Alexander Bubb
Biographic Data
| ID | 642512 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alexander Bubb |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alexander |
| FAMILY NAME | Bubb |
| SIGNATURE | BUBB A |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4345-2774 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Asian Classics on the Victorian Bookshelf
Asian Classics on the Victorian Bookshelf focusses on the mass-translation of Asian literature for consumption by the late Victorian reading public. It aims to invert our established understanding of orientalism, by showing how texts like the Quran, the Ramayana and the Shahnameh were not appropriated exclusively by a cadre of scholars, who subjected them to Western aesthetic norms and moral standards. In fact, their dissemination in the West was…
Triangulating Translation
This brief position paper argues for the importance of understanding Victorian translations, in particular English translations from Asian languages, in relation to the specific places where they were produced and where they were read
The Race for Hafiz
The great Persian lyric poet Hafiz was first translated into English by Sir William Jones in the 1780s. In the course of the nineteenth century many further translations would appear, initially intended for the use of oriental scholars and students of the Persian language, but increasingly also for the general reading public. The paraphrasers or ‘popularizers’ who devised the latter category of translation competed with professional scholars to s…
Vernacular Imperialism, Vedic Nationalism
Several years ago I was leafing through the papers of Norman Mosley Penzer, a little-known English orientalist, in the Butler Library at
An Element of Risk
From the 1960s to the 1990s, the corrupt building contractor was a stock-villain of Bombay cinema. He was, this article argues, emblematic of crony capitalism prior to the liberalization of the Indian economy. This filmic role was, however, foreshadowed by his depiction as cynical accomplice and profiteer of British rule in fiction of the early and mid-twentieth century. Furthermore, the figure’s ultimate origins lie in colonial literature, in wh…
Class, Cotton, and 'Woddaries
This article makes use of a recently unearthed archive in Sweden, complemented by research in the India Office Records and Maharashtra State Archives, to explore the business networks of the small-scale railway contractor in 1860s Bombay Presidency. The argument centres on the career of one individual, comparing him with several contemporaries. In contrast to their civilian colleagues, freebooting engineers have been a somewhat understudied group…
The Meaning of Things
The ‘seven years’ hard’ Rudyard Kipling spent as a journalist in north India are generally seen as the making of both his poetic and his politics. But, important as origin, community, identity and ‘my father’s house’ are to Kipling, he should also be seen as a wayfarer of no fixed abode. In 1889 he used his first royalties to return to metropolitan fame by the long way round: Burma, the Straits, Japan, the Pacific and a transcontinental journey p…
Melodramatic Imperial Writing
The provincial cosmopolitan
Rudyard Kipling was the product of a globalizing world. Aiming consciously to establish himself as an international author, he translated himself to the literary metropole from a marginal colonial background. However, his migration led him to register in his metropolitan writings a sense of cultural dislocation, jarring imperial Europe from the central position it presumed to occupy. This article draws on Marxist literary theory to locate the cau…
The Life of the Irish Soldier in India
The Irish in India present an interesting case. Arguably a colonized people, the colonies of the British Empire ironically afforded them employment and profit on a large scale. Although studies have been made of Irish administrators, it was Irish soldiers that were most numerous and it is the 'stereotyped' Irish soldier who represents his nation in depictions of the colonial military. This paper first summarizes the Irish military involvement in …
Class, Cotton, and 'Woddaries
This article makes use of a recently unearthed archive in Sweden, complemented by research in the India Office Records and Maharashtra State Archives, to explore the business networks of the small-scale railway contractor in 1860s Bombay Presidency. The argument centres on the career of one individual, comparing him with several contemporaries. In contrast to their civilian colleagues, freebooting engineers have been a somewhat understudied group…
The Life of the Irish Soldier in India
The Irish in India present an interesting case. Arguably a colonized people, the colonies of the British Empire ironically afforded them employment and profit on a large scale. Although studies have been made of Irish administrators, it was Irish soldiers that were most numerous and it is the 'stereotyped' Irish soldier who represents his nation in depictions of the colonial military. This paper first summarizes the Irish military involvement in …
Melodramatic Imperial Writing
The Race for Hafiz
The great Persian lyric poet Hafiz was first translated into English by Sir William Jones in the 1780s. In the course of the nineteenth century many further translations would appear, initially intended for the use of oriental scholars and students of the Persian language, but increasingly also for the general reading public. The paraphrasers or ‘popularizers’ who devised the latter category of translation competed with professional scholars to s…
The provincial cosmopolitan
Rudyard Kipling was the product of a globalizing world. Aiming consciously to establish himself as an international author, he translated himself to the literary metropole from a marginal colonial background. However, his migration led him to register in his metropolitan writings a sense of cultural dislocation, jarring imperial Europe from the central position it presumed to occupy. This article draws on Marxist literary theory to locate the cau…
The Life of the Irish Soldier in India
The Irish in India present an interesting case. Arguably a colonized people, the colonies of the British Empire ironically afforded them employment and profit on a large scale. Although studies have been made of Irish administrators, it was Irish soldiers that were most numerous and it is the 'stereotyped' Irish soldier who represents his nation in depictions of the colonial military. This paper first summarizes the Irish military involvement in …
The provincial cosmopolitan
Rudyard Kipling was the product of a globalizing world. Aiming consciously to establish himself as an international author, he translated himself to the literary metropole from a marginal colonial background. However, his migration led him to register in his metropolitan writings a sense of cultural dislocation, jarring imperial Europe from the central position it presumed to occupy. This article draws on Marxist literary theory to locate the cau…
Melodramatic Imperial Writing
The Meaning of Things
The ‘seven years’ hard’ Rudyard Kipling spent as a journalist in north India are generally seen as the making of both his poetic and his politics. But, important as origin, community, identity and ‘my father’s house’ are to Kipling, he should also be seen as a wayfarer of no fixed abode. In 1889 he used his first royalties to return to metropolitan fame by the long way round: Burma, the Straits, Japan, the Pacific and a transcontinental journey p…
An Element of Risk
From the 1960s to the 1990s, the corrupt building contractor was a stock-villain of Bombay cinema. He was, this article argues, emblematic of crony capitalism prior to the liberalization of the Indian economy. This filmic role was, however, foreshadowed by his depiction as cynical accomplice and profiteer of British rule in fiction of the early and mid-twentieth century. Furthermore, the figure’s ultimate origins lie in colonial literature, in wh…
Class, Cotton, and 'Woddaries
This article makes use of a recently unearthed archive in Sweden, complemented by research in the India Office Records and Maharashtra State Archives, to explore the business networks of the small-scale railway contractor in 1860s Bombay Presidency. The argument centres on the career of one individual, comparing him with several contemporaries. In contrast to their civilian colleagues, freebooting engineers have been a somewhat understudied group…
Vernacular Imperialism, Vedic Nationalism
Several years ago I was leafing through the papers of Norman Mosley Penzer, a little-known English orientalist, in the Butler Library at
The Race for Hafiz
The great Persian lyric poet Hafiz was first translated into English by Sir William Jones in the 1780s. In the course of the nineteenth century many further translations would appear, initially intended for the use of oriental scholars and students of the Persian language, but increasingly also for the general reading public. The paraphrasers or ‘popularizers’ who devised the latter category of translation competed with professional scholars to s…
Asian Classics on the Victorian Bookshelf
Asian Classics on the Victorian Bookshelf focusses on the mass-translation of Asian literature for consumption by the late Victorian reading public. It aims to invert our established understanding of orientalism, by showing how texts like the Quran, the Ramayana and the Shahnameh were not appropriated exclusively by a cadre of scholars, who subjected them to Western aesthetic norms and moral standards. In fact, their dissemination in the West was…
Triangulating Translation
This brief position paper argues for the importance of understanding Victorian translations, in particular English translations from Asian languages, in relation to the specific places where they were produced and where they were read
History (9 works) · History (9 works) · Art (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Literature (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Linguistics (4 works)