Post on 13-Jan-2016
History and Translation
Lecture programme
1) European History of Translation
2) Chinese History of Translation
3) Methodological Issues
European History of Translation Practice and Translation Theory
• The Romans
Cicero (106-43 BC)
Non verbum de verbo, sed sensum exprimere de sensu (express not word for word, but sense for sense)
Bible Translation
• St Jerome’s Bible in Latin commissioned 384 AD.
• Early English bibles: John Wycliff (1380-1384); William Tyndales’ New Testament printed 1525.
• Luther 1521 New Testament, 1534 Old Testament.
Medieval Era
• Emergence of European vernaculars from 10th century. No clear distinction between original writing, reworking, translation.
• 8th -10th centuries: Baghdad.
• 12th century: Toledo school, Spain.
16th Century
• Impact of invention of printing press.
• Early theories of translation: Etienne Dolet (1509-46): 5 principles for the translator.
17th Century
• French classicism: les belles infidèles
Perrot d’Ablancourt (1606-1664)
• English: John Denham (1615-69)
Abraham Cowley (1618-67)
John Dryden (1631-1700)
18th Century
• Metaphors from art.
• Alexander Tytler, 1791, The Principles of Translation.
Three basic principles.
19th Century
• German school influential
eg. Goethe (1749-1832)
Schleiermacher (1768-1834)
Translation for cultural development;
translation as a sub-language.
• Romanticism: the nature of translating.
• Influence in England: foreignizing.
Methodological Issues
• What to study: an individual translator/theorist; a translation school/movement;networks
What aspects to focus on:description of context; causal hypotheses; relation between practice and theory
How to study
biographical study;
study of translations;
study of statements about translation;
lists of translations;
publishers’ statistics;
critical analysis of literature.