Translation’s Trace

Let us begin by returning briefly to that meeting inConfessions of an English Opium-Eaterbetween de Quincey and the Malay. It is an episode commonly critiqued for the dubious gift of opium the author bestows on his exotic guest, but as I’ve already suggested, thinking critically about de Quincey’s wielding ofThe Iliadreveals a scene whose negotiation of power is as dependent on linguistic signification as it is on psychotropics. Opium eating brings the Englishman and Malay into uncomfortable proximity, but Greek acts as both a bridge between opposing cultures and a signifier of vast and impenetrable distance.