John R. M. Gledhill

How to Translate Thomas Mann's Works John R. M. Gledhill

Thomas Mann's three stories Tonio Kröger, Tristan and Der Tod in Venedig are compared with the translations by Helen Lowe-Porter and David Luke respectively. From the comparison, it emerges that Lowe-Porter's translations are so deeply flawed that her oeuvre can be regarded as a scandal in the translation world. Even today, her botched versions of Thomas Mann's works are still being widely published and used as texts in institutes of higher education. Luke's translations are generally reliable, but they still fail to capture the literary aspects of Thomas Mann's prose. Alternative literary strategies are discussed with examples illustrated by the author's own samples. The discussion about how to approach the translation of dense literary passages, humour, philosophical arguments and dialect has led to the development of a new theory of translation: the Strategic Approach. The traditional concept of fidelity is redefined, based on Wittgenstein's language game theory. This book should be of interest to linguists, translators, students and teachers of translation as well as to any one who wishes to increase their knowledge and appreciation of one of Europe's greatest prose stylists.