| A Harmony of the Spirits: Translation and the Language of Community in Early Pennsylvania Contributor(s): Erben, Patrick M. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1469633469 ISBN-13: 9781469633466 Publisher: Omohundro Institute and Unc Press OUR PRICE: $30.88 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - State & Local - Middle Atlantic (dc, De, Md, Nj, Ny, Pa) - History | United States - Colonial Period (1600-1775) - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - General |
| Dewey: 409.748 |
| LCCN: 2011050214 |
| Series: Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo |
| Physical Information: 0.98" H x 6.4" W x 9.6" (1.13 lbs) 352 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 18th Century - Geographic Orientation - Pennsylvania |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In early Pennsylvania, translation served as a utopian tool creating harmony across linguistic, religious, and ethnic differences. Patrick Erben challenges the long-standing historical myth--first promulgated by Benjamin Franklin--that language diversity posed a threat to communal coherence. He deftly traces the pansophist and Neoplatonist philosophies of European reformers that informed the radical English and German Protestants who founded the holy experiment. Their belief in hidden yet persistent links between human language and the word of God impelled their vision of a common spiritual idiom. Translation became the search for underlying correspondences between diverse human expressions of the divine and served as a model for reconciliation and inclusiveness. Drawing on German and English archival sources, Erben examines iconic translations that engendered community in colonial Pennsylvania, including William Penn's translingual promotional literature, Francis Daniel Pastorius's multilingual poetics, Ephrata's angelic singing and transcendent calligraphy, the Moravians' polyglot missions, and the common language of suffering for peace among Quakers, Pietists, and Mennonites. By revealing a mystical quest for unity, Erben presents a compelling counternarrative to monolingualism and Enlightenment empiricism in eighteenth-century America. |
Contributor Bio(s): Erben, Patrick M.: - Patrick M. Erben is associate professor of English at the University of West Georgia. |