magazinelogo

Translation and Foreign Language Learning

ISSN Online: 3069-0315 ISSN Print: 3070-3077 CODEN:
Frequency: monthly Email: tfll@hillpublish.com
Total View: 326906 Downloads: 74482 Citations: 0 (From Dimensions)
ArticleTranslation Theories and Skills http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.11.005

On Translation Criticism of Antoine Berman

Zhaoyan Li*, Daying Zhang

School of Humanities and Foreign Languages, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao 266520, Shandong, China.

*Corresponding author: Zhaoyan Li

Published: November 30, 2025

Abstract

Translation criticism plays an important part in the translation studies and it could facilitate the development of translation, because it could give direction to translation practices. So far, there are still few scholars in the Western translation studies field who have proposed an “inspiration model” with explanatory power and universality for translation criticism. Antoine Berman defines translation criticism in his latest work Pour une critique des traductions (1995), and presents a methodology which enables researchers to analyze translations’ defect and deficiency. This paper provides a systematic analysis of Berman’s translation criticism, tracing its origins and formation, and differentiating it from other contemporary theories to elucidate its core principles. Secondly, it systematically classifies the translation criticism methodology proposed by Berman in his works into negative translation analysis and positive translation criticism to reflect his consistent operational procedures. His work in translation studies established this area as a legitimate and essential area of critical thought and intellectual engagement.

Keyword

Antoine Berman; Translation criticism; Definition; Methodology

References

Benjamin, W. (2009). Le concept de critique esthétique dans le romantisme allemande (Ph. Lacoue-Labarthe & A.-M. Lang, Trans.). Fayard.

Berman, A. (1984). L’épreuve de l’étranger: Culture et traduction dans l’Allemagne romantique. Gallimard.

Berman, A. (1985). La traduction et la lettre ou l’auberge du lointain. In A. Berman, et al. (Eds.), Les tours de Babel: essais sur la traduction (pp. 33-150). Trans-Europ-Repress.

Berman, A. (1986). Critique, commentaire et traduction. Poésie, 37, 88-106.

Berman, A. (1989). La Traduction et ses discours. Meta, 34(4), 672-679.

Berman, A. (1995). Pour une critique des traductions: John Donne. Gallimard.

Berman, A. (1999). La traduction et la lettre ou l’auberge du lointain. Seuil.

Bouvet, R. (1995). Antoine Berman: Pour une critique des traductions: John Donne. Surfaces, 5, 5-12.

Ertel, E. (2011). A testament to translation criticism: Antoine Berman’s final work. The Translator, 17(1), 137-141.

Eshghi, F. (2013). Berman et les instruments critiques de traduction. Études de langue et littérature françaises, 4(2), 53-66.

Holmes, J. S. (1988). The name and nature of translation studies. In J. S. Holmes (Ed.), Translated!: Papers on literary translation and translation studies (pp. 67-80). Rodopi.

Hong, X. Q. (2013). An effective translation criticism method - A review of Antoine Berman’s translation criticism ap-proach. National Translation, (2), 23-29.

House, J. (2001). How do we know when a translation is good? In E. Steiner & C. Yallop (Eds.), Exploring translation and multilingual text production: Beyond content (pp. 127-160). Mouton de Gruyter.

Hu, C. E. (2015). After the painting comes the criticism: The organic integration of translation criticism theory and practice - Review of Antoine Berman’s Explorations in translation criticism: John Donne. Chinese Translation Studies, (1), 63-67.

Hu, C. Y. (2022). On the construction of Berman’s literary translation criticism theory. Foreign Language Teaching and Theory Practice, (2), 141-147.

Lauscher, S. (2000). Translation quality assessment: Where can theory and practice meet? The Translator, 6(2), 149-168.

Le Blanc, C. (2009). Le complexe d’Hermès. University of Ottawa Press.

Liu, Y. H. (2020). Commonalities and complementarities in Chinese and Western translation criticism studies: A case study of Xu Jun and Antoine Berman. China Translation, (6), 83-89.

Meschonnic, H. (1973). Pour la poétique II. Gallimard.

Xu, J., & Yuan, X. Y. (2001). Contemporary French translation theory. Hubei Education Press.

Yan, J. J. (2023). Exploring Berman’s literary translation criticism thought. Journal of Heihe University, 14(10), 105-108.

Copyright

© 2025 by the author(s).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

How to cite this paper

On Translation Criticism of Antoine Berman

How to cite this paper: Zhaoyan Li, Daying Zhang. (2025). On Translation Criticism of Antoine Berman. Translation and Foreign Language Learning1(4), 623-630.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.11.005