Translating in Spite of Stereotypes. On the First Comprehensive Poetic Translation of Seneca’s Tragedies into German

0560855 - FLÚ 2023 RIV AT eng J - Journal Article
Förster, Josef
Translating in Spite of Stereotypes. On the First Comprehensive Poetic Translation of Seneca’s Tragedies into German.
Wiener Studien. Zeitschrift für klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition. -, č. 135 (2022), s. 225-253. ISSN 0084-005X
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : classical philology * Seneca’s tragedies * translation
OECD category: Specific languages
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1553/wst135s225

The first poetic translation of all Seneca’s tragedies into German was made in Bohemia, then part of the Habsburg monarchy, in the years 1821–1830 by the national revivalist poet and philologist Václav Alois Svoboda. The translation of the Roman playwright raises a number of questions. It is only interesting that the author was strongly influenced by the Sturm und Drang movement and wrote radical free-thinking poems in the group of patriotic students. We must also consider the influences of neo-humanism, which promoted Greek culture, since the author translated Schiller, Goethe and the poetry of German Romanticism, corresponded with F. de la Motte-Fouqué, J. W. Goethe or W. Humboldt. The autor is looking for aswers to questions: Why Svoboda opposes contemporary contempt for Seneca’s tragedies? What were the reasons why he did not choose some Greek dramas and went against criticism of the period?
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0333664