenomenon which does not concern the relationships between two languages or linguistic systems - except in the rare cases in which one asks native speakers or interpreters how they would translate a given term in their own language .... Rather, translation is a process that takes place between two texts produced at a given historical moment in a given cultural milieu." (p. 25/6)


Interesting Reviews:
1. The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/jan/04/referenceandlanguages.umbertoeco