Translating the classics

This chapter outlines the theoretical and practical issues involved in compiling and analyzing the translation histories of literary classics from a socio-historical perspective. Starting from an overview of the theoretical framework (distant reading and sociological theory), I then move on to the practicalities of how and where to locate translations, both online and in print. Subsequently, I focus on one case study, namely Dante’s Divine Comedy, and analyzse its translation history. I give concrete data about the worldwide reception of this work – when and in which languages it was translated (and where it wasn’t was not translated) –- and then address specifically its translations into English. I show how often it was translated into specific forms – such as terza rima, blank verse, and free verse – and I additionally present examples of when it was censured in translation (in both Arabic and English). I address three other aspects of translation history as well: the nationalities of translators (focusing especially on the difference between UK and USA translators),; the age of translators;, and the gender of translators. I demonstrate that the vast majority of English translators of Dante’s Divine Comedy are male translators, even to the present day.