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Landmarks in German Women's Writing by Hilary Brown

2008; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 103; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/mlr.2008.0493

2222-4319

Peter Skrine,

Translation Studies and Practices

MLR, 103.4, 2oo8 I149 ('work'). The translation of 'uif heiles ban' as 'on fortune's path' (1. I850: the subject is an impending duel between two knights) cannot be ruled out (cf.NHG Bahn) but seems tobemore than a littleundermined by the translator's own note, where he writes 'I have only found one reference toheilesban (Parzival 3 I6, I), inwhich the the sense isclearly "destroyer of fortune"' (p. 332, note to 1. I850). Given the combative tone of the original passage and the compressed meaning of theMHG preposition uif,however, themeaning 'so thatone of us will [be obliged to] lose fortune's favour' might appear preferable here. Other lapses stem from the translator simply not being a native speaker of English, such as when we are told that a lion shows its 'custom' ('gewon', 1. I944, recte '[true] nature') orwhen vernacular Americanisms are used to involuntarily comic effect,as in thephrase 'Should anyone be so brave as tobest (sic) the adventure forknightly praise' ('si iemen also ellenhaft I der durch lopmit ritter schaft I die aventiure brechen wil', 11. 3449-5 I, cf.also 1.3498.2 on p. 205). Meanwhile, the strange retentionof the archaic feminine accusative in thephrase 'broughtEnlten' (1. 3286) might give a reader wholly dependent on theEnglish translation the false idea that the character Enite was called Eniten in Middle High German. The contention enunciated in the introduction that 'however fluent the translation may seem, it can and should not presume to bring claritywhere the original text's meaning is questionable or ambiguous whether by accident or design' (p. 14) seems particularly debatable, especially since thepoint of the translation series inwhich this volume appears is that it is meant forcomparatists fromother language areas whose knowledge ofMiddle High German may be scant and who would have no means of construing the sense on their own. In short, Christoph's translation is a lively and accessible one which will be of great use to a variety of readers, but sometimes needs tobe used with care. DURHAMUNIVERSITY NEIL THOMAS Landmarks inGerman Women's Writing. Ed. by HILARY BROWN. (British and Irish Studies inGerman Language and Literature, 39) Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang. 2007. 2I3 PP- ?29; ?47.70; $57.95. ISBN 978-3-03910-301-0. This set of succinct and informative essays makes a timely and notable addition to an already impressive series. Originally given in 2005 as a sequence of lectures in Cambridge, and now published to the advantage of awider audience, it is skilfully in troduced byHilary Brown with theplain statement that 'womenwriters inGermany, Austria and Switzerland have been overshadowed by theirmale counterparts'; she goes on toobserve that 'interest inGerman women's writing isnow a thriving-if still marginalized-area of research, even if theirwork has not entered the canon to the same extent aswriting by women in countries such as Britain and America'. Wisely the contributors refrain from claiming thatGerman literature has its own Austens, Gaskells, Brontes, or Beecher Stowes, let alone a George Eliot, of allmajor English women writers the one most deeply touched by German thought and culture. It is no great surprise that some of themost accessible contributions focus on writers of lyricpoetry, a close involvement with which is evident as Roger Paulin revisits the intenseworld ofDroste-Hiilshoff. There are pioneering visits in this collection, too: most notably Anna Carrdus's remarkably compact yetminutely researched account of the career ofMargareta Susanna von Kuntsch (I65 I-I7 I7), whose lifeand works she has reclaimed and made her own. Her account of Kuntsch's environment and literary achievements displays a remarkable gift for literarybiography and for that balance of concision and coverage which makes a contribution outstanding. Some of the other contributors to this fascinating volume are devoted towriters whose names are relatively familiar even though theirworks are largely forgottenor II50 Reviews not yet sufficientlyknown. A good example isKevin Hilliard's noteworthy account of Sophie von laRoche, whose occasional attempts toadapt Richardson's manner toGer man material are particularly interesting; so, too, is the essay on her granddaughter, Bettine von Arnim, by Ursula Hudson-Wiedemann, whose unfortunate and surely unintentional conflation ofPygmalion and his 'idealwoman' provokes a passing smile. Otherwise there is...