Akteure des Wandels: Ein Rollenmodell des Übersetzungsprozesses anhand einer Untersuchung englisch-deutscher Literaturübersetzungen aus der Zwischenkriegszeit

Abstract

The intricacies of the cultural import of modernist English literature into German-speaking countries in the Twenties and Thirties set difficult and intriguing tasks not only for translators. Translation studies scholars alike are faced with demands for tailor-made approaches to measure the translation process and accentuate its conditions and the influence of individuals within the enquiry of texts and actors. With the help of a task model of the translation process this article aims to account for the decisions that organise this process. Drawing on the correspondence between the German publisher Insel and its translators – notably Herberth E. Herlitschka – I will try to sketch the network of decisions makers, its power relations, the range of tasks, the matters of discourse and the consequences of the respective decisions. These sometimes friendly, sometimes heated dialogues greatly enhance our understanding of the multifaceted range of translators’ tasks, the actors’ basis for decision-making, and the dominance of translational norms and allow insight into the partners’ self-conception in an increasingly international publishing industry.