The Translatio of Hosokawa Tama Gracia
- Format:
- Conference Paper
- Year:
- 2022
- Event Date:
- March 30–April 2
- Panel Title:
- Literary and Cross-Cultural Translations
- Event Institution:
- Renaissance Society of America
- Conference Title:
- Renaissance Society of America, 68th Annual Meeting
- Conference Location:
- Dublin
- Language:
- Abstract:
In life, Hosokawa Tama Gracia was not easily silenced. However, after her somewhat mysterious death in 1600, her voice and legacy, like her ashes, were scattered in several directions. She was constructed by Jesuit missionaries, Japanese writers, and Catholics on the European continent as an exemplum Biblical wife, an ideal Confucian spouse, and ultimately a renowned martyr of the Catholic faith. Amongst the most poignant depictions of Hosokawa Tama Gracia’s transformation is the late seventeenth-century Latin drama Mulier fortis (The Valiant Woman), the result of a musical and literary collaboration at the Jesuit College in Vienna between Johannes Bernhard Staudt and Johannes Baptist Adolph. This paper considers the translatio of the Japanese noblewoman into an early modern Catholic martyr by both Baptist Adolph and Bernhard Staudt as well as my own translation of their work into English and also considers the power dynamics involved in translation.
- Who (Jesuits):
- What (Subjects):
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Conference URL: