Chamberlain, R. (2011) 'Most retrograde to our desire': translating recusant identity in Hamlet. In: Oakley-Brown, L. (ed.) Shakespeare and the Translation of Identity in Early Modern England. London: Continuum. pp. 131-68.
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Abstract:
This essay offers a reading of Hamlet and Shakespearian ‘refusal’ in the light of recent translation theory. The title character of this play is one of a number who withdraw their assent from social participation and consequently disrupt legitimation of the existing, exploitative, social order. Considering at first the possibility of an historicist interpretation which would see the play as ‘translating’ cultural anxieties about Elizabethan religious dissidence into early modern drama, the essay concludes that this essentially communicative move would, in fact, run counter to the principle of intransigence embodied in the play. Arguing that contextual historicism and much recent translation theory share a common problematic of participation and exchange – which is ostensibly liberating but ultimately serves to reproduce the ‘bad’ society – the essay turns to Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Task of the Translator’ (1923) for an alternative logic of translatability-as-refusal which illuminates more faithfully the nature of Hamlet’s negativity and its political effects
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Translation theory, Shakespeare's refusers
Subjects:
Creators:
Chamberlain, R.
Editors:
Oakley-Brown, L.
Publisher:
Continuum
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes:
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Education & Humanities > English and Creative Writing
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Centre > Centre for Critical and Creative Writing
Faculties > Faculty of Education & Humanities > English and Creative Writing
Research Centres > Centre for Critical and Creative Writing
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Centre > Centre for Critical and Creative Writing
Faculties > Faculty of Education & Humanities > English and Creative Writing
Research Centres > Centre for Critical and Creative Writing
Date:
2011
Date Type:
Publication
Page Range:
pp. 131-68
Title of Book:
Shakespeare and the Translation of Identity in Early Modern England
Series Name:
Continuum Shakespeare studies
Place of Publication:
London
Number of Pages:
186
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780826441690
Status:
Published / Disseminated
Refereed:
Yes
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