Outlining the English Nation: Textual Catachresis and its Translation In Shakespeare's Henry IV and Henry V

Abstract

Through the lens of J. Hillis Miller's notion of catachresis, this paper examines problematic scenes in Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV and Henry V, particularly concerning the depiction of the national or linguistic Other. Considering the Henriad as an attempt to not only outline, but construct a literary England, this paper examines the problems inherent in the creation of first a literary nation, and then a literary empire. Using the nexus of translation through which to examine the evolution of the problems of the catachrestic moment in one text to those in the other, this paper questions the legitimacy of these translated catachrestic moments, and interrogates them with regard to whether or not they ameliorate or further problematize the issues of linguistic/cultural margins, colonialism, and translation inherent in both plays.