@article{Translation:1714,
      recid = {1714},
      author = {Covington, James Robert},
      title = {The Poetics of Translation in Greek Genesis and the  Virtuous Plot},
      publisher = {The University of Chicago},
      school = {Ph.D.},
      address = {2019-03},
      pages = {763},
      abstract = {In the 3rd century BCE the Hebrew Torah was translated  into Greek. This work argues that the translator of Greek  Genesis, a narrative text concerning global and Jewish  national origins, aimed to make his translation's plot  virtuous according to contemporary literary standards:  concision, consistency, sequentiality, unity,  believability, and tragedy. Such virtues of plot are  heuristically drawn from ancient progymnasmata, Aristotle’s  Poetics, and current research on ancient prose composition,  but they are confirmed by other sources as essential  components of ancient literary criticism’s common core. The  argument proceeds in two steps. First, traditional  philological analysis, facilitated by modern digital tools,  is undertaken to analyze the translator’s deviations from  quantitative and serial equivalence and to examine his  tendency to employ lexical and grammatical stereotypes. The  results of this analysis are used to sketch the portrait of  a complex translator who both adheres to the form of his  source and makes deliberate and controlled translation  choices affecting various literary dimensions of his  translation. Second, case studies show that many such  choices specifically contribute to improving the plot of  literary units of various sizes, resolving difficulties  inherent to the source in light of cultural expectations of  anticipated readers: with Noah (Gen 6–9) the translator  resolves inconsistency and alleviates redundancy (concision  and consistency); with Abraham (Gen 12–25) he explicates  the causal links between the different stages of the plot  (sequentiality, unity, and believability); and with Joseph  (Gen 37–50) he embellishes the plot’s tragic qualities  (entertainment).},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/1714},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.1714},
}