Like a Matryoshka doll, the sociology of poetry translation is a subfield within the field of the sociology of literary translation, which is itself situated within the two still larger and distinct fields of the sociology of translation and the sociology of literature. A sociological approach advocates for the need to study translation data against broader aesthetic, historical, and political trends and will be of particular interest to students and scholars in translation studies and comparative literature. This approach demonstrates the need for poetry translation to be extended beyond close reading and situated in context, and aims to bridge the gap between the ‘cultural turn’ and the ‘sociological turn’ in Translation Studies. This lecture will focus on sociologically analyzing poetry translation within English, French, and Italian traditions – and, if time allows, to the translations of Dante’s masterpiece across the world.
28 gennaio 2019
JACOB BLAKESLEY is a University Academic Fellow in World Literatures at the University of Leeds, where he co-directs the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies. He has published two monographs: Modern Italian Poets: Translators of the Impossible (University of Toronto Press, 2014) and A Sociological Approach to Poetry Translation: Modern European Poet-Translators (Routledge, 2018). He has edited Sociologies of Poetry Translation: Emerging Perspectives (Bloomsbury, 2018), co-edited a special journal issue of Translation and Literature: Poetry Translation: Agents, Actors, Networks, Contexts (25:1, 2016) and co-edited a special journal issue of English Studies, Tony Harrison: International Man of Letters (99:1, 2018). He has published numerous articles on literary translation and the sociology of literature and translation in English and Italian journals. He is an award-winning translator of poetry and he currently chairs the John Dryden Translation Competition.