Tudor Translation in Theory and PracticeTaylor & Francis, 2017 M07 5 - 164 pages Filling a gap in the study of early modern literature, Massimiliano Morini here exhaustively examines the aims, strategies, practice and theoretical ideas of the sixteenth-century translator. Morini analyzes early modern English translations of works by French and Italian essayists and poets, including Montaigne, Castiglione, Ariosto and Tasso, and of works by classical writers such as Virgil and Petrarch. In the process, he demonstrates how connected translation is with other cultural and literary issues: women as writers, literary relations between Italy and England, the nature of the author, and changes in the English language. Since English Tudor writers, unlike their Italian contemporaries, did not write theoretical treatises, the author works empirically to extrapolate the theory that informs the practice of Tudor translation - he deduces several cogent theoretical principles from the metaphors and figures of speech used by translators to describe translation. Employing a good blend of theory and practice, the author presents the Tudor period as a crucial transitional moment in the history of translation, from the medieval tradition (which in secular literature often entailed radical departure from the original) to the more subtle modern tradition (which prizes the invisibility of the translator and fluency of the translated text). Morini points out that this is also a period during which ideas about language and about the position of England on the political and cultural map of Europe undergo dramatic change, and he convincingly argues that the practice of translation changes as new humanistic methods are adapted to the needs of a country that is expanding its empire. |
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adds Aeneid Ariosto becomes Bruni Calisto canti canto Carew Castiglione Celestina Cheke Cicero clothes Cortegiano courtly cultural dedication Denham dispositio Dryden Elizabethan elocutio England essay F.O. Matthiessen Fairfax figures Florio French Gavin Douglas Godfrey Greek Grimald Harington hath haue Hoby Hoby's Holland humanistic ideas imitation inkhorn terms inventio inventio and dispositio Italian Latin Leonardo Bruni Liberata lines literary London Mabbe Mabbe's medieval translation Melibea metaphor Montaigne Montaigne's moral neologisms orator original author Orlando Furioso passages Philemon Holland poem poet poetry preface process of translation prose prosody Puttenham Rastell Rastell's reader Renaissance rhetorical translation rhyme Rojas secular translation seen seventeenth century sixteenth century sixteenth-century translation source text sprezzatura stanza Steiner style stylistic syntax target language target text Tasso Taylor & Francis theory of translation Thomas Thomas Hoby tongue translated text translation theory translator's Tudor period Tudor translation tung turned vernacular verse Virgil whereas words writes written wrote