Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

When Translation Reshapes Reception: The Curious Case of Zeruya Shalev in the German Literary Sphere of World Literature

When Translation Reshapes Reception: The Curious Case of Zeruya Shalev in the German Literary... AbstractThis article sets out to explore the conditions that paved the way for the unique success of the German translation of Zeruya Shalev’s second novel, Love Life (Hayei ahava, 1997), offering a specific example of the potential benefits that arise from cross-cultural translations. Upon its publication in Israel, Love Life was received quite critically; it was considered too simplistic, straightforward, and feminine to be considered an ‘important’ work. However, following the novel’s translation into German by Mirjam Pressler in 2000, it gained wide recognition in Germany and soon became a best-seller, owing much to Marcel Reich-Ranicki’s unusually warm review on the television program Das literarische Quartett (The Literary Quartet). Hence, this article examines the various cultural and commercial conditions that set the backdrop for Love Life’s success as a translated work. While focusing on the reception of a specific literary text, the article surveys both Israeli and German literary spheres, and draws on the contemporary discourse in the field of World Literature. Furthermore, it offers a comprehensive discussion on translation, and demonstrates the unique position of translated literature, and specifically Hebrew literature, in the German literary field. Subsequently, the discussion sheds light not only on the circumstances that supported, if not determined, Love Life’s enthusiastic reception in Germany, but also on the extraordinary effect of this success on Shalev’s position within the Israeli literary system in the two decades that have followed. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png arcadia de Gruyter

When Translation Reshapes Reception: The Curious Case of Zeruya Shalev in the German Literary Sphere of World Literature

arcadia , Volume 57 (2): 20 – Nov 1, 2022

Loading next page...
 
/lp/de-gruyter/when-translation-reshapes-reception-the-curious-case-of-zeruya-shalev-XreEd0JlAq

References (17)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
ISSN
1613-0642
eISSN
1613-0642
DOI
10.1515/arcadia-2022-9055
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractThis article sets out to explore the conditions that paved the way for the unique success of the German translation of Zeruya Shalev’s second novel, Love Life (Hayei ahava, 1997), offering a specific example of the potential benefits that arise from cross-cultural translations. Upon its publication in Israel, Love Life was received quite critically; it was considered too simplistic, straightforward, and feminine to be considered an ‘important’ work. However, following the novel’s translation into German by Mirjam Pressler in 2000, it gained wide recognition in Germany and soon became a best-seller, owing much to Marcel Reich-Ranicki’s unusually warm review on the television program Das literarische Quartett (The Literary Quartet). Hence, this article examines the various cultural and commercial conditions that set the backdrop for Love Life’s success as a translated work. While focusing on the reception of a specific literary text, the article surveys both Israeli and German literary spheres, and draws on the contemporary discourse in the field of World Literature. Furthermore, it offers a comprehensive discussion on translation, and demonstrates the unique position of translated literature, and specifically Hebrew literature, in the German literary field. Subsequently, the discussion sheds light not only on the circumstances that supported, if not determined, Love Life’s enthusiastic reception in Germany, but also on the extraordinary effect of this success on Shalev’s position within the Israeli literary system in the two decades that have followed.

Journal

arcadiade Gruyter

Published: Nov 1, 2022

Keywords: Zeruya Shalev; Marcel Reich-Ranicki; translation; world literature; Hebrew literature

There are no references for this article.