The French Translations of Thomson's The Seasons, 1754–1818 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2014
James Thomson’s descriptive long poem 'The Seasons', originally published in 1730, had a profound impact on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature and print culture in Britain and in Europe more generally. This dissertation aims to produce a textual, paratextual, and print-cultural study of Thomson’s poem, from 1730 to 1820. It adopts an interdisciplinary methodological framework, drawing on methodologies of genre theory, print culture studies, book history, and translation studies, to generate a novel understanding of the text by examining the ways in which the poem was mediated both textually and materially throughout the period. Engaging with the latest developments in print culture and book-historical research, it examines the paratextual apparatuses and material packaging of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century editions of The Seasons to make sense of their interpretative and cultural ramifications. It identifies the economic impulses and editorialising strat...
Visual Interpretations, Print, and Illustrations of Thomson's The Seasons, 1730 - 1797
Eighteenth-Century Life, 2010
The painterly properties of James Thomson's long poem The Seasons (1730) and the poem's descriptiveness were routinely remarked upon by its earliest readers. Dr. Johnson noted: "His descriptions of extended scenes and general effects bring before us the whole magnificence of Nature, whether pleasing or dreadful.. .. The poet leads us through the appearances of things as they are successively varied by the vicissitudes of the year, and imparts to us so much of his own enthusiasm, that our thoughts expand with his imagery, and kindle with his sentiments." 1 Robert Heron praised the "countless profusion of particular images," while Robert Shiels had denominated description as the "peculiar talent of Thomson." 2 Joseph Warton, among others, hailed the authenticity of Thomson's descriptions but, like Johnson, embedded them in a moral framework, remarking that "pathetic reflection, properly introduced into a descriptive poem, will have a still greater force and beauty, and more deeply interest a reader, than a moral one." 3 Scenes and episodes from Thomson's poem were adapted, visually interpreted, and translated into different media that ranged from Chelsea softpaste candlesticks in the 1750s, Meissen and Derby figurines of allegorical "seasons" (produced throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries), porcelain vases and creamware, to sculpture, decorative fireplace and floor
James Thomson’s The Seasons, Gone Gaelic: The Emergence of a Poetic Trend
Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 30, 2011
s The Seasons was undoubtedly one of the most popular poetic works of eighteenth-century Britain. The four poems of which it is comprised were initially published sequentially, but not in order, beginning with 'Winter' in 1726, then 'Summer' in 1727, 'Spring' in 1728, and 'Autumn' included in the full, revised volume in 1730. 1 As Douglas Grant, one of Thomson's most respected biographers, asserts, "The Seasons was once to be found in every household.,,2 It is not surprising, then, that a Highland Scottish poet might be inspired by this greatly influential collection written by his fellow countryman-for Thomson was a Scot, though he left his Lowland home in favour of the London literary scene shortly before penning his first seasonal verse. While Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, the aforementioned Highlander, never crossed paths with Thomson during his visits to the Lowlands, he certainly knew of Thomson. What is more, Alasdair bestowed upon him perhaps the greatest mark of respect one poet can show another-he composed a pair of seasonal poems in Scottish Gaelic in imitation of Thomson's magnum opus. And in doing so, Alasdair set off a chain reaction in the Highlands. His poems on summer and winter were so popular they prompted a spate of seasonal verse by nearly all of the best Gaelic poets before the tum of the nineteenth-century: Rob is more commonly known by the English form of his name, rather than E6ghann NATASHA SUMNER examines the intertextual relationships among these authors' seasonal compositions, both by exploring the creative interweaving of shared artistic material and by contextualizing these poetic interactions within a socio-historical framework. 4
Literary Imagination, Oxford University Press, 2014
The attitude toward nature in James Thomson’s "The Seasons" has not been duly noted by literary commentators. Instead, the reception of "The Seasons" in modern literary criticism has focused on all sorts of aspects, ranging from visual imagery, to “dislocation, deformity and renewal.” However, when nature as a theme in the poem has been tackled, critics have favored its religious implications—specifically, those pertaining to the historical period in English literature, as well as a number of hypotheses about Thomson’s own relation toward god—over Thomson’s conception of nature on its own terms. Furthermore, none has, in my view, concentrated enough on the most emblematic characteristic of "The Seasons": its unresolved stance toward the natural and its strongly polarized attitude toward it. The aim of this essay is to examine these inconsistencies in order to reveal what they tell us about the period’s changing perspectives, to place "The Seasons"’ reception of the natural in the history of eighteenth-century literature, and to uncover the implications and fertile consequences of Thomson’s view of nature—which spill into para-literary domains.
Image Making in James Thomson’s The Seasons
SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 2013
William B. Hutchings's work on James Thomson's The Seasons (1730-44) marks a significant departure from much of Thomson criticism that examines natural description. 1 He usefully discusses how "Thomson places emphasis upon verbs of motion" and "identif[ies] description with process, beauty with the action of perceiving it," and the "virtual" reality with which his images are endowed. 2 Focusing on the poet's landscapes, Hutchings offers insights into the evocative qualities of Thomson's language and images that are more widely applicable to passages from the poem that would not strictly be characterized as natural description. I wish to extend Hutchings's argument on the complex techniques of the poet's image-making processes by examining some types of images that contribute to generating Thomson's vision of poetic representation. Special attention will be given to the "capacity [of Thomson's images] to provoke the reader's imaginative experience through the power of their language and syntactic organization." 3 Thomson creates images that are tonally and modally determined and that enable him to produce an effectively varied long poem in which he skillfully modulates passages of discourse with passages of description. 4 In doing so, Thomson, as Patricia Meyer Spacks has noted, "varies the principle of realizing the invisible": the "nature of the poetic enterprise makes imagining the most important" capacity in the poet's synesthetic realm of constructed perception. 5 The complex interconnectedness of the various elements of Thomson's poetic images is realized and apprehended with an imaginative exploration of these images' very
A Preliminary Study on the First Selected Translation of The Book of Poetry into French
Asian Studies, 2015
This article aims to sketch a preliminary analysis of eight poems from The Book of Poetry, translated into French by the French Jesuit Joseph de Premare (1660–1736) in the early 18th century. Premare implanted the doctrines of Christianity in his translation of the eight poems that were selected from the Greater Odes of the Kingdom (大雅), Minor Odes of the Kingdom (小雅) and the Sacrificial Odes of Zhou (周頌), which were analysed from three aspects: firstly, the theme of the eight odes, king and kingship, allude to the Lord; and the first ode Jing Zhi (敬之), meaning to reverence Tian (敬天) by title, refers virtually to reverence God. Secondly, the Christianized translation is especially obvious in the translation of the words Tian (天), Haotian (昊天), and Shangdi (上帝): these were translated as the God in Christianity. Thirdly, even the story of Paradise Lost in the Bible is implanted in the translation of the ode Zhan Yang (瞻卬). This article also clarifies that because of Premare’s translat...
Translation and Literature
These two new volumes of collected translations commemorate John Ashbery's longstanding affection for and preoccupation with French literature and culture, gathering together an adventurously eclectic body of literary influences, affiliations, and interests. The breadth of these volumes -which accommodate 28 prose pieces and 171 poems, translations of the work of 24 poets and 17 other writers -is in itself testament to Ashbery's ardent Francophilia. There are, of course, many other examples of the influence of French literature on American poets, many of whom, such as Pound, Stevens, Lowell, Wilbur, and Moore, also favoured translation as a revelatory mode of cultural encounter and mediation.