We are pleased to invite submissions for an edited volume entitled Polyglot Women as Agents of Transfers in the European Romantic Public Space, edited by Antonella BRAIDA and Céline SABIRON to be submitted to Palgrave Macmillan.
Background and Rationale
This volume builds upon the scholarly dialogues initiated during two conferences held at the Université de Lorraine, Nancy:
Cultural Transfers in British Romanticism: Women Writers and Translation as Mediation and Book Circulation (June 2023): This conference explored the nature and impact of translation on the reception of literary works and cultural productions during the Romantic period. It highlighted women's presence in the public sphere, the recovery of women's work and its often marginal place in literary history, and the importance of experiences, networks, and salons—not just through written texts but also via social interactions.
Transcultural Women and European Romanticism (April 2024): This conference addressed issues related to women's posthumous invisibility and interdisciplinary methods to reverse this process. It provided insights into British women's hybrid spaces, such as the significance of libraries for eighteenth-century women travelers like Anna Miller; the role of reviewing novels, travel writing, and historical essays by figures like Mary Margaret Busk; and the contributions of translators and cultural mediators like Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Laetitia Barbauld, who made scientific knowledge accessible through poetry.
Aims and Scope
Building upon the questions raised in these conferences, this edited volume seeks to delve deeper by focusing on a specific group of women mediators between Britain and Europe. These women, often multilingual and at the interface of several languages and cultures, were British by birth or part of French, German, and Italian exile communities. Their circumstances were shaped by the political upheavals of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era across Europe. The Romantic period was pivotal in the history of literature and translation, marked by a significant increase in women's participation in publishing and translating texts from Italian and French into English. This project aims to:
Examine the Roles of Polyglot Women: Investigate how multilingual women functioned as mediators and facilitators of cultural exchange, contributing to the dissemination of ideas across national and linguistic boundaries.
Analyze the Editorial Context: Explore how women navigated and challenged the male-dominated editorial landscape of the time, establishing themselves as influential writers, translators, critics, editors, and salonnières.
Address the Invisibilization of Women: Study the processes by which women's contributions were marginalized or erased from literary history, as noted by scholars like Clifford Siskin[1] and Greg Kucich[2]. This includes overcoming challenges in identifying women's work due to practices like anonymous publication.
Explore Anglo-European Cultural Transfers: Engage with the concept of cultural transfer as defined by Michel Espagne and Michael Werner (1988), focusing on the material displacement of objects and ideas, human movements, and the circulation of books and art between Italy, France, and the United Kingdom.
Thematic Considerations
We welcome contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
Book Circulation and Sociability: Studies on how women facilitated the circulation of books and ideas through networks, salons, and social gatherings, and the impact of these practices on cultural and literary landscapes.
Translation, Editing, and Professionalization: Analyses of women's roles as translators and editors, their strategies for professionalization in the literary market, and their contributions to the development of translation theory and practice.
Scientific Mediation and Popularization: Investigations into how women popularized scientific knowledge through literature, made complex ideas accessible to broader audiences, and contributed to the dissemination of scientific discourse.
Cultural Mediators and Exiles: Research on women from exile communities who acted as cultural mediators, bridging their host and home countries, and influencing literary and cultural exchanges through translation.
Anonymous and Pseudonymous Publications: Studies on the challenges of identifying women's works published anonymously or under pseudonyms, and the implications for literary history and feminist scholarship.
Networks and Correspondences: Exploration of women's personal and professional networks, correspondence, and their role in fostering international dialogues.
Case Studies of Specific Figures: In-depth examinations of individuals such as Louise Swanton Belloc, Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Mary Margaret Busk, Anna Miller, and others who exemplify the themes of the volume.
Book Structure
The volume will be divided into four thematic sections:
Book Circulation and Sociability
Translating
Edition and Professionalization
Scientific Mediation and Popularization
—
Submission Guidelines
We invite scholars from various disciplines, including (comparative) literature, history of ideas, cultural studies, translation studies, and gender studies, to submit proposals.
Proposal Length: 350–400 words
Deadline for Proposals: 30 January 2025
Proposal Content:
Title of the proposed chapter
Abstract outlining the main argument, methodology, and relevance to the volume's themes
Biographical Note: A short bio including institutional affiliation and contact information
Please submit proposals to celine.sabiron@univ-lorraine.fr and antonella.braida@univ-lorraine.fr by the deadline.
Timeline
Proposal Submission Deadline: 30 January 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 15 February 2025
Full Chapter Submission: 30 June 2025
Peer Review and Revisions:
Expected Publication Date:
Contact Information
For inquiries and submissions, please contact:
About the Editors
Antonella BRAIDA is a lecturer in English at Université de Lorraine, Nancy (France), and a member of the IDEA research center. After completing her D.Phil at St Catherine’s college, Oxford, she was a lecturer in Italian at the University of Durham until 2005, when she moved to France. She is the author of edited volumes and articles on the reception of Dante, Anglo-Italian relations in the Romantic period, and women writers, with a special focus on Mary Shelley. She has published the monograph Dante and the Romantics (Palgrave, 2004) and the edited volume Mary Shelley and Europe (Oxford: Legenda, MHRA, 2020). She has co-edited Reflections of Word and Image Across the Arts (with Giuliana Pieri, Legenda, 2003), the volumes Dante on View (with Luisa Calé, Ashgate, 2007), La Mondializzazione di Dante, I: Europa (with Giuseppe Sangirardi and Giuseppe Cadeddu, Longo 2022), and Female Voices (with Eva Antal, PUFC, 2022)
Céline SABIRON is a Senior Lecturer at Université de Lorraine (Nancy) where she teaches British literature, with a particular focus on Scottish literature and translation. She co-directs a Master’s programme titled ‘Métiers du Tourisme, Métiers de la Traduction’, where she is specifically responsible for the translation strand. In her research, she explores the concept of literary transfers, concentrating on the role of mediators in shaping cultural ties between Scotland and France from the late 18th to mid-19th century. Her recent publications include a chapter on the French translation of the French passages in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, featured in the collective volume Prismatic Jane Eyre: Close-Reading a World Novel across Languages (2023); Romanticism and Time (2021), co-edited with Sophie Laniel-Musitelli; and Textuality and Translation (2020), co-edited with Catherine Chauvin. She is also one of the three organizers of the ARIEL author's residency project. Recently, she submitted a manuscript, Unveiling Lady Scott: Walter Scott, French Influence and Transcultural Connections, written during her research leave in the first semester of 2023, which is set to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2025.
Publisher
This volume will be submitted to Palgrave Macmillan for publication consideration.
We look forward to receiving your proposals and to the opportunity to contribute to this significant field of study.
[1] Clifford Siskin, The Work of Writing: Literature and Social Change in Britain 1700-1830, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
[2] Greg Kucich, “Gendering the Canons of Romanticism: Past and Present”, The Wordsworth Circle 27.2 (Spring 1996), pp. 95-102.