TY - CHAP

T1 - Englishness in German translations of Alice in Wonderland

AU - O'Sullivan, Emer

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - In order to explain away the peculiarity of Alice in Wonderland to a German audience, peritexts in many translations construct nonsense, the author Dodgson/Carroll and the novel itself as particularly English phenomena. Examining forewords and afterwords and some German translations, especially two post-war translations from 1922 and 1949 with clear and distinctive Anglo-German cultural agendas, this article will reveal a central paradox: while Englishness is evoked in these peritexts so that the familiarity of the national tropes may supposedly serve to counterbalance the strangeness of the novel, the translations themselves may, in contrast, actually neutralise or domesticate this purported Englishness. Combining imagology and translation studies, this analysis reveals strangely hybrid translations which peritextually proclaim one thing but in practice do another.

AB - In order to explain away the peculiarity of Alice in Wonderland to a German audience, peritexts in many translations construct nonsense, the author Dodgson/Carroll and the novel itself as particularly English phenomena. Examining forewords and afterwords and some German translations, especially two post-war translations from 1922 and 1949 with clear and distinctive Anglo-German cultural agendas, this article will reveal a central paradox: while Englishness is evoked in these peritexts so that the familiarity of the national tropes may supposedly serve to counterbalance the strangeness of the novel, the translations themselves may, in contrast, actually neutralise or domesticate this purported Englishness. Combining imagology and translation studies, this analysis reveals strangely hybrid translations which peritextually proclaim one thing but in practice do another.

KW - Literature studies

KW - Translation studies

KW - Imagology

KW - Translation Studies

KW - Imagology

KW - paratexts

KW - nonsense

KW - English

KW - Englishness

KW - narrator of the translation

KW - Englishness

KW - Imagology

KW - Narrator of the translation

KW - Nonsense

KW - Paratexts

KW - Translation studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052812090&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1075/btl.119.06sul

DO - 10.1075/btl.119.06sul

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9789027258601

T3 - Benjamins Translation Library

SP - 87

EP - 107

BT - Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology

A2 - van Doorslaer, Luc

A2 - Flynn, Peter

A2 - Leerssen, Joep

PB - John Benjamins Publishing Company

CY - Amsterdam, Philadelphia

ER -