Consists of essays supplementing the exhibition "Babel: adventures in translation," held at the Bodleian from 15 February 15 to 2 June 2019 , written by the curators and illustrated with images from the Bodleian's collections. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Babel: curse or blessing? / Matthew Reynolds -- 'Debabelization': creating a universal language / Dennis Duncan -- Translating the divine / Matthew Reynolds -- An epic journey: translating Homer's Iliad and Odyssey / Stephen Harrison -- Translating tales: beast fables around the world / Stephen Harrison -- Traversing realms of fantasy / Katrin Kohl -- Negotiating multilingual Britain / Katrin Kohl -- Languages lost in time / Dennis Duncan.
Summary:
This innovative collection of essays shows how linguistic diversity has inspired people across time and cultures to embark on adventurous journeys through the translation of texts. It tells the story of how ideas have travelled via the medium of translation into different languages and cultures, focusing on illustrated examples ranging from Greek papyri through illuminated manuscripts and fine early books to fantasy languages (such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish), the search for a universal language and the challenges of translation in multicultural Britain. Starting with the concept of Babel itself, which illustrates the early cultural prominence of multilingualism, and with an illustration of a Mediterranean language of four millennia ago (Linear A) which still resists deciphering, it goes on to examine how languages have interacted with each other in different contexts. The book also explores the multilingual transmission of key texts in religion, science (the history of Euclid), animal fable (from Aesop in Greek to Beatrix Potter via La Fontaine, with some fascinating Southeast Asian books), fairy-tale, fantasy and translations of the great Greek epics of Homer. Exhibition: Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, UK (02-06.2019).
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.