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This study compares modern and contemporary literary works from around the globe that have translation as a central theme, and that treat one of four of said black-box issues: language as embodiment; unknown language; conversion; and postcolonial derivations.

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Transmesis and Postcolonial Reason PART I: SOMATICS Herizons of Translation: Nicole Brossard Shoot The Transtraitor! The Translator as Homo Sacer PART IIl CONVERSION Borges Translating Ibn Rushd Translating Aristotle Translation as Cultural Renewal in the Cartas Marruecas Milorad Pavic´s Dictionary of the Khazars PART III: POSTCOLONIAL DERIVATIONS Abdelkébir Khatibi´s Love in Two Languages Faking Translation: Derivative Aboriginality in the Fiction of B. Wongar PART IV: UNKNOWN LANGUAGE Unknown Language and Radical Translation Transformulating Pagolak Translating Ptydepe Ten Reasons Why Translators Should Read Fiction

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´Transmesis shrewdly intervenes into current thinking about translation by examining a dazzling range of materials from several languages and cultures, genres, and disciplines. The result brings a unique visibility to translators, translation strategies, and translated texts, challenging in the process the boundaries between postcolonial criticism and translation studies. After Beebee´s study, neither of these fields will look quite the same.´ - Lawrence Venuti, professor of English, Temple University

´Beebee´s coining of the capacious and synthetic term ´transmesis´ into the discourses of literary criticism and translation studies itself constitutes itself an important contribution to comparative literature, world literature, and postcolonial studies. Referring to the conjunction of translation and mimesis, Beebee examines the many-faceted processes by which literary authors use fiction to depict acts of translation. This rich and lively study draws on examples from five continents and numerous languages, underscoring translation´s critical role in extending meaning across the centuries.´ - Bella Brodzki, Alice Stone Ilchman Chair in Comparative and International Studies, Sarah Lawrence College

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Thomas O. Beebee is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and German at Penn State University.

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