Seminar with Małgorzata Dowlaszewicz (Wroclaw) with the title "The relevance of medieval Dutch literature in modern world".

Abstract

“[W]e are at present witnessing […] a period of renewed interest in the Middle Ages” is one of the often quoted statements by the renowned scholar of medieval culture, Umberto Eco. The Italian medievalist noticed in his 1973 essay that the attention to medieval culture comes both from the scholar and popular approach. This popular interest has been growing in the past decades especially due to the many films, series and games employing medieval elements and sometimes even using medieval source texts. On the academic site it was the re-emergence of medievalist subjects in research. But a significant aspect of this interest is the possibility for the modern generations to read texts that have been written hundreds years ago in a language that often doesn’t resemble the modern version of it. In this context I am especially interested in their transnational circulation.

There is a great amount of medieval literature written in Dutch and the Arthurian epic is especially well represented. But the modern translations of medieval 'evergreens' are rarely considered compelling reading. In my presentation I would like to examine the ways in which medieval Dutch literature has been circulating outside the language borders in the past 40 years and the reasons for the emergence of modern translations of those old texts. My main questions relate to the canon of translated medieval Dutch literatures (what is being translated), the ways in which translators handle the ancient language of the sources, the choices made by translators (or publishers) on the formal assumptions of medieval genres, and finally the question of the market value of such text production.

The seminar will be in English. Please contact Caroline Merkel (caroline.merkel@tyska.su.se) for more information and for the Zoom link (when applicable)!