Eichel's Essay 'Sir Gawain And The Green Knight'
Criticisms of Eichel’s Essay In “Interpreting ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’: Translation and Manipulation of Audience Expectations,” Andrew Eichel makes a convincing argument as to how translations can affect pieces of writing. Throughout his essay, Eichel lays out a vast amount of examples as to how translations affect writing; however, there are issues with how this evidence was presented. Firstly, it is not clear what kind of audience is addressed in the essay. Eichel also presents an extremely black and white perspective on foreignization vs. domestication. Additionally, Eichel chose an unnecessarily sophisticated language for his essay and over exaggerated the way Tolkien’s translation changes the original, as well as its “obscurity.” …show more content…
It is unclear whether the author is speaking to the average reader or literary scholars. In an essay of this nature it is important to distinguish who the author is speaking to, and what he or she assumes the reader already knows about the topic. In the beginning of the essay, Eichel explains a few things to the reader as if he was assuming they knew little about the topic: “an academic commonplace holds that a translator’s choices ultimately affect an audience’s interpretation of a text,” (Eichel 1). In the author’s introductory statement he is explaining to the reader not only how a translation affects a text, but also that it even does. Eichel explains to the reader something that a scholar would already know. Later on, Eichel writes another explanation: “More generally, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight presents challenges to any translator or audience intent on studying alliterative poetry, Middle English literature, or Arthurian romance. The author’s usage of multiple literary genres and methods, from romance lays to Christian and pagan symbolism” (1). Andrew Eichel explains numerous times things that a scholar would already know and understand, therefore a reader might assume this essay was written for the average person. Later in the essay, however, Eichel
What Does The Water Symbolize In Sir Gawain
277 Words | 2 PagesOutline: Symbolism in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight I. Introduction A. Topic Sentence: The meaning of the story is affected by the use of symbolism B. Thesis: The use of Symbolism in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, does not change the story itself, but rather affects the moral of the story. II. Body Paragraphs A. Topic Sentence: The first instance of Symbolism is the Pentangle of Gawain’s shield.
Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Allusion Essay
1094 Words | 5 PagesAllusion Exercise 2 Kennedy Kappenman Source: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Anonymous Allusion #1: "’ See, my lord,’ said the man, and held up the girdle, "This belt caused the scar that I bear on my neck; This is the injury and damage that I have suffered For the cowardice and covetousness that seized me there; This is the token of the dishonesty I was caught committing, And now I must wear it as long as I live. For a man may hide his misdeed, but never erase it,
Norton Anthology Of Latino Literature (NALL)
657 Words | 3 PagesGruesz writes “these translations represent a necessary accommodation to the English- language American literature classroom, to which the NALL is clearly being marketed: the first paragraph of the preface characterizes Latino literature as an “insufficiently studied, and perhaps underappreciated, component of the nation’s literature” (Gruesz). This is arguing that translating takes away from the text’s meaning. She also writes “the Spanish language itself often disappears in translation (one- quarter of the material was originally written in Spanish) or gets relegated to the extensive footnotes. ”(Gruesz) I agree with this observation that making accommodations within the text takes away from the meaning of the text.
Maturity In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight
85 Words | 1 PagesThe main theme of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the journey to maturity of Gawain, the hero. During the passage, Gawain goes through three tests on his development. First, Gawain shows courage and resourcefulness when he volunteers to take the Green Knight’s challenge instead of Arthur doing so. Second, Gawain shows authority, self-restraint, and integrity when he denies the sexual endeavours of the lady of the house. Lastly, Gawain shows bravery when he faces death by keeping his meeting with the Green
Theme Of Courage In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight
1105 Words | 5 PagesEssay: Consider how the Theme of courage is treated in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It has to be said that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is arguably one of the greatest middle English poems of the 14th Century. The author of the text, whom, amazingly is still unknown tells the reader, through the medium of poem the courage of the Great Sir Gawain as he bravely challenges the Green Knight. The poem also shows the courage of others. In Medieval times and especially medieval writings, there was a great engrossment with courage.
Christian Symbolism In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight
605 Words | 3 PagesSir Gawain and the Green Knight, whose author is unknown, is an Arthurian Romance/Epic that holds a degree of Christian symbolism. These Christian symbols are intermixed with Britannic Pagan traditions and themes in order to appeal more to the common British people at the time of the early Christianization of Britain. This can be supported by the stories of kings being created in the earlier centuries throughout history. In this particular story, this symbolism is important since all the knights of King Arthur’s Court were supposed to follow a certain chivalrous code of conduct, whether present in the courts or away on some other venture. The chivalric code being the embodiment of Christian virtue and valor, which was expected to be personified
Homosexuality In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight
938 Words | 4 PagesModern scholarship suggests that the anonymous poet who wrote Sir Gawain and the Green Knight likely had the patronage of King Richard II, as did his contemporaries Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower. In the latter years of his reign, Richard placed great value on arts and culture at court, with particular emphasis on literature. It is likely that those writers who found favor at his court would have endeavored to please and perhaps flatter the king through their work. If, as research suggests, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was first read before an audience that included Richard II, then the poet gauged the tastes of his audience well.
The Hero's Journey In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight
711 Words | 3 PagesIn Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the call is answered by the hero when Camelot's honor is taken by the Green Knight. In the hero's journey, the hero faces the call when something has been taken or lost that destabilizes the hero's home. Early in part one, The Green Knight offers his challenge when no one takes up the challenge, he “ And now the Round Table’s game and its feasting are done, thrown down at the sound of one man’s Words-and you sit there shaking-at words!”. (313-315) This laughter is the real call because it is a weapon the Knight uses. The Green Knight is so powerful, it seems he can defeat all of Camelot with “menz words” it says “ but you've asked for folly, and folly You'll get!
Rhetorical Analysis Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight
361 Words | 2 PagesIn Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the author’s rhetorical purpose is to entertain the reader by telling a story of a knight learning truth and honesty. The author uses color, alliteration, repetition, bob and wheel, and antanaclasis to keep you interested in reading the poem. The first rhetorical device is color. The author uses color to help you picture what the characters look like. The uses sentences like “Splendid that the knight errant stood in a splay of green, and green, too, was the mane of his destrier.”
Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Literary Analysis
293 Words | 2 PagesOne need to have clear that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is not an epic story. This poem is a romance, a different type of romance, a chivalric romance. Chivalric romance or medieval romance “is a type of narrative that… is distinguished from the epic in that it does not represent a heroic age of tribal wars, but a courtly and chivalric age” (McDonie, 2). But, like Dr. McDonie tell us, Gawain thinks “that he is living in a world of epic,” when in reality “he is a romance character who thinks he is living in an epic world” (McDonie, video). Because of the mentality that Gawain has a constant shift of perspective is viewed throughout the poem.
Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Symbolism Essay
551 Words | 3 PagesSir Gawain and the Green Knight was rich in symbolism. Interpreting symbolism in the poem is difficult since contemporary readers are unfamiliar with medieval literature and its intellectual background. Nevertheless, the symbolism in the poem enhanced the understanding of the reader regarding the medieval period and its customs. Two symbols that were essential to the creation of the poem were the pentangle and the green girdle.
Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Literary Analysis
417 Words | 2 PagesIn the story of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” which is a medieval Romance.in the Webster’s dictionary it tells you that Medieval romances are narrative fictions representing the adventures and values of the aristocracy. Romances may be written in prose, in which case they tend to resemble "histories," with more pretense to being truthful about the past, or they may be written in stanza of non-stanza verse, in which case the narrators rarely make more than perfunctory efforts to simulate historicity. Back during the medieval time times, king Arthurs had a Christmas party. The party wasn’t going as good as he planned. Out of nowhere a great big green giant came in with a axe in his hand and riding a big horse.
Effective Use Of Words In Act 2 Of Translations
346 Words | 2 PagesAct 2 of “Translations” proved to be just as interesting as the first act. One of the main things that made me think deeply was when Hugh said, “But remember that words are signals, counters. They are not immortal. And it can happen—to use an image you’ll understand—it can happen that a civilization can be imprisoned in a linguistic contour which no longer matches the landscape of… fact.” I had never considered the fact that words aren’t immortal.
Reader-Response Criticism In Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller
810 Words | 4 PagesIntroduction When reading a play, it is fundamental to pay attention to details within the play for a script envisioned in more than one way. Moreover, discovering those critical items found in the play is important in helping one criticize the play correctly since; a critic is able to see the quality and mistakes found in the play. Likewise, the critic is also able to see valuable and critical things missed by the reader since as critics they looked at different functions within the play. With that said, this paper is going to explore two critical approaches seen in “Death of a Salesman” a play written by Arthur Miller (1915 – 2005). Those critical approaches are Reader-Response Criticism and Psychological (psychoanalytic) criticism.
The Localization Of Hamlet And William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'
914 Words | 4 PagesAll three translators failed to convey the meaning of this part. There are many classical mythology allusions in Shakespeare’s play. The western readers might be familiar with them, but not the target readers. Therefore, the translators had to decide if
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