Joe Wade (University of Edinburgh)
Making Old Norse New: Nynorsk Saga Translations as a Tool for Corpus Planning and Norwegian Nation Building from 1850 to 1945
Wednesday, 13 November 2019, 4.00-6.00pm
G.06, 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Abstract:
Following Ivar Aasen’s seminal works Det norske Folkesprogs Grammatik (1848) and Ordbog over det norske Folkesprog (1850), a new Norwegian language was presented to the people of Norway, which coincided with the growth of romantic nationalism in Norway. This language would evolve into modern day Nynorsk, an evolution that required a great deal of translational work as this study investigates. In addition, I will attempt to highlight how this Nynorsk translational work (specifically saga translations) can be regarded as a tool for Norwegian nation building and Nynorsk corpus planning from 1850 to 1945.
Primarily, this presentation will focus on the relationship between Nynorsk translations of Old Norse literature, namely the sagas, and the nation building process in Norway during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Furthermore, the relationship between these Nynorsk translations and the historical development of the Nynorsk language will also be highlighted and examined in order to question whether a translation may be regarded as a form of corpus planning. During this talk, my initial findings into the history of Nynorsk saga translations will also be presented alongside the history of saga translations into the other Scandinavian languages, i.e. Bokmål, Danish and Swedish in order to emphasise the uniqueness of the Nynorsk situation.
Bio:
Joseph Wade is a PhD student in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he also completed an MSc in Translation Studies in 2017. His research focuses on the translation history and language history of Norway in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a particular emphasis on the Nynorsk language. Outside of his studies, Joseph is also a freelance translator working from Norwegian, Swedish and Danish into English.