Edith Hall
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199288076
- eISBN:
- 9780191713439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288076.003.0015
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Classics as subject-area and a constituent of the curriculum stands in urgent need of redefining its role, now that so many courses are taught primarily, or indeed exclusively, through the medium of ...
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Classics as subject-area and a constituent of the curriculum stands in urgent need of redefining its role, now that so many courses are taught primarily, or indeed exclusively, through the medium of modern-language translations. This chapter argues that the phenomenon of the arrival of Greek and Roman authors in modern languages needs to be appreciated in full diachronic depth. It calls for a history of translations of the classics and explores the social implications of this. Translation, especially forms of translation linked to theatrical performance, has allowed the classics to be disseminated to an audience that is much wider and more diversified and internally conflictual than is usually assumed. Exploring the history and role of mass market translations, disinterring long forgotten vernacular versions of classical authors, appreciating the importance of performance as access route to the classics, and applauding the hard work and courage of the pioneers in the field could therefore all have significant roles to play in breaking down the sort of prejudices that, in an era of fast-expanding Higher Education, lead to the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans being discarded altogether. For translation history conducted along these lines can create a new and radicalised tradition that dispels the notion that the study of Greek and Latin has been dominated by an elite group, which was somehow mysteriously endowed with an accordingly refined sensibility.Less
Classics as subject-area and a constituent of the curriculum stands in urgent need of redefining its role, now that so many courses are taught primarily, or indeed exclusively, through the medium of modern-language translations. This chapter argues that the phenomenon of the arrival of Greek and Roman authors in modern languages needs to be appreciated in full diachronic depth. It calls for a history of translations of the classics and explores the social implications of this. Translation, especially forms of translation linked to theatrical performance, has allowed the classics to be disseminated to an audience that is much wider and more diversified and internally conflictual than is usually assumed. Exploring the history and role of mass market translations, disinterring long forgotten vernacular versions of classical authors, appreciating the importance of performance as access route to the classics, and applauding the hard work and courage of the pioneers in the field could therefore all have significant roles to play in breaking down the sort of prejudices that, in an era of fast-expanding Higher Education, lead to the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans being discarded altogether. For translation history conducted along these lines can create a new and radicalised tradition that dispels the notion that the study of Greek and Latin has been dominated by an elite group, which was somehow mysteriously endowed with an accordingly refined sensibility.
J. Michael Walton
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199288076
- eISBN:
- 9780191713439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288076.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter focuses on the individual nature of translation of a dramatic piece, especially one aimed at emphasising the performative nature of the original. The history of translating classical ...
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This chapter focuses on the individual nature of translation of a dramatic piece, especially one aimed at emphasising the performative nature of the original. The history of translating classical drama is taken back to Roman times with the Latin adaptations of Greek tragedies and, in particular, the New Comedy of the 4th century BC and beyond. The concerns and priorities of translators of Greek tragedies into English from the 16th to the present day are then addressed, with Euripides' Hecuba featured as a main example. The boom in translating Greek plays during the 19th century is also considered, together with the problems attendant in rendering Aristophanes into English. The overall aim is to stress the importance placed on translating the ‘stage language’ as well as the words, and acknowledging that in a drama the relationship between source and target is complicated by the performance imperative.Less
This chapter focuses on the individual nature of translation of a dramatic piece, especially one aimed at emphasising the performative nature of the original. The history of translating classical drama is taken back to Roman times with the Latin adaptations of Greek tragedies and, in particular, the New Comedy of the 4th century BC and beyond. The concerns and priorities of translators of Greek tragedies into English from the 16th to the present day are then addressed, with Euripides' Hecuba featured as a main example. The boom in translating Greek plays during the 19th century is also considered, together with the problems attendant in rendering Aristophanes into English. The overall aim is to stress the importance placed on translating the ‘stage language’ as well as the words, and acknowledging that in a drama the relationship between source and target is complicated by the performance imperative.
Naomi Seidman
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226745053
- eISBN:
- 9780226745077
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226745077.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This book reads translation history through the lens of Jewish–Christian difference, which, conversely, it views as an effect of translation. Subjecting translation to a theological-political ...
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This book reads translation history through the lens of Jewish–Christian difference, which, conversely, it views as an effect of translation. Subjecting translation to a theological-political analysis, the author asks how the charged Jewish–Christian relationship—and more particularly the dependence of Christianity on the texts and translations of a rival religion—has haunted the theory and practice of translation in the West. Bringing together central issues in translation studies with episodes in Jewish–Christian history, the book considers a range of texts, from the Bible to Elie Wiesel's Night, delving into such controversies as the accuracy of various Bible translations, the medieval use of converts from Judaism to Christianity as translators, the censorship of anti-Christian references in Jewish texts, and the translation of Holocaust testimony. It ultimately reveals that translation is not a marginal phenomenon but rather a crucial issue for understanding the relations between Jews and Christians, and indeed the development of each religious community.Less
This book reads translation history through the lens of Jewish–Christian difference, which, conversely, it views as an effect of translation. Subjecting translation to a theological-political analysis, the author asks how the charged Jewish–Christian relationship—and more particularly the dependence of Christianity on the texts and translations of a rival religion—has haunted the theory and practice of translation in the West. Bringing together central issues in translation studies with episodes in Jewish–Christian history, the book considers a range of texts, from the Bible to Elie Wiesel's Night, delving into such controversies as the accuracy of various Bible translations, the medieval use of converts from Judaism to Christianity as translators, the censorship of anti-Christian references in Jewish texts, and the translation of Holocaust testimony. It ultimately reveals that translation is not a marginal phenomenon but rather a crucial issue for understanding the relations between Jews and Christians, and indeed the development of each religious community.
Jonathan Evans
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474400176
- eISBN:
- 9781474426909
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474400176.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
This chapter introduces the book. It offers an overview of Davis’s career as a writer and as a translator before putting forward the main argument of the book that translation is central to ...
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This chapter introduces the book. It offers an overview of Davis’s career as a writer and as a translator before putting forward the main argument of the book that translation is central to understanding Davis’s work. The chapter then discusses the role of translation in a writer’s œuvre, arguing, based on a literature review, that there are three main trends: 1) translation that has no relation to the rest of their work, 2) translation as influential on a writer and 3) translation in dialogue with their other writing. In Davis’s case, there are examples of translations which have no relation to her other writing, but the book focuses on those where a dialogue can be perceived. The chapter ends by summarising the upcoming chapters.Less
This chapter introduces the book. It offers an overview of Davis’s career as a writer and as a translator before putting forward the main argument of the book that translation is central to understanding Davis’s work. The chapter then discusses the role of translation in a writer’s œuvre, arguing, based on a literature review, that there are three main trends: 1) translation that has no relation to the rest of their work, 2) translation as influential on a writer and 3) translation in dialogue with their other writing. In Davis’s case, there are examples of translations which have no relation to her other writing, but the book focuses on those where a dialogue can be perceived. The chapter ends by summarising the upcoming chapters.
Jason Scully
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198803584
- eISBN:
- 9780191842009
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198803584.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The first chapter demonstrates that even though Isaac quotes Evagrius throughout much of his writing, Isaac does not adopt Evagrius’s eschatological framework. In order to reach this conclusion, this ...
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The first chapter demonstrates that even though Isaac quotes Evagrius throughout much of his writing, Isaac does not adopt Evagrius’s eschatological framework. In order to reach this conclusion, this chapter conducts a detailed comparison of two Syriac translations of the Gnostic Chapters, which is the Evagrian text that Isaac quotes most often. While the sixth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters includes a detailed eschatological consideration of the human soul in the future world, the fifth-century Syriac version is void of any distinctive eschatological framework. Since Isaac only used the fifth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters, he cannot have derived his eschatological framework from Evagrius. Rather, following Babai the Great, who established a framework for interpreting the fifth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters, Isaac interprets Evagrius’s Gnostic Chapters as a work describing the journey of asceticism.Less
The first chapter demonstrates that even though Isaac quotes Evagrius throughout much of his writing, Isaac does not adopt Evagrius’s eschatological framework. In order to reach this conclusion, this chapter conducts a detailed comparison of two Syriac translations of the Gnostic Chapters, which is the Evagrian text that Isaac quotes most often. While the sixth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters includes a detailed eschatological consideration of the human soul in the future world, the fifth-century Syriac version is void of any distinctive eschatological framework. Since Isaac only used the fifth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters, he cannot have derived his eschatological framework from Evagrius. Rather, following Babai the Great, who established a framework for interpreting the fifth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters, Isaac interprets Evagrius’s Gnostic Chapters as a work describing the journey of asceticism.
Susanna Braund and Zara Martirosova Torlone (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198810810
- eISBN:
- 9780191847950
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198810810.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This is the only volume of its kind that addresses the long and complicated history of translations of Virgil, whose poems were at the centre of the educational curriculum and the wider culture of ...
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This is the only volume of its kind that addresses the long and complicated history of translations of Virgil, whose poems were at the centre of the educational curriculum and the wider culture of Europe until the nineteenth century. While this collection of chapters covers numerous European traditions (English, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish), the volume also extends its focus beyond European translations to translations into Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Slovenian, Turkish, and the young world language, Esperanto. Classic translations such as those of Dryden, Du Bellay, Leopardi, Valéry, and Voß are considered alongside more surprising names, including Pasolini and Wordsworth, and recent interventions, for example by Heaney and Veyne. Each essay provides theoretical background for the case studies considered. In the Introduction the editors draw attention to some overarching issues. The volume closes with contributions by two active translators, Alessandro Fo in Italian and Josephine Balmer in English. This volume is dedicated to the study of translations of Virgil as a national and transnational cultural phenomenon and is an invitation to further study of this important topic.Less
This is the only volume of its kind that addresses the long and complicated history of translations of Virgil, whose poems were at the centre of the educational curriculum and the wider culture of Europe until the nineteenth century. While this collection of chapters covers numerous European traditions (English, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish), the volume also extends its focus beyond European translations to translations into Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Slovenian, Turkish, and the young world language, Esperanto. Classic translations such as those of Dryden, Du Bellay, Leopardi, Valéry, and Voß are considered alongside more surprising names, including Pasolini and Wordsworth, and recent interventions, for example by Heaney and Veyne. Each essay provides theoretical background for the case studies considered. In the Introduction the editors draw attention to some overarching issues. The volume closes with contributions by two active translators, Alessandro Fo in Italian and Josephine Balmer in English. This volume is dedicated to the study of translations of Virgil as a national and transnational cultural phenomenon and is an invitation to further study of this important topic.
Ástráður Eysteinsson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198754824
- eISBN:
- 9780191819841
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198754824.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies, European Literature
Milton’s presence in Icelandic letters is largely limited to Jón Þorláksson’s translation of Paradise Lost, the first books of which were published in 1794–6. This translation is arguably one of the ...
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Milton’s presence in Icelandic letters is largely limited to Jón Þorláksson’s translation of Paradise Lost, the first books of which were published in 1794–6. This translation is arguably one of the stepping stones in Icelandic literary history, emerging at a critical crossing point of Icelandic literary heritage, religious literacy, and a developing secular culture born of the Enlightenment and quickly heading towards Romanticism. This chapter analyses the historical and cultural context of Þorláksson’s enterprise; why he translated Milton through intermediary translations (Danish and German); why and with what results he opted for the Icelandic fornyrðislag metre, apparently so different from Milton’s blank verse; and how he actively delved into the language and material of Norse myths and medieval Icelandic literature in coming to terms with Milton’s classical and biblical discourse—in a translational dialogue that proved vital for Þorláksson’s successors, the Romantic poets who are often seen as rejuvenating Icelandic literature.Less
Milton’s presence in Icelandic letters is largely limited to Jón Þorláksson’s translation of Paradise Lost, the first books of which were published in 1794–6. This translation is arguably one of the stepping stones in Icelandic literary history, emerging at a critical crossing point of Icelandic literary heritage, religious literacy, and a developing secular culture born of the Enlightenment and quickly heading towards Romanticism. This chapter analyses the historical and cultural context of Þorláksson’s enterprise; why he translated Milton through intermediary translations (Danish and German); why and with what results he opted for the Icelandic fornyrðislag metre, apparently so different from Milton’s blank verse; and how he actively delved into the language and material of Norse myths and medieval Icelandic literature in coming to terms with Milton’s classical and biblical discourse—in a translational dialogue that proved vital for Þorláksson’s successors, the Romantic poets who are often seen as rejuvenating Icelandic literature.
Warren Boutcher
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198739661
- eISBN:
- 9780191831126
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198739661.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from ...
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This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from within Montaigne’s own milieu, and on the ways in which his book made him a patron-author or instant classic in the eyes of his editor Marie de Gournay and his promoter Justus Lipsius. Volume 2 focuses on the reader-writers across Europe who used the Essais to make their own works, from corrected editions and translations in print, to life-writing and personal records in manuscript. The two volumes work together to offer a new picture of the book’s significance in literary and intellectual history. The school of Montaigne potentially included everyone in early modern Europe with occasion and means to read and write for themselves and for their friends and family, unconstrained by an official function or scholastic institution. The Essais were shaped by the post-Reformation battle to regulate the educated individual’s judgement in reading and acting upon the two books bequeathed by God to man. The book of scriptures and the book of nature were becoming more accessible through print and manuscript cultures. But at the same time that access was being mediated more intensively by teachers such as clerics and humanists, by censors and institutions, by learned authors of past and present, and by commentaries and glosses upon those authors. Montaigne enfranchised the unofficial reader-writer with liberties of judgement offered and taken in the specific historical conditions of his era.Less
This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from within Montaigne’s own milieu, and on the ways in which his book made him a patron-author or instant classic in the eyes of his editor Marie de Gournay and his promoter Justus Lipsius. Volume 2 focuses on the reader-writers across Europe who used the Essais to make their own works, from corrected editions and translations in print, to life-writing and personal records in manuscript. The two volumes work together to offer a new picture of the book’s significance in literary and intellectual history. The school of Montaigne potentially included everyone in early modern Europe with occasion and means to read and write for themselves and for their friends and family, unconstrained by an official function or scholastic institution. The Essais were shaped by the post-Reformation battle to regulate the educated individual’s judgement in reading and acting upon the two books bequeathed by God to man. The book of scriptures and the book of nature were becoming more accessible through print and manuscript cultures. But at the same time that access was being mediated more intensively by teachers such as clerics and humanists, by censors and institutions, by learned authors of past and present, and by commentaries and glosses upon those authors. Montaigne enfranchised the unofficial reader-writer with liberties of judgement offered and taken in the specific historical conditions of his era.
Warren Boutcher
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198123743
- eISBN:
- 9780191829437
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198123743.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, European Literature
This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from ...
More
This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from within Montaigne’s own milieu, and on the ways in which his book made him a patron-author or instant classic in the eyes of his editor Marie de Gournay and his promoter Justus Lipsius. Volume 2 focuses on the reader-writers across Europe who used the Essais to make their own works, from corrected editions and translations in print, to life-writing and personal records in manuscript. The two volumes work together to offer a new picture of the book’s significance in literary and intellectual history. The school of Montaigne potentially included everyone in early modern Europe with occasion and means to read and write for themselves and for their friends and family, unconstrained by an official function or scholastic institution. The Essais were shaped by the post-Reformation battle to regulate the educated individual’s judgement in reading and acting upon the two books bequeathed by God to man. The book of scriptures and the book of nature were becoming more accessible through print and manuscript cultures. But at the same time that access was being mediated more intensively by teachers such as clerics and humanists, by censors and institutions, by learned authors of past and present, and by commentaries and glosses upon those authors. Montaigne enfranchised the unofficial reader-writer with liberties of judgement offered and taken in the specific historical conditions of his era.Less
This major two-volume study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Montaigne’s Essais and their fortunes in early modern Europe and the modern Western university. Volume 1 focuses on contexts from within Montaigne’s own milieu, and on the ways in which his book made him a patron-author or instant classic in the eyes of his editor Marie de Gournay and his promoter Justus Lipsius. Volume 2 focuses on the reader-writers across Europe who used the Essais to make their own works, from corrected editions and translations in print, to life-writing and personal records in manuscript. The two volumes work together to offer a new picture of the book’s significance in literary and intellectual history. The school of Montaigne potentially included everyone in early modern Europe with occasion and means to read and write for themselves and for their friends and family, unconstrained by an official function or scholastic institution. The Essais were shaped by the post-Reformation battle to regulate the educated individual’s judgement in reading and acting upon the two books bequeathed by God to man. The book of scriptures and the book of nature were becoming more accessible through print and manuscript cultures. But at the same time that access was being mediated more intensively by teachers such as clerics and humanists, by censors and institutions, by learned authors of past and present, and by commentaries and glosses upon those authors. Montaigne enfranchised the unofficial reader-writer with liberties of judgement offered and taken in the specific historical conditions of his era.
Jan Stievermann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190468910
- eISBN:
- 9780190468958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190468910.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, Biblical Studies
This chapter discusses the colonial origins of the ongoing debates in American Protestantism over prophetic evidence. It examines Cotton Mather’s notes on the book of Isaiah from his hitherto ...
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This chapter discusses the colonial origins of the ongoing debates in American Protestantism over prophetic evidence. It examines Cotton Mather’s notes on the book of Isaiah from his hitherto unpublished Bible commentary “Biblia Americana” (1693–1728), a work reflecting both the intellectual challenges of the Enlightenment and the rise of evangelicalism. Mather was the first American exegete to wrestle with the question how, in the light of new textual and historical scholarship, Christian apologetics could still legitimately point to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in the New. The essay focuses on Mather’s changing interpretations of Isaiah 7:14 with its famous prophecy of the virgin birth, which continues to be a litmus test for interpreters. Mather came to insist on a literalist-factualist understanding of this prophecy but was ambiguous about allowing for a first historical fulfillment prior to Christ—a predicament that still preoccupies evangelical scholarship today.Less
This chapter discusses the colonial origins of the ongoing debates in American Protestantism over prophetic evidence. It examines Cotton Mather’s notes on the book of Isaiah from his hitherto unpublished Bible commentary “Biblia Americana” (1693–1728), a work reflecting both the intellectual challenges of the Enlightenment and the rise of evangelicalism. Mather was the first American exegete to wrestle with the question how, in the light of new textual and historical scholarship, Christian apologetics could still legitimately point to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in the New. The essay focuses on Mather’s changing interpretations of Isaiah 7:14 with its famous prophecy of the virgin birth, which continues to be a litmus test for interpreters. Mather came to insist on a literalist-factualist understanding of this prophecy but was ambiguous about allowing for a first historical fulfillment prior to Christ—a predicament that still preoccupies evangelical scholarship today.
