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Part of
Key Cultural Texts in Translation
Edited by Kirsten Malmkjær, Adriana Şerban and Fransiska Louwagie
[Benjamins Translation Library 140] 2018
► pp. 53–77

Chapter 4
Have English translations of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, an icon of German culture, been affected by the changing relationship between Germany and Britain in the twentieth century?

To some, the message of The Ring of the Nibelung is that love and sacrifice can redeem the world; for others, like G.B. Shaw, it is a capitalist drama. For many, the Ring is quintessentially German, for others, its mythic themes are universal. Its Germanness is examined in this article in terms of nationalism expressed as a dialectic between German and non-German, specifically Jews. I address the debate of whether or not Wagner’s anti-Semitism is evident in the libretto and music of the Ring and discuss whether translators, working before and after the two World Wars, have censored or adjusted Wagner’s language for present-day tastes. I conclude that any interpretation of the Ring as anti-Semitic does not appear to have influenced the translation choices of post-war translators.

Keywords: Wagner, The Ring of the Nibelung , cultural and aesthetic nationalism
Article outline
  • 1.Performance and Translation History
  • 2.Wagner’s Ring and anti-Semitism
    • Anti-Semitism in the Ring?
    • Evidence of anti-Semitism in the Ring - the Nibelung dwarves as Jewish caricatures
      • Mime
      • Alberich
  • 3.The translations – pre WWI and post WW2: traces of anti-Semitism?
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.140.04wil
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