The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, IV: 1790-1900 by Peter France, Kenneth Haynes

Abstract

MLR, 103. I, 2oo8 I83 Ralph Connor, Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Margaret Murray Robertson, Robert Stead, Frederick Philip Grove, and Hugh MacLennan. Since the discussion covers numerous books which have been rejected in recent decades as excessively romantic or too conservative formodern tastes, a certain amount of recoverywork has been necessary. This includes summarizing plots,which can be tedious but isunavoidable since the argument isoften predicated on the pat terning of plots and thepairing or contrasting of character types.The detailed close readings are organized around four allegorical figureswho were repeatedly used to personify theCanadian nation: theLoyalist brother, theenterprising Scottish orphan, themuscular Christian, and the maturing colonial son. All of these,Coleman argues, contributed to theprivileging of White Britishness in 'English' Canada, but this racial ideal did not correspond to the supposedly degenerate Britishness to be found in Britain. Rather, popular literaturecelebrated a formof renewed, colonial Britishness, derived more from Scottish than English traditions,which had apparently evolved because 'the rigours of life in a stern, unaccommodating climate demanded strength of body, character, and mind while itwinnowed away laziness, overindulgence, and false social niceties' (p. 24).While Coleman discovers this ideal tobe fairlyconsensual among most of thewriters he studies, he appends a final chapter on 'WryCivility', which complicates the picture by exploring ironic fictional renderings of the claims of White civility (by JamesDe Mille, Sara JeannetteDuncan, and John Marlyn). There is not space here to do justice to Coleman's arguments, which are intri cate and sophisticated, although never unduly abstract or difficult to follow.He is admirably self-aware about his own critical project, and his book ismeticulously researched and coherently structured.White Civility is an extremely persuasive and carefully argued study,and deserves attention fromall scholars ofCanadian literature. UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE FAYEHAMMILL The Oxford History ofLiterary Translation inEnglish, Iv: 1790-1900. Ed. by PETER FRANCE and KENNETH HAYNES. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2006. xv + 595 PP. ?89. ISBN 978-O-I 9-924623-6. This volume, the second in the series tobe published, is ifanything an evenmore valu able addition thanvolume iii toour understanding of thecomplete range ofwhat was being read inBritain and theUnited States during the period that itcovers. If trans lation in the eighteenth centurywas principally fromclassical and modern Romance languages, there now comes evidence of a cultural world that is rapidly expanding to take inGermanic (medieval and modern) andMiddle and Far Eastern texts.Fur thermore, the spectrum of genres is broadening, as is shown by sections devoted to popular and children's literature,hymns and songs, and non-Christian sacred books. The overall format is the same as before, beginning with chapters devoted toback ground aspects of translation culture such as politics, publishing, and the social and economic grounds for taking up translation, followed by sections on individual lan guages and genres. A particularly valuable addition to this volume is the chapter entitled 'Principles and Norms ofTranslation'. In addition to an interesting discus sion of the concept of norms in translation, it answers some outstanding questions from the preceding volume by demonstrating how the spread of historicism in the nineteenth century led translators to ask themselves how far they felta need topre serve a sense of otherness in their translations, whether by keeping foreign verse formsor by theuse of non-standard diction such as archaism. This allows the reader toexpect a range of highlymarked styles and so not toblunder intoover-hasty claims of 'translationese'. Itwould thereforebe highly advisable to read all thecontributions in the second half of thebook against thebackground of thispivotal chapter. I84 Reviews In fact itmight have been useful forother contributors to read it too.The series clearly sets out to answer threebasic questions about translations intoEnglish: what, why, and how? The firstof these questions is normally dealt with very thoroughly; indeed, the section on German byDavid Constantine is a tour de forceof packing so many important influences into the limited space available. The depth atwhich the second question is answered varies fromone contributor to another, but ingeneral a clear picture emerges as towhy itwas feltdesirable to translate certain texts,and how theywere received in the current cultural climate. The actual processes of translation receive the least consistent treatment.Although all the contributors...