Translation and the Classic

Identity as Change in the History of Culture

Edited by Alexandra Lianeri and Vanda Zajko

Classical Presences

A genuinely interdisciplinary study that engages with a wide range of contemporary debates
Case studies from a range of genres and historical periods show how the theoretical arguments relate to practical examples
Includes a chapter by Nobel Prize winning author J. M. Coetzee

Translation and the Classic

Identity as Change in the History of Culture

Edited by Alexandra Lianeri and Vanda Zajko

Description

Contemporary translation studies have explored translation not as a means of recovering a source text, but as a process of interpretation and production of literary meaning and value. Translation and the Classic uses this idea to discuss the relationship between translation and the classic text. It proposes a framework in which 'the classic' figures less as an autonomous entity than as the result of the interplay between source text and translation practice and examines the consequences of this hypothesis for questioning established definitions of the classic: how does translation mediate the social, political and national uses of 'the classics' in the contemporary global context of changing canons and traditions?

The volume contains a total of eighteen original essays, plus an introduction, written by scholars working in classics and classical reception, translation studies, literary theory, comparative literature, theatre and performance studies, history and philosophy and makes a potent contribution to pressing debates in all of these areas.

Translation and the Classic

Identity as Change in the History of Culture

Edited by Alexandra Lianeri and Vanda Zajko

Classical Presences

Introduction: Still Being Read after so Many Years: Rethinking the Classic through Translation, Alexandra Lianeri and Vanda Zajko
1. Theorising Translation and the Classic
Translation, Interpretation, Canon Formation, Lawrence Venuti
The End of Translation, John Sallis
Political Translations: Hölderlin's Das Höchste, Andrew Benjamin
Dryden's Ovid, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Aesthetic Translation, Charles Martindale
Between Homage and Critique: Coetzee, Translation, and the Classic, Johan Geertsema
'Das Alterum das lässt sich nicht übersetzen': Translation and Untranslatability in Ancient History, Neville Morley
Homer and Cinema: Translation and Adaptation in Le Mépris, Jo Paul
2. The Persistence of the Classic: Tracing the History of Translations
Classical Translations of the Classics: The Dynamics of Literary Tradition in Retranslating Epic Poetry, Richard Armstrong
Tradition, Translation, and Colonization: The Greco-Arabic Translation Movement and Deconstructing the Classics, Azzedine Haddour
Classic Simplicity, Fred Parker
Raising the Dead: Marlowe's Lucan, Dan Hooley
The Gates of Melbourne: Translating the Classic Play, J. Michael Walton
Translation and the 'Surreptitious Classic': Obscenity and Translatability, Deborah H. Roberts
3. Contesting the Classic: The Politics of Translation Practice
Navigating the Realms of Gold: Translation As Access Route to the Classics, Edith Hall
Translated Classics: Vibrant Hybrids or Shattered Icons?, Lorna Hardwick
Intralingual Translation: Genuine and False Dilemmas, Dimitris N. Maronitis
Translating Aeschylean Choral Lyric, Seth L. Schein
Working with Translators, J. M.Coetzee

Translation and the Classic

Identity as Change in the History of Culture

Edited by Alexandra Lianeri and Vanda Zajko

Classical Presences

Author Information

Alexandra Lianeri is Moses Finley Fellow, Darwin College, University of Cambridge.
Vanda Zajko is Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Bristol.

Contributors:

Richard Armstrong, University of Houston
Andrew Benjamin, Monash University
J. M.Coetzee
Johan Geertsema, University Scholars Program, National University of Singapore
Azzedine Haddour
Edith Hall, Royal Holloway, University of London
Lorna Hardwick, The Open University
Dan Hooley, University of Missouri
Alexandra Lianeri, University of Cambridge
Dimitris N. Maronitis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Charles Martindale, University of Bristol
Neville Morley, University of Bristol
Fred Parker, University of Cambridge
Jo Paul
Deborah H. Roberts, Haverford College
John Sallis, University of Pennsylvania
Seth L. Schein
Lawrence Venuti, Temple University
J. Michael Walton, University of Hull
Vanda Zajko, University of Bristol