Übersetzung Als Kulturtransfer Am Beispiel Der Deutschen Übersetzung Von Yvonne Adhiambos Roman „Dust“

Abstract

Literary translation plays an important role in „Cultural transfer“, a term that was coined by Michel Espagne in the 1980s to refer to the cultural exchange between France and Germany through translation. Translation has however become a global affair and Kenyan literature has in the process made its way to Germany. Yvonne Adhiambos Novel Dust (2014) was translated by Simone Jakobs into Der Ort an dem die Reise Endet (2016). This novel portrays Kenya’s condition during the post-election violence in 2007 and its colonial past. The characters in this novel have diverse cultural backgrounds like Luo, Kikuyu, German and English. This study analyzed the translation of Dust and more specifically the translation of cultural specific items at the level of style. The Study was based on the postcolonial translation Theories of Maria Tymoczko (1999) and Paul Bandia (2003). Peter Newmarks categories and translation Strategies on the other hand, were used for analytical purposes. The study has examined the role of the post-colonial author as a translator and the difficulties involved in the translation of cultural specific items in the novel Dust into German. The analysis was limited to dialogues and songs. A comparison was made between the original text and the German version to determine whether the cultural items were adequately transferred into German. It was found out that the translation was source text oriented and therefore the German version consisted of various cultural specific items. The translator used the author’s English translations and also created a glossary in which she explained some of the foreign words and concepts. There were however many cultural specifics that were not translated and not explained in the glossary. They therefore remained foreign and hindered the culture transfer process. It was then concluded that paratextual elements like footnotes and glossaries are crucial in the translation of postcolonial texts if cultural transfer is to be achieved.