Location
Roehampton University
AVaTAR (the Archive of Victorian Translations from Asia and their Readerships), is a collection of nineteenth-century English popular translations of literary, religious and philosophical texts from Asia. The collection was gathered by Dr Alexander Bubb, FRHistS, Associate Professor of English at Roehampton University in south London. Dr Bubb’s focus has been on collecting not scholarly, but popular translations made for the Victorian general audience, and on collecting books that contain the marginalia of their original owners.
In honour of South Asian Heritage Month and East & Southeast Asian Heritage Month, Dr Bubb has curated an exhibit in Roehampton University Library featuring sixteen books from his collection. The exhibition features translations of the Ramayana, the Shahnameh, the Bhagavad Gita, the Qur’an, the Confucian Analects, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and other texts annotated by their original Victorian and Edwardian owners. The exhibition is free to view in the University Library, which is open daily from 8am till Midnight.
In addition, at 11am on 16th October there will be a free workshop (followed by a sandwich lunch), during which participants will be able to handle the books and examine them more closely. To book your place at the workshop, email alexander.bubb@roehampton.ac.uk
Image: Wiki Commons – CC 4.0