Table of Contents I. Intertextuality and Cultural References Introduction For many years the German author Arno Schmidt upheld the awe-inspiring reputation of being untranslatable. The innovative stylistic elements typical of his later works especially and of Zettels Traum most notably were deemed too intricate and languagespecific to possibly survive in translation.
For many people, the American translator John E.
KAFF auch Mare Crisium by Arno Schmidt
The discussion will focus on three such problematic aspects. The second chapter will move on to the wordplay. The third chapter will deal with the intertextual and cultural layers in Kaff and will analyse whether these are copied into the translation or adjusted to fit the profile of the American reading public. Seeing how Schmidt did some work as a translator of English and American novels himself Albrecht The second stage, however, involves more learned translators who polish away at the existing translation, contributing their own minor improvements.
Dialects and Multilingualism 1. Last but not least, Karl is quite proficient in both varieties, which means he regularly has to take on the role of two-way interpreter. Indeed, many translators and researchers, among whom Woods, have written about some of the hurdles they have had to overcome when translating literary dialects. A first aspect that needs to be taken into account concerns the geographical status of the source dialect. He explains this idea by comparing the French dialect Parigot to Cockney English.
Translators often opt for Parigot as an equivalent for Cockney, even though these two dialects are spoken in altogether different parts of their respective country: The source and target dialect may share characteristics on a human geographical level, but this does not necessarily ensure that their typifying markers are linguistically comparable as well.
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Cockney, for instance, is mainly set apart by phonological features, while Parigot primarily utilizes lexical markers Catford Woods also mentions this orthographical obstacle in one of his articles on translating Arno Schmidt: This means that when Schmidt abandons Duden in favour of his own etym-ological and still more precise phonetic forms, even his most radical variants remain visually identifiable with the conventional spellings they replace, more so than would be the case if an English text were given the same radical treatment.
A systematic phonetic transcription of English produces an essentially unreadable text, and the new convention proves self-defeating. As a result, Woods cannot rely on the same methods as Schmidt and has to come up with new means of depicting English dialects, while keeping the overall feel of the German original alive. The fact that spelling conventions inevitably restrict the author or translator in their execution of literary dialects raises another pivotal question: According to Ives, writers can already achieve a good deal of the desired authenticity by just incorporating grammar, idiomatic expressions and vocabulary typical of the region.
He argues that within the confines of spelling conventions, the author still is left with enough artistic freedom to be able to realistically portray regional varieties. Translating German dialects into English is thus certainly a feasible undertaking, at least as far as written transcriptions are concerned. Even though the English spelling system puts Woods at a disadvantage, he still has access to plenty of resources to make his dialects of choice look recognizable on paper. Berthele, however, adds that the use of literary dialects can instil in the reader a more positive understanding of the speaker as well.
The translator now seems to be burdened with the unachievable task of having to find appropriate equivalents for the literary dialects. It is nevertheless of paramount importance that they preserve the dialectal character of the original work to some extent. Writers employ dialects with varying underlying ideas in mind, whether they want to add a humorous note, or strive for a more realistic and authentic representation of a community Ives Heeta pronounces these words without the ending schwa, which is indicated by the frequent occurrence of apostrophes in her dialogues. Wir ham heut Abmd auch Theader hier: Unt ich haap ma das — gans gedanknlos — Alles so angesehn.
Furthermore, one can gather from this excerpt that Hertha turns lenis consonants adjacent to a fortis consonant into a fortis sound. Curiously enough, New Yorkers will sometimes also insert an r where there is not supposed to be one according to Standard English Newman Apart from these two striking characteristics, Heeta makes use of very few typically New Yorkese elements. This of course takes us back to two remarks made earlier, namely that the English spelling system does not allow for a very precise representation of actual speech and that writers do not want to sacrifice the readability of the text too much in favour of more realistic transcriptions.
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Schmidt and Woods both rely on the use of eye dialect to lend their narratives an unorthodox linguistic quality. Schmidt and Woods thus present alternative spellings for words, while changing neither their meaning nor their pronunciation. The effect of difference is limited to the graphic appearance of the text. Schmidt nevertheless maintains that the deviations from conventional orthography in Kaff serve yet another purpose. His literary intentions are three-fold.
KAFF auch Mare Crisium
Both Carsten Scholz and Kurt Scheel carried out research into the dialectal lexicon in Kaff. There are some cases in which the original dialectal lexicon is rendered as slang rather than as Standard or formal English. And strained to peek: Woods tends to follow suit, although the English interjections do pose a problem for him. As a result, Woods is able to compensate for the loss of English multilingualism in.
With his astounding knowledge regarding art, politics and foreign languages, Karl certainly seems to fit the characteristics of the educated man superior to the uncultivated, vernacular-speaking lower classes. The fact that he is an ardent dialect speaker does not necessarily conflict with his learned discourse, as educated Germans do not always shy away from using vernacular forms themselves McDavid Karl wants to distinguish himself through his vocabulary, which positively turns him into the quasi-standard speaker.
In the nineteenth and twentieth century, attitudes towards regional dialects changed and new, nationalist convictions regarding language rapidly spread through Germany. With the idea of a single official language to represent and unite the country gaining popularity everywhere, the number of dialectal speakers started to decline in most regions.
The inventions in public transport and vehicles made it possible for people to move around the country more easily and to take up residence somewhere else. Moreover, increasingly more citizens started to indulge in reading newspapers and watching television. Add to that the right of abode and the flood of immigrants and it becomes easy to understand why dialects gradually came to lose their coveted position in society. Thus the need to present oneself as being part of the community through the use of local speech generally no longer existed to the same extent anymore Moser Apart from the fact that she is already widowed, Heeta perfectly matches this description, which explains why she still holds on to the regional language she knows.
Indeed, this is also one of the common threads running through Kaff auch Mare Crisium. It quickly becomes apparent that Hertha, even after fourteen years of Low German citizenship, does not want to forfeit her Silesian heritage and continues to speak in her authentic dialect. This was not an uncommon attitude among immigrants entering Germany, as many of them cherished hope of one day being able to return home Moser The Silesian community actually comprised the largest percentage of people coming to live in Low Germany at the time Moser In her paper on the speech habits of Silesian immigrants in Germany, Wecker writes that even those who tried to assimilate to the German language to the best of their abilities could still be ostracized when their Silesian accent remained noticeable Scholz argues the following: Furthermore, Heeta eventually shows her acceptance by inviting Karl and Hertha to move into her home in Giffendorf.
However, she and Karl at the same time encourage Hertha to incorporate Low German influences into her vocabulary e. Heeta and Karl do spur Hertha to adjust her speaking habits to the local norms, but the rejection of foreign accents that is described in some secondary literature is not very palpable in Kaff. Implicitly, the native characters serve as advocates for integration rather than assimilation.
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Granted, the prototypical idea most people will have of New York is that of the urban metropolis, but upstate New York, with its rural and agricultural environment Hardin The results of his investigation show that New Yorkers who shop at the cheaper store, and thus have lower social standing, drop the r a lot more often than those who frequent the more expensive stores.
According to various sources, New Yorkers were instructed to abandon their inferior accent. One researcher even mentions that a person whose New York accent was too. This outward pressure and negative perspective on the accent quickly became internalized by the speakers themselves. Labov asked New York citizens for their opinion of the dialect and got the following responses: The linguistic goal of most of the middle class speakers is to lose all resemblance to New Yorkers; almost all of them stated that they would be complimented if someone told them they did not sound like New Yorkers.
Because she is not a middle class citizen, she is not as fazed by or aware of the negative attitudes regarding her language variety. Another striking analogy between the American and German dialect is the fact that both of their declines are partly caused by new influxes of immigrants: When all of these elements are taken into account, one can see a pattern that is very similar to the one found in the Low German dialect starting to emerge. He could even have underscored her immigrant background by lending her a more foreign, non-native English accent.
One can see oneself roaming over the map in order to find out where Hertha could possibly originate from, without ever succeeding in even limiting the pursuit to a couple of regions. This mental image overlaps with the way in which Hertha used to traverse the country in search of a new home, which she still has not completely found yet.
The political tensions between the regions are not as highlighted in the choice of dialects, but it would be nearly impossible for any translator to preserve all of the implications, associations and connotations of the original work. According to Peter Low, most forms of wordplay are, contrary to common belief among translators and researchers4 , not impossible to translate. Only when a pun revolves around more than just a couple of ambiguities does translation truly become increasingly difficult to the point of impracticability. His instructions range from simply replicating the pun or replacing it with either a similar or a different humorous construction, to compensating for the loss of the pun by adding wordplay in nearby passages, or adding an explanation of the pun in an extended translation.
If none of these suggestions lead to a satisfactory end product, the translator may eventually simply ignore the pun The forms of wordplay that pose the least problems for the translator are undoubtedly those that do not require to be translated in the first place.
Since all of these instances already rely on English lexicon to create the pun, Woods can just copy them into his translation without difficulty. The majority of the puns, however, do not allow for this type of uncomplicated, direct translation. The translation in that sense differs only slightly from the original, since both Schmidt and Woods allude to a state of political suppression by means of metaphors signalling passivity. As Low indicates, the translator sometimes has to resort to puns that convey a message different from the one in the source text. In case the translator fails to come up with a gratifying witticism, they can try to compensate for the loss of the pun by adding wordplay in a nearby passage.
Since this is not a case of gratuitous wordplay solely employed to amuse the reader6 , Woods would understandably want to preserve the underlying criticism. Aber hier erlebt das Medium schon eine Wandlung, die wiederum ihre Entsprechung im technischen Fortschritt hat. Und es war der Hausmeister, der sie denunzierte.
Und die Verweigerung bewusster Gestaltung wird immer wieder als subversiv empfunden. Der Blick auf das Geschriebene war somit verborgen. Er begann, Gedichte zu verfassen, bei denen Schriftbild und Interpunktion eine wichtige Rolle spielten. Where Nabuchodonosor eternal flames used to spring now the associate gas is burned. This is one of the most profilic oilfields in the world.
Behind him is the only Siberian harbour that does not freeze over the winter and it is therefore of great interest to the oil companies as a loading base for their tankers. Angola is a country so rich in oil and the oil is easily reached but the resulting wealth is out of reach of the Angolan people. This is the most important oil field uncovered in the world over the past thirty years, and it makes the Kazakh regime dream: For this publication of the same name, celebrated graphic designers as well as talented young designers from all over the world have taken song lyrics and fonts and used them as the inspiration for innovative designs.
Each genre is coupled with a particular type style, for example stencil for Punk or monospaced for Krautrock. The book opens with a foreword by Max Dax, interviews with Stylorouge, Dirk Rudolph and Invisible Creature, plus a comment by Frank Wiedemann who selected most of the songs. Edited by Slanted Language: I type without watching. My fingers are flying over the black plastic keys, dancing over the keyboard.
My view is tight to the text next to me. Eyes perceiving words and structure, Reading. Fingers moving fast over the board. Es gibt zwei Hauptgebiete: Liegt darin vielleicht der Unterschied? Da kann es gut sein, dass man keine Ahnung vom Thema hat und sich erst damit vertraut machen muss. Es ist meistens ein positiver Austausch mit gemeinsamen Interessen, z. Es steckt auch ziemlich viel Herzblut aller Beteiligten drin. Parasol unit befindet sich in London. Wie kommt so ein Kontakt ins Ausland zu Stande?
Wir wissen es eigentlich selber nicht so recht. Es scheint ein paar Menschen zu geben, die uns weiter empfehlen. Ist es problematischer mit Auftraggeber im Ausland zusammen zu arbeiten? Die konzeptionelle Arbeit erfolgt dann zu zweit oder im Team. Es ist eher ein Slogan, als eine Philosophie. Es wird dann viel geredet und wenig entschieden. Wir versuchen die richtigen Fragen zu stellen, den wesentlichen Inhalt zu finden. Die verstehen, dass gute Grafik auch mit Auseinandersetzung zu tun hat.
Verstehen wir euch da richtig? Konzept und Umsetzung sind in unseren Augen eine Einheit. Auch die Ausbildung war bis vor ein paar Jahren auf die handwerklichen Fertigkeiten ausgerichtet. The work of Daijiro Ohara represents a near-polar opposite in his reverence for the untrained, though channeled with precision in his use of bubbly cartoon lettering, art nouveau-esque display types, and roughly-rendered geometric characters. The past century collides in his work in a visceral way, bleeding dot gain and the uneven tones of cheap reprographic technology. Reminiscent of vintage candy shops, low-budget U.
These assorted strains of inf luence are mixed with a hand-wrought tactility that is innocent and playful, yet craft-centric in its thoroughness and richness of form and finish. It is not so much the particular shapes that are important, but rather the ingenuity of the letterforms in the context of all the other letterforms that existed before, and the meaning or significance they convey in that context.
There is no denying the strength of musical communities, especially when paired with visual execution in step with melodic vision. The work of Kunihiko Okano and Daijiro Ohara represent wildly dif ferent approaches, though each is a master craftsperson at creating original contemporary letterforms inf lected by conceptual and formal lettering from the past. Little seen outside of Japan, their work represents a new guard of typographic designers filtering into the Japanese mainstream. It will be remembered as part of a continuum of applied visual form filled with meaning. A tireless and thorough craftsman, Okano is an unrelenting force in the Japanese sphere of typography.
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His work speaks for itself — graceful and poised type design that retains the springy qualities of pen-rendering. His work exercises multiple perspectives — the chopped terminals of punchcutters, deep ink traps of the s and s, and exaggeratedly dif ferentiated counterspaces enhance readability with one foot in the past and one solidly in the present.
Okano is no retro revivalist of fering up readymade solutions — his work is that of one who understands history, then synthesizes and sublimates the lessons of the masters into brave new form. How did you first cultivate an interest in Roman lettering? When was it that you first became interested in lettering?
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For type choices, I often referred to overseas type specimens, such as Letraset and The Monsen Type Library, but it was always hard to find one I wanted. Im Folgenden werde ich auch auf Handlungselemente eingehen. Karl ist ein Exponent der Nachkriegs-Versehrtenrepublik, der nur auf den ersten Blick stabiler, weniger neurotisch als Hertha erscheint. Seine zwei Mantren begleiten den Leser durch den Roman: Doch der Reihe nach. Was geschieht in KAFF eigentlich? Und ooch Dein geliebtes "wortreich"; eebm: Und manches sind noch Witze.
Der Wunsch nach einem eigenen Heim, auch als Wohngemeinschaft, taucht immer wieder bei Schmidt auf, z. Es steckt darin wohl auch das Trauma der Unbehaustheit der Nachkriegsgeneration, die Schnecken mit Haus ehrerbietig siezt; aber auch die Utopie einer weitestgehenden Autonomie, wie Schmidt sie konsequent gelebt hat. Die "Erbtante" stellt aber Bedingungen: Was bewegt den Herzkranken jenseits des Zahlenrausch en s? Hertha, wieder zuhause angekommen, fragt Karl: Nun aber auf ins Wortall!
Nach einem Atomkrieg in den 60er Jahren ist die Erde unbewohnbar geworden. Soweit einiges zum Inhalt. Die Anklangsnerven werden dann z. Mein "Licht" hat Niemandem geleuchtet; nur immer verbrannt. Er ist eine schwierige Figur, der etwas Tragisches anhaftet. Die Beziehung zu Hertha, so mein Eindruck, scheitert nicht alleine daran, dass Karl sich nicht auf einen gemeinsamen Hausstand einzustellen vermag, sondern sie scheitert an der nicht vorhandenen Kommunikation.
Und spannend, spannend ist dieses Formexperiment allemal. View all 17 comments. Nov 29, David Ramirer rated it did not like it Shelves: View all 24 comments. Jan 30, Noah rated it did not like it Shelves: Weird, too weird to read. Oct 15, Hans-Peter Merz rated it it was amazing. Zbirne rated it it was amazing Oct 07,