1st Edition
Translating Women in Early Modern England Gender in the Elizabethan Versions of Boiardo, Ariosto and Tasso
Situating itself in a long tradition of studies of Anglo-Italian literary relations in the Renaissance, this book consists of an analysis of the representation of women in the extant Elizabethan translations of the three major Italian Renaissance epic poems (Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata), as well as of the influence of these works on Elizabethan Literature in general, in the form of creative imitation on the part of poets such as Edmund Spenser, Peter Beverley, William Shakespeare and Samuel Daniel, and of prose writers such as George Whetstone and George Gascoigne. The study emphasises the importance of European writers' influence on English Renaissance Literature and raises questions pertaining to the true essence of translation, adaptation and creative imitation, with a specific emphasis on gender issues. Its originality lies in its exhaustiveness, as well as in its focus on the epics' female figures, both as a source of major modifications and as an evident point of interest for the Italian works' 'translatorship'.
Biography
Dr Selene Scarsi is a Research Associate at the University of Hull, where she teaches English Renaissance Literature.
'Selene Scarsi's monograph, from Ashgate's Anglo-Italian Renaissance Studies Series, is the most comprehensive study to date of the complete and partial Elizabethan translations of Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, and it should become essential reading for future research on the translation and English Renaissance reception of these Italian poets. Scarsi's focus on how these translators ''English'' the female knights and characters in these Italian romance epics could also yield insights for gender critics of the period.' Renaissance Quarterly '... a scrupulous, well-organized, in-depth and detailed scholarly study offering a valuable contribution to the field of Translation Studies and to that of Anglo-Italian Renaissance Studies, in whose Ashgate series the volume is appropriately placed.' inTRAlinea '[Scarsi] brings to the field a rare commitment to minute verbal detail, an impressive command of rhetorical terms, and an exhaustive knowledge of nearly a century’s worth of criticism in two languages... Readers will appreciate the comprehensiveness of this book, which, far from being limited to considerations of gender, traces the Elizabethan fascination with Italian literary culture, the relatively relaxed early modern attitude toward authorship and attribution, and the dynamics of imaginative exchange that could transport characters, plot devices, and metaphors across linguistic, generic, and temporal bounds.' Sixteenth Century Studies ’...constitutes a significant contribution to our knowledge of early modern English translation theory and practice and the book’s treatment of a broad range of important issues renders it interesting for scholars concerned not only with Translation Studies but also with Intertextuality, Anglo-Italian relations, and Gender Studies.’ Notes and Queries '... a comprehensive and detailed study which combines precious insights in the field of translation theory wi
