l’espace originel traversée par l’idée d’un éternel retour

[Sienna-Paris]

Autre figure récurrente, celle de la cristallisation du temps et de l’espace qui fige les personnages dans une obsession du passé et/ou une obsession de l’espace originel traversée par l’idée d’un éternel retour.

Hi,

The context: one of the recurrent themes found in Brazilian soap operas. I could only guess at translating this literally as I don't think I understand anu sub-text:

"Another recurrent theme is that of the crystallisation of time and space, which finds the characters trapped by an obsession with the past and/or an obsession with the original space as communicated by the belief in eternal life/resurrection."

This doesn't really mean anything to me though so think I may be mis-translating!

Thanks!

 

[Randisi.]

Probably a reference to Nietzsche's "eternal recurrence."

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Éternel_retour_(Nietzsche)

Perhaps something like:

...which congeals the characters into an obsession with the past and/or an obsession with originary space cut across by the idea of eternal recurrence.

Maybe "criss-crossed by"?

Anyway, that should give you some idea.

What it means? Hard to say. It's certainly fairly common academic jargon.

 

[Sienna-Paris]

Thank you for this, that's great. I certainly wouldn't have got the Nietzsche allusion.

I've never heard the term "originary space" either, what is this?

 

[Randisi.]

"Originary" is just some more fancy academic jargon (One reason I left academia.)

But perhaps "original" or even "primeval" would be better. It's hard to say without more context. Has the phrase "espace originel" already appeared and been discussed in the text?

 

[Sienna-Paris]

Damn academinc jargon!

No it just appears out of nowhere and it isn't even elaborated on really. I'll go with originary space to keep in line with the abstract, academic stance! Thanks!