Postmodernism and Barthes Two Introductions, one file

Rather than a review of similarities between two books according to the usual descriptive and pre-analytical method, the purpose of this comparative study is an introduction to a pathological approach to the translations which have been done of postmodern works in Iran during recent quarter century. The research is not based on an ignorance of modern reception theories, nor on the oblivion of architect like role of reader in the construction of the text; it does not ignore the Walter Benjamin’s idea about the sterility of the reference to reader in the study of place and value of the literary work, nor literary-philosophical theories concerning silence of the writing, which have been accentuated by European thought, from Plato to Maurice Blanchot, and which lead to an anti-Barthes viewpoint, resulting in the death of the reader whose birth depends, said Barthes, on author’s death. Confirming all mentioned approaches, the present study binds itself to the principle that, in given conditions, the best ideas can appear insufficient and even inefficient, and must be reviewed according to daily needs or at least being temporarily suspended. So are the German translational theories, with important thinkers like Goethe, Schleiermacher, Pannwitz and Benjamin: representing the element of the strange language in one’s language, as a common ground for these theories and a principle which announces French theories concerning silence of literature, always requires correct interpretations according to the translation conditions. The present critical text desires achievement of these interpretations. Whereas, in view of its topic, quantity and method, it cannot claim anything but a hint to necessity of some historical and statistical studies about the reception of postmodern works in Iran and presenting hypothesis which should be confirmed by the same studies.A meditationbased on unproved hypothesis is always sentenced to a kind of suspension, oscillation, between present and future; to an eternal uncertainty of its value and utility. But that oscillation and this uncertainty seem to be two meanings of numerous meanings of crisis: a crisis which is inscribed in the nature of criticism and results not only from its ambition for designing truth land borders, but also from a suspicion which targets itself.