Reception Theory, Reception History, Reception Studies

Reception-oriented literary theory, history, and criticism, all analyze the processes by which literary texts are received, both in the moment of their first publication and long afterwards: how texts are interpreted, appropriated, adapted, transformed, passed on, canonized, and/or forgotten by various audiences. Reception draws on multiple methodologies and approaches including semiotics and deconstruction; ethnography, sociology, and history; media theory and archaeology; and feminist, Marxist, black, and postcolonial criticism. Studying reception gives us insights into the texts themselves and their possible range of meanings, uses, and value; into the interpretative regimes of specific historical periods and cultural milieux; and into the nature of linguistic meaning and communication.

Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations

This volume examines how, why and with what success smaller European literatures – written in less well-known languages from less familiar traditions – endeavour through translation to reach international readers. It argues that prevailing nation- and world-centred theoretical approaches have failed to provide an adequate understanding of the international circulation of these literatures, and instead advocates and models a comparative, interdisciplinary approach that consistently tests theory against concrete experience and practice, and combines literary, historiographical and translation methodologies to produce a far more precise analysis of the strategies, motivations, obstacles and patterns that emerge as these literatures strive to be heard. Through case studies drawn from over thirteen national contexts from Scandinavia and the Low Countries to the Mediterranean and Central and Eastern Europe, the volume analyses how the international perceptions of these literatures are disadvantaged and distorted in theory, reception and industry practice, evaluates successes and failures as these literatures, through state and third-sector intervention and individual innovation, attempt to overcome their marginalization, and charts how the mould of our perception of these literatures might be broken.

De historische imperatief

This paper brings together some considerations concerning the reconciliation of modernliterary theory and ancient literature. Modern theories reflecting on the hermeneutic actsuch as (critical) discourse analysis, rhetorical theory, reception studies, and New Historicismare discussed in order to improve classical scholars’ awareness of their own interpretativeassumptions when dealing with ‘classical’ literature. Moreover, attention is paidto the peculiar character of classical literary studies as an essentially historical undertaking.Attempts to focus on the ancient Greeks’ and Romans’ Otherness, to use a deconstructionistterm, might offer a sensible academic antidote for the reductionist characterof many popular discourses concerning the classical world.