Franz Kafka auf Englisch und in einigen romanischen Sprachen
Translating Franz Kafka into English and Several Romance Languages

Reflections on the Theory of Translation Between Linguistics and Literary Studies

Summary/Abstract: The frame of reference for this article on Kafka’s translations into various European languages is the author’s conception of translation studies as a three-stage (‘three-storey’) structure: translation technique (‘ground floor’); translation strategy (‘bel étage’ or ‘main floor’); and translation business, i. e. translation as an organized institution (‘top floor’). The ‘ground floor’ deals with the purely linguistic particularities of Kafka’s texts and the difficulties they present to translators of different target languages. The ‘bel étage’ or ‘main floor’ deals with the genuinely translational decisions made within the framework of what is linguistically possible in order to make the typical ‘kafkaesque’ kind of writing recognizable in other languages. Finally, the ‘top floor’ shows how translations into various languages have helped to make Kafka one of the world’s great writers.

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