Shifting Form, Transforming Content: Stylistic Alterations in the German Translations of Hemingway's Early Fiction

Abstract

The general purpose of this study is to investigate the German translations of the early fiction of Ernest Hemingway. Unfortunately, the work of translators is too frequently minimized or ignored, and this dissertation seeks to highlight the inevitable shifts that occur as a text is moved from source language to target language. The end result of such a study is not a random list of translational anomalies but rather a better holistic understanding of the translated text. As Heidegger reminds us, "Every translation is . . . interpretation" (107), and in this study I look to explore how Annemarie Horschitz interprets (and ultimately diminishes) Hemingway's important stylistic techniques. These alterations in translation, as my study shows, are not "merely" stylistic adjustments. Hemingway's stylistic choices--metaphors in The Sun Also Rises that represent post-war reality, repetition in the stories of Men Without Women that reinforces an ironic vision, understatement in A Farewell to Arms that is a reaction against traditional war rhetoric, and fragmentation in In Our Time that reflects a varied and order-defying worldview--are linguistic manifestations of Hemingway's principal concerns. By modifying the surface-level linguistic features, Horschitz subsequently alters the conceptual framework of Hemingway's fiction. To accomplish this analysis, I ground my study in translation theory and stylistics. My investigation of the translated texts is supported by various translation theories, including Schleiermacher's distinction between foreignizing and domesticating approaches to translation and Nida's analysis of equivalence. In utilizing stylistics, I lean heavily on Halliday's analysis of functional grammar and Lakoff's work with conceptual metaphor. I also aim to contextualize my study of Hemingway in translation by giving attention to Hemingway's early literary career, his position as an interwar writer, and his relationship to Germany. The hope is that such a study might result in a deeper awareness of the translation process, a clearer understanding of the German translations of Hemingway's texts, and a deeper appreciation of Hemingway's stylistic choices.