Zrinka Stahuljak, "Fixers: Agency, Translation, and the Early Global History of Literature" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
New Books in Intellectual History
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Fixers: Reframing Medieval Translators
- Medieval translators, or "fixers," occupied a third space, acting autonomously rather than as neutral conduits.
- This "third space" disrupts the binary (e.g., active/passive) that characterizes modern Western thought.
- Fixers challenge the modern notion of direct, unmediated relations, introducing a mediated layer of agency.
- This reframes our understanding of communication and the Middle Ages, moving beyond modern analytical categories (author, genre, nation, etc.).
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