Homer in the Polysystem: An examination of Homer and translation in accordance with Polysystems Theory.

摘要

In this project I have combined an exploration of Homeric reception with the theoretical approach to literature known as Polysystems Theory. This exploration comprises an overview of some theories of translation, both ancient and modern, followed by the establishment of a suggested model for a Fuzzy Polysystem which would help to map out the myriad contributory components to Homeric study. The model blends elements of Bart Kosko's 1993 Fuzzy Thinking and Itamar Even-Zohar's 1990 Polysystems Theory, in order to produce a diagrammatic system representing the blurred boundaries between the compositional factors of the Homeric repertoire (specifically the Iliad), as well as some aspects of that repertoire's reception in later culture.; The data comprises a semiotic comparison of some examples of the core text in a range of editions, languages and time periods, and an exposition of the proposal that the Aristotelian system of binary exclusion is not tenable in a system as variable and indeterminate as Homer, either for the foundations of the text or for its subsequent literary life.