Literacy in Translation Series: Dan Reff and Richard Danford

Richard Danford's book, 'The First European Destruction of Japan'

October 24, 2014

All Day

Humanities Institute, 104 East 15th Avenue

Interest in translation extends widely at Ohio State. The aim of the Literacy in Translation series, an initiative of LiteracyStudies@OSU, is to foster a critical, cross-disciplinary conversation about the theories, practices, and study of reading and writing across different languages, domains, and media.

The series continues on Friday, October 24, 3:30 p.m. at the Humanities Institute, 104 East 15th Avenue: Richard Danford and Daniel Reff will discuss their collaboration on the first, critical English-language edition of The First European Description of Japan, 1585, by Luis Frois, S. J.

RICHARD DANFORD (pictured here) is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, and Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion at Marietta College, and DANIEL REFF is Professor of Comparative Studies at OSU.

At the height of Jesuit missionary activity in Japan, which was begun by Francis Xavier in 1549, Luis Frois, a long-time missionary in Japan, drafted the earliest systematic comparison of Western and Japanese cultures, the original of which was discovered in the Royal Academy of History in Madrid after the Second World War. The book provides a translation of the text, comprised of 600 distichs or brief couplets on subjects such as gender, child rearing, religion, medicine, eating, horses, writing, ships and seafaring, architecture, and music and drama. Overall, the book represents an important primary source for understanding a particularly challenging period of history and its connection to contemporary Europe and Japan. Note and sample.

Faculty, staff, and students are invited.

Literacy in Translation contacts: Daniel Reff.1@osu.edu, Nina Berman.58@osu.edu, and Naomi Brenner.108@osu.edu.