Translation in Ben Jonson : towards a definition of limitation

This paper intends to discuss Ben Jonson's imitation and its relationship to translation and metamorphosis. Drawing on Walter Benjamin's translation theory, I argue that Jonson's imitation is "translating" and transformative. Jonson's literal approach to translation, compared with the Restoration idea of imitation, is by no means servile; it is imitation and metamorphosis, and "translating" is an act that fuses the author and the translator together, in order to achieve a transformative identity.