TY - CHAP
T1 - Multilingualism as Cultural Capital
T2 - Women and Translation at the German Courts
AU - Brown, Hilary
PY - 2023/2/9
Y1 - 2023/2/9
N2 - This article examines the performance of multilingualism in early modern court culture, and in particular how translation was a means for women to display their language skills and enhance their cultural capital. It argues that noblewomen were taught foreign languages and undertook translation in part to consolidate or advance the interests of their dynasty, i.e. to make them more marriageable. While there is evidence that this was a Europe-wide phenomenon, this article focuses on Germany, where rulers had a particularly shaky grip on power and women were more circumscribed than elsewhere in being regarded first and foremost as marriage objects. Language skills were an important asset given the linguistic diversity at the German courts and it is striking how many young noblewomen engaged in translation prior to their marriages. If translation must then be seen as a tool for social control, this raises unsettling questions for the history of women’s writing (which prefers to emphasise women’s agency) and the history of translation (which prefers to emphasise translations as acts of cultural transformation).
AB - This article examines the performance of multilingualism in early modern court culture, and in particular how translation was a means for women to display their language skills and enhance their cultural capital. It argues that noblewomen were taught foreign languages and undertook translation in part to consolidate or advance the interests of their dynasty, i.e. to make them more marriageable. While there is evidence that this was a Europe-wide phenomenon, this article focuses on Germany, where rulers had a particularly shaky grip on power and women were more circumscribed than elsewhere in being regarded first and foremost as marriage objects. Language skills were an important asset given the linguistic diversity at the German courts and it is striking how many young noblewomen engaged in translation prior to their marriages. If translation must then be seen as a tool for social control, this raises unsettling questions for the history of women’s writing (which prefers to emphasise women’s agency) and the history of translation (which prefers to emphasise translations as acts of cultural transformation).
UR - https://www.routledge.com/Multilingual-Texts-and-Practices-in-Early-Modern-Europe/Auger-Brammall/p/book/9780367555733
U2 - 10.4324/9781003094104-4
DO - 10.4324/9781003094104-4
M3 - Chapter
SN - 9780367555733
T3 - Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism
SP - 55
EP - 68
BT - Multilingual Texts and Practices in Early Modern Europe
A2 - Auger, Peter
A2 - Brammall, Sheldon
PB - Routledge
CY - New York and London
ER -