'A diverse voice, a diverse noise': the book of Genesis in early modern England

我的研究探索了早期现代英国圣经文化和文学文化之间的交集。特别是，我的项目关注的是《创世纪》一书在1605年至1667年之间出现在英语中的情况--这一时期以Josuah Sylvester的《Devine Weekes》和John Milton的《Paradise Lost》的出版为界。在这段时间里，《创世纪》这本书对白话文学提供了一种独特的考验。虽然翻译关注的是它的多语言，富有想象力的翻译将文本变成了英语诗句，学术评论揭开了它无与伦比的神学意义。然而，评论家们很少考察这一时期的《创世纪》。研究方法要么倾向于探索经文和主要文学作品之间的关系，要么倾向于将其翻译归入大规模的圣经项目--从Coverdale到King James圣经。相比之下，我的研究探索了早期现代作家处理圣经材料的各种方式。《创世纪》被翻译、诗句、阐述、布道、剪裁和粘贴在一起。我的工作集中在这本圣经书籍上，以更密切地了解圣经文本在这些不同形式之间转换的方式。它将表明，圣经并不是由一系列稳定的圣经书籍组成的，而是一个产生其独特意义的参与网络。

My research explores the intersections between biblical and literary cultures in early modern England. In particular, my project focuses on the book of Genesis as it appeared in English between 1605 and 1667 - a period demarcated by the publication of Josuah Sylvester's 'Devine Weekes' on one side and John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' on the other.During this period, the book of Genesis provided a singular test to vernacular literature. While translations attended to its multivalent language, imaginative renderings turned the text into English verse, and scholarly commentaries unpacked its unparalleled theological significance. Yet critics have rarely examined Genesis in this period. Approaches have tended either to explore the relationship between scripture and major literary works, or to subsume its translation within large-scale biblical projects - from Coverdale to the King James Bible. By contrast, my study explores the variety of ways in which early modern writers engaged with biblical material. Genesis was translated, versified, expounded, sermonised, cut up and pasted back together. My work focuses on this single biblical book to recover a closer sense of the ways in which scriptural texts shifted between these various forms. It will show that scripture was not comprised of a stable series of biblical books, but a network of engagements that generated its singular significance.