Translating German Mysticism: The Construction of a European Idea

该项目认为，德国神秘文学的早期现代英语翻译是翻译实践如何塑造早期现代性的一个关键例子。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·勃赫梅(Jacob Böhme，1575-1624)等作家的作品在早期现代英格兰的重叠网络中被翻译和出版，英格兰是一个非常肥沃的接受文化。德国神秘文学的英文翻译给新读者带来了一种传统感：它们将欧洲大陆的思想与本土方法联系起来，同时创造了一种新的语言。由于异端邪说的指控，薄对创造和人类改造的哲学思考在德国地下传播开来，但到1661年，他几乎所有的作品都以英语出版。这些早期翻译的成功甚至产生了一个新的角色：英语的Böhme，或Behmen。这些译本的历史背景最近引起了学术界的兴趣。然而，对这些英语文本与它们的德语(偶尔还有拉丁语)原文的关系的研究以前从未进行过。该项目旨在通过分析思想如何在翻译中被改编和重新想象，对这些翻译进行全面的哲学和文化重新评估。它有三个目标。1)我将简要介绍翻译成英语的德语主要资料语料库，以SPP 2130短期职位期间所做的初步清单为基础。这些材料将在项目网站上展示，并长期储存在布伦斯韦格理工大学图书馆的储存库中。2)分析神秘词汇在新语言中的翻译策略及其对哲学迁移的影响。我提议写一本关于Böhme这一关键案件的专著。这将第一次将勃赫梅哲学术语在德语中的发展与其在英语中的有影响力的转变联系在一起，重点放在他的自然神学术语、人类语言理论和视觉方案上。3)我将揭示翻译与使用图像作为跨文化表达哲学思想的媒介之间的关系。我将把重点放在狄奥尼修斯·安德烈亚斯·弗雷赫(1649-1728)的手稿上，他是一位在伦敦的德国移民，他通过德语和英语的论文和大量的图像传播和批判性地解释了德国神秘主义。我将编辑Freher的三个非常不同的表格的解释，一个文本与一系列复杂的弹出式图像，旨在调解BöHme的哲学。只有这些图像曾经出版过：我将第一次将这些图像与论文重新结合起来。该项目通过增加对早期现代哲学的新关注，推进了SPP 2130内的最先进技术。在考察著名人物(如勃尔梅)和鲜为人知的人物(如弗雷尔)的过程中，该项目将把哲学放在由SPP开发的翻译理论的地图上。

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.