Description
Book SynopsisGiven that the dissemination of enlightened thought in Europe was mostly effected through translations, the present collection of essays focuses on how its cultural adaptation took place in various national contexts. For the first time, the theoretical model of ‘cultural transfer’ (Espagne/Werner) is applied to the eighteenth century: The intercultural dynamics of the Enlightenment become manifest in the transformation process between the original and target cultures, be it by way of acculturation, creative enhancement, or misunderstanding. Resulting in shifts of meaning, translations offer a key not just to contemporary translation practice but to the discursive network of the European Enlightenment in general. The case studies united here explore both how translations contributed to the transnational standardisation of certain key concepts, values and texts, and how they reflect national specifications of enlightened discourses. Hence, the volume contributes to Enlightenment studies, at least as much as to historical translation studies.
Trade Review"Die in englischer und französischer Sprache geschriebenen Aufsätze des vorliegenden, sehr lesenswerten Bandes behandeln vielfältige Aspekte ei-nes Themas, das für die Erfassung der Netzwerke und Kulturen des Wis-sens in der europäischen Aufklärung von großer Bedeutung ist." – Till Kinzel, in: Informationsmittel (IFB). Digitales Rezensionsorgan für Bibliothek und Wissenschaft 18/2 (2010) "[…] a remarkable collective work put together by Stockhorst." – in: Mónica Bolufer, “Translating Enlightenment: A Review Article of New Work by Stockhorst, Vidal Claramonte, and Tortosa”, in: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 13 (2011)
Table of ContentsStefanie Stockhorst: Introduction. Cultural transfer through translation: a current perspective in Enlightenment studies Translation and transfer in theoretical discourse Avi S. Lifschitz: Translation in theory and practice: the case of Johann David Michaelis’s prize essay on language and opinions (1759) Christina Oberstebrink: Plagiarism and originality in painting: Joshua Reynolds’s concept of imitation and Enlightenment translation theory Individual texts and their cultural impact through translation Monika Baár: From general history to national history: the transformations of William Guthrie’s and John Gray’s A General History of the World (1736-1765) in Continental Europe Saskia S. Wiedner: Melchiorre Cesarotti Il Fanatismo ossia Maometto profeta: tragedia di Voltaire (1742) – la traduction italienne de la tragédie voltairienne Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le prophète (1741) Astrid Krake: ‘Translating to the moment’ – marketing and Anglomania: the first German translation of Richardson’s Clarissa (1747/1748) Andreas Dittrich: Traduire la pensée utopique: le transfert des paradigmes de L’An 2440 et Der goldne Spiegel Barry Murnane: Uncanny translations, uncanny productivity: Walpole, Schiller and Kahlert John R. J. Eyck: Where Werther went: what happens when a ‘minor’ literature transposes a ‘major’ character The dissemination of genres and ideas as cultural transfer Pierre Degott: Early English translations of Italian opera (1711-1750) Andreas Önnerfors: Translating discourses of the Enlightenment: transcultural language skills and cross-references in Swedish and German eighteenth-century learned journals Huib J. Zuidervaart: Science for the public: the translation of popular texts on experimental philosophy into the Dutch language in mid-eighteenth century John Stone: Translated sociabilities of print in eighteenth-century Spain Mladen Kozul: D’Holbach et les déistes anglais: la construction des ‘lumières radicales’ à la fin des années 1760 Alison E. Martin: Paeans to progress: Arthur Young’s travel accounts in German translation Fania Oz-Salzberger: Did Adam Ferguson inspire Friedrich Schiller’s philosophy of play? An exercise in tracking the itinerary of an idea Biographical notes
