George Steiner (1) (1929–2020)
Author of After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation
For other authors named George Steiner, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
George Steiner was born in 1929 in Paris, but also lived in Vienna and New York. Steiner was a critic, novelist, philosopher, translator, and educator. Currently, he is a professor at Cambridge University and the University of Geneva. He has written for the New Yorker for over thirty years and has show more published the books No Passion Spent, Errata: An Examined Life, and Martin Heidegger: With a New Introduction. George Steiner died in Cambridge, England on February 3, 2020, at the age of 90. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by George Steiner
Antigones: How the Antigone Legend Has Endured in Western Literature, Art, and Thought (1979) 240 copies, 1 review
Prefacio a la Biblia Hebrea (Biblioteca Ensayo) (Biblioteca De Ensayo: Serie Menor) (Spanish Edition) (2001) 18 copies
What Is Comparative Literature?: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered Before the University of Oxford on 11 October, 1994 (Ina (1995) 2 copies
The Genius of Small Things 1 copy
Språkdyret 1 copy
Inner lights 1 copy
Associated Works
Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature (1950) — Introduction — 413 copies, 6 reviews
McLuhan: Hot & Cool - A Primer for the Understanding and a Critical Symposium with a Rebuttal by McLuhan (1967) — Contributor — 172 copies, 1 review
The Queen of Spades; The Tales of Ivan Belkin; Dubrovsky; The Captain's Daughter (1961) — Foreword, some editions — 37 copies
Lezen, een kunst die uit de mode raakt — Author, some editions — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Steiner, George
- Legal name
- Steiner, George Francis
- Other names
- STEINER, George Francis
STEINER, George - Birthdate
- 1929-04-23
- Date of death
- 2020-02-03
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Lycée Français de New York
University of Chicago (BA|1948)
Harvard University (MA|1950)
Balliol College, Oxford
Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, Paris, Île-de-France, France - Occupations
- professor (English and Comparative Literature)
literary critic
novelist
translator
essayist - Organizations
- University of Oxford
Harvard University
University of Geneva
University of Cambridge (Churchill College)
The Economist - Awards and honors
- Premio Príncipe de Asturias (Communications and Humanities, 2001)
Légion d'Honneur (Chevalier, 1984)
Fellow, British Academy (1998)
Zabel Award (1970)
Truman Capote Lifetime Award for Literature (1999)
King Albert Medal (show all 9)
Rhodes Scholar (1955)
Guggenheim Fellowship (1971)
Bell Prize (1950) - Relationships
- Steiner, Zara Shakow (wife)
Steiner, Deborah Tarn (daughter) - Short biography
- Son of Dr Frederick George and Mrs Else Steiner, George Steiner was raised trilingually, in German, English and French. His first formal education took place at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris and then at the Lycée Français de New York after the family moved to the United States in 1940. In his Memoirs, Steiner recalled being hit by a piece of chalk in the face by a teacher at the Lycée. His field is comparative literature. His work as a critic has tended toward exploring cultural and philosophical issues, particularly having to do with translation and the nature of language and of literature. Steiner's best-known book, After Babel (1975), was an early and influential contribution to the field of translation studies.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Neuilly sur Seine, France
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
Geneva, Switzerland
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK - Place of death
- Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Members
Reviews
George Steiner’s Real Presences is a doozy of a book. It’s short and inviting, but contains some of the most complex ideas about language and art that I have ever read. Steiner’s supposition is that while most art and literary criticism seeks to dismiss the idea of God and spirituality, it is precisely this “presence” which makes all great metaphors great. He rails against vapid academism and deliberate obscurantism. One of the things that humans human, he states, is our both our show more ability to visualize and enact a future-based thought and to create any and all possible combinations of language and thought. These abilities lead to transcendent thoughts, which brings one into the real presence of divine art and literature. These presences in language form the basis of spiritual thought and works. Be prepared on this one to run to a dictionary as Steiner likes to use complicated words to explicate complicated thoughts. Once you get through it, however, it is very rewarding and thought-provoking. show less
Another example of intelligent people making dumb decisions. Whatever possessed Steiner to publish this? It ought to have been a back-of-the-napkin thought experiment, but instead it's out and about, doing no good to anyone.
The premise of the novel(la) is that a trio of Israeli commandos find Hitler alive, well, and ancient, in some corner of South America so remote they have to bring him out literally on their backs and arms, crossing swamps and rivers on foot. Their ultimate goal is to show more take him to court. Other national and political factions who got wind of this are monitoring the situation and may act to foil them, for no clear reason (there are only some short and utterly clichéd snapshots of various American, Soviet, French, British high-ups remarking cryptically on the scheme). The jungle trek exhausts everyone but Hitler, who seems to be getting stronger as they get closer to the pick up point.
And that's it, that's the story. However, the point isn't the story, but the horrible last pages Steiner gives over to Hitler's self-exonerating speech. It's the usual well-trodden litany of antisemitic thought since the late 19th century, as ever blaming the victims as perpetrators and piling on every possible insult to the injuries on record.
The effect is awful. Steiner may have hoped people would know (or be?) better, but considering that exactly the same reasoning still thrives and spreads around, he achieved nothing; or, even worse, he appears to leave Hitler in the "winning" position.
Fwiw, there's a section about the middle of the book when one of the men carrying Hitler is recalling a long list of crimes against Jewish individuals and wondering what sort of punishment could begin to expiate for a single one--I would have had that at the end, because it speaks for itself, because it is real and unanswerable. show less
The premise of the novel(la) is that a trio of Israeli commandos find Hitler alive, well, and ancient, in some corner of South America so remote they have to bring him out literally on their backs and arms, crossing swamps and rivers on foot. Their ultimate goal is to show more take him to court. Other national and political factions who got wind of this are monitoring the situation and may act to foil them, for no clear reason (there are only some short and utterly clichéd snapshots of various American, Soviet, French, British high-ups remarking cryptically on the scheme). The jungle trek exhausts everyone but Hitler, who seems to be getting stronger as they get closer to the pick up point.
And that's it, that's the story. However, the point isn't the story, but the horrible last pages Steiner gives over to Hitler's self-exonerating speech. It's the usual well-trodden litany of antisemitic thought since the late 19th century, as ever blaming the victims as perpetrators and piling on every possible insult to the injuries on record.
The effect is awful. Steiner may have hoped people would know (or be?) better, but considering that exactly the same reasoning still thrives and spreads around, he achieved nothing; or, even worse, he appears to leave Hitler in the "winning" position.
Fwiw, there's a section about the middle of the book when one of the men carrying Hitler is recalling a long list of crimes against Jewish individuals and wondering what sort of punishment could begin to expiate for a single one--I would have had that at the end, because it speaks for itself, because it is real and unanswerable. show less
George Steiner's classic study of the peculiar nature of translation as a literary and linguistic process, which drags you through some fairly knotty thickets of the philosophy of language before opening up in the last couple of chapters into a string of brilliant case-studies.
We get to think about why there are different languages in the first place, and about how — since the meaning of words shifts between contexts, times and individuals — any reading of a text anywhere is going to show more involve some kind of translation. And we get to confront the paradox that whilst an "exact" 1:1 translation between different languages, even of the most trivial phrase, is clearly impossible, we still use translations every day and find them helpful. Even the most complex and baffling literary texts have been translated in ways that seem to serve a useful purpose for readers and scholars.
This is something of a literary steeple-chase, where we are expected to cope with references from a broad range of literature, linguistics, philosophy and other disciplines (in numerous different languages). At one point we leap straight from a detailed discussion of prophecy in the Old Testament to a (non-trivial) excursion into statistical thermodynamics and the Second Law. So you will need that parachute. But it is fun, and when we get to the case-studies of how literary translation is actually done it is also very useful. show less
We get to think about why there are different languages in the first place, and about how — since the meaning of words shifts between contexts, times and individuals — any reading of a text anywhere is going to show more involve some kind of translation. And we get to confront the paradox that whilst an "exact" 1:1 translation between different languages, even of the most trivial phrase, is clearly impossible, we still use translations every day and find them helpful. Even the most complex and baffling literary texts have been translated in ways that seem to serve a useful purpose for readers and scholars.
This is something of a literary steeple-chase, where we are expected to cope with references from a broad range of literature, linguistics, philosophy and other disciplines (in numerous different languages). At one point we leap straight from a detailed discussion of prophecy in the Old Testament to a (non-trivial) excursion into statistical thermodynamics and the Second Law. So you will need that parachute. But it is fun, and when we get to the case-studies of how literary translation is actually done it is also very useful. show less
"It happens to be blindingly obvious to me that study, theological-philosophic argument, classical music, poetry, art, all that is 'difficult because it is excellent'... are the excuse for life." It is this postulate that reigns supreme throughout the eminent literary critic's latest book. The subtitle to the work implies an autobiography of some sort, but those who come to this slender volume with that notion will be disappointed. Steiner knows that real life is the life of the mind, and so show more he dazzles his readers with the raison d'etre of his passionate existence. Each chapter exists as a separate essay, and each essay is witty and rewarding. Steiner argues for the benefits of classical education, the underestimated importance of grammar, the supremacy of classical music. What little autobiographical information there is, snapshots of an upper-class childhood in Vienna, Paris and New York, praise for overzealous instructors, cold nods to jealous academics at Oxford and Chicago, only prefaces meditations on that which Steiner holds to be true and most dear, as when a description of his own trilingual life leads us to a discussion of the Babel myth, the power of language and the important role of the future tense in the drama of humanity. One would think that this might distance the reader from the author as subject; on the contrary, it allows us an intimate and captivating glimpse into Steiner's mind and thought.
This is ostensibly a memoir by the noted critic, scholar, and novelist Steiner, a professor of English and comparative literature at Cambridge and the University of Geneva and author of many books, most recently No Passion Spent (LJ, 4/1/96). In a series of elegant and thoughtful essays, he traces important episodes in his intellectual growth and passion for high culture and learning, first inculcated by his father. At the same time, and more significantly, Steiner uses these episodes as the occasion for a series of meditations on the nature of literary studies, higher education, language, and music. He also contemplates the origins of anti-Semitism and the survival of Judaism. Provocative and profound, this fine work is recommended for both public and academic libraries show less
This is ostensibly a memoir by the noted critic, scholar, and novelist Steiner, a professor of English and comparative literature at Cambridge and the University of Geneva and author of many books, most recently No Passion Spent (LJ, 4/1/96). In a series of elegant and thoughtful essays, he traces important episodes in his intellectual growth and passion for high culture and learning, first inculcated by his father. At the same time, and more significantly, Steiner uses these episodes as the occasion for a series of meditations on the nature of literary studies, higher education, language, and music. He also contemplates the origins of anti-Semitism and the survival of Judaism. Provocative and profound, this fine work is recommended for both public and academic libraries show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 82
- Also by
- 30
- Members
- 7,472
- Popularity
- #3,275
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 74
- ISBNs
- 564
- Languages
- 21
- Favorited
- 21
