Rhetoric and Vernacular Translation in the Middle Ages
Rita Copeland
Rhetoric and Vernacular Translation in the Middle Ages Rita Copeland University a/Texas at Austin Tis anicle examines historical theomical ftamewotk of vernacular translation Ages. 1 My concern here is to make visible not so much pragmatics particular translations as histor­ ical conditions structures interpretation that inform legit­ imize medieval translation.2 Literary history has traditionally accorded a secondary status acritical issue. 3 Yet, development literary culture shows, some recent studies have suggested, dramatizes most central problems textual mediation Ages.4 I argue grounded intersecting hermeneutical prac1 This article does consider scientific, utilitarian, biblical, or histo­ riographical For extensive bibliography on these aspects translationin English tradition, related areas, such mystical, devotional, instructional, medical translation, see valuable essays A. S. G. Edwards, ed., Prose: A Critical Guide Major Authors Genres (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Press, 1984). 2 One important theoretical Gianfranco Folena, "'Volgarizzare' e'tradurre': Idea e terminologia della traduzione dal media evo italiano romanzo all'umanesimo europeo," inLa traduzione: saggi studi (Trieste: Lint, 1973), pp. 57-120. Conversely, idea prior condition all writing become an theme critical theory. The locus classicus Walter Benjamin, "The Task Translator," trans. Harry Zohn, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt York: Schocken Books, 1969), 69-82. 4 Among directly address components Ages, Eugene Vance, "Chaucer, Spenser, Ideology Translation," CRCL 8 (1981):217-38; Douglas Kelly, "Translatio Studii: Translation, Adaptation, Allegory Medieval French Literature," PQ 57 (1978):287-310; Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, "Literary Its Social Conditioning Ages: Four Spanish Romance Texts Thirteenth Century," YFS 51 (1974):205-22. broader thematic concerns, R. Shoaf, "Notes Toward Chaucer's Poetics SAC (1979):55-66. 41 STIJDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER tice with rhetorical Rhetoric, itself function hermeneia,5 pro­ vides thetheoreticalframeworkfor translativepractice, transla­ tion takes over principles ofdiscovery interpretation, is, invention. As enterprise embodying process reception appropriation, suggest, intrinsic understanding production Ages; it here, primary By rhetoric theory do mean "rhetoric restrained," modern "neorhetoric" tropology, subject whose field ofcompe­ tence been contracted denote figures, metaphor presiding center this generalized art elocutio.6 To be sure, for medievals well ancients, troping, particularly meta­ phor,translatio, maintained implicit importance times centrality. But troping only part ofa matrix way language creates meanings by turning- "troping" its literal sense-and appropriating signifiers from one context another, forcing revaluation understood through new figurations.7 known, standard term metaphor, translatio, also denoted usage. Latin, translatio long competed word interpretatio, hermeneutics.8 Indeed, England "translation" achieved full currency thefourteenth century.9 however, Latin equivalent Greek hermeneia, interpretatz'o informs both uses interlingual para­ phrase metaphor. Both, linguistic acts turning meaning, are interpretation. 5 See Wilhelm Dilthey, Rise Hermeneutics," Fredric Jameson, NLH (1972):229-44. Poetique 23 (1979), issue devoted subject...
Studies in the Age of Chaucer