# Emily Apter > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Emily_Apter > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Emily_Apter.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Apter > Source revision: 1352479963 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American academic, translator, and editor (born 1954)}} '''Emily Susan Apter''' (born 1954) is an American academic, translator, editor and professor. Her areas of research are [translation theory](/source/Translation_studies), [language philosophy](/source/Philosophy_of_language), [political theory](/source/Political_philosophy), [critical theory](/source/critical_theory), [continental philosophy](/source/continental_philosophy), history and theory of [comparative literature](/source/comparative_literature), [psychoanalysis](/source/psychoanalysis), and [political fiction](/source/political_fiction).{{Cite web|title=Emily Apter|url=https://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/emily-s-apter.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610165332/https://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/emily-s-apter.html|archive-date=2021-06-10|access-date=2021-05-10|website=NYU Arts & Science}} She is currently Silver Professor of French and Comparative Literature and Chair of the Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture {{cite web|title=faculty nyu|url=https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/emily-s-apter.html}} at New York University. == Life and career == Emily Apter is the daughter of the Yale political scientist [David E. Apter](/source/David_Apter).{{Cite news |last=Hevesi |first=Dennis |date=2010-05-10 |title=David E. Apter, Yale Political Scientist, Is Dead at 85 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/world/10apter.html |access-date=2024-04-07 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} Apter was married to the architectural historian Anthony Vidler, who died in October 2023.[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/29/arts/anthony-vidler-dead.html] She completed her [BA](/source/Bachelor's_degree) at [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University) and earned her [MA](/source/Master's_degree) and her [PhD](/source/Doctor_of_Philosophy) at [Princeton University](/source/Princeton_University) on Comparative Literature, with focus on 19th and 20th-century [French](/source/French_literature), [British](/source/British_literature) and [German literature](/source/German_literature), theory, and history of [literary criticism](/source/literary_criticism).{{Cite web|title=Curriculum Vitae Emily S. Apter|url=https://as.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu-as/complit/documents/faculty-cvs/ApterCV.pdf|access-date=2021-07-27|website=NYU}} Between 1993 and 2002 she taught at the [University of California, Los Angeles](/source/University_of_California%2C_Los_Angeles), and at [Cornell University](/source/Cornell_University).{{Cite web|title=Emily Apter|url=https://www.hkw.de/en/programm/beitragende_hkw/a/emily_apter.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801105634/https://www.hkw.de/en/programm/beitragende_hkw/a/emily_apter.php|archive-date=2021-08-01|access-date=2021-05-03|website=Haus der Kulturen der Welt |date=16 February 2021 }} Since 2002, she is Silver Professor of French and Comparative Literature at New York University. She was appointed president of the American Comparative Literature Association for the years 2017–2018.{{Cite web|title=Board Members|url=https://www.acla.org/about/board-members|access-date=2021-07-30|website=American Comparative Literature Association}} Apter is the editor of the book series Translation/Transnation from [Princeton University Press](/source/Princeton_University_Press), a series that approaches the literary dimension of [transnationalism](/source/transnationalism) and puts special emphasis on the [politics of language](/source/Language_politics), accent, and comparative literature movements.{{Cite web|title=Translation/Transnation|url=https://press.princeton.edu/series/translationtransnation|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731223138/https://press.princeton.edu/series/translationtransnation|archive-date=2021-07-31|access-date=2021-07-15|website=Princeton University Press}} Emily Apter is a contributor to the recent debate about world literature theory.{{Cite journal|title=Enlighten: Publications. Emily Apter. Against world literature: On the politics of untranslatability|url=https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/221737/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803150245/https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/221737/|archive-date=2021-08-03|access-date=2021-08-03|website=University of Glasgow |date=16 October 2017 |doi=10.1075/target.13147.eva |url-access=subscription}} She is currently working on her next book ''Translating in-Equality: Equivalence, Justness, Rightness, Equaliberty''. == Affiliations and honours (selected) == * (2022) GRI Fellowship (NYU-Paris) * (2019) Daimler Fellowship *(2017–18) President of the American Comparative Literature Association * (2016) Vice President of the American Comparative Literature Association *(2015) Executive Council of the [Modern Language Association](/source/Modern_Language_Association) *(2014) Humanities Council Fellow at Princeton University *(2010–12) Mellon Grant (with [Jacques Lezra](/source/Jacques_Lezra)) *(2010) Member of the advisory board of the [Institute of World Literature](/source/Institute_of_World_Literature), Harvard University * (2004) [Guggenheim Fellowship](/source/Guggenheim_Fellowship) for Humanities * (2001) [Rockefeller Fellowship](/source/Rockefeller_Foundation) *(1998–1999) Editorial board member of the [Publications of the Modern Language Association of America](/source/Publications_of_the_Modern_Language_Association_of_America) (PMLA) *(1991) Grant from [College Art Association](/source/College_Art_Association) *Member of the [Signet Society](/source/Signet_Society), Harvard University *Member of the [Semiotic Society of America](/source/Semiotic_Society_of_America) *Member of the [Pi Delta Phi](/source/Pi_Delta_Phi) (National French Honors Society) == Publications == === Books authored === * '''(2017) ''Unexceptional Politics: On Obstruction, Impasse and the Impolitic''''' ''Unexceptional Politics'', unlike her earlier works, distances itself from translation, and focuses on the language and lexicon used to talk about politics. This book has been described as a work of political philology, where she makes vast use of neologisms and alters the meaning of other terms by setting them in a whole different context.{{Cite web|title=Emily Apter's Unexceptional Politics: On Obstruction, Impasse and the Impolitic|url=https://thescatteredpelican.com/reviews-winter-2019/emily-apters-unexceptional-politics-on-obstruction-impasse-and-the-impolitic-2019/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415001421/https://thescatteredpelican.com/reviews-winter-2019/emily-apters-unexceptional-politics-on-obstruction-impasse-and-the-impolitic-2019/|archive-date=2021-04-15|access-date=2021-06-14|website=The Scattered Pelican |date=13 November 2019 }} She talks about "small-p politics": "this micro, unexceptional politics is often barely perceptible, but it is there nonetheless"{{Cite book|last=Apter|first=Emily S.|title=Unexceptional Politics: On Obstruction, Impasse, and the Impolitic|publisher=Verso|year=2018|isbn=9781784780852|location=New York|pages=12}} and it is what helps shape Politics with "capital p". * '''(2013) ''Against World Literature: On the politics of untranslatability''''' ''Against World Literature'' challenges a concept of World Literature that relies on a translatability assumption.{{Cite book|last=Apter|first=Emily S.|title=Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability|publisher=Verso|year=2013|isbn=9781844679706|location=New York}} It focuses on topics like [world literature](/source/world_literature), comparative literature, and translation studies. Apter finds it essential to pay the necessary attention to untranslatability and she argues that translation is no substitute for the original. The problems and failures in translation are unavoidable and part of the process and result in what she calls the "Untranslatables".{{Cite web|last=Jones|first=Ellen|date=2014-08-06|title=Against World Literature by Emily Apter|url=https://www.occt.ox.ac.uk/cct-review/against-world-literature-emily-apter|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190523175228/https://www.occt.ox.ac.uk/cct-review/against-world-literature-emily-apter|archive-date=2019-05-23|access-date=2021-06-12|website=Oxford Comparative Criticism & Translation}} * '''(2006) ''The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature''''' In ''The Translation Zone,'' Apter argues how translation plays an essential role in the redefinition and establishment of a new comparative literature. The book also focuses, among other topics, on the rapid development of translation technologies and its effect on translation itself, the "language wars", and the tensions between cultural translation and textual translation.{{Cite web|title=The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature|url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691049977/the-translation-zone|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801111318/https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691049977/the-translation-zone|archive-date=2021-08-01|access-date=2021-07-31|website=Princeton University Press|date=25 December 2005}} *'''(1999) ''Continental Drift: From National Characters to Virtual Subjects''''' ''Continental Drift'' focuses on the French colonial and postcolonial experience, together with the fate of national literatures in an increasingly globalised world. Apter explores continental theory in a global frame, and "the dissolution of a national subject."{{Cite book|last=Apter|first=Emily S.|title=Continental Drift: From National Characters to Virtual Subjects|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1999|isbn=0226023494|location=Chicago}} She dives in debates of postcolonial studies, gender, identity and cultural studies.{{Cite web|title=Continental Drift: From National Characters to Virtual Subjects|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo3631210.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416060908/https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo3631210.html|archive-date=2021-04-16|access-date=2021-06-12|website=The University of Chicago Press Books}} * '''(1991) ''Feminizing the Fetish: Psychoanalysis and Narrative Obsession in Turn-of-the-Century France''''' ''Feminizing the fetish'' is an analysis of fetishism in turn-of-the-century French culture, with special emphasis on female fetishism. In an interdisciplinary approach, Apter explores the topic of fetishism and perversion through a narratological, [New Historical](/source/New_historicism), [hermeneutical](/source/Hermeneutics), [feminist](/source/Feminism), and psychoanalytical lens.{{Cite web|title=Feminizing the Fetish: Psychoanalysis and Narrative Obsession in Turn-of-the Century France|url=https://cornellopen.org/9781501727740/feminizing-the-fetish/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031122548/https://cornellopen.org/9781501727740/feminizing-the-fetish/|archive-date=2020-10-31|access-date=2021-07-23|website=Cornell Open: A Global Open Access Portal}}{{Cite book|last=Apter|first=Emily S.|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt207g6z5.3|title=Feminizing the Fetish: Psychoanalysis and Narrative Obsession in Turn-of-the Century France|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1991|location=London|jstor=10.7591/j.ctt207g6z5.3 }} * '''(1987) ''André Gide and the Codes of Homotextuality''''' In this work, Apter develops her thesis within the frame of [poststructuralism](/source/Post-structuralism). She focuses on [sexual identity](/source/sexual_identity), the consciousness of language from the perspective of modern linguistic theory. She analyses Gide's use of rhetorical devices and discusses the famous "mise en abyme".{{Cite journal|last=Brée|first=Germaine|date=1989|title=Reviewed Work: André Gide and the Codes of Homotextuality by Emily S. Apter|url=https://doi.org/10.2307/3199816|journal=South Atlantic Review|volume=54|doi=10.2307/3199816 |jstor=3199816 |url-access=subscription}} === Books edited === * (2022) [Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak](/source/Gayatri_Chakravorty_Spivak), ''Living Translation'' (co-edited with Avishek Ganguly and Mauro Pala) * (2015) ''Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon'' (Co-edited with [Jacques Lezra](/source/Jacques_Lezra) and [Michael Wood](/source/Michael_Wood_(literary_scholar)) of the English edition of the ''Vocabulaire européen des philosophies: Dictionnaire des intraduisibles'' ed. [Barbara Cassin](/source/Barbara_Cassin)){{Cite web|title=Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon|url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691138701/dictionary-of-untranslatables|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210620091433/https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691138701/dictionary-of-untranslatables|archive-date=2021-06-20|access-date=2021-06-17|website=Princeton University Press|date=9 February 2014}} *(2001) ''Translation in a Global Market'' *(1996) ''Fetishism as cultural discourse'' === Articles (selected) === * (2022) “Tasks of the Spivakian Translator” in ''Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics.'' * (2021) “What Is Just Translation?” in ''Public Culture.'' *(2019) “Justifying the Humanities,” in ''Comparative Literature.'' *(2019) “Untranslatability and the Geopolitics of Reading,” in ''PMLA : Publications of the Modern Language Association of America.'' *(2016) “Shibboleth: Policing by Ear and Forensic Listening in Projects by Lawrence Abu Hamdan,” in ''October''.  * (2016) “Le comparatisme comme approche critique/Comparative Literature as a Critical Approach,” in ''Rencontres – Littérature générale et comparée.'' * (2015) “Lexilalia: On Translating an Untranslatable Dictionary of Philosophical Terms,” in ''[Paragraph](/source/Paragraph_(journal))''. *(2014) “Fictions politiques/démarches impolitiques,” in ''Raison Publique.'' *(2012) “Towards a Unisex Erotics: Claude Cahun and Geometric Modernism,” in ''Modernist Eroticisms: European Literature After Sexology.'' *(2008) “Untranslatables: A World System,” in ''New Literary History.'' *(2003) “Global Translatio: The "invention" of Comparative Literature, Istanbul, 1933.” ''Critical Inquiry.'' *(2002) “Warped Speech: The Politics of Global Translation,” in ''Beyond Dichotomies: Histories, Identities, Cultures and the Challenge of Globalization.'' *(2001) “Balkan Babel: Translation Zones, Military Zones,” in ''Public Culture.'' *(1997) “Out of Character: Camus's French Algerian Subjects,” in special issue of ''[Modern Language Notes](/source/Modern_Language_Notes)''. == References == {{reflist}} == Further reading == * Emily Apter's lecture "[https://www.ici-berlin.org/events/emily-apter/ Blurring the Event: Micropolitics and Ecosophy, May '68 to the ZAD]" at Berlin's Institute for Cultural Inquiry. (2019) * Emily Apter interviewed at the [3:AM Magazine](/source/3%3AAM_Magazine) "[https://web.archive.org/web/20210802163540/https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-sovereign-is-he-who-translates-an-interview-with-emily-apter/ The sovereign is he who translates: an interview with Emily Apter]". (2019) *Emily Apter's lecture "[https://www.americanacademy.de/videoaudio/translation-and-sexual-safety/ Translation and Sexual Safety]" at The American Academy in Berlin. (2019) == External links == * Works by Emily Apter in the [http://d-nb.info/gnd/12436408X Catalogue] of the [https://www.dnb.de/EN/Home/home_node.html German National Library]. * Works by Emily Apter in [https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n87887805/ WorldCat]. {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Apter, Emily}} Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty Category:Cornell University faculty Category:Princeton University alumni Category:Harvard College alumni Category:American translation scholars Category:20th-century American translators Category:21st-century American translators Category:New York University faculty --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Emily Apter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Apter) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Apter?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.