American Literature and the Politics of Translation in the Age of Revolutions, 1789-1815

FAIN: FT-270660-20

Courtney Chatellier
New York University (New York, NY 10012-1019)

Revision of two chapters of a book on the influence of French texts and ideas in the early American republic.

The first book-length study of the French and Haitian revolutions’ influence on early U.S. writers, this book examines American translations and adaptations of French literature, as well as American authors’ engagements with revolutionary ideology in the form of political commentary, literary criticism, and original novels during the period 1789-1815. Whereas many studies of early American literature have examined transatlantic exchanges between Britain and the U.S., the extensive influence of French literature through translation and other literary modes has received scant attention. I argue that to form a more complete picture of early U.S. intellectual and literary history, we must consider how the American tradition defined itself in relation to the French, particularly as the French and Haitian revolutions stirred Americans’ deepest aspirations and fears for the project of democracy and the role of literature in shaping the nation’s future.

Associated Products

Translation, Counterrevolution, and the Early American Novel: Richard Alsop's "The Lovers of La Vendée, or Revolutionary Tyranny" (Article)
Title: Translation, Counterrevolution, and the Early American Novel: Richard Alsop's "The Lovers of La Vendée, or Revolutionary Tyranny"
Author: Courtney Chatellier
Abstract: This essay examines "The Lovers of La Vendée" (1808), the Connecticut Wit Richard Alsop's translation of the French author Étienne Gosse's 1799 novel "Les amans vendéens." The interventions that Alsop made in order to conform the text to his own values reflect the ongoing significance of revolutionary France in US political and literary discourse in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Drawing on insights from translation studies, I argue that this text troubles the boundary between original and copy and further expands the category of American literature—and, moreover, that the traditional exclusion of translations from the field of early American literary studies has played a role in shaping received notions about the relationship between democracy and American literature.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://uncpress.org/journals/early-american-literature/
Access Model: Subscription only.
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Early American Literature
Publisher: The University of North Carolina PRess

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