Aphra Behn’s Use of Translatio

Mediation, Adaptation and Emulation in a Cross-Channel Perspective

Abstract

Recent historians of fiction have shown that the “British” novel was essentially a transnational phenomenon in the Restoration. French was the dominant source language for literary translation as a whole in the Restoration period; and translations played a prominent role in the development of a national literature. Aphra Behn, whose role as a translator and adaptor of French texts is finally beginning to be recognized, offers a perfect vantage point from which to measure the multifaceted impact of French literature on seventeenth-century English literature. The sheer range of her strategies as a translator is extraordinary as she explores all the shades between literal paraphrase and free imitation. This article argues that her translations form a coherent body of works which manifests a form of emulation that is fully creative.