Faith Wallis & Robert Wisnovsky 
Medieval Textual Cultures [PDF ebook] 
Agents of Transmission, Translation and Transformation

Support

Understanding how medieval textual cultures engaged with the heritage of antiquity (transmission and translation) depends on recognizing that reception is a creative cultural act (transformation). These essays focus on the people, societies and institutions who were doing the transmitting, translating, and transforming — the "agents". The subject matter ranges from medicine to astronomy, literature to magic, while the cultural context encompasses Islamic and Jewish societies, as well as Byzantium and the Latin West. What unites these studies is their attention to the methodological and conceptual challenges of thinking about agency. Not every agent acted with an agenda, and agenda were sometimes driven by immediate needs or religious considerations that while compelling to the actors, are more opaque to us. What does it mean to say that a text becomes "available" for transmission or translation? And why do some texts, once transmitted, fail to thrive in their new milieu? This collection thus points toward a more sophisticated "ecology" of transmission, where not only individuals and teams of individuals, but also social spaces and local cultures, act as the agents of cultural creativity.

€132.53
payment methods
Buy this ebook and get 1 more FREE!
Language English ● Format PDF ● Pages 223 ● ISBN 9783110467307 ● Editor Faith Wallis & Robert Wisnovsky ● Publisher De Gruyter ● Published 2016 ● Downloadable 3 times ● Currency EUR ● ID 6586776 ● Copy protection Adobe DRM
Requires a DRM capable ebook reader

More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor

77,056 Ebooks in this category