David Bellos's chapter on "The Paradox of “Foreign-Soundingness”" is what finally changed my mind about re-translations of canonical texts. Before reading this chapter, I believed that translations contemporary with the source text would always be the most effective because they exist in the same temporal context as the source text. However, the evolution of which other languages English readers are familiar with makes it impossible to understand the text in both translations and source texts. As Bellos tells us, the use of French for dialogue in Russian and English novels for readers that are no longer able to read French is paradoxical. Conversely, while the ability to actually read French has declined, its status as a language associated with prestige and high culture has remained the same. Thus, it is effective at communicating these qualities even though it is no longer effective for communication. Based on this relationship, it does make sense to retranslate so that English readers will be able to understand.
As far as book covers, one aspect I wish the texts we read would've talked about is how book covers are used to indicate genre. A photographed face tells me it's a memoir; a pair of cartoon figures indicates a romance. The translations I see often have simple, abstract covers, like those from Archipelago Books. What does it say that these covers often shy away from the main descriptor covers are used for?
Grace Ashton
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