Chantal Phan: Thurs. 3 November 2011

Our next meeting:
Thursday the 3rd of November
at 6.00 p.m.
Buchanan Tower 799 (a.k.a. the FHIS department lounge)
Talk in English. All, as ever, welcome!

Chantal Phan (Dept. of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies, University of British Columbia):

Translating Annihilation: Observations on Medieval French, Italian and English Versions of Marguerite Porete’s ‘Mirouer des simples ames anienties’

Marguerite Porete’s pseudo-dramatic work of apophatic theology, known as the ‘Mirouer des simples ames anienties’ (‘Mirror of Simple, Annihilated Souls’), aims to discuss the annihilation of the self, in French, at a time when the French language was undergoing major changes in the structures of negation. This made translation of this text quite a challenge. In this talk, some fundamental and stylistic differences between the Medieval French, English and Italian versions will be discussed.

Poster for the talk (PDF)

Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls, Chapter 35 (Dialogue of the Soul and Reason). Late 15th or early 16th century. Manuscript Chantilly, Musée Condé, F XIV 26, fol. 38. Unknown French copyist.

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