Translation, Early Printing, and Gender in England, 1484-1535
05fl_23.1_hosington.qxd 2008/11/19 16:00 PM Page 41 Translation, Early Printing, and Gender in England, 1484-1535 Brenda M. Hosington Translation cannot be divorced from the context in which it flourishes, that is, from the linguistic, literary, social, and cultural developments taking place at a given time and in a given setting. Nor can it be fully comprehended without a consideration of certain ideological impulses. One of the socio-cultural developments affecting translation in the years 1484-1535 is the introduction of printing to England. One of the ideological con- cerns in the period also affecting translation is that of gender. Both intersect in the pro- duction of translations concerning women and women’s issues, of which there is a sig- nificant number. These, I think, should be considered against the backdrop of early printing in England, for printers and patrons often had specific agendas in mind, moti- vated by ideological concerns — be they religious, moral, or commercial — which dic- tated not only the choice of texts to be published but also the editorial changes to be made within those texts. As Lotte Hellinga has pointed out, the history of printing reflects two dynamics that are in varying balance — the obvious one that is commercial and borne of the printer’s need to cover expenses and make a profit, and the more complex one that is non-commercial and relates to the power of the printed text to disseminate knowledge, implant new ideas, and so on.1 The first, the commercial aspect, has been an ongoing consideration in the history of print.
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