Category: Project Updates

My time on the project is now over, and so all that remains is for me to say I hope you enjoy using the website and the database. Next week, the database will be updated to contain all 388 entries I have recorded so far, with as much bibliographic information as I could gather. I hope this is useful and interesting, and shows some insightful trends, such as the rise in translations after 1995 (discussed on the ‘Investigating the Data’ page). There are now translations from 44 different countries and 37 languages, representative of the volume and diversity of Austen’s readers across the globe.

I have also added links to a few more digital humanities projects that might be of interest, including an amazing ‘digital galaxy’ of Estonian translators that provides a glimpse of what might be possible in the future for this project. I’ve also put links to all of the national library catalogues I used to record and reference the translations. These can be found on the ‘Bibliography’ page.

I will likely come back to check up on the project over the next few months, so in the meantime, if you have any contributions, please do use the ‘contributions’ button to tell me your thoughts. I have also designed an ‘add a translation’ button, which links to a form where you can fill in any information you have about a translation, whether it is in the database already or not yet recorded. You can find these on the homepage.

Finally, then, goodbye for now! I have had a brilliant time working on this, and I hope it is both useful and entertaining to see the variety of ways Austen has been read, understood, and loved across the world.

Happy 250th birthday to her.

Asha

Updates for the start of September

Ahead of the last two weeks of my time on this project, there have been some updates to the website and database. The database now contains cover images for the texts I catalogued from Chawton House and Jane Austen’s House, as well as maps that show their place of publication. It has also been updated to make searching easier and more efficient, making searches by date range now possible.

Alongside this, there are now 290 entries in the database, and it is continually growing. As such, I have been able to do some preliminary data analysis, which you can find under the Explore section, on the ‘Investigating the Data’ page. This feature displays a selection of graphs and charts pulled from the dataset, alongside discussion of what they might mean for studying translations of Austen, and her international status. As more data is collected, check back for updates.

I have also designed a feature about how Austen has been received by her global readers, exploring how paratextual details influence perceptions of authorship. Called ‘Imagining Austen’, it tracks details such as translations of her name, cover images, whether she has been presented as ‘high’ or ‘low’ brow literature, and prefaces/introductions. As more information is collected on translations, I will be able to update this page with further discussion.

I hope you enjoy exploring the website and the database! As always, if you have any thoughts, questions, or suggestions, please get in touch using the ‘contribute’ button in the homepage sidebar.

More updates soon!
Asha

As I near the end of my time working on this research project, I have been asked to prepare a research poster to display at the University of Southampton’s Undergraduate Research Internships Showcase. This is the poster, below – I wanted to focus on something eye catching, and symbolic of the historical and cultural exchange that lies at the heart of this project. For the main section of the poster, I used Hugh Thompson’s peacock illustration, as it appears on a 2017 Chinese translation of Pride and Prejudice. You can view the whole cover on the ‘Illustrating Austen’ page. The poster briefly summarises some important aspects of the project as well as including some graphs. These are examined in greater detail on the ‘Investigating the Data’ page.

See below for the poster. You may have to zoom in to read all the text as it had to be A1 sized for the poster presentation.