Translated Poe
Contributions by Ayşe Nihal Akbulut, Bouchra Benlemlih, Liviu Cotru, Hivren Demir-Atay, Marlene Hansen Esplin, Lenita Esteves, Ástráður Eysteinsson, Zongxin Feng, Maria Filippakopoulou, Daniel Göske, Daniela Hisan, Magda Mansour Hasabelnaby, Aimei Ji, Henri Justin, Woosung Kang, Marius Littschwager, J. Scott Miller, George Monteiro, Rafael Olea Franco, Elvira Osipova, Renata Philippov, Margarita Rigal-Aragón, Santiago Rodríguez Guerrero-Strachan, Christopher Rollason, Ugo Rubeo, Takayuki Tatsumi, Alexandra Urakova, Pamela Vicenteño Bravo, Lois Davis Vines, Johan Wijkmark, Eysteinn Þorvaldsson Edited by Emron Esplin, Margarida Vale de Gato
Not available to order
Publication date:
23 October 2014Length of book:
464 pagesPublisher
Lehigh University PressISBN-13: 9781611461725
Few, if any, U.S. writers are as important to the history of world literature as Edgar Allan Poe, and few, if any, U.S. authors owe so much of their current reputations to the process of translation. Translated Poe brings together 31 essays from 19 different national/literary traditions to demonstrate Poe’s extensive influence on world literature and thought while revealing the importance of the vehicle that delivers Poe to the world—translation.
Translated Poe is not preoccupied with judging the “quality” of any given Poe translation nor with assessing what a specific translation of Poe must or should have done. Rather, the volume demonstrates how Poe’s translations constitute multiple contextual interpretations, testifying to how this prolific author continues to help us read ourselves and the world(s) we live in. The examples of how Poe’s works were spread abroad remind us that literature depends as much on authorial creation and timely readership as on the languages and worlds through which a piece of literature circulates after its initial publication in its first language. This recasting of signs and symbols that intervene in other cultures when a text is translated is one of the principal subjects of the humanistic discipline of Translation Studies, dealing with the the products, functions, and processes of translation as both a cognitive and socially regulated activity. Both literary history and the history of translation benefit from this book’s focus on Poe, whose translated fortune has helped to shape literary modernity, in many cases importantly redefining the target literary systems. Furthermore, we envision this book as a fountain of resources for future Poe scholars from various global sites, including the United States, since the cases of Poe’s translations—both exceptional and paradigmatic—prove that they are also levers that force the reassessment of the source text in its native literature.
Translated Poe is not preoccupied with judging the “quality” of any given Poe translation nor with assessing what a specific translation of Poe must or should have done. Rather, the volume demonstrates how Poe’s translations constitute multiple contextual interpretations, testifying to how this prolific author continues to help us read ourselves and the world(s) we live in. The examples of how Poe’s works were spread abroad remind us that literature depends as much on authorial creation and timely readership as on the languages and worlds through which a piece of literature circulates after its initial publication in its first language. This recasting of signs and symbols that intervene in other cultures when a text is translated is one of the principal subjects of the humanistic discipline of Translation Studies, dealing with the the products, functions, and processes of translation as both a cognitive and socially regulated activity. Both literary history and the history of translation benefit from this book’s focus on Poe, whose translated fortune has helped to shape literary modernity, in many cases importantly redefining the target literary systems. Furthermore, we envision this book as a fountain of resources for future Poe scholars from various global sites, including the United States, since the cases of Poe’s translations—both exceptional and paradigmatic—prove that they are also levers that force the reassessment of the source text in its native literature.
This book represents an important contribution to the fields of translation studies and world literature, as well as comparative literature. . . .The importance of these studies is not limited to the fact that they underscore the importance of translation in the creation of world literature, but extends beyond that to the role that translation plays in shaping the linguistic and cultural politics of many countries. . . .Such is our summary of Translated Poe, a book rich in projects that cover a variety of countries, cultures, and schools of thought. As such, it must be considered a serious new addition to the fields of translation studies and comparative literature.