Medieval translation and general translation studies: relevance, crossing and convergences

Abstract

This paper argues for the appropriateness and benefit of concepts and analytical tools from modern translation theories to consider medieval translation, in particular, the translation of French narratives into Middle Welsh. It will be especially fruitful to analyse the diffusion and cultural appropriation of several works that pertain to the Arthurian and Carolingian matter from a notion of translation that takes advantage of the developments of Translation Studies and Cultural Transfer, which argue for a consideration of translation as a type of cultural transfer (among others). Such an enquire will be in line with the most recent research trends, but it will also be grounded in “classical” studies such as those by Buridant and Copeland. This notion of translation is complemented by narratology and reception studies in order to comprehend the process under examination as a translational event, simultaneously oriented towards the source text and the target culture, as process and product. In this way, it will be possible to see that translation in a peripheral area such as Wales (in respect to France or England) is an extremely complex activity and that translators are cultural mediators, carriers of cultural meanings, and intermediaries between a foreign aesthetics and culture and native literary conventions. Lastly, just like research on medieval translation can benefit from modern literary theories, these can also find relevant theoretical and practical insight for their own field of study in our investigations. Taking into account the specificity of the medieval text and the practice of medieval translation, it is entirely possible to recognise shared research premises and that the phenomena under study have more elements in common than frequently assumed.