Translator and Historian: Louise de Kéralio-Robert and English Travel Writers
Abstract:
Louise de Kéralio-Robert (1756-1822) is assumed to have translated at
least seven works from Italian and English. This essay gives a detailed
account of her many activities before focussing on her 1809 versions of Le voyage en Hollande et dans le Midi de l'Allemagne and L'étranger en Irlande, both by John Carr. Kéralio-Robert's strategy of commenting on and indeed undermining the original by means of extensive notes and paratexts transforms the act of translating into a pretext for continuing to write history by other means. Thus, the «task» (Walter Benjamin) of this woman translator testifies to an unprecedented political and pedagogical project.
SvD, May 2009
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