Omne vetus novum est iterum: The decline and rise of Latin translation in children’s literature

Abstract

The article offers a concise overview of Latin translation in children’s literature over the past 150 years, considering both its historical legacy and its future prospects. While Latin education in the Anglo-American world witnessed a precipitous decline in the latter part of the twentieth century, the Latin translation of contemporary children’s literature has comparatively spiked in production over the past twenty years, including recent translations of books by Dr. Seuss, J. K. Rowling, and Jeff Kinney. The analysis considers: 1) the reverse dynamic of translation into (instead of from) a classical language; 2) the ways in which these works not only potentially teach Latin language skills, but how they also make evident the cultural and commercial politics of translation; 3) the question of whether these works are translated primarily for children, or whether they are instead intended as accessible Latin primers/entertainment for adults; and 4) the process by which translation into Latin affirms the critical and/or popular canonicity of a number of major children’s authors and texts.