Book review. Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Translation in the Middle Ages: Academic Traditions and Vernacular Texts Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. xiv + 295 pp. ISBN 0-521-38517-2 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 11).
Table of contents
In a challenging and promising book, Rita Copeland examines the place of translation in disciplinary and linguistic power struggles from antiquity through the Middle Ages. Her work places in historical context the central polarity of translation theory ("literal", "word-for-word" vs. "loose", "sense-for-sense"), and shows how changing contexts alter the meaning and the effect of this opposition. While this book is not an easy read, it can be a profitable one and points the way to a clearer recognition of the influences other disciplines have on the practice and theory of translation.