Foreword: Translation and Transformission; or, Early Modernity in Motion

Abstract

"The concept of “transformission,” created by Randall McLeod, does indeed “cover most everything.” It proves broadly generative for studying early modernity and is especially applicable to early modern translations, as the essays in this issue demonstrate. The most direct contribution of the idea of transformission to translation studies is procedural: when looking at translations, we should look also at changes made to their material texts. The idea of transformission, however, originated in textual studies and editorial theory, and those origins help us understand its special relevance to translation studies. This Foreword to a special issue on transformission and translation first considers briefly the textual origins of the idea of transformission, particularly examining how the perennial problem of variant versions can be reimagined through the lens of transformission and related textual-studies concepts. From there, the idea of transformission connects readily to translation studies: translations, after all, are variant versions of a work, and they, too, are transformed when transmitted."