BMCR 2009.03.26, Alexandra Lianeri, Translation and the Classic

Alexandra Lianeri, Vanda Zajko (ed.), Translation and the Classic:
Identity as Change in the History of Culture. Classical Presences.
Oxford/New York:  Oxford University Press, 2008.  Pp. xii, 435.  ISBN
9780199288076.  L70.00; $150.00.

Reviewed by Victoria Moul, The Queen's College, Oxford
([email protected])
Word count:  2217 words
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[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

In recent years, classicists have become increasingly self-conscious
about the demands and decisions involved in teaching texts 'in
translation': how can we best choose and use translations for these
purposes? How can we encourage both ourselves and our students to think
with greater sophistication of the role of translation? But whenever we
teach or discuss a classical text -- even if we do so with
linguistically skilled students or colleagues who have no need of a
Loeb -- we engage in translation of various kinds (or, as Neville
Morley discusses in his excellent essay in the volume under review,
with a marked refusal to translate). More than any other single
insight, this volume taken as a whole testifies to the extent to which
the translation of the Latin and Greek classics, far from being a
slightly lowly and (embarrassingly) an increasingly necessary adjunct
to the teaching of language and literature 'in the original', lies
instead right at the heart of the discipline's perpetuation and
self-understanding, beginning with the various Roman translations of
Greek culture. As such, this suggestive and very wide-ranging
collection of essays has much to offer classicists of many kinds, not
only those most directly concerned with reception. But it suffers to
some degree from the extent of its range and not all the essays
included are of equal strength, or equally well integrated into the
volume as a whole.

There is no doubting the importance of translation to modern teachers
and scholars of classics, both at a theoretical and a practical level.
Lianeri and Vajko's volume, however, has a more ambitious remit: as
they set out in their introduction, they are interested in the various
ways in which translation -- the translatability of certain texts and
concepts, or their resistance to translation, or the details of their
translation through history -- shapes and defines what it is for a text
to be considered 'classic'. So while several articles are concerned
quite straightforwardly with the role of translations in teaching and
studying 'classical texts', both in the present and the past, a second
series of papers are focused more specifically upon the issue of the
'classic' -- what is it? how does it become so? and how is translation
implicated in that definition?

The volume includes several excellent essays in both categories--such
as Seth Schein's humane, modest and very readable discussion of
translating Aeschylean choral lyrics for classroom use (Chapter 17) and
(in the latter category) Fred Parker's essay on 'classic simplicity'
(Chapter 10), a masterfully clear and engaging explanation of how we
get from the 'classicism' of Pope (where originary virtue belongs to
Latin and Greek texts) to the 'simplicity' of Wordsworth (where that
sense of purity has been transferred to nature). Schein's paper focuses
upon the practicalities of translation and takes the 'classic' status
of Aeschylus more or less for granted; Parker on the other hand is
interested in the role of translation--and especially of
'translation-consciousness'--in the authors and periods he discusses,
but his paper includes no detailed analysis of a translation and this
does not strike the reader as an omission.

Several papers successfully combine these concerns--that is, the
definition of a classic, and the 'translation of the classics': Deborah
H. Roberts' chapter on the various strategies employed for translating
(mostly Latin) obscenity is essentially an informative survey of
various approaches to the problem, but it is suggestive too of the ways
in which different modes of translation may establish a text as a
'classic' of different kinds, and aimed at different imagined readers.
Of all the papers, Martindale's excellent essay (Chapter 4) confronts
most clearly what it might mean for a translation to be itself a
classic, but this is a theme that recurs in several of the
contributions, and his chapter is well positioned towards the beginning
of the book.

Among the more purely theoretical pieces, Lawrence Venuti's
contribution ('Translation, Interpretation, Canon Formation', Chapter
1) is an admirably clear exposition of the interpretative and
evaluative strategies we bring to bear upon the 'classics' when we
translate or engage with translations. In this category, Richard H.
Armstrong's essay 'Classical Translations of the Classics: The Dynamics
of Literary Tradition in Retranslating Epic Poetry' (Chapter 8) also
stands out: a little longer than most of the contributions to the book,
he uses the additional length to good effect, and manages to include
not only a rich discussion of how to teach with and from translations
in an intelligent way--using them to open up, rather than close down,
the texts in question--but also to confront some key theoretical
issues. His exploration of the extent to which Roman literature is
itself rooted in translation--so that our 'classics' turn out to be
translations to begin with--is particularly valuable.

This is a large book, however, and it is hard to tell, amongst these
various sub-categories and concerns, what you are going to get in any
one paper. There is an introduction but no conclusion, and the volume
is divided into three sections -- entitled 'Theorizing Translation and
the Classic' (seven papers, see list below), 'The Survival of the
Classic: Tracing the History of Translations' (six contributions) and
finally 'Contesting the Classic: The Politics of Translation Practice'
(just five papers). Such distinctions are always going to be porous and
hard to define; and for the most part the implied divisions work
reasonably well. There are some oddities though: Joanna Paul's paper on
Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film Le Me/pris, for instance, which is the
final article in the 'theorizing' section, is an intelligent discussion
of an interesting film, but seems strangely specific for its position
in the volume. Although the author is interested in the implications of
equating translation and adaptation, she makes little attempt to relate
her conclusions to other films self-conscious about adaptation or
multi-lingualism, other interpretations of Homer, or indeed alternative
explorations of that central question of 'fidelity' (whether
linguistic, literary and sexual) with which the film is concerned. I
think this good paper is disadvantaged by its climactic position in the
'theory' section. Questions that seem like omissions here might not do
so if the essay was framed and positioned differently.

This is a fairly minor quibble of course -- if a paper is stimulating
and well-written it doesn't much matter where it comes in a large
volume -- but there are a few too many loose ends here for my taste
(other readers may of course find that feature of the volume pleasing
in itself). Among these is the surprising 'tail-off' effect to the book
as a whole. The final and shortest section, 'Contesting the Classic:
The Politics of Translation Practice' suggests in its title a concern
with the ways in which the practice of translation contests or
determines the reception of a classic as a classic, and the ways in
which the idea of a classic invites or debars various kinds of reader.
Chapters 14 and 15 (by Edith Hall and Lorna Hardwick respectively) are
assured explorations of just this kind of thing, and also a good
example of the ways in which the juxtaposition of essays can itself be
fruitful: Hall's paper (like that of Roberts, Chapter 13) is
essentially a well-written survey of the topic ('Translation as Access
Route to the Classics'). It has all the virtues of this kind of piece
when it is done well: she alerts us to important facts and trends--for
instance the significant difference between the early modern 'canon' of
classical texts and our own, as revealed by patterns of translation and
publication. And like all good survey articles she mentions in passing
a host of texts and authors that sound fascinating (such as Randolph's
1630s translation of Aristophanes' Plutus, mentioned on pp. 327-8).
Hall's piece -- which reminds us of the variety, both in texts and
readership, to be found just in the last few hundred years in England
-- is an effective complement to Lorna Hardwick's more theoretical and
impressively clear exploration (and defence) of the concept of
'hybridity' in contemporary translations (Chapter 15). One essay looks
forward (or around), the other back; one mostly surveys what we find,
the other suggests an interpretative framework, and reading the two
together makes for a rich and successful juxtaposition.

But then this section, subtitled the 'politics of translation
practice', concludes with three papers, all marked by their rather
narrow focus upon particular texts. The first of these, Dimitris N.
Maronitis' essay 'Intralingual Translation: Genuine and False
Dilemmas', is concerned specifically with the translation of Greek
classics, and especially of Homer, into modern Greek (the author is
himself a translator of the Odyssey). The second is Seth Schein's
admirable paper on 'Translating Aeschylean Choral Lyric' (Chapter 17),
a close and detailed discussion of the author's decisions in his
translation of a single portion of chorus from the Agamemnon. Finally,
the volume ends with the novelist J. M. Coetzee's short piece on
'Working with Translators' (Chapter 18) which is, again, interesting
but extremely specific.

The inclusion of Coetzee's paper -- and the article about him in
section one (Johan Geertsema's 'Between Homage and Critique: Coetzee,
Translation and the Classic', Chapter 5) -- strikes me as an odd
decision. Coetzee's own work is (arguably) a classic, or a
classic-in-the-making; his works often mention or engage with
acknowledged 'classics'; he wrote a lecture discussing the idea of the
classic; he has also thought about translation, and sometimes practised
it. But these various points do not quite add up to a coherent reason
why he deserves or invites a (rather laboured) paper discussing his own
approach to the classic; added to which, his personal contribution to
the volume (Chapter 18) doesn't really think about what it is to be a
classic at all. Although Coetzee's own article -- a lively if fairly
slight account of the problems encountered by the author whose work is
being translated around the world -- has plenty of interest in its own
right, it bears only tangential relevance to the themes of the volume
as set out or implied by most of the essays, and it makes for a weak
ending (especially as the editors have added no conclusion).

While Coetzee receives, in effect, two chapters, other contributions --
arguably of more direct relevance to the theme -- could usefully have
been strengthened by a companion piece. Maronitis' essay would be
stronger, and the implications perhaps clearer or more widely
applicable, if it were accompanied by another considering intralingual
translations in another language (such as English 'translations' of
Chaucer; or of "difficult" Latin texts into "easy" Latin prose, a very
common practice in medieval and early modern editions of the classics).
Similarly, Morley's excellent article on the resistance to translating
key terms in ancient history feels isolated: his is the only chapter
directly relevant to ancient historians. Although Translation and the
Classic works well as a source of individual readings on various
related topics, it is at its strongest when contributions interact --
as in the links between Chapters 14 and 15 (discussed above), or
between the papers by Martindale (on Dryden), Armstrong (on
'retranslating' epic poetry) and Hooley (Chapter 11, an agile and
enjoyable piece on Marlowe's Lucan).

But I do not want to be over-critical: there is a good deal of
excellent work included in Translation and the Classic, and almost all
of it is interesting. Anyone concerned principally with the theory or
practice of translation from the classics should certainly read all or
part of it. And if the collection tries to do, and to include, a bit
too much, that is itself testament to the fertility and excitement of
these topics in contemporary "classical" scholarship, whatever that
might turn out to be.

Although I found several typographical errors, the quality of the
volume is otherwise good, and the short bibliography at the end of each
essay is a convenient feature for those excerpting individual chapters
as set readings.

Table of Contents

Introduction:

Still Being Read after so Many Years: Rethinking the Classic through
Translation, Alexandra Lianeri and Vanda Zajko

1. Theorising Translation and the Classic:

Translation, Interpretation, Canon Formation, Lawrence Venuti

The End of Translation, John Sallis

Political Translations: Holderlin's Das Hoechste, Andrew Benjamin

Dryden's Ovid, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Aesthetic Translation,
Charles Martindale

Between Homage and Critique: Coetzee, Translation, and the Classic,
Johan Geertsema

'Das Alterum, das sich nicht uebersetzen laesst ': Translation and
Untranslatability in
Ancient History , Neville Morley

Homer and Cinema: Translation and Adaptation in Le Me/pris, Jo Paul

2. The Persistence of the Classic: Tracing the History of Translations

Classical Translations of the Classics: The Dynamics of Literary
Tradition in
Retranslating Epic Poetry, Richard Armstrong

Tradition, Translation, and Colonization: The Greco-Arabic Translation
Movement and
Deconstructing the Classics, Azzedine Haddour

Classic Simplicity, Fred Parker

Raising the Dead: Marlowe's Lucan, Dan Hooley

'An Agreeable Innovation': Play and Translation, J. Michael Walton

Translation and the 'Surreptitious Classic': Obscenity and
Translatability, Deborah H.
Roberts

3. Contesting the Classic: The Politics of Translation Practice

Navigating the Realms of Gold: Translation As Access Route to the
Classics, Edith Hall

Translated Classics Around the Milennium: Vibrant Hybrids or Shattered
Icons?, Lorna
Hardwick

Intralingual Translation: Genuine and False Dilemmas, Dimitris N.
Maronitis

Translating Aeschylean Choral Lyric, Seth L. Schein

Working with Translators, J. M.Coetzee