Dryden's Ovid: Aesthetic Translation and the Idea of the Classic
Dryden's Ovid: Aesthetic Translation and the Idea of the Classic
This chapter proposes an aesthetic model, derived from Kant's Critique of Judgement, for how translation might operate in relation to a classic text (as an alternative to the standard political/institutional model); it takes as its focus Dryden's translations of Ovid. It first sets out what an aesthetic theory of translation might involve, arguing that it can disrupt the hierarchical assumptions of other theories. Particular use is made of writings from within English Aestheticism by D. G. Rossetti and Walter Pater as well as of Dryden's own theories of translation. Then, by a detailed examination of Dryden's version of Ovid's Io, the chapter gives an example of what a ‘beautiful’ translation might look like and how its beauty might be described.
Keywords: aesthetic, Aestheticism, beauty, Kant, Pater, Rossetti
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