Holocaust Writing and Translation

Writing about the Holocaust, whether consisting of eyewitness testimony, autobiography, or literary works, is almost always read in translation, and critical discussion of these works almost always refers to published and unpublished translations. However, there has been very little critical discussion of issues arising from the translation of these texts. Testimonial and autobiographical writing is often discussed either in terms of the authenticity of witness and the direct and unmediated rendering of experience in language, or in terms of the impossibility of rendering the experience of the Holocaust in language and communicating it to others. Other, more philosophical approaches that draw on post-structuralist theories assume that the Holocaust as a catastrophe of civilisation has brought about a general crisis of language in which authentic signification is no longer possible without unacceptable ideological interpretations or descending into kitsch. Considering how much of this discussion is concerned with theories of language, it is striking that the issue of translation has never attracted so little significant critical attention.

This project proceeds from the assumption that the insights of Translation Studies have something new and significant to bring to the study of Holocaust writing. The participants will investigate the following issues: why it has taken so long for critical discussion of Holocaust writing to begin to investigate translation; how processes of translation affect the reading and reception of Holocaust writing; how translation strategies are affected by, and themselves affect, the changing status of the Holocaust in the cultures under consideration; what the study of translation can tell us about the different ways in which the Holocaust is written into national, cultural, group and individual identities.

The project's focus will be on texts written by 'first generation' writers, that is, those who had direct personal experience of the Holocaust; textual genres under consideration will be eyewitness accounts, autobiographical texts and fictional and poetic works that deal with the Holocaust. Also under consideration will be theoretical works that deal with the issues of Holocaust representation, and which are often read in translation. The corpus will consist of well-known and influential texts by writers such as Anne Frank, Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel, Ruth Kluger and Paul Celan, as well as works by lesser-known writers and eyewitness accounts published only in anthologies.

The aim of the project is to establish a network of scholars from several fields of study: Translation Studies, Holocaust Studies, and scholars of Life Writing and Holocaust Literature in a broad range of languages. The project will be managed by a core group (Peter Davies, Edinburgh; Andrea Hammel, Sussex; Piotr Kuhiwczak, Warwick; Jean Boase-Beier, UEA; Marion Winters, Heriot-Watt), who will coordinate a series of workshops and gather bibliographical resources, as well as organising public engagement events with bodies such as the Wiener Library, London. The workshops will bring together the participants in the network in order to discuss and develop a theoretical framework and a corpus of texts, and to work towards a bid for a major research project. Four workshops are planned:

April 2010, University of Edinburgh: 'Holocaust Writing and Translation: Introducing Issues of Terminology and Trauma'

July 2010, University of Sussex: 'Autobiography, Life Writing and Translation'

December 2010, UEA: 'Questions of Genre in Holocaust Writing and the Impact on Translation'

April 2011, Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, London: 'Eyewitness accounts and translation'
This workshop will include a public event run in conjunction with the Wiener Library.

The network will promote dialogue with organisations that either use translated texts in their educational work on the Holocaust, who are themselves engaged in the translation of testimonial material or other Holocaust writing, or who promote the translation of literary works. Members of the network already engage with the following organisations in the institutions in which they are based: the Centre for German-Jewish Studies (University of Sussex), the Wiener Library, and the British Centre for Literary Translation (UEA). The Centre for German-Jewish Studies provides an important point of interface between scholars and the Jewish community in the UK and Germany, and promotes discussion between scholars and Holocaust victim groups; the Wiener Library is the most important UK resource for Holocaust victim testimonies, and is currently in the process of translating its vast archive of individual survivor testimonies into English in order to make them more publicly accessible; the British Centre for Literary Translation promotes and publicises the translation of literary texts and provides a forum for discussion and collaboration between practising translators and scholars of Literary and Translation Studies. The network will provide an opportunity to build on these contacts and to bring these institutions into dialogue with each other. The workshops will provide an opportunity for scholars and staff connected with these institutions to meet, exchange ideas and contribute to the development of the project's work while drawing on the expertise and experience represented at the host institution.

The network will initially promote scholarly research into the translation of Holocaust writing in order to develop firm methodologies and to establish a corpus of texts for further research. Partners from beyond the immediate scholarly community are already integrated into this discussion, and the PI and CI, drawing on the expertise of the advisory committee and the project partners, will identify and engage with other potential partners. The final workshop, held in conjunction with the Wiener Library, will provide an opportunity to take forward the discussion of strategies for public engagement in the context of the Library's important work. Once the four workshops and the discussion generated by them have produced initial findings and identified the potential for further research, participants will be able to bid for a major research project and will have a platform for promoting public dialogue about the status and importance of translation in transmitting knowledge about the Holocaust, and about the cross-cultural nature of experiences of the Holocaust.