Sederi Yearbook 34

Line Cottegnies, “Aphra Behn’s use of translatio: Mediation, adaptation, and emulation in a cross-channel perspective.” SEDERI 34 (2024): 31–52.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34136/sederi.2024.2                                                         Download PDF

Abstract

Recent historians of fiction have shown that the “British” novel was essentially a transnational phenomenon in the Restoration. French was the dominant source language for literary translation as a whole in the Restoration period, and translations played a prominent role in the development of a national literature. Aphra Behn, whose role as a translator and adaptor of French texts is now recognized, offers a perfect vantage point from which to measure the multifaceted impact of French literature on seventeenth-century English literature. The sheer range of her strategies as a translator is extraordinary as she explores all the shades between literal paraphrase and free imitation. This article argues that far from being merely commercial her translations form a coherent body of works which manifests a form of emulation with their originals that is fully creative.

Keywords: Translation, Aphra Behn, fiction, Restoration, imitations.

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