Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I think this book has two major problems in terms of the skimpiness of coverage in some areas. First, it is entirely inadequate in dealing with certain authors (usually poets) who have been translated into English dozens of times - I think of Homer, Dante, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Rilke, and the ancient Chinese poets collectively. Generally in these cases, the editors all too quickly dismiss any possibility of a comprehensive assessment of most existing translations due to space limitations, choosing instead to consider only a handful of translations to illustrate typical issues in translation. Yet there are relatively few such authors who have had numerous English translators, and giving an extra page or two to those few that have is not going to bulk up the volume that much. After all, a reader's need for the guidance provided by this volume in any given instance probably is in direct proportion to the number of available translations - you do not need a lot of guidance if there are only one or two, but you might if there are 30. The second problem with the book is that most of the expert contributors are British, and most of them seem to have made very little effort to track down translations commonly available in the United States for their consideration. The result is that many translations that are somewhat standard among Americans are not even mentioned.
There are few alternatives to this book if you are looking for guidance on available translations, and I am glad to have it - but it is a frustrating volume.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation
Click here for more information about The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation
0 comments:
Post a Comment