The Untranslatables of World Theory. A Geopolitical Outlook

The paper investigates the cultural transfers and translations of the term ‟theory”, as instrumented in some of the most influential anthologies of the past decades. It puts forward the argument that while in literature per se a widening of the canon has been produced, ‟theory” remains a term charged with high hegemonical presumptions. Therefore, it pleads for a non-hierarchical and practical conception of theory, that can account for the large variety of non-Western literary phenomena.

From Lyons to Antwerp

This article examines the multilingual transmission of the late medieval idyllic romance Paris et Vienne. The genealogy of incunabula editions of this pan-European bestseller is obscured by an unsettled bibliographical record. The little-known first French edition printed circa 1480 is likely the first printing in any language. The analysis highlights textual and paratextual transformations from the French editio princeps to Gheraert Leeu’s illustrated edition of 1487. I argue that the second Lyons imprint is the source of Leeu’s edition or that they share a common source. Identification and collation of French sources brings into focus the transmission process and illuminates the ways in which the illustrated editions published in Antwerp accelerated circulation across Europe. Leeu’s multilingual adaptation offers a rare example of triangulated cross-cultural transfers, in which translations of French-language texts were produced with an eye on the Anglophone print marketplace.

THE FOUNDERS OF WESTERN PONTIC CITIES

The Greek cities of the western coast of the Black Sea knew both foundation myths and the phenomenon of the second foundation, associated with the rebuilding of civic life after the invasion of Burebista, the king of the Getae and Dacian tribes from 82 bce to 44 bce. In most foundation stories the ktistes is either a god (in the case of the city of Dionysopolis) or a hero (in the cases of the cities of Kallatis, Tomis and Anchialos), and the stories date mostly to the Antonine age. The story of Tomos of Tomis stands out owing to its wide acceptance among the local elite, while that of Melsas of Mesambria may have never gained official acceptance: it was created in the late Hellenistic age, probably reviving a Thracian tale of Melsas, perhaps a hero, known from early-third century bce coins. The Melsas story is a prime example of cultural transfers from the native population to Greek-majority Mesambria in the Hellenistic and early Roman ages.

Humanističke transformacije u predavanju Ilije Crijevića o Properciju

There are four surviving humanistic lectures of Ilija Crijević (1463-1520); one of them is the Praelectio in explicationem elegiarum Propertii (c. 1500?). An analysis of the contents, quotations and sources in the lecture shows open and hidden strategies of cultural transfers and transformations. In the reference sphere of the lecture there are a number of distinguished authors – Plato, Ausonius, Ovid, Claudian, Silius Italicus, Cicero; Filippo Beroaldo the Elder (1453–1505), Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494), Michele Marullo (1458–1500); the contemporary humanists remain hidden in the lecture, used, but not named. The rhetorical philology and philological rhetoric of Ilija Crijević turn out to be a virtuosic individual realisation of the trend noted throughout Dalmatia during the Renaissance.

Aperçu du champ intellectuel sud-vietnamien postcolonial

This article aims to present the South Vietnamese intellectual field in the aftermath of decolonization. It is a question of examining the agents and instances in a postcolonial social space from a chronological and relational point of view: philosophers, professors, journals, universities… These sets often consist of a system of sharing and relationships in ‘position raking’ and construction of symbolic capital. We will particularly observe the ways in which South Vietnamese intellectuals treat western philosophical thoughts as a privileged object to structure the intellectual field and to establish their power and vision in this space. This questioning thus aims to reregister the Vietnamese intellectual field in a perspective of western cultural transfers.

Intercultural communication and cultural transfers in the colonial context. The encounter between Pizarro and Atahualpa in 1532 ans its discursive representations in early-modern cultures

This contribution treats the historical representations of the encounter between the Inca King Atahualpa and the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro on november 16th, 1532, in the Peruvian town of Cajamarca which was one of the decisive turning points of the Spanish conquest of South America. After theoretical and methodological reflections on the relations between intercultural communication processes and cultural transfers in the context of the conquista, it focuses first on the various contemporary Spanish discourses on the event of November 16th, 1532, which represented predominantly an official ideological version of it. In a further step are analyzed the new 18th-century discourses, influenced by different historical sources, like the work of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, which reveal very different ‘constructions’, based on a transcultural network of cultural transfers and intercultural mediators, of this event.

The Lulav: Early Modern Polemical Ethnographies and the Art of Fencing

In recent years, scholars have devoted a great deal of attention to the history of scholarship in general and, more specifically, to the emergence of critical historical and anthropological literature from and within ecclesiastical scholarship. However, few studies have discussed the Jewish figures who took part in this process. This paper analyzes the role played by historiographical and ethnographical writing in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italian Jewish–Christian polemics. Tracing various Christian polemical ethnographical depictions of the Jewish rite of shaking the lulav (sacramental palm leaves used by Jews during the festival of Sukkot), it discusses the variety of ways in which Jewish scholars responded to these depictions or circumvented them. These responses reflect the Jewish scholars’ familiarity with prevailing contemporary scholarship and the key role of translation and cultural transfers in their own attempts to create parallel works. Furthermore, this paper presents new Jewish polemical manuscript material within the relevant contexts, examines Jewish attempts to compose polemical and apologetic ethnographies, and argues that Jewish engagement with critical scholarship began earlier than scholars of this period usually suggest

Languages, Identities and Cultural Transfers

What was the perception of Greece in Europe during the later nineteenth century, when the attraction of romantic philhellenism had waned? This volume focuses on the reception of medieval and modern Greece in the European press, rigorously analysing journals and newspapers published in England, France, Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands. The essays here suggest that reactions to the Greek state's progress and irredentist desires were followed among the European intelligentsia. Concurrently, new scholarship on the historical development of the Greek language and vernacular literature enhanced the image of medieval and modern Greece. This volume's contributors consider the press's role in this Europe-wide exchange of ideas, explore the links between romantic and late philhellenism and highlight the scholarly nature of the latter. Moreover, they highlight the human aspects of cultural transfers by focusing on networks of mediators, publishers and scholarly collaborators. This context enhances our understanding of both the creation of Hellenic studies and the complex formation of the modern Greek identity.