Early Modern Translation: Theory, History, Practice (conference)

For more past programming from the Folger Institute, please see the article Folger Institute scholarly programs archive.

This was a spring 2011 conference organized by Karen Newman (Brown University) and Jane Tylus (New York University), with Kathleen Lynch (Folger Institute). Speakers included Peter Burke (Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge) and Margaret Ferguson (University of California, Davis) will deliver plenary addresses. Additional speakers will include Anston Bosman (Amherst College), Thomas E. Burman (University of Tennessee at Knoxville), Gordon Braden (University of Virginia), A.E.B. Coldiron (Florida State University), Line Cottegnies (University of Paris, III), Barbara Fuchs (UCLA), Edith Grossman (New York, NY), Andrew Hadfield (University of Sussex), Heather James (University of Southern California), Ann Rosalind Jones (Smith College), László Kontler (Central European University, Budapest), Jacques Lezra (New York University), Carla Nappi (University of British Columbia), Naomi Tadmor (Lancaster University), and Michael Wyatt (Stanford University). Papers addressed not only issues in the translation of specific texts, but also the translation of genres, traditions, and cultures within and beyond Europe.

Translation was a primary mode of cultural transmission in early modern Europe. Over the last decade, the concept of translation has expanded to encompass not only linguistic translation, but what has come to be called cultural translation, and work on translation has greatly enriched early modern literary and historical studies. In response to these exciting developments, this conference encompassed early modern translation theory, competing vernaculars, the transmission of classical culture, translation and gender, translation and empire, the translation of sacred texts (including the reception of the Koran in Late Christendom), and two case studies focusing on Ovid and Cervantes.