{"id":2687,"date":"2014-07-07T09:30:09","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T01:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2687"},"modified":"2014-07-07T13:49:19","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T05:49:19","slug":"institution-translation-nation-metaphor-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2687","title":{"rendered":"“Institution, Translation, Nation, Metaphor” at ACLA’s State of the Discipline Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American Comparative Literature Association asked me (me? I know!) to contribute to the decennial State of the Discipline Report, and my response–titled “Institution, Translation, Nation, Metaphor<\/a>“–is now live. Here’s one of my more hyperopic paragraphs:<\/p>\n

Institution, Translation, Nation, Metaphor<\/div>\n

While translation is too often proposed as a \u201cproblem\u201d rather than as a solution, it is indeed a problem to narrow conceptions such as that of the institutionalized nation. David Damrosch explains in his contribution here that what I referred to above as the common language assumed for national literature departments leads too easily to deeply engrained \u201cHerderian assumptions\u201d: \u201cthat the essence of a nation is carried by its national language, embodied in its highest form by the masterpieces of its national literature.\u201d Yet many of the paradigmatic forms of national literatures were in fact developed out of translations: blank verse was invented for the translation of the Aeneid<\/em> by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (c. 1516 \u2013 1547), who also created the English sonnet by dividing the Italian into rhymed, metered quatrains (does the conceit of Elizabeth Barrett Browning\u2019s Sonnets from the Portuguese represent the form\u2019s residual foreignness?). The stakes I see in paying more attention to translation are not, then, limited to comparatists, but to people who think in and about and from institutions of national literature, as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click the link above for the full article.<\/p>\n

hile translation is too often proposed as a \u201cproblem\u201d rather than as a solution, it is indeed a problem to narrow conceptions such as that of the institutionalized nation. David Damrosch explains in his contribution here that what I referred to above as the common language assumed for national literature departments leads too easily to deeply engrained \u201cHerderian assumptions\u201d: \u201cthat the essence of a nation is carried by its national language, embodied in its highest form by the masterpieces of its national literature.\u201d[8] Yet many of the paradigmatic forms of national literatures were in fact developed out of translations: blank verse was invented for the translation of the Aeneid by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (c. 1516 \u2013 1547), who also created the English sonnet by dividing the Italian into rhymed, metered quatrains (does the conceit of Elizabeth Barrett Browning\u2019s Sonnets from the Portuguese represent the form\u2019s residual foreignness?).[9] The stakes I see in paying more attention to translation are not, then, limited to comparatists, but to people who think in and about and from institutions of national literature, as well. – See more at: http:\/\/stateofthediscipline.acla.org\/entry\/institution-translation-nation-metaphor#sthash.RBKrdnSP.dpuf<\/div>\n
While translation is too often proposed as a \u201cproblem\u201d rather than as a solution, it is indeed a problem to narrow conceptions such as that of the institutionalized nation. David Damrosch explains in his contribution here that what I referred to above as the common language assumed for national literature departments leads too easily to deeply engrained \u201cHerderian assumptions\u201d: \u201cthat the essence of a nation is carried by its national language, embodied in its highest form by the masterpieces of its national literature.\u201d[8] Yet many of the paradigmatic forms of national literatures were in fact developed out of translations: blank verse was invented for the translation of the Aeneid by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (c. 1516 \u2013 1547), who also created the English sonnet by dividing the Italian into rhymed, metered quatrains (does the conceit of Elizabeth Barrett Browning\u2019s Sonnets from the Portuguese represent the form\u2019s residual foreignness?).[9] The stakes I see in paying more attention to translation are not, then, limited to comparatists, but to people who think in and about and from institutions of national literature, as well. – See more at: http:\/\/stateofthediscipline.acla.org\/entry\/institution-translation-nation-metaphor#sthash.RBKrdnSP.dpuf<\/div>\n
While translation is too often proposed as a \u201cproblem\u201d rather than as a solution, it is indeed a problem to narrow conceptions such as that of the institutionalized nation. David Damrosch explains in his contribution here that what I referred to above as the common language assumed for national literature departments leads too easily to deeply engrained \u201cHerderian assumptions\u201d: \u201cthat the essence of a nation is carried by its national language, embodied in its highest form by the masterpieces of its national literature.\u201d[8] Yet many of the paradigmatic forms of national literatures were in fact developed out of translations: blank verse was invented for the translation of the Aeneid by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (c. 1516 \u2013 1547), who also created the English sonnet by dividing the Italian into rhymed, metered quatrains (does the conceit of Elizabeth Barrett Browning\u2019s Sonnets from the Portuguese represent the form\u2019s residual foreignness?).[9] The stakes I see in paying more attention to translation are not, then, limited to comparatists, but to people who think in and about and from institutions of national literature, as well. – See more at: http:\/\/stateofthediscipline.acla.org\/entry\/institution-translation-nation-metaphor#sthash.RBKrdnSP.dpuf<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Comparative Literature Association asked me (me? I know!) to contribute to the decennial State of the Discipline Report, and my response–titled “Institution, Translation, Nation, Metaphor“–is now live. Here’s one of my more hyperopic paragraphs: Institution, Translation, Nation, Metaphor … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,16,1],"tags":[943,1421,1420,1422,462],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-Hl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1620,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1620","url_meta":{"origin":2687,"position":0},"title":"Lucas Klein on Daniel Dooghan’s Literary Cartographies: Lu Xun and the Production of World Literature","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"February 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Dissertation Reviews has posted my review of Daniel Dooghan's Literary Cartographies: Lu Xun and the Production of World Literature. Here\u2019s how it begins: In his entry in the 2004 report on the state of the discipline, Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization, David Damrosch, doyen of world literature studies,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dissertation Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Dissertation Reviews","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=623"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4621,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4621","url_meta":{"origin":2687,"position":1},"title":"Red Pine Interview at Emergence","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill Porter (Red Pine) interviewed at Emergence Magazine Emergence Magazine has published an interview with Bill Porter, a\/k\/a Red Pine, renowned travel writer and translator of classical Chinese poetry. The interview covers his early interest in China and poetry, and his beginnings as a translator, as well as some of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/emergencemagazine.org\/app\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Red_Pine_Bill_Porter_2880_WEB-800x573.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1954,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1954","url_meta":{"origin":2687,"position":2},"title":"Foreign Echoes & Discerning the Soil at Hong Kong Baptist University","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Lucas Klein: Foreign Echoes & Discerning the Soil: Dual Translation, Chineseness, & World Literature in Chinese Poetry 2013\/5\/30, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. at Centre for Translation, DLB 601, David C. Lam Building, Shaw Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University, Renfrew Road, Kowloon Tong Abstract: What constitutes the relationship between world literature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2214,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2214","url_meta":{"origin":2687,"position":3},"title":"In Memoriam Prof. Martha Cheung","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"September 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"from The Centre for Translation at HKBU In Memoriam Prof. Martha Cheung\u00a0\u5f35\u4f69\u7464 10 September 2013 saw the sad passing of our distinguished and beloved colleague, Prof. Martha Cheung. Prof. Cheung was both a leading scholar in her field and a superb and much-respected teacher, and had served Hong Kong Baptist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ruminations"","block_context":{"text":"Ruminations","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ceviribilim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Martha-Cheung-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2487,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2487","url_meta":{"origin":2687,"position":4},"title":"Johannes G\u00f6ransson on Aase Berg \/ Ye Mimi \/ Tomas Transtr\u00f6mer \/ Translation Studies","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Over at Montevidayo,\u00a0Johannes G\u00f6ransson has posted \"Exploded Transtr\u00f6mer: On Ye Mimi and Translation.\" A hyperopticon of connections, it links Taiwanese poet Ye Mimi \u8449\u8993\u8993 to Nobel lit. prizewinner Tomas Transtr\u00f6mer via what Swedish poet Aase Berg's reading: A few months ago, after she came back from the Hong Kong poetry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Poetry Nights"","block_context":{"text":"International Poetry Nights","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.montevidayo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/5_Ye_Mimi_photo-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3498,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3498","url_meta":{"origin":2687,"position":5},"title":"Eberlein on Han Dong in English","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Xujun Eberlein in LARB looks at Han Dong \u97e9\u4e1c in English and asks, \"Is There a Good Way to Translate Chinese Poetry?\" Her answer is clearly yes. She asks, \"why would I want to read a translation that has departed from the original? 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