In:Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology
Edited by Luc van Doorslaer, Peter Flynn and Joep Leerssen
[Benjamins Translation Library 119] 2016
► pp. 21–35
Translating identity
The Debate Betwene The Heraldes, John Coke’s 1549 translation of the Débat des hérauts d’armes
Published online: 25 February 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.119.02mac
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.119.02mac
The late-medieval French Débat des hérauts d’armes reinforces a sense of French collective identity within its readership by providing a comparison of France and England in which France is systematically presented as superior. This chapter will argue that the Debate Betwene the Heraldes, John Coke’s 1549 translation of the Débat, appropriates and manipulates the source material in order to make it acceptable to a patriotic English readership during a period of war between England and France. Nevertheless, by ‘rewriting’ his source, Coke retains its fundamental purpose: the promotion of positive collective self-identity against a largely negative representation of the cultural and political other. The chapter will therefore illustrate the important role played by translation in the imagining of collective identity.
Article outline
- Two debates
- Anglo-French rivalry and the image of the other
- Translation and rewriting
-
Coke’s readership and strategy
- Appropriating and manipulating the source text
- Glossing and adding material
- Condemnation and abuse
- Religion and anti-Catholicism
- Conclusion
Acknowledgements Notes References
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