Emily Wilson Retranslates Odyssey, Defends Nolan Critique — SkimNews
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- Emily Wilson's 2017 Odyssey translation, the first major English version of the poem by a woman, has sold more than 1 million copies; her Iliad translation followed in 2023
- Wilson published a scathing review of Christopher Nolan's blockbuster Odyssey film this summer, becoming an unlikely flashpoint in a pop-culture controversy she says she didn't anticipate
- Wilson is now working on a second translation of The Odyssey, motivated by wanting it to match the looser line-count approach she used in her 2023 Iliad
- Her new essay collection Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea dissects translations of ancient works with what the source calls 'unsparing rigor,' exploring the tension between fidelity and originality
- Wilson describes translation as 'compulsive' and positions her approach as 'super retro,' modeled on mid-19th-century translation practices that prioritize meter
- Wilson argued that the best adaptations push against the original, and she critiqued Nolan's film on pacing, characterization, and narrative follow-through rather than fidelity to the source
- Wilson called the backlash to her review 'really weird,' noting that other Odyssey translators also reviewed the film without generating similar discourse
Why it matters: Wilson's retranslation will give readers a second Wilson take on the same 3,000-year-old poem, while her defense of the Nolan critique — that 'criticism has a responsibility to tell the truth' — signals that a leading public intellectual in classical translation is unwilling to soften her judgments to protect popular reception of ancient works.
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