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<p>In this essay, I offer a new perspective on medieval translation by analyzing the 12th-century <i>Roman de Thèbes</i>, an anonymous translation of Statius’s <i>Thebaid</i>, as a site of attention. Drawing on work by Lucy Alford, D. Graham Burnett, E.H. Smith, and Bernard Stiegler on both the literary and cognitive dimensions of attention, as well as medieval perspectives on distraction and memory, I demonstrate how the translator of the <i>Thèbes</i> attended to the meaning of pagan prophecy in medieval culture, without achieving a coherent perspective for the reader. This attentive focus on prophecy, by extension, invites readers to attend to the vernacular text itself as a novel space for attentive reflection, and I differentiate the reading and writing practices underlying the medieval Latin tradition of the <i>Thebaid</i> with emerging vernacular textuality. I argue that romance translation that allows for novel engagements with the <i>Thebaid</i>, and that this space of attention allows for points of tension in <i>translatio studii</i> to be explored without producing an internally consistent synthesis between pagan and medieval Christian culture.</p>

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The Vernacular as a Site of Attention: Prophecy in the Roman de Thèbes

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月6日

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  • Adam Grant

摘要

In this essay, I offer a new perspective on medieval translation by analyzing the 12th-century Roman de Thèbes, an anonymous translation of Statius’s Thebaid, as a site of attention. Drawing on work by Lucy Alford, D. Graham Burnett, E.H. Smith, and Bernard Stiegler on both the literary and cognitive dimensions of attention, as well as medieval perspectives on distraction and memory, I demonstrate how the translator of the Thèbes attended to the meaning of pagan prophecy in medieval culture, without achieving a coherent perspective for the reader. This attentive focus on prophecy, by extension, invites readers to attend to the vernacular text itself as a novel space for attentive reflection, and I differentiate the reading and writing practices underlying the medieval Latin tradition of the Thebaid with emerging vernacular textuality. I argue that romance translation that allows for novel engagements with the Thebaid, and that this space of attention allows for points of tension in translatio studii to be explored without producing an internally consistent synthesis between pagan and medieval Christian culture.