From: Riccardo Bellofiore (riccardo.bellofiore@UNIBG.IT)
Date: Mon Oct 03 2005 - 09:10:30 EDT
The idea of embodiment, properly speaking, comes
from the fact that the ghost of value needs to
take possession of a body, which at the beginning
of Capital is money as a commodity, then after
this transustantiation it becomes a vampire, as
capital sucking living labour, and reproducing
itself.
In fact these 3 phrases are Capital Volume 1 in a nutshell.
English translation of Capital are almost
worthless. In Italian or in French no similar
error happens as those pointed out by Chris.
However, I think that he is making things too
easy. There are a lot of places in Capital, first
chapter, in which some idea not far from
embodiment is going on. For sure, there is the
idea of "gallerte", value as gelatine (it does
exist in English) of living labour, congealed or
cristallised in commodities.
darstellen. The true point is how it is
translated together with erscheinen, scheinen,
ausdrucken, and the consistency of the
translations. So, I would suggest
scheinen to seem
erscheinen to present itself
darstellen to exhibit
vorstellen to represent
ausdrucken to express
is OK, but also
scheinen seem
erscheinen appear
darstellen to present there
vorstellen to represent
ausdrucken to express
is OK.
Or some combination.
Say appear would be OK for the first two, but I
would avoid it because it does not discriminate
between false semblace and something which
appears without being false.
I am at present unsure about vortsellen.
Even representation for darstellung may be OK (I
realised that for example for the English
speaking people re-presented give strongly the
idea of presenting twice, which is not in
Italian; and that the Italian esporre, which
would be OK for Italian, is not easy for me to
tramslate in English). Delio Cantimori in Italian
translates darstellen as to represent
("rappresentare"), but he is almost always
consistent, so when you read that you alwaysknow
he is talking of darstellung, darstellen.
Provided the translator is consistent, and
explains clearly in a note at the beginning of
the book the philosophical meaning of these
terms, with reference to Hegel, there are some
alternative possible good translation, no one
being perfect.
I agree totally with Chris that darstellung is
something that is not a mere appearance form of
something goning on elsewhere. It is
constitituive of value. As it is the idea of
aus-drucken, which gives the movement from the
inner to the outer.
riccardo
I would not take to represent as an error
At 8:36 -0400 3-10-2005, Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM wrote:
>[Chris wrote:]
>All English translations are defective in offering Oembodiment' as the
>translation of 'Darstellung' in the context of Marx's first chapter. Very
>occasionally Marx does speak of Oembodied labour', but nearly always the
>term is Darstellung. The labour of the worker is Darstellung in the value
>of the product, that is, Opresented there'. ORepresentation' is inadequate
>here because it suggests a mere appearance form of something going on
>elsewhere. But Opresentation' I think avoids this. Value does not just
>represent abstract labour, it is the mode in which it becomes socially
>objective, i.e. really present. In the same way money is the mode in which
>value as universal is presented, not represented as if it already exists
>somewhere else.
>_________________________________________________
>
>Hi again Chris,
>
>I'm still think about your comments.
>
>Isn't "darstellung" ordinarily and customarily translated into English as
>"representation"?
>
>If that is the case, is your point that the common or everyday translation
>of "darstellung" is inadequate as an expression for Marx's meaning in
>relationship to value?
>
>In solidarity, Jerry
--
Riccardo Bellofiore
Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche
"Hyman P. Minsky"
Università di Bergamo
Via dei Caniana 2
I-24127 Bergamo, Italy
e-mail: riccardo.bellofiore@unibg.it
direct +39-035-2052545
secretary +39-035 2052501
fax: +39 035 2052549
homepage: http://www.unibg.it/pers/?riccardo.bellofiore
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