The Practices of Literary Translation Constraints and Creativity

In their introduction to this collection of essays, the editors argue that constraints can be seen as a source of literary creativity, and given that translation is even more constrained than 'original' literary production, it thus has the potential to be even more creative too. The ten essays that follow outline ways in which translators and translations are constrained by poetic form, personal histories, state control, public morality, and the non-availability of comparable target language subcodes, and how translator creativity may-or may not-overcome these constraints. Topics covered are: Baudelaire's translation practices; bowdlerism in translations of Voltaire, Boccaccio and Shakespeare, among others; Leyris's translations of Gerard Manley Hopkins; ideology in English-Arabic translation; the translation of censored Greek poet Rhea Galanaki; theatre translation; Nabokov and translation; gay translation; Moratín's translation of Hamlet; and state control of translation production in Nazi Germany. The essays are mostly highly readable, and often entertaining.

Chapter 1 Introduction Writing, Rewriting and Translation Through Constraint to Creativity, Michael Holman, Jean Boase-Beier; Chapter 2 Baudelaire and the Alchemy of Translation, Emily Salines; Chapter 3 Not in Front of the Servants Forms of Bowdlerism and Censorship in Translation, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin; Chapter 4 “The achieve of, the mastery of the thing!” Pierre Leyris’s Verse Translations of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Phyllis Gaffney; Chapter 5 Ideological Shifts in Cross-Cultural Translation, R. A. Megrab; Chapter 6 Bilingual Translation as a Re-creation of the Censored Text Rhea Galanaki in English and French, Claudine Tourniaire; Chapter 7 Realizing Theatrical Potential The Dramatic Text in Performance and Translation, Sophia Totzeva; Chapter 8 Changing Horses: Nabokov and Translation, Jenefer Coates; Chapter 9 Pushing the Limits of Faithfulness A Case for Gay Translation, Alberto Mira; Chapter 10 Moratín’s Translation of Hamlet (1798) A Study of the Paratexts, Juan J. Zaro; Chapter 11 “A danger and a veiled attack” Translating into Nazi Germany, Kate Sturge;

Postgraduate

Jean Boase-Beier, Michael Holman