Translation Studies Commons^™

Translating Heimat In Multilingual Dortmund, Kristin Dickinson

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Named for the people of 132 different nationalities photojournalist Peyman Azhari encountered in northern Dortmund over the course of a year, the photo collection Heimat 132 (2014) stands as testament to the many ethnicities, religions, and languages this neighborhood is home to. In my paper, I read Azhari’s photographs as sites of translation capable of reclaiming a critical understanding of Heimat (home or homeland) that is fundamentally multilingual. I do so by first exploring the link between racially and ethnically exclusionary definitions of Heimat and the all-too-common assertion that Heimat is an untranslatable word. Each approach, I argue, rests on …

Learning Chinese Vocabulary: Understanding Students' Perspectives, Austin Gasiecki, Zuotang Zhang

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

This study used a survey to investigate self-study and university-enrolled Chinese learners’ habits in studying Chinese vocabulary in order to determine what study methods influence a.) learners’ confidence in learning Chinese vocabulary and b.) what aspects of Chinese vocabulary they consider easy or difficult. We were particularly interested in seeing what the data had to say about students’ attitudes towards characters and the written language, given that the field of Chinese language pedagogy is known for a stronger focus on the written language as opposed to the spoken language. We found that aspects of Chinese vocabulary associated with the spoken …

Between Pain And Glory: Memory Disputes Of The Brazilian Dictatorship In Retrato Calado And O Que É Isso, Companheiro?, Angela R. Mooney

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

This article analyzes Luiz Roberto Salinas Fortes’ Retrato calado (Silent Portrait) published in 1988, considering the theoretical discussions on testimonio's epistemology—addressing the challenge of narrating trauma and the risk of stylization. It compares Fortes' memoir with Fernando Gabeira's O que é isso, companheiro? (What's This, Comrade?) from 1979, examining diverse approaches to capturing historical trauma through literature and its impact on collective memory about Brazilian Dictatorship (1964-1985).

Decolonizing French: Afrophonics In Ken Bugul’S Aller Et Retour (2013), Hapsatou Wane

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

This article explores the innovative language strategies employed by Senegalese writer Ken Bugul in her novel Aller et retour to construct a dynamic and interconnected linguistic landscape that challenges fixed language boundaries. Ken Bugul's "langue fabriquée" combines elements of French, Wolof, and English, reflecting a transglocal dimension that embodies the essence of afrophonics—a poetics of resistance that empowers local cultures in a globalized context. Through a detailed analysis of Ken Bugul's linguistic choices, including the use of quotation marks, footnotes, and arbitrary transcription, the study reveals how she creates a language that defies categorization and decolonizes French without resorting to …

“Since When Is Steve Urkel White?” – Vocal Blackface In The German Dubbing Landscape, Patrick Ploschnitzki

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Dubbed (i.e., lip-synchronized audiovisual translation of) movies and television are ubiquitous in German-speaking countries and often consumed without active reflection of their production. Due to this inattention, the domestication / replacement of cultural references in US media translated into German often goes unnoticed. Translational decision-making becomes highly problematic, however, when entire cultures are replaced or disregarded as a result. In 2004, applied linguist Robin Queen demonstrated that Black actors were dubbed by white voice actors with German dialects and sociolects traditionally read as “blue collar.” There has not been any follow-up research to her crucial contribution that remains topical: the …

Feeling Beyond Words: Ineffability And Haptic Translational Praxis Of Black German Writings, Adrienne N. Merritt

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

In this article, I focus on selections from Black German essayistic and creative writings that center experiential knowledge that is personal and often multisensory. My case studies are excerpts from Farbe bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (1986), its English translation by Anne V. Adams (Showing Our Colors 1992), and Natasha Kelly’s collection of interviews from her documentary film, Millis Erwachen (Milli’s Awakening) (2018), which Kelly herself translated. These texts, I argue, explore the ways in which words fail to fully express the visceral reaction of living while Black in Germany, particularly those that seek …

La Radical Imperfección Del Mundo: El Crimen Perfecto De Jean Baudrillard Y El Crimen Ferpecto De Alex De La Iglesia, Maria A. Gomez

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

Le parfait crime (1995) by Jean Baudrillard and Crimen ferpecto (2004) by the Basque director Alex de la Iglesia are two works that not only have in common almost identical titles. They both reflect on how in consumer societies, an imperfect real world is substituted for an illusory hyperreality in which the distinction between subject and object has disappeared. While Baudrillard explains how the denial of a transcendent reality in contemporary society is “a perfect crime” that destroys the real, Alex de la Iglesia uses black humor and a mix of genres (mainly grotesque comedy and thriller) to show the …

De Médée À La Sorcière : Reconstruction D’Un Mythe Par Michelet, Caroline Strobbe

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

In La Sorcière, Jules Michelet uses the strength and the myth of the Medea character, which had already fascinated Corneille. In the second part of his work, Michelet creates nominative witches after authentic texts. In the first part, he creates an allegoric witch on the Medea model: the Woman, a victim of arbitrariness, injustice and repression, rises up against her oppressors, figuring the march of Humanity towards Enlightenment and Liberty. The analogies between the Witch and Medea are therefore numerous and necessary, since they help to render the defense of the oppressed against the oppressor. Would the somber Medea, …

English Translations Of Two German All-Souls’-Day Pieces, Taro Omori

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Since the early eighteenth century the Don Juan legend was a popular subject in Austrian theatres on All Souls' Day (November 2); a peculiar custom, given that the main character is a libertine who indulges in excesses without any fear of divine retribution. One such work was Anton Cremeri's Der steinerne Gast (The Stone Guest) published in 1787; coincidentally Mozart's Don Giovanni premiered in the same year.

In the nineteenth century Don Juan gradually disappeared from the stage, but the custom of performing plays on All Souls' Day did not. Ernst Raupach's 1835 piece Der Müller und sein Kind (The …

Joel Scott, Translator. The Aesthetics Of Resistance, Volume Ii. By Peter Weiss. Duke Up, 2020., Mona Eikel-Pohen

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Joel Scott, translator. The Aesthetics of Resistance, Volume II. By Peter Weiss. Duke UP, 2020. x + 320pp.

An Application Of Skopos Theory To German Literary Translation, Craig Nolan Vandemark

Linguistics Senior Research Projects

This project translated the German short story “Ein neues Paradies” by Hans Dominik using skopos theory in order to observe how the theory interacted with the text and to critique its application to literary translation. The skopos theory states that all translation decisions are to be made with respect to the skopos, or purpose, of the target text, intentionally deprioritizing faithfulness to the source text in the translation process. The skopos of the target text of this project was to produce a modern American English translation of the source text, that provides the reader with an understanding of the source …

Spring Awakening: A Midwest Children's Tragedy, Lena Nighswander

Honors Projects

Spring Awakening: A Midwest Children's Tragedy is a new play that takes up the issues of adaptation, translation, and temporality in regards to Frank Wedekind's Frühlingserwachen, a play infamous in its revelry in controversy and unflinching nature in the face of social issues many would prefer to ignore. Several modern adaptations of the original text exist, but none have utilized the 2020s as a setting nor have they used the fertile landscape of the American midwest as a background.

This play, set in Toledo, OH, leans into the Wedekindian tradition of cutting social criticism and controversy in its exploration of …

Oedipus Der Tyrann: Zur Titelwahl Und Zum Begriff Des ›Tyrannen‹ In Hölderlins Übersetzung Des Sophokleischen Oedipus Tyrannus, Priscilla A. Hayden-Roy

German Language and Literature Papers

Zusammenfassung-- Im Jahr 1804 erschien Hölderlins zweibändige Übersetzung, Die Trauerspiele des Sophokles, bestehend aus Oedipus der Tyrann und Antigonae. Zeitgenossen haben u.a. die Titelwahl für seine Ödipus-Tragödie beanstandet, die, so ein Rezensent, gleich vorweg die mangelhaften Griechischkenntnisse des Übersetzers verrate. In diesem Aufsatz wird zunächst die Geschichte des Titels von Sophokles’ erster Ödipus-Tragödie skizziert, von der handschriftlichen Überlieferung bis hin zu volkssprachlichen Übersetzungen und Bearbeitungen, die vor 1805 im europäischen Raum erschienen sind. Der Fokus wird dann ausgeweitet auf die antike Bedeutung von tyrannos und Sophokles’ Verwendung von dieser und anderen Herrscherbezeichnungen in diesem Werk. Eine Analyse von …

La “Border Culture” Del Personaje Mexicoamericano En El Sureste De Estados Unidos En Los Cuentos De Lorraine López Y Mijito Doesn’T Live Here Anymore De Jaime Martínez, Jaime Chavez

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

This paper explores the concepts of "Border Culture" and "Borderlands" by Gloria Anzaldúa in Soy la Avon Lady and Other Stories, Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, by Lorraine López and the novel Mijito Doesn’t Live Here Anymore by Jaime Martínez. The paper argues that the Mexican American character in the southeast of the United States lives in the "Borderlands" and practices a "Border Culture" because they don't follow the traditional stereotypical role of the Mexican American character within the literary canon of both the dominant culture and Chicana/o literature.

Pensar El Límite: El Símbolo Indígena En Los Proyectos Políticos Cubanos De Principios Del Siglo Xix, Jorge L. Camacho

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

This article investigates the way in which Cuban literature reflected on indigenous people during the early half of the nineteenth century and uses the symbol of the Amerindians to demonstrate a moral disjuncture between them and the colonizer. In this article, I call attention to the way Cuban independentists and Spanish nationalists used this figure to support their views and thus created a split in the Cuban creole imagination. I start by pointing out that these appropriations started at the end of the 18th century when historian José Martín Félix de Arrate, and poets such as Miguel González and Manuel …

Alfred Corn, Translator. The Duino Elegies, By Rainer Maria Rilke. Norton, 2021., Jeremy Glazier

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Alfred Corn, translator. The Duino Elegies, by Rainer Maria Rilke. Norton, 2021. 112 pp.

Using A Smart Phone To Learn Spanish: Does It Work And Will Students Use It?, Andrew J. Demil, Alysha Assaf, Ryan Cragun

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

Over time, mobile devices have penetrated the classroom, requiring new and beneficial ways to implement classroom instruction. Research suggests that Short Message Service (SMS) based instruction is an effective tool for acquiring second language (L2) vocabulary and idiom knowledge (Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu,). Additionally, studies have found that students believe that mobile learning (m-learning) is beneficial to acquiring a second language (Cavus & Ibrahim; Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu, 2008). This study examined whether m-learning can lead to Spanish vocabulary familiarity and if sentence comprehension outperforms reading definitions. Participants were 29 native English speakers studying Spanish as a second …

A Story To Tell… How To Integrate The Three Modes Of Communication Through A Story Time Program In French, Frederique Grim

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

Bilingual story time programs found in local community libraries not only benefit children, they can also serve a need for L2 college students: the development of their communicative skills in an authentic environment. In addition to linguistic benefits, experiential learning has proven to prepare students for real-world skills, such as networking, mock professional experience and a sense of community engagement. This paper recounts how a world language story time program supports L2 learners’ three modes of communication, as articulated by ACTFL, and necessary for language development. Based on students’ perceptions, this study highlights their increase in motivation and confidence in …

Genre And Geoculture: Enzensberger’S Encounter With Latin American Generic Traditions, Jamie Trnka

Faculty Scholarship

Enzensberger’s sustained engagement with Latin American thinkers and literary forms was central to his attempts to shift the parameters of West German debates on literature and politics in the 1960 s. Attention to Latin American exchanges and influences challenges simplistic criticisms of his Eurocentrism and demonstrates how the novel cultural constellations that underlie Enzensberger’s genre innovation engender productive inroads into transatlantic comparative projects.

Maidens In Maizes: Johnson, Grimms, D'Aulnoy, Hannah M. Johnson

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College. A German Studies and Written Arts joint project, with a collection of original fairy tales as well as an in-depth analysis of female agency, female mutilation, religious influence, and language within the fairy tales of Grimms and Madame d'Aulnoy.

“Marie” And “An Unusual Recourse”: English Translations Of German Early Romantic Stories, Meghan Leadabrand

Honors Theses

This project consists of English translations of two German early Romantic stories, “Marie” (1798) by Sophie Mereau and “Seltner Ausweg” (1823) by Luise Brachmann, as well as an introductory discussion of the authors, their significance in the Jena Circle of Romantic writers, and the translation process. The introduction incorporates research on both Mereau and Brachmann and German early Romanticism, as well as some research on translation theory. Overall, the project aims to make “Marie” and “Seltner Ausweg,” which have not previously been translated, available to an English-speaking audience and to highlight the work of two little known Romantic women writers. …

Agency And Political Engagement In Gide And Barrault's Post-War Theatrical Adaptation Of Kafka's The Trial, Yevgenya Strakovsky

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Agency and Political Engagement in Gide and Barrault's Post-war Theatrical Adaptation of Kafka's The Trial" Yevgenya Strakovsky considers the political themes of André Gide and Jean-Louis Barrault's Le Procès (The Trial, 1947), the first theatrical adaptation of Franz Kafka's Der Prozess (The Trial, 1914). Strakovsky demonstrates that Le Procès, written and staged in the immediate aftermath of World War II, levels a critique against the passive complicity of citizens in unjust persecution in both its script and its staging. The paper also considers the elements of Kafka's prose that lend themselves to …

“A Few Bars Of The Hymn Of Hate”: The Reception Of Ernst Lissauer’S “Haßgesang Gegen England” In German And English, Richard Millington, Roger Smith

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

“The poem fell like a shell into a munitions depot”: with these words Stefan Zweig recalled the impact made by Ernst Lissauer’s Anglophobic poem “Haßgesang gegen England” (A Chant of Hate Against England) upon first publication in August 1914. The poem’s success derived from the rhetorical power with which it encapsulated a national emotional response to the outbreak of war. In Germany it initiated an outpouring of Anglophobic verse, but lost favor as it became clear that the patriotism it epitomized would not carry the Central Powers to a swift victory. Even after its disappearance from public attention …

Notes On Contributors

Transference

No abstract provided.

Sonnet 19 By Rainer Maria Rilke, David Radavich

Transference

Translated from German by David Radavich

Foreword, David Kutzko

Transference

No abstract provided.

Transference Vol. 4, Fall 2016

Transference

No abstract provided.

From Professor-Student To Collaborators, Jesse E. Siegel

Blogging the Library

I had not met Michael Ritterson before he visited the Conservation Lab at Special Collections, where he was having a book mended, but I had certainly heard of him. A former faculty member of the German department, Mr. Ritterson is now a German translator, taking on projects from translating the work of a 17th German woman’s study of butterflies to the poetry of a Berlin leftist written during the 1968 Movement. And, by previous contact in the mail, he had heard of me. So after Mary Wooton showed him the fully repaired book, we were formally introduced and had the …

“Über Die Liebe”: Love And Sex According To Eduard Von Keyserling, Caroline Urvater

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation is built around an annotated translation of Eduard von Keyserling’s 1907 essay, “Über die Liebe.” The author’s citations are often made from memory and consequently, are not always entirely accurate. This fact is discussed and inaccuracies are corrected.

Chapter One begins with an overview of the historical background of the Keyserling family. It includes biographical material that describes the author’s life and experiences, and introduces his illustrious forbears. It also points to the writers and philosophers who influenced the author’s thinking.

Chapter Two, a review of the literature, discusses some of the dissertations, articles and books that were …

Phenomenological Psychology In Practice And Research: A Global Perspective On A Human Science, Alex A. Ekstrom

Global Honors Theses

Phenomenology is a philosophical movement, and more recently, an approach taken by healthcare professionals around the world in their work with patients, and by social scientists in their research about human phenomena (Creswell, 2011; Viney & King, 2003). In this paper, I will explore this approach in the field of psychology specifically. I will focus on how phenomenology has been used to enhance the clinical practice of psychology, and in qualitative research in psychology to better understand and promote well-being. I will suggest that the phenomenological approach in psychology leads to a more open-minded and rigorous practitioner and researcher who …