Literary Translation

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

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  • The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

“Where literature exists, translation exists” (Grossman 2010: 33). In her brief but incisive book titled

Why Translation Matters

, expert translator Edith Grossman reminds us of the deep translational roots of all that we call literary: stories (including many that are considered foundational to a particular culture) are not static, but rather continually passed from generation to generation, community to community, and this cannot help but involve a complex process of interpretation and re-interpretation. The flowering of learning that ushered in Europe’s modern age, represented by the Renaissance, was rooted in a new access to texts that were being translated from Latin into the vernacular languages of Europe. And much of the canon of what is today called World Literature (from…

3183 words

Citation: Henitiuk, Valerie. "Literary Translation". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 May 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19322, accessed 24 April 2024.]

19322 Literary Translation 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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