Retranslation and Socio-Cultural Changes

This book investigates the connections between retranslation and the great socio-cultural changes that occurred in Western cultures in the last two centuries. The collected essays address issues such as literary reception, the renewal of literary canons, readers’ expectations and tastes, the transformation of aesthetic parameters and linguistic standards, the changing status of translators and the position of translated texts in the target polysystems.

The volume relies on a range of approaches and methodologies, including the reconstruction of publishing history, reception and the canon, and the examination of texts and paratexts. It offers an original perspective on the methods, purposes and reasons for retranslation, underlining the historical dimension of a practice that has always been linked to the transformations of the target cultures and ways of approaching foreignness.