Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Aristophanes and the French Translations of Anne Dacier

Wyles, Rosie (2016) Aristophanes and the French Translations of Anne Dacier. In: Walsh, Philip, ed. Brill's Companion to the Reception of Aristophanes. Brill's Companions to Classical Reception . Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 195-216. ISBN 978-90-04-27068-8. (doi:10.1163/9789004324657) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:62895)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004324657

Abstract

Anne Dacier (née Le Fèvre) produced a French translation of Clouds and Plutus in 1684 which ensured that the vernacular reader could read two complete plays of Aristophanes in French for the first time. It was as a particularly bold undertaking, given the limited work in this area before her and this comic playwright's unfavourable reputation in 17th-century France. Her work gained relatively little immediate attention by reviewers and enjoyed only a limited number of re-editions (compared to, for example, her Terence), but it was destined to exert a significant influence on the reception of Aristophanes in France and beyond. This chapter takes our understanding of her landmark translation of Aristophanes further in two ways. Firstly by exploring the rhetorical strategies Dacier employed in trying to persuade the vernacular reader of the brilliance of the original, particularly in her 'remarques' (notes). Secondly the discussion examines the motivations and implications of Dacier’s radical change to the gender of two characters in Clouds. This change has gone unnoticed in previous discussions of Dacier's translation but reveals a significant strand in the reception history of Aristophanes and an important element to Dacier's influence on subsequent English translations.

Item Type: Book section
DOI/Identification number: 10.1163/9789004324657
Uncontrolled keywords: Dacier; Aristophanes; reception; Greek theatre; translation; gender; women; France
Subjects: A General Works > AZ History of Scholarship. The Humanities
D History General and Old World > DC France
N Visual Arts > NX Arts in general
P Language and Literature > PA Classical philology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Rosie Wyles
Date Deposited: 21 Aug 2017 10:16 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Aug 2022 12:22 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/62895 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.