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Servile self-translation for Nazi Germany
Tracing the Slovak State’s translational negotiation of power asymmetry through František Miko’s expressive stylistics
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Abstract
This article contributes to the intersection of translation studies and fascist studies by shifting attention to translation as a component of cross-regime interaction within the cultural diplomacy of fascist “New Europe” as a network of power asymmetries and its underexamined Central-Eastern European periphery. The study proposes František Miko’s expressive system, developed within the Nitra School, as a heuristic tool for tracing hierarchy-related expressive shifts in the German translation of a Slovak propaganda reportage (ST 1940; TT 1941), initiated by the Propaganda Bureau of the Slovak State, a German satellite state from 1939 to 1945. The stylistic reconstruction of the translational negotiation of power asymmetry offers insight into Nazi soft power and into the under-researched cultural diplomacy between a Slavic “protected state” and its “protective power” with an anti-Slavic ideology. Since Germany’s self-presentation to collaborating satellites as a tolerant and inclusive center contrasted with its domestic self-image of racial superiority, the reconstruction of initial norms reveals the degree to which Slovak propagandists standardized and leveled Slovak national self-expression in line with Germany’s domestic discourse, and the degree to which Nazi soft power allowed its satellite to preserve proud self-expression through interference even within German cultural space.
Résumé
Cet article contribue au croisement des études de traduction et des études sur le fascisme en déplaçant l’attention vers la traduction, envisagée comme une composante des interactions entre régimes dans le cadre de la diplomatie culturelle de la « Nouvelle Europe » fasciste, conçue comme un réseau d’asymétries de pouvoir, ainsi que vers sa périphérie centre-européenne, encore insuffisamment étudiée. L’étude propose le système expressif de František Miko, élaboré au sein de l’École de Nitra, comme outil heuristique permettant de retracer les déplacements expressifs liés aux rapports hiérarchiques dans la traduction allemande d’un reportage de propagande slovaque (texte source, 1940 ; texte cible, 1941), réalisée à l’initiative du Bureau de propagande de l’État slovaque, État satellite de l’Allemagne de 1939 à 1945. La reconstruction stylistique de la négociation traductionnelle de l’asymétrie de pouvoir permet de mieux comprendre le soft power nazi ainsi que la diplomatie culturelle, encore peu étudiée, entre un « État protégé » slave et sa « puissance protectrice », porteuse d’une idéologie antislave. Dans la mesure où la manière dont l’Allemagne se présentait à ses États satellites collaborateurs, c’est-à-dire comme un centre tolérant et inclusif, contrastait avec l’image qu’elle souhaitait donner d’elle-même par sa supériorité raciale, la reconstruction des normes initiales permet de déterminer dans quelle mesure les propagandistes slovaques ont standardisé et nivelé l’expression nationale slovaque en fonction du discours allemand. Cette reconstruction permet également de déterminer dans quelle mesure le soft power nazi a permis à son État satellite de préserver, par le biais d’interférences, une expression de soi empreinte de fierté, y compris au sein de l’espace culturel allemand.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Toward a translational study of power asymmetries in the cultural diplomacy of fascist “New Europe”
- 3.Methodology
- 4.Standardizing initial norm: Intensifying conformity in the transfer of dynamism and actionality
- 5.Standardizing initial norm: Leveling self-expression and intensifying autonomy in the thematization of Slovak–German interaction
- 6.Standardizing initial norm: Leveling self-expression in self-representation
- 7.Interference-oriented initial norm: Preserved self-expression as self-assertion
- 8.Concluding remarks
- Notes
- Author queries
References
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