Examining Text and Authorship in Translation: What Remains of Christa Wolf?

267 Pages·2017·2.679 MB·English

by  Caroline Summers (auth.)

EXAMINING
TEXT AND
AUTHORSHIP
IN
What Remains of
Christa Wolf?
TRANSLATION
CAROLINE SUMMERS
Examining Text and Authorship in Translation
Caroline Summers
Examining Text and
Authorship in
Translation
What Remains of Christa Wolf?
Caroline Summers
University of Leeds
Derby, United Kingdom
ISBN 978-3-319-40182-9 ISBN 978-3-319-40183-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40183-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016961254
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
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Acknowledgements
The experience of writing this book has been an exhilarating and a
challenging one and was made possible by the support of a number of
individuals and institutions.
The book is a revised version of my PhD, submitted to the University
of Manchester in 2013, and as such owes much to the inspirational and
enthusiastic guidance of my supervisors, Dr Matthew Philpotts and
Professor Mona Baker. I am also indebted to Professor Stephen Parker
and Dr Morven Beaton-Thome for their insights and suggestions over
the course of the PhD and to Professor Stuart Taberner for sound advice
and wise words as the book was being prepared for publication.
The research for this study was funded by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council, without whose generosity it would have been impos-
sible for me to undertake the project, and who also supported my
very fruitful research trip to Berlin. Much gratitude is also due to the
Association of German Studies for financial assistance with my research
trip to New York Public Library. I am thankful to members of staff at the
Akademie der Künste, New York Public Library and the Staatsbibliothek
zu Berlin for their assistance during and after my visits to the archives.
Thanks are also due to Karen Malpede, Anna Kuhn and Helen Fehervary
for their responses to my inquiries and their encouraging comments. I
am obliged to Suhrkamp, FSG and UCP for permission to quote textual
and archival material and to reproduce book cover images and to Getty
v
vi Acknowledgements
Images and Magnum Photos for the permission to reproduce photo-
graphs by Tom Stoddart and Peter Marlow.
Finally, I would also like to thank my family, who are a constant source
of support and encouragement. I am especially grateful to my parents
for their confidence in me and to Sam for inexhaustible supplies of good
humour and common sense that have helped to steady me through many
a wobbly moment.
© Caroline Summers, 2016
Material from the Introduction and Chaps. 1, 3 and 4 first appeared in
‘What Remains: The Institutional Reframing of Authorship in Translated
Peritexts’, in Paratext in Translation, ed. Valerie Pellatt (Newcastle upon
Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2013). Published here with the permis-
sion of Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Permissions
The following have been reprinted with permission:
Marlow, Peter (photographer) (1980) Living in the Shadow of the Wall
[photograph], courtesy of Magnum Photos.
Printed by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC: Excerpts from
unpublished letters written by Roger Straus to Christa Wolf, Hermann
Kant, and Dietrich von Boetticher from 1969–1988. Copyright © 2017
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Archived in Farrar, Straus & Giroux,
Inc. records. Manuscripts and Archives Division. The New York Public
Library. Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.
Reprinted by permission of Suhrkamp Verlag: Extracts from Christa Wolf,
Nachdenken über Christa T. Roman. First publication by Mitteldeutscher
Verlag, Halle, 1968. © Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 2007. All
rights reserved by and controlled through Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC: Approx.
1370 words (excerpts as specified) from THE QUEST FOR CHRISTA T.
Acknowledgements vii
by Christa Wolf, translated by Christopher Middleton. English translation
copyright © 1970 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC: Jacket
design by Jacqueline Schuman from CASSANDRA by Christa Wolf, trans-
lated by Jan van Heurck. Cover design © 1984 by Jacqueline Schuman.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC: Jacket
design by Cynthia Krupat from WHAT REMAINS AND OTHER
STORIES by Christa Wolf, translated by Heike Schwarzbauer and Rick
Takvorian. Jacket design © by Cynthia Krupat.
Reprinted by permission of the University of Chicago Press: Jacket
design by Toni Ellis and illustration by Adam McCauley from WHAT
REMAINS AND OTHER STORIES, by Christa Wolf, translated by
Heike Schwarzbauer and Rick Takvorian. Jacket design © by Toni Ellis
and illustration © by Adam McCauley.
Stoddart, Tom (photographer). (1990). Marital Aid [photograph].
Retrieved from: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/license/85272996.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Understanding Translated Authorship 23
3 The Subjective Narrator: Nachdenken über Christa T. 59
4 The Author as Feminist: Kassandra 113
5 Politics, Morality and Aesthetics: Two Translations
of Was bleibt 161
6 Conclusion: What Remains? 217
Bibliography 229
Index 253
ix
List of Abbreviations
Christa Wolf, Werke
Unless otherwise stated, all quotations from Wolf’s German texts will be
given as volume and page numbers from the collected edition of
her Werke.
Christa Wolf: Werkausgabe in 13 Bänden (1999–2003) edited by Sonja
Hilzinger, Munich: Luchterhand.
English Translations of Wolf’s Texts: Editions Cited
AD The Author’s Dimension: Selected Essays (1993) translated by Jan van
Heurck, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
C Cassandra. A Novel and Four Essays (1984) translated by Jan van
Heurck, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.
GR ‘What Remains’ (1990) translated by Martin Chalmers, Granta 33:
141–158.
MC A Model Childhood (1980) translated by Ursule Molinaro and Hedwig
Rappolt, Virago Modern Classics edition (1995), London: Virago.
xi
xii List of Abbreviations
Q The Quest for Christa T. (1970) translated by Christopher Middleton,
New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.
WR What Remains and Other Stories (1993) translated by Heike
Schwarzbauer and Rick Takvorian, 1995 edition, Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
Archival Sources
AAV Archiv des Aufbau-Verlags, Handschriften, Staatsbibliothek zu
Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
ADK Christa-Wolf-Archiv, Literaturarchiv, Akademie der Künste,
Berlin.
NYPL Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. records, Manuscripts and Archives
Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and
Tilden Foundations.