The Afterlives of the Bhagavad Gita

Download or read book The Afterlives of the Bhagavad Gita written by Dorothy M. Figueira and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume stems from the understanding that historiographical analyses of the Gītā's reception overlook the element of its translation. It posits translation as fundamental to any understanding of the Gītā's reception. It examines in depth and comparatively how translations of the Gītā do not seek the same aims in all places and at all times and recognizes that translation theories and methodologies are not uniform across nations and eras. In translation practice, there is often consistency with fixed equivalents in the guest language that allows one to build on philological analysis and textual specificity. But there is also the translation's intent (dynamic equivalence) to give the appearance of modern relevance. Our analysis grapples with issues of translational non-neutrality, distortion, and the afterlife of distortion in the text's subsequent shadow book. In particular, this volume looks at insolites (unusual, strange) readings of the Gītā and how they seek to fill the hermeneutical gap between readings tied to its canonical and scriptural status and those readings distant from the text's tradition. Translation and its reception or rejection here become metaphors for the general problems involved in cross-cultural understanding, a timely topic in literary studies today where both theory and pedagogy seek to engage the Other in responsive and responsible ways. This volume looks at translation within this larger context, not merely as linguistic errors in the act of translation, but as indicative of conceptual, cultural, and ethical dimensions