The paper analyses the transfer of South African literature to the German Democratic Republic. In its historiographic/methodological dimension it presents findings on the statistics of (South) ...African literature(s) translations in the Verlag Volk und Welt (the major East German publisher in the area of contemporary world literature), and on the place of literary translations in the East German foreign cultural policy, as well as in the socialist solidarity discourse of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and the antiapartheid movement. Furthermore, findings are presented on the publisher-internal selection criteria applied to South African literature, based on the archival data from the Bundesarchiv in Berlin (i.e. applications for a print permit and internal/external reviews), on issues around the transformation and adaptation of literature translated in the realm of the East German Weltliteratur, and on the transfer of South African literature from the GDR, based on the English language series Seven Seas Books. Lastly, the function of this alternative canon, framed within the so-called ‘minor transnationalism’, is spelled out.
The paper offers an analysis of an ethnographic perspective on the contemporary status of indigenous tribes of South Africa. The analysis concerns a specific publication Herovering van het paradijs ...(Paradise reconquered) which constitutes a report on the indigenous peoples of South Africa compiled as an incentive of the Dutch Organization for International Aid (Novib). The paper focuses on the negative perception of tourism in contemporary ethnography recently tending to interpret it as a type of colonialism of a modern kind. The more recent ethnographic account distances itself from the empirical approach, as if allowing the underprivileged to speak for themselves, while it in fact contradicts its initial assumptions. The apparent concern for the authenticity of the indigenous, though unintended, defies any manifestation of cultural hybridization which is, moreover, held to blame, as can be gathered, for the present disastrous condition of the indigenous peoples. The message of the contemporary ethnographic accounts is reinforced by the photos of some modern or “western” items recycled to fit a traditional, e.g., Bushman environment. The above strategy of presentation results in a deliberate reversal of the established order. Its aim is to demonstrate the absurdity involved in the interpenetration of rules and norms valid for different civilizations. In this way, undeniable similarities of cultures are backgrounded while the Bushman self-destructive distinctiveness is foregrounded. As one can conclude, what the authors of the book under scrutiny are aiming at, while claiming the rights to impose their own norms on the local culture, is nothing else but the petrifaction of the mythical tribal condition.
Publishing Editor as Translator: On Translating the work of Cees Nooteboom in the Suhrkamp VerlagCees Nooteboom has been the face of Dutch literature in Germany. His photo, which features on the ...cover of Niederländische Literaturgeschichte History of Dutch literature, 2006, a volume edited by Ralf Grüttemeier and Maria-Theresia Leuker, is a telling illustration of this. Usually, his successful market position is related to a eulogy to the book Die folgende Geschichte, delivered by the pope of German literary criticism, Marcel Reich-Ranicki in October 1991 in a TV programme „Das Literarische Quartett”. This paper tells the prehistory of Nooteboom’s success in Germany based on unpublished data drawn from the Siegfried Unseld Archive (Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach). The main focus of the discussion is placed on the cooperation between Nooteboom and the publishing editor, Elisabeth Borchers, who exerted a significant influence on the form of his initial publications by Suhrkamp Verlag.
In the land of the Boers: The reception of the Anglo-Boer War in Polish youth literature Polish writers and journalists frequently used the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) as a symbol of resistance ...against foreign rule in their country. Since 1795 till the end of World War I, Poland had been absent from the map of Europe, divided between the European powers of Prussia (later Germany), Russia and Austria. In this context, high hopes for independence were encouraged, among others, by the romantic patriotism of national uprisings. Foreign inspirations, such as the Anglo-Boer War, also embodied prospective freedom. Symbolic meanings of the Anglo-Boer War are most clearly visible in the youth literature of the time. At that period, youth literature was not only conceived as entertainment, but also as a messenger of contents forbidden from schools as a result of russification and germanisation policy. In this context, the Boer fight provided suitable ground for allusions to the contemporary political situation of Poland. Two factors facilitated the delivery of the idea of independence – the censorship was less strict with respect to the youth literature and, secondly, there existed strong Boer support on the side of the whole Europe. This paper aims at showing the ways in which the contents related to the state of subjugation, such as political repressions, forced migration, critique of the rulers, unfortunate national uprisings were all included in the books whose main plot took place in South Africa. Paradoxically, the symbolism of subjugation was accompanied by Polish colonial desires. The colonized Poles would eagerly recall the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest European powers in between 1386–1772. In this context, the myth of the Polish border – the area of the eastern frontier colonized by the Poles, covering roughly present day Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus was born. In this area, the Polish nobleman was viewed as an agent of acculturation, supposed to live in harmony with his neighbours and fight the barbarian Tatar hordes. The reality of the Commonwealth was, however, much less idyllic, much more brutal and colonial in its nature. Also this component of “Polish colonialism” was transported into the South African literary space.
Länderschwerpunkt Niederlande: The Siegfried Unseld Archives and Dutch literature In 2009 Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach (DLA) acquired the Siegfried Unseld Archives (SUA). SUA covers the ...period from 1945-2002 and includes material from the publishing houses such as Suhrkamp Verlag, Insel Verlag, Jüdischer Verlag and Deutscher Klassiker Verlag. The archive constitutes an important resource not only for the historians of literature and science, but also for the sociologists of literature dealing with literary translation. Scholars interested in Dutch literature will also find a wealth of research data in the archive. Suhrkamp Verlag, next to the publishers such as Hanser and Klett-Cotta, played a very important part in shaping the reception of Dutch literature in Germany. The paper discusses three stages in the production of literary translations in Suhrkamp Verlag between 1957-1990, focusing in particular on the selection procedure and the participation of the individual actors of the transfer.
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