Type de publication et date de parution
OuvrageÜbersetzungspolitiken in der Frühen Neuzeit / Translation Policy and the Politics of Translation in the Early Modern Period
Antje Flüchter, Andreas Gipper, Susanne Greilich, Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink
This volume, presenting the results of the 2nd annual conference of the German Research Foundation Priority Programme 2130: ‘Early Modern Translation Cul- tures’, considers the question of why certain texts, images, sign complexes, et cetera undergo translation while others remain, and indeed must remain, untrans- lated. And what factors influence the specific form – that is, the actual transla- tion process from one semiotic and cultural system to another? In this context, a twofold understanding of politics comes to bear. On the one hand, the focus is on translation politics in the sense of translation policy, and with it the socio-cultu- ral, economic, and intercultural influencing factors. On the other hand, and more specifically, the concern is with translations in the context of political negotiation processes and thus with the relationship between politics and translations. From the heuristic perspective, three aspects of the political appear to be of central importance here: the cultural norms and criteria that decide what is translated at all (cultural filters), the political, religious, or economic interests connected with translations (calculation), and finally the significance of translations for all forms of interaction in the political sphere in the narrower sense (diplomacy).
Avec une contribution de :
Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann and Ekaterina Simonova-Gudzenko, “Lost in Transmission: Maps of Japan by Daikokuya Kōdayū 大黒屋 光太夫 (1751 – 1828)", pp. 253-300.
The maps of Japan by Daikokuya Kōdayū (1751–1828) were drawn during the author’s detention in Russia (1783–1792). Though rooted in Japanese cartographic tradition, they do not copy any known map of Japan. Because they were created specifically for “foreign” usage, they contain a wealth of translations and comments. All of the maps are large-scale coloured manuscripts (ca. 65–75 × 120–150 cm) and resemble one another but are not identical. We begin by determining when and where Kōdayū could have made his maps and comparing the material attributes and general characteristics of the extant copies. Then we go on to trace the maps’ afterlife, placing special emphasis on the Asch Collection. Kōdayū’s work amounts to a multi-lingual diachronic enterprise of drawing and translating a map of Japan for the benefit of the Russian state. The focus of our study is to analyze why this so very interesting enterprise failed: hardly had the maps been completed than they were sent off to Germany as curiosities—or simply forgotten.