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Literary Migrations, 2005

Literary Migrations: Translation and Adaptation in Eighteenth-Century Britain and Europe (14 May 2005)

How did translations fit into the new sense of cultural context and identity enabled by the cultural and geographical expansion that characterizes the eighteenth century?  This conference will focus not only on texts translated into English, but also English texts translated into a variety of European languages. 

**After a successful conference, we are now moving on to a new phase, and hope to be able to convene a series of workshops further exploring issues of translation, adaptation, and national and literary identities in the eighteenth century.  We invite further expressions of interest in this project, and will post more information about forthcoming activities as soon as they are finalized.**

The eighteenth century was a period of political and geographical expansion on a new scale.  It facilitated a culture of consumption and of the importation/exportation of goods and fashions, as much recent work has shown.  Advances in both print and transportation technology meant that the dissemination of literary texts was made ever easier, while the growing popularity of the Grand Tour opened up both countries and markets for both readers and writers.  How did translations fit into the new sense of cultural context and identity enabled by this expansion?  This conference focussed not only on texts translated into English, but also English texts translated into a variety of European languages. 

Issues suggested by the phrase Literary Migrations:

  • Gender and the market for translations
  • The growing acccessibility of foreign lands
  • The increase in readerships and the development of  international ‘best sellers’
  • The attraction of the foreign
  • Translations as hack work/ as works of art
  • Plagiarism and unauthorized adaptions
  • The tension between a national literary identity and imports
  • Neo-Latin translations and the vernacular
  • The critical and readerly reception of translations

The organizers :

Kate Astbury, Dept. of French, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL; katherine.astbury@warwick.ac.uk             

Jacqueline Labbe, Dept. of English, University of Warwick,  Coventry CV4 7AL; j.m.labbe@warwick.ac.uk