Specifics of Czech to German Poetry Translators during the Cold War

0565636 - ÚČL 2023 RIV eng A - Abstract
Miesenböck, Julia
Specifics of Czech to German Poetry Translators during the Cold War.
[History and Translation: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Tallinn, 25.05.2022-28.05.2022]
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GJ20-02773Y
Institutional support: RVO:68378068
Keywords : literary translation * history of translation * translator studies * translation during the Cold war
OECD category: Specific languages

The paper deals with Czech to German poetry translators active in the years 1948-1989 in terms of their types, thus developing the field of interest in translators as agents of the broadly conceived process of translation has been applied in translation studies since the 1990s (Pym 1998, Milton 2009, Roig-Sanz/Meylaerts 2018, et al.). Within this strand, Pascale Casanova (2002) takes Bourdieu’s theory and terminology as a starting point to present an outline of a typology of literary translators. In what ways does this typology help to investigate the translation of the marginal, uneconomical genre of poetry, moreover, in the transfer from a peripheral language (Czech) to a central language (German) during the Cold War? What is specific to translators of Czech poetry into German and what conclusions can be drawn from this? From which perspective is it useful to create a typology of translators, and which blind spots leaves such a structuring, disregarding the dynamics of development over a longer time frame?
To gain an insight an analysis of socio-biographical data (socio-biography, cf. Roig-Sanz/Meylaerts 2018) on the Czech-German poetry translators active in this period, such as their cultural origin, education, activities outside translation, language proficiency, mode of translation (directly or indirectly), and since their activities take place during the Cold War, their geographical location (working East or West of the so-called Iron curtain) as well as the status of their translated authors in Czechoslovakia (were they able to publish or were they censored).
Characterising these translators against the background of existing types adds several factors to the existing pattern, showing specifics of translators of a non-economical genre (poetry) from a peripheral to a central language and across the Iron curtain. Establishing such a typology however shows the problematics of capturing the development of individual socio-biographies and the dynamics of the cultures in which they operate.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0338296