Book Description

These ten studies provide a view of the extent to which intellectual and literary life in Holland has been influenced by English ideas. The book concludes with an overview of Anglo-Dutch cultural transfer from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century, concentrating on what, between Sir Thomas Browne's stay in Leiden in 1633 and L.A.J. Burgersdijk's complete translation of Shakespeare in the 1880s, was transmitted, what sea-changes: occurred during the voyage, and in how far these resulted in something rich and strange: . The emphasis in some of the essays is on intellectual, or scholarly, contacts -- with Holland mostly on the receiving end, but by no means exclusively so. In the field of literature proper, given the continuing prestige of French letters, there lies a special interest in watching the gradually increasing appreciation of English non-fiction, fiction, poetry and drama. This was brought about by translations and by the growing familiarity of Dutch cultural leaders with the English language itself, in spite of long-standing aversions to its composition and sound, continuing far into the nineteenth century. The analysis of translation strategies and adaptations, often made to suit the target culture, also contributes to the history of translation -- a branch of Translation Studies now coming into its own.