To a dubious critical salvation: Etienne Leroux and the canons of South African English criticism

This article presents a case study in cross-cultural literary reception following the act of literary translation-in this instance, of author Etienne Leroux-from Afrikaans into English. It describes the literary reception of Leroux in general terms, in Afrikaans and Dutch in the first place and subsequently in English (South Africanist) criticism. Our focus falls on the translation and subsequent reception of Leroux's major novel, Sewe dae by die Silbersteins, first published in Afrikaans in 1962, and crowned with the Hertzog Prize in 1964. The novel's rendering into English by poet Charles Eglington (Seven Days at the Silbersteins) in 1964 provides the centrepoint of our study. We argue that this translation, along with the several forms of what André Lefevere calls "rewriting" (in literary-critical registers) that it engendered, created disjunctive moments of cross-lingual critical reception in which dubious conclusions hardened into routine paraphrase or accepted "wisdom" in English criticism. By "rewriting" in this case, following Lefevere, we mean inter-lingual re-descriptions of literary works within literary-critical histories or reviews that are often based on translations, and on readings of them in relative isolation from their fuller context in the original language (here, Afrikaans).

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Main Authors: Penfold,Greg, de Kock,Leon
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association, Department of Afrikaans, University of Pretoria 2015
Online Access:http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2015000100006
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spelling oai:scielo:S0041-476X20150001000062015-05-20To a dubious critical salvation: Etienne Leroux and the canons of South African English criticismPenfold,Gregde Kock,Leon Afrikaans literature cross-cultural reception Etienne Leroux literary patronage systems rewriting Seven Days at the Silbersteins South African English criticism translation This article presents a case study in cross-cultural literary reception following the act of literary translation-in this instance, of author Etienne Leroux-from Afrikaans into English. It describes the literary reception of Leroux in general terms, in Afrikaans and Dutch in the first place and subsequently in English (South Africanist) criticism. Our focus falls on the translation and subsequent reception of Leroux's major novel, Sewe dae by die Silbersteins, first published in Afrikaans in 1962, and crowned with the Hertzog Prize in 1964. The novel's rendering into English by poet Charles Eglington (Seven Days at the Silbersteins) in 1964 provides the centrepoint of our study. We argue that this translation, along with the several forms of what André Lefevere calls "rewriting" (in literary-critical registers) that it engendered, created disjunctive moments of cross-lingual critical reception in which dubious conclusions hardened into routine paraphrase or accepted "wisdom" in English criticism. By "rewriting" in this case, following Lefevere, we mean inter-lingual re-descriptions of literary works within literary-critical histories or reviews that are often based on translations, and on readings of them in relative isolation from their fuller context in the original language (here, Afrikaans).Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association, Department of Afrikaans, University of PretoriaTydskrif vir Letterkunde v.52 n.1 20152015-01-01journal articletext/htmlhttp://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2015000100006en
institution SCIELO
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country Sudáfrica
countrycode ZA
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databasecode rev-scielo-za
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region África del Sur
libraryname SciELO
language English
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author Penfold,Greg
de Kock,Leon
spellingShingle Penfold,Greg
de Kock,Leon
To a dubious critical salvation: Etienne Leroux and the canons of South African English criticism
author_facet Penfold,Greg
de Kock,Leon
author_sort Penfold,Greg
title To a dubious critical salvation: Etienne Leroux and the canons of South African English criticism
title_short To a dubious critical salvation: Etienne Leroux and the canons of South African English criticism
title_full To a dubious critical salvation: Etienne Leroux and the canons of South African English criticism
title_fullStr To a dubious critical salvation: Etienne Leroux and the canons of South African English criticism
title_full_unstemmed To a dubious critical salvation: Etienne Leroux and the canons of South African English criticism
title_sort to a dubious critical salvation: etienne leroux and the canons of south african english criticism
description This article presents a case study in cross-cultural literary reception following the act of literary translation-in this instance, of author Etienne Leroux-from Afrikaans into English. It describes the literary reception of Leroux in general terms, in Afrikaans and Dutch in the first place and subsequently in English (South Africanist) criticism. Our focus falls on the translation and subsequent reception of Leroux's major novel, Sewe dae by die Silbersteins, first published in Afrikaans in 1962, and crowned with the Hertzog Prize in 1964. The novel's rendering into English by poet Charles Eglington (Seven Days at the Silbersteins) in 1964 provides the centrepoint of our study. We argue that this translation, along with the several forms of what André Lefevere calls "rewriting" (in literary-critical registers) that it engendered, created disjunctive moments of cross-lingual critical reception in which dubious conclusions hardened into routine paraphrase or accepted "wisdom" in English criticism. By "rewriting" in this case, following Lefevere, we mean inter-lingual re-descriptions of literary works within literary-critical histories or reviews that are often based on translations, and on readings of them in relative isolation from their fuller context in the original language (here, Afrikaans).
publisher Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Association, Department of Afrikaans, University of Pretoria
publishDate 2015
url http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0041-476X2015000100006
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