British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
14TH BRITISH ACADEMY POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP SYMPOSIUM
Abstract
Literary Translation in the Reign of James VI of Scotland: An Overview
Dr Sergi Mainer
This paper will explore how literary translation contributed to the establishment of James VI's cultural and political policies before he became king of England. As a young monarch, James promoted literary activities in Scots and tried to impose his authority in a convoluted country. James VI's project of dynastic and vernacular affirmation should be studied together in order to understand the extent to which literature was deployed to enhance the king's political aspirations. The Jacobean literary translations are perfect illustrations of this. The translators deploy James's literary and political treatises, Reulis and Cautelis and the Basilicon Doron respectively, as a guidance to compose their works. At any rate, there is not always an unproblematic acceptance of the king's prerogatives, but a dialogue emanates between James's ideas, the original text and the translations. The way in which Italian and French traditions are negotiated results in a flourishing of Scots vernacular culture, in which the source-texts are transplanted into Scotland through a process of appropriation and transformation. According to James's own words, translation is not based upon imitatio, but upon inventio. Despite the makars' respect for the cultures from which the texts originate, there is no straightforward submission to the originals, but an inventive dialogue, creating a particular Scots tradition in literary translation.
Dr Sergi Mainer is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of English Studies, Stirling University. His current research reassesses the importance of literary translation during the reign of James VI of Scotland. His previous research on the medieval Scottish romances resulted in a monograph, Nation, Chivalry and Knighthood: The Scottish Romance Tradition c. 1375- c. 1550 (forthcoming, 2008). His areas of research interest are Older Scots literature, and medieval and renaissance comparative literature: Scotland, Britain and Europe.