The city in translation: Urban cultures of central Europe

Sherry Simon
Concordia University

In the spirit of the ‘enlargement’ of the field proposed by Tymoczko (2007), this article argues for the city as an object of translation studies. All cities are multilingual, but for some language relations have particularly intense historical and cultural significance. Translation studies can illuminate the nature and effects of these interactions. The cities of Central Europe and in particular Czernowitz offer rich case studies. A thorough investigation of translational culture between 1880 and 1939 can help to provide a nuanced understanding of the nature of literary relations which prevailed before the violence of World War II.

Table of contents

No city is monolingual. While this generalization could possibly be contradicted by a reference to some ancient Greek city state where foreign languages were prohibited by law, the exception would confirm the rule: the spirit of the urban has to do with contact and mixing—and languages are part of this mix. Diversity, transfer and circulation among languages are part of all ‘natural’ urban life. And as global migration increases, the realities of urban multilingualism have become all the more evident in cities around the world, whether it be through shouted conversations on cellphones, multiple scripts on storefronts and on the screens of bank machines, or the texts of public art.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Alcalay, Ammiel
2003 “Introduction.” Miljenko Jergovic, Sarajevo Marlboro, New York: Archipelago Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Apter, Emily
2006 The Translation Zone. Princeton: Princeton University Press.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Babejovà, Eleonora
2003 Fin-de-siècle Pressburg. Conflict and Cultural Coexistence in Bratislava 1897–1914. Boulder: East European Monographs.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blum, A.
2003 The Imaginative Structure of the City, Montréal, Ithaca: McGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chambers, lain
1990 Border Dialogues: Journeys in Postmodernity. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colin, Amy
2006 ‘Czernowitz: A Testing Ground for Pluralism’, in Cornis-Pope and Neubauer. 57–76.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1991 Paul Celan. Holograms of Darkness. Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cornis-Pope, Marcel and John Neubauer eds.
2006 History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe. Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Vol. II. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. In particular, ‘Cities as sites of hybrid literary identity and multicultural production’ 9–212.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cornis-Pope, Marcel and John Neubauer
2002 History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe. Some Theoretical Reflections. American Council of Learned Societies, Occasional Paper No. 52.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cronin, Michael
2006 Translation and Identity. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feichtinger, Johannes/Prutsch, Ursula/Csáky, Moritz (Hg.)
2003Habsburg postcolonial. Machtstrukturen und kollektives Gedächtnis. Innsbruck et al.: Studienverlag (Gedächtnis — Erinnerung — Identität 2).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gentzler, Edwin
2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grossman, E.
2010 Why Translation Matters, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harvey, David
2006 Spaces of Global Capitalism. London and New York: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hirsch, Marianne and Leo Spitzer
2010 Ghosts of Home. The Afterlife of Czernowitz in Jewish Memory. Berkeley: University of California Press.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Magris, Claudio
1990 Danube. A Sentimental Journey from the Source to the Black Sea. London: Collins Harvill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Menninghaus, W.
1999 ‘Czernowitz/Bukowina’, Merkur-Suttgart 53: 3/4, Part 600: 345–357.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meylaerts, Reine
2004 “ ‘La traduction dans la culture multilingue’, Target 16:2. 289–317.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nouss, Alexis
2010 Paul Celan, Les lieux d’un déplacement. Paris: Le Bord de l’eau.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
[ p. 140 ]
Pratt, Mary Louise
2009 “Harm’s Way: Language and the Contemporary Arts of War.” PMLA 124. 1515–1531.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sassen, Saskia
1991 The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shell, Marc
2003 American Babel: Literatures of the United States from Abnaki to Zuni. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simon, Sherry
2012 Cities in Translation. Intersections of Language and Memory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Soja, Edward
2000 Postmetropolis: Critical Studies of Cities and Regions. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sollors, W
1997 Ethnicity and the Language of American Literature, New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sommer, D.
2004 Bilingual Aesthetics: A New Sentimental Education, Durham: Duke University Press.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spector, S.
2007 Prague Territories. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Starck-Adler, Astrid
2007 ‘Multiculturalisme et multilinguisme à Czernowitz L’exemple d’Itzik Manger’. Etudes germaniques 62:1. 121–132.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stenberg, Peter
1991 Journey to Oblivion. The End of the East European Yiddish and German Worlds in the Mirror of Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Straw, W. and Boutros, A.
2010 Circulation and the City: Essays on Urban Culture, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tymoczko, M.
2010 Enlarging Translation, Empowering Translators, Manchester, UK; Kinderhook, NY: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tymoczko, Maria
‘Enlarging Western Translation Theory: Integrating Non-Western Thoughtabout Translation’. http://​eslking​.com​/library2​/collections​/language​/translation​/tymoczko​_translation​_theory​.pdf
①
 
Authentication
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-dark jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-light jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold prag Twitter_Logo_Blue