Asian Classics on the Victorian Bookshelf: Flights of Translation

The popularity of the Arabian Nights and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the Victorian era has been underestimated. This book explores the translations that catalyzed these intercultural encounters, focusing on amateur translators and popularizers who made these texts accessible and disseminated them to the Victorian general readership. It argues that popularizers produced versions more respectful of the complexity, cultural difference, and fundamental untranslatability of Asian texts than professional orientalists, and that their readers' responses frequently deviated from interpretive norms, triggering flights of translation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 13 April 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

The fascination with classical literature from Asia among Victorian readers has been significantly underestimated. The widespread popularity of the Arabian Nights and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is well-documented, but this era was also marked by a remarkable engagement with the Quran, the distribution of abridged versions of the Ramayana to schoolchildren, the carving of names like Kalidasa and Firdusi on the façades of public libraries, and the existence of women's book clubs that delved into Japanese poetry. However, it is important to note that most of these readers were not relying on the specialized publications of scholarly orientalists. What then fueled these intercultural encounters? This book, through a unique methodology that combines translation theory with empirical techniques developed by historians of reading, sheds light on the numerous amateur translators and popularizers who played a crucial role in making these texts accessible and disseminating them to the Victorian general readership.

Asian Classics on the Victorian Bookshelf delves into the process by which popular translations were crafted, published, distributed to bookshops and libraries, and ultimately consumed by readers. It utilizes the working papers and correspondence of popularizers to showcase their techniques and motivations, while tracing the responses of contemporary readers through the pencil marginalia they left behind in dozens of original copies. Despite their typically limited knowledge of source languages, Asian Classics argues that popularizers produced versions that were more respectful of the complexity, cultural differences, and fundamental untranslatability of Asian texts than the professional orientalists whose work they often adapted.

The responses of their readers, likewise, frequently deviated from the intended interpretations provided by the popularizers. This book offers a fresh perspective on the role of translation in shaping cultural encounters during the Victorian era, highlighting the contributions of amateur translators and popularizers while challenging the notion of professional orientalists as the sole gatekeepers of knowledge. It sheds light on the complex interplay between language, culture, and the human imagination, and provides valuable insights into the ways in which literature can transcend boundaries and bridge gaps between different worlds.

Weight: 590g
Dimension: 162 x 242 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198866275