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Madeleine Kasten

Guest

Name
Dr. M.J.A. Kasten
Telephone
+31 71 527 2727
E-mail
m.j.a.kasten@hum.leidenuniv.nl
ORCID iD
0000-0002-3807-8765

Madeleine Kasten is a guest at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.

More information about Madeleine Kasten

Research

Over the past few years I have become increasingly interested in the art of translation. Much of the literature we read in the course of our lives comes to us via translations, a fact which we too often take for granted. Unfamiliarity with the source language may even induce us to look upon a translation as an original in its own right. Indeed, the practice of literary translation, especially when it is expanded to include the ‘freer’ categories of imitation and adaptation, has yielded many texts worthy of being enjoyed for their own sake. However, recent developments in the fields of literary and translation studies have made it possible to question the relationship between a source text and its offspring on other than purely aesthetic grounds.

As Julia Kristeva and others have taught us, literary works never exist in a vacuum. Rather, they are part of a dynamic cultural network in which one text may evoke the presence of many others. It is up to the reader – and, I would add, the translator – to pick up these resonances and create her own text, thereby subverting the tradition which would posit the author as the source of all meaning. But how do translations like the Ovide Moralisée or Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film adaptation of Arabian Nights actually contrive to translate meaning back into their sources? More generally: what are the cultural and ideological stakes involved in translation’s two-way process of meaning-making?

My interest in these and related questions stems from my research in the field of (literary) allegory, the ancient art of ‘speaking other’, where a text is typically designed to hold its own translation between its lines. Here, too, the role of the reader is crucial, as is shown by the intricate connection between the genre of allegory and allegorical reading.

Well before the advent of deconstruction, Northrop Frye argued that all literature is to some extent allegorical in that it requires interpretation. Over fifty years before Frye, Charles Sanders Peirce had already claimed that interpretation is merely another word for translation. The project which I am currently working on will comprise a number of case studies in which I focus on the constantly varying relationship between these three terms: (literary and intermedial) translation, allegory, and interpretation.

 

Publications

Kasten, M.J.A. (2007). ‘In Search of 'Kynde Knowynge': Piers Plowman and the Origin of Allegory (Costerus New Series, 168). Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.

Kasten, M.J.A. (2010). "Labouring in Reason's Vineyard: Voltaire and the Allegory of Enlightenment". In: Otten,, Willemien, Vanderjagt,, Arjo, Vries, de, Hent (Eds.), How the West Was Won: Essays on Literary Imagination, the Canon and the Christian Middle Ages (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History), 188. , pp. 101-116. Leiden: E.J.Brill.

Kasten, M.J.A. & Gruenler, C. (2011). “The Point of the Plow: Conceptual Integration in the Allegory of Langland and Voltaire”. Metaphor and Symbol (26:2), pp. 143-151.

Kasten, M.J.A. (2012). Translation Studies - Vondel's Appropriation of Grotius's Sophompaneas (1635). In: Bloemendal, J. & Korsten, F.W.A. (Eds.), Joost van den Vondel (1587 - 1679): Dutch Playwright in the Golden Age (Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe), Vol. I. , pp. 249-269. Leiden & Boston: Brill.

Kasten, M.J.A. (2012). “Wor(l)ds at Play: Gadamer and the Dynamics of Literary Translation”. In: Kasten, M.J.A., Paul, H.J., Sneller, H.W. (Eds.), Hermeneutics and the Humanities - Hermeneutik und Geisteswissenschaften, pp. 198-216. Leiden: Leiden University Press.

Guest

  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Centre for the Arts in Society
  • Literatuurwetenschap
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2019), 'Straight from the horse's mouth': Michael Morpurgo's War Horse tussen universalisme en vervreemding, Vooys: tijdschrift voor letteren 37(4): 16-25.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2018), Of Fish and Men: Benjamin's Allegorist and the Meaning of Life. In: Kasten M.J.A., Sneller H.W. & Visser G.T.M. (Eds.), Benjamin's Figures: Dialogues on the Vocation of the Humanities no. Libri nigri 65. Nordhausen, Germany: Traugott Bautz GmbH. 181-191.
  • Kasten M.J.A., Sneller H.W. & Visser G.T.M. (Eds.) (2018), Benjamin's Figures: Dialogues on the Vocation of the Humanities no. Libri nigri 65. Nordhausen, Germany: Traugott Bautz GmbH.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2018), Preface to Benjamin's Figures: Dialogues on the Vocation of the Humanities, eds. Madeleine Kasten, Rico Sneller, Gerard Visser (Traugott Bautz GmbH). [other].
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2016), Zien of geloven? Intermediale omzwervingen van Saint-Exupéry's Le Petit Prince, Vooys: tijdschrift voor letteren 34(1/2): 51-60.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2015), Staging the Barbarian: The Case of Voltaire's Le Fanatisme, ou Mahomet le prophète. In: Boletsi M. & Moser C. (Eds.), Barbarism Revisited: New Perspectives on an Old Concept. Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex and Race no. 29. Leiden and Boston: Brill/Rodopi. 155-162.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2014), Lanoye's Spoils of War: An Excursion Into Literary No Man's Land. In: Dembeck T. & Mein G. (Eds.), Philologie und Mehrsprachigkeit no. Band 315. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter. 309-321.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2013), Puin, hoop: Drie reflecties op de dialectiek van het lezen. In: Teeuwen M. (Ed.), The Glorious Rise and Fall ... (and so on): tentoonstellingscatalogus. 's Hertogenbosch 194-200.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2013), Vertalers in den vreemde: Goethes hidjra en Benjamins "Aufgabe des Übersetzers", Filosofie. Tweemaandelijks tijdschrift van de Stichting Informatie Filosofie 23/4(juli/aug. 2013): 26-32.
  • Sneller H.W. & Kasten M.J.A. (2012), Ausblicke. In: Kasten Madeleine, Paul Herman & Sneller Rico (Eds.), Hermeneutics and the Humanities/ Hermeneutik und die Geisteswissenschaften. Dialogues with/im Dialog mit Hans-Georg Gadamer. Leiden: LUP. 306-314.
  • Kasten M.J.A., Paul H.J. & Sneller H.W. (Eds.) (2012), Hermeneutics and the Humanities: Dialogues with Hans-Georg Gadamer. Leiden: Leiden University Press.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2012), Translation Studies - Vondel's Appropriation of Grotius's Sophompaneas (1635). In: Bloemendal J. & Korsten F.W.A. (Eds.), Joost van den Vondel (1587 - 1679): Dutch Playwright in the Golden Age. Leiden & Boston: Brill. 249-269.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2012), Voorwoord. In: Houppermans S., Jacobs J. & Kruk R. (Eds.), Déjà Vu. Leiden: Leiden University Press. 7-11.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2012), Wor(l)ds at Play: Gadamer and the Dynamics of Literary Translation. In: Kasten M.J.A., Paul H.J. & Sneller H.W. (Eds.), Hermeneutics and the Humanities - Hermeneutik und Geisteswissenschaften. Leiden: Leiden University Press. 198-216.
  • Kasten M.J.A. & Gruenler C. (2011), The Point of the Plow: Conceptual Integration in the Allegory of Langland and Voltaire, Metaphor and Symbol (26:2): 143-151.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2011), Vertaalslag in niemands land: Tom Lanoye en de poëzie uit de Groote Oorlog. In: Houppermans J.J.M., Jacobs J.G.A.M. & Kruk R. (Eds.), Déjà vu -- Herhaling in culturen wereldwijd. Leiden: Leiden University Press. 71-91.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2010), "Labouring in Reason's Vineyard: Voltaire and the Allegory of Enlightenment". In: Otten Willemien, Vanderjagt Arjo & Vries Hent de (Eds.), How the West Was Won: Essays on Literary Imagination, the Canon and the Christian Middle Ages. Leiden: E.J.Brill. 101-116.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2007), In Search of 'Kynde Knowynge': Piers Plowman and the Origin of Allegory. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2006), “Udejanjanje razuma: Pripoved in filozofija v Voltairovem 'L’Homme aux quarante écus'” / “Performing Reason: Narrative and Philosophy in Voltaire’s 'L’Homme aux quarante écus'”, Primerjalna književnost / Comparative Literature. Special issue 29: 81-253;91-263.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2005), Allegory. In: Herman D., Jahn M. & Ryan M.-L. (Eds.), The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Narrative Theory. London: Routledge.
  • Kasten M.J.A. (2005) The Dream and the Enlightenment, Bernard Dieterle and Manfred Engel (Eds.). Review of: Dieterle B. & Engel M. (2003), The Dream and the Enlightenment no. 40. Paris: Honoré Champion. Arcadia: Internationale Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft 1: 255-259.

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