Medieval anxieties: translation and authorial self-representation in the vernacular beast fable PDF
Preview Medieval anxieties: translation and authorial self-representation in the vernacular beast fable
University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Spring 2011 Medieval anxieties: translation and authorial self- representation in the vernacular beast fable Richard Lee Garrett University of Iowa Copyright 2011 Richard L. Garrett This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/967 Recommended Citation Garrett, Richard Lee. "Medieval anxieties: translation and authorial self-representation in the vernacular beast fable." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2011. https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.9lf9tmzr Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd Part of theEnglish Language and Literature Commons MEDIEVAL ANXIETIES: TRANSLATION AND AUTHORIAL SELF-REPRESENTATION IN THE VERNACULAR BEAST FABLE by Richard Lee Garrett An Abstract Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2011 Thesis Supervisor: Professor Jonathan Wilcox 1 ABSTRACT My dissertation examines the concept of vernacular translation in the Middle Ages, particularly examining French and Middle English texts. It focuses on a specific genre of literature popular in the Middle Ages but relatively ignored in contemporary literary scholarship: the beast fable. My argument is that some of the principal writers of vernacular fables from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries—Marie de France, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Lydgate, and William Caxton--subtly exhibit, through their translations, a conscious awareness of, and anxiety about, the question of authorial identification--the role, identity, and authority of the “author” during their respective periods. Beginning with a historical survey of the Western, Aesopic fable, an examination of its didactic function, and a review of how medieval audiences perceived this genre, I then provide a brief history of Western translation theory, exploring how translators from Cicero to Dante to Seamus Heaney perceive the task of the literary translator. This section ends with a description of the relatively new academic discipline of Translation Studies and how it has informed, and indeed transformed, contemporary ideas about the translation of literature. In the principal chapters of my dissertation, I analyze various fables of Marie, Chaucer, Lydgate, and Caxton, applying to these tales some of the theoretical ideas presented in earlier chapters, and I conclude by drawing a connection between these writers and translators yet also demonstrating that each expresses his or her anxieties about authorial representation and translating in a different way. For all of these writers, their self-promotion or search for authorial legitimacy expressed through fable is part of a 2 broader literary reflection on the complex position occupied by vernacular literature in the Middle Ages. In this dissertation I am offering a fresh perspective of the medieval vernacular fable and a fuller picture of the nuances of this genre, infinitely more interesting and provocative than many would believe or suggest. My research, I hope, advances our views of the vernacular fable in the Middle Ages, and it also helps to revive or perhaps initiate interest in some important yet neglected literary works of the Middle Ages, works which merit much more attention than contemporary scholars have given them. Abstract Approved: ________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ________________________________________ Title and Department ________________________________________ Date MEDIEVAL ANXIETIES: TRANSLATION AND AUTHORIAL SELF-REPRESENTATION IN THE VERNACULAR BEAST FABLE by Richard Lee Garrett A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2011 Thesis Supervisor: Professor Jonathan Wilcox Copyright by RICHARD LEE GARRETT 2011 All Rights Reserved Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL ___________________________ PH.D THESIS ____________ This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of Richard Lee Garrett has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English at the May 2011 graduation. Thesis Committee: _______________________________________ Jonathan Wilcox, Thesis Supervisor _______________________________________ Claire Sponsler _______________________________________________ Kathryn Lavezzo _______________________________________ Constance Berman _______________________________________ Claire Fox ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project has been in many ways an arduous yet exciting journey. Pursuing a Ph.D. has been one of the most difficult yet fulfilling endeavors I have attempted to accomplish in my life. It has been a wonderful experience that has helped me grow intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. I would like to thank all who have directly and indirectly contributed to this work. I am grateful to Dr. Jonathan Wilcox, my academic advisor, whose steady support over the years has given me the positive energy I needed to complete this dissertation and who has helped me grow intellectually. My idea for exploring translation in the dissertation stemmed from a seminar taught by Dr. Wilcox in 2002. I thank him for his ongoing encouragement and advice throughout the various stages of my Ph.D. program, and I am particularly grateful for his extensive, useful critical feedback and suggestions during the writing process of my dissertation. I would like to thank my doctoral committee members Dr. Claire Sponsler and Dr. Kathy Lavezzo, who gave me much useful feedback on my Lydgate and Chaucer chapters, respectively. They also provided support and suggestions during my comprehensive exams. Thanks also go to my committee members Dr. Connie Berman and Dr. Claire Fox, who have helped me in various stages of my doctoral program as teachers and advisors. I would like to thank the University of Wisconsin-Platteville library for the hundreds of books and monographs I was able to borrow through its Universal Borrowing system and for the numerous articles I obtained through its interlibrary loan department. I would also like to thank the libraries of the University of Dubuque, Clarke College, and Loras College for allowing me to use their facilities and providing a pleasant, comfortable work space for me over the last four years. Thanks also go to the institutions that have given me funding to conduct my doctoral ii research: U.I.S.G, G.S.S, the T. Anne Cleary Scholarship, and the department of English at the University of Iowa. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my parents for helping me fulfill all my dreams. They have given me a precious gift—helping me become who I want to be. Their unwavering support, in countless ways, has given me the means and resolve to complete the doctoral program and this dissertation. I hope I have made them proud, particularly my late father. This dissertation is a tribute to him and to my late brother. My siblings as well have offered unflinching support and encouragement during the duration of my doctoral studies, and I thank them for this. I owe thanks to my brother Doug in particular for procuring some important articles for me that were unavailable in France when I lived there while doing research for the dissertation. Finally I would like to thank my wife Catherine and daughters Anna and Mélanie. Over their brief lives my daughters have had to endure numerous lengthy periods of time without their father at home. And writing this dissertation would not have been possible without the loving support of my wife. I cannot thank her enough for her unbounded patience and her kindness, commitment, and friendship throughout the research and long years of writing of this dissertation. She has encouraged me to finish graduate school whenever I had doubts about wanting to continue. Catherine has helped me develop a love for languages, other cultures, travel, intellectual work, inner-growth, and self-discovery. She has encouraged me to live life to its fullest intellectual, spiritual, and emotional potentials. Her own wanderlust and experience abroad have influenced my own appreciation for life abroad. Sharing this difficult yet exhilarating journey with her has been a wonderful experience. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1. BEAST FABLES AND THE AESOPIAN TRADITION ...........................16 2. THEORIZING VERNACULAR TRANSLATION .....................................28 3. IDENTITY CRISIS: MARIE DE FRANCE AND THE TRANSLATOR’S INVISIBILITY ............................................59 4. THE CHILDREN’S TALE AND THE AUCTOR: THE FABULIST AS TRUTH-TELLER IN CHAUCER’S MANCIPLE’S TALE ..................................................................................104 5. THE POLITICS OF BEASTLY LANGUAGE: JOHN LYDGATE’S ISOPES FABULES ..............................................................142 6. MODERN TRANSLATOR OR MEDIEVAL MORALIST? WILLIAM CAXTON AND AESOP ..........................................................174 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................204 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................215 iv
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