Translation

Translation as Scientific Communication: Swedish-German Encounters during the Eighteenth Century

Andreas Önnerfors, University of Gothenburg, SWE

andreas.onnerfors@gu.se

Swedish Pomerania: Cultural Encounters and Identification 1720-1815, Lund 2003 (diss)

Swedish Pomerania: part of the Swedish realm 1648-1815

Swedish Pomerania and Wismar 1648-1815(1903)

Swedish Pomerania: part of the Swedish realm after the Westphalian peace treaty of 1648

Double political connection - territory of the Old German Empire, Swedish provinceTicket to continental power politicsCaught in ongoing conflict between corporative representation (nobility and towns) and territorial rulerContinuous interpretation of constitutional status and status of supreme court (Tribunal in Wismar)

Coat of Arms of the city Stralsund, uniting Swedish and Pomeranian symbols

Mobility and migrationEconomic and political relations established family ties across the Baltic Sea, and caused inter-marriages as well as migration in all societal layers for different reasons:Nobility (landownership) Merchants, Sea Captains, Ship Brokers (sea trade)Officers/soldiers (security) Civil servants (state bureaucracy)Academics/students (education) Craftsmen (skilled labour)Seasonal workers/peasants (unskilled labour)

Jakob Wallenius (1761-1817)”I was placed in a centre of Swedish and German litterature”

Communications and travellers

Stockholm-Greifswald (Wieck): 21 days on seaYstad-Stralsund:≈ 24 hours

Stockholm-Ystad: 10 days on land

Reconstruction of Swedish Post yacht ”Hjorten”

Rules for conversion between Low German and SwedishAnders Celsius, 1732

Linguistic situationMiddle ages, early modern period: Latin and Low German (August Strindberg: “Swedish is Low German in 12 dialects”). German minorities in Sweden (Stockholm, Malmö, Göteborg)Direct (military, economical, political) encounters after 1632/16481690s: first periodical, growing trend until 19th century1690s: Swedish land survey (direct communication) Swedish as command language in the Stralsund garrison 1700 Latin-Swedish-German dictionary1703 Swedish-German travel guide and phrase bookMore dictionary/grammar/phrase book projects: 1738, 1746, 1749, 1751, 1780-90s (several editions until 19th century)

=> Passive and active bilingualism is promoted (facilitated technically, performed practically)

Two types of periodical press: (daily) newspaper, (educated) journal

Press culture and print market

Coverage of Swedish topics in periodical pressBooks published in Pomerania/Germany in Swedish or by Swedish authors in German translationPomerania emerged as a hub/node in Swedish-German cultural communication

Example of bilingualism and communication of science in

periodical press

Kongl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar

transactions of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Quarterly publication, started in 1739

Translated with considerable delay (10 years) in Leipzig/Göttingen

(A.G. Kästner, F.H. Link)

Reviewed in Greifswald almost immediately after arrival from Sweden (J.C. Dähnert, J.G.P. Möller, F. Rühs)

Language as an instrument of scientific communication

Tension between

Vernacular application <=> Universal outreach

Example: the transactions of the Sw. Royal Academy of Sciences appeared in Swedish

Inclusive: 1) dissemination 2) absorption of new knowledge Exclusive: language competence delimits access to new knowledge Potential structural problem for Swedish sciences/sciences in minor

European languages Outreach can only be secured through translation

Privileged position: language competence and the need for translation / gatekeepers of cultural transfer

Constitutive features of trans-cultural regions

1) Instant transfer. News, reviews, academic and other works were transferred from one culture to the other, demanding fast and efficient means of translation and creating an atmosphere of interrelation. The efficiency of the transfer was also dependent upon physical organization of transportation (e.g. postal services).

2) Contrastive reasoning. A permanent contrast was constructed between the two cultures involved. Contrastive reasoning occurs in all kinds of texts: juridical, political, economical, and poetic.

3) Coexistence as a motif. Because of the close relationship between different cultures in trans-cultural regions, the organization of coexistence was not only a political and economical task, but also emerged as a relevant motif in textual sources (visual expressions and performances) of various kinds.

4) Authors and readers with cross-cultural competence. Because of the trans-cultural setting, authors and readers alike developed a multiple cultural competence, which enabled them to both ‘write’ and ‘read’ the trans-cultural connotations of texts.

=> These features promote, sustain and reinforce the development of translation culture and cultural transfer

Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828): German translation of Resa uti Europa, Africa, Asia (1788-1794)

Forthcoming article: ‘Thunberg’s ‘Travel’ in German: The Protracted Birth of a Translation’

Translator: Christian Heinrich Groskurd (1747-1806) in Stralsund

Printer/Publisher: Johann Carl Phillip Spener (1749-1827) in Berlin

translation took shape in a triangular and trans-national communication between author, translator, and publisher

Significant features:

Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828): German translation of Resa uti Europa, Africa, Asia (1788-1794)

lasting legacy: translation of Thunberg influenced future generations of researchers (filtered and altered version, re-translated)translations are not produced in a cultural vacuum: the particular cultural environment promoted outreach of Swedish science (translation/translators and context)production of a translations is placed within the framework of a highly competitive and sophisticated book market (translation as commodity)

Relevant publicationsThunberg’s Travels in German: the protracted birth of a translation, to be published 2014 or 2015

Un carrefour de traductions au XVIIIe siècle: la Poméranie suèdoise” [A Crossroad of Translations in the Eighteenth Century: Swedish Pomerania], in Beaurepaire, Pierre-Yves (Ed.), La communication en Europe. De l’age classique au siècle des Lumières, Paris: Belin, 2014, p. 129-136

Translating Discourses of Enlightenment – Trans-cultural Language Skills and Cross-references between Swedish and German Educated Journals in the 18 th century in: Cultural transfer through translation: the circulation of Enlightened thought in Europe by means of translation (Ed. Stefanie Stockhorst), Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft (IFAVL) vol. 131, Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi 2010, p. 209-229

Die Nutzbarmachung der Natur als Thema der schwedischen aufgeklärten Presse [The utility of nature as a topic in Swedish Enlightenment press], in: Landschaften agrarisch-ökonomischen Wissens. Strategien innovativer Ressourcennutzung in Zeitschriften und Sozietäten des 18. Jahrhunderts, Marcus Popplow (Ed.) (= Cottbuser Studien zur Geschichte von Technik, Arbeit und Umwelt 30), Münster/New York (Waxmann Verlag) 2010, p. 323-334

The Idea and the Text – a Note on transcultural Historical Text Analysis in Ohlson/Zilmer (Eds.): Perspectives on Text and Context, Nordistica Tartuensia 8, Tartu 2003, p. 145-157

Thank you for your attention!

Germania and Svea in harmony, title page of dictionary 1750