Translating German Mysticism: The Construction of a European Idea

翻译德国神秘主义：欧洲思想的构建

• 批准号: 461562574
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Anne Eusterschulte, since 7/2022
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Philosophie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Priority Programmes
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/461562574?language=en
• 关键词: Translating; German; Mysticism; Construction; European

The project argues that early modern English translations of German mystical literature are a key example of how early modernity was shaped by the practice of translation. Works by authors like Paracelsus (1493-1541), Sebastian Franck (1499-1542), Valentin Weigel (1533-1588), and Jacob Böhme (1575-1624) were translated and published within overlapping networks in early modern England, a remarkably fertile receiving culture. The English translations of German mystical literature produced the sense of a tradition presented to a new readership: they connected ideas from the Continent with native approaches, while creating a new language. Böhme’s philosophical speculation on creation and human renovation was diffused underground in Germany due to accusations of heresy, yet almost all his work appeared in English by 1661. The success of these early translations even generated a new persona: an English Böhme, or Behmen. The historical context of the translations has recently attracted scholarly interest. Yet, a study of these English texts in relation to their German (and occasionally Latin) originals has never been conducted before. This project aims at a full philosophical and cultural revaluation of these translations by analysing how ideas were adapted and reimagined in translation. It has three objectives. 1) I will present with brief descriptions the corpus of German primary sources translated into English, building on a preliminary list made during a short-term post within the SPP 2130. The material will be presented on the project website and stored long-term in a repository at the Library of TU Braunschweig. 2) I will analyse the translation strategies for rendering mystical vocabulary in a new language and its impact on philosophical transfer. I propose a monograph on the key case of Böhme. This will for the first time connect the development of Böhme’s philosophical terminology in German with its influential transformation in English, focusing on his natural-theological terminology, theory of human language, and visual schemes. 3) I will bring to light the relationship between translation and the use of images as a medium for expressing philosophical ideas cross-culturally. I will focus on the manuscript work of Dionysius Andreas Freher (1649-1728), a German émigré in London who diffused and critically interpreted German mysticism via treatises in German and English and a large body of images. I will edit Freher’s An Explication of Three Very Different Tables, a text with an intricate series of pop-up images designed to mediate Böhmes’s philosophy. Only the images were ever published: I will reunite the images with the treatise for the first time. The project advances the state of the art within the SPP 2130 by adding a new focus on early modern philosophy. In examining both renowned figures (e.g. Böhme), and lesser-known ones (e.g. Freher), the project will put philosophy on the map of translation theories developed by this SPP.

该项目认为，德国神秘文学的早期现代英语翻译是早期现代性如何通过翻译实践塑造的一个关键例子。帕拉塞尔苏斯（Paracelsus，1493-1541）、塞巴斯蒂安·弗兰克（Sebastian Franck，1499-1542）、瓦伦丁·魏格尔（Valentin Weigel，1533-1588）和雅各布·伯梅（Jacob Böhme，1575-1624）等作家的作品在现代早期的英国被翻译和出版，这是一个非常丰富的接受文化。德国神秘主义文学的英译本产生了一种呈现给新读者的传统感：它们将欧洲大陆的思想与本土的方法联系起来，同时创造了一种新的语言。伯梅关于创造和人类改造的哲学思考在德国由于被指控为异端而被秘密传播，但到1661年，他几乎所有的作品都以英语出现。这些早期翻译的成功甚至产生了一个新的角色：英语Böhme或Behmen。翻译的历史背景最近引起了学术界的兴趣。然而，研究这些英语文本与其德语（偶尔是拉丁语）原件的关系，以前从未进行过。该项目旨在通过分析翻译中的思想如何被改编和重新想象，对这些翻译进行全面的哲学和文化重估。它有三个目标。1)我将简要介绍翻译成英语的德语主要来源的语料库，建立在SPP 2130短期职位期间的初步列表上。这些材料将在项目网站上展示，并长期存储在布伦瑞克图书馆的存储库中。2)我将分析在一种新的语言中呈现神秘词汇的翻译策略及其对哲学转移的影响。我提出了一个专题论文的关键情况下伯梅。这将是第一次连接伯梅的哲学术语在德语中的发展与其在英语中的影响力转变，重点是他的自然神学术语，人类语言理论和视觉计划。3)我将揭示翻译和使用图像作为跨文化表达哲学思想的媒介之间的关系。我将集中讨论狄奥尼修斯·安德烈亚斯·弗雷尔（Dionysius Andreas Freher，1649-1728）的手稿。他是一位在伦敦的德国移民，通过德语和英语的论文以及大量的图像，传播并批判性地解释了德国的神秘主义。我将编辑弗雷尔的《三张非常不同的桌子的解释》，这篇文章有一系列复杂的弹出图像，旨在调解伯姆斯的哲学。只有图像被发表过：我将第一次把图像和论文结合起来。该项目通过增加对早期现代哲学的新关注，推进了SPP 2130的最新技术水平。在研究著名人物（如伯梅）和鲜为人知的人物（如弗雷赫）时，该项目将把哲学放在这个SPP开发的翻译理论的地图上。