Translation and Manipulation in Renaissance England

Abstract

This supplementary volume to JEMS is part of an ongoing research project which began with a series of articles published by the author in the 1990s on the translation of Classical historical texts in Renaissance England. The methodology followed is that of Descriptive Translation Studies as developed by scholars such as Lefevere and Hermans with the accent on manipulation of the source text in line with the ideological stance of the translator and the need to ensure that readers of the translation received the ‘correct’ moral lessons.  Particular attention is devoted to a case study of the strategies followed in Thomas North’s domesticating English translation of Jacques Amyot’s French translation of Plutarch’s Lives and the consequences for Shakespeare’s perception of Plutarch.

Biography
John Denton was associate professor of English Language and Translation at the University of Florence until retirement in 2015. He  has published on contrastive analysis, history of translation (with special reference to the Early Modern England), religious discourse, literary and audiovisual translation.