Throughout the Middle Ages, many Francophone texts - chansons de geste, medieval romance, works by Chretien de Troyes and Marie de France - were widely translated in north-western Europe. In the process, these texts were frequently transformed to reflect the new cultures in which they appeared. This book argues that such translations, prime sites for cultural movement and encounters, provide a rich opportunity to study linguistic and cultural identity both in and through time. Via a close comparison of a number of these texts, examining the various modifications made, and drawing on a number of critical discourses ranging from post-colonial criticism to translation theory, the author explores the complexities of cultural dialogue and dissent. This approach both recognises and foregrounds the complex matrix of influence, resistance and transformations within the languages and cultural traditions of medieval Europe, revealing the undercurrents of cultural conflict apparent in medieval textuality.
Sif Rikhardsdottir is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Iceland and Vice-Chair of the Institute of Research in Literature and Visual Arts.
- ISBN10 1280377763
- ISBN13 9781280377761
- Publish Date 30 April 2012 (first published 19 January 2012)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 17 February 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Boydell & Brewer
- Format eBook
- Language English