Vernacular Edens
Tropes of Translation in Medieval European Fictions
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of Toronto Press
Published:31st Jan '25
£58.00
Supplier delay - available to order, but may take longer than usual.
Late-medieval European vernacular literature defined itself as the redeployment of classical and post-classical antecedents in new cultural coordinates. Many authors of narrative and poetic fiction between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries resisted the idea that moving a text from one language to another produces a loss of meaning, or, as today's idiom goes, that something always gets "lost in translation." Rather, they understood the process of vernacular translation as a regenerative cultural practice and often associated it with depictions of luscious and paradisal gardens in their works.
Vernacular Edens presents a systematic study of a literary commonplace, the representation of gardens in medieval fictions, as a lens to understand the theories and practices of translation from Latin to the vernaculars. The book argues that the prominent narrative space that works composed in Old French, Italian, and Middle English give to garden-visit scenes is connected to their vindication of translation as an always-enriching practice. A wide range of texts from Marie de France's Lais to the Roman de la Rose, from Dante's Comedy to Boccaccio's Decameron, and from Petrarch's Griselda to Chaucer's Clerk's and Merchant's Tales provide the body of evidence analysed in the book.
“Vernacular Edens offers a sophisticated insight into what writing in the vernacular meant for authors of medieval fiction, with particular attention to the optimism that often accompanies their translative acts. Rich in analysis, Simone Marchesi's book presents deft and sophisticated close readings of passages from both the medieval vernacular fictions and Latin texts, including classical literature and Patristic sources, with helpful translations and glosses of the key passages. A significant contribution to the field, this book will be of value to researchers in medieval studies and in translation studies.” -- Francesca Southerden, Professor of Italian, University of Oxford
“Ambitious and exciting, Vernacular Edens focuses on medieval gardens as tropes of translation and as sites of the redeployment of classical material. The book’s selection of primary texts could be characterized as a ‘greatest hits’ of the French, Italian, and English medieval canon: Marie de France and Chrétien de Troyes, Jean de Meun, Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer, among others. Simone Marchesi’s extensive breadth of knowledge is clear, ranging from Classical literature and Patristics to the major texts of vernacular medieval fiction in these three different traditions.” -- Michelle Bolduc, Professor in Translation Studies, University of Exeter
ISBN: 9781487558307
Dimensions: 235mm x 159mm x 19mm
Weight: 510g
260 pages