Translations of “The Tempest” in Germany and Japan

Like all of Shakespeare\u27s works, The Tempest, Shakespeare\u27s last play, has been translated into German and Japanese on numerous occasions. This thesis concerns itself with ten landmark translations of The Tempest, exploring them from a theoretical and historical point of view. The translations surveyed are those by Christoph Martin Wieland (1762), August Wilhelm Schlegel (1798), Heinrich Voß (1818), Richard Flatter (1952), Hans Rothe (1963), Rudolf Schaller (1971), Erich Fried (1984), Tsubouchi Shôyô (1915), Toyoda Minoru (1950), and Fukuda Tsuneari (1975). In The Tempest, Shakespeare\u27s most consistently fantastic play, the Other is represented in magical terms. The results of this thesis suggest that in the translations, which are likewise a representation of the Other, the magical aspects become heightened. My analysis draws on a multitude of recent reconceptualizations of and approaches to translation. These include André Lefevere\u27s description of translation as rewriting, Maria Tymoczko\u27s concept of translation as a metonymic process, Lawrence Venuti\u27s insistence on a translation\u27s heterogeneity, Theo Herman\u27s focus on translation as manipulation and as institution, Itamar Even-Zohar\u27s idea of translation as systemic innovation, and Gideon Toury\u27s emphasis on translators\u27 norms. Chapter one gives the methodological groundings of this study. In order to explain what accounts for the comet\u27s tail of translations that Shakespeare\u27s writings have occasioned in German and Japanese, an outline of the modern history of these two vibrant translation cultures is given in chapter two. Chapter three is likewise an historical account, describing the major trends in Shakespeare reception in these two cultures. Chapter four presents the story of The Tempest and aspects of its critical and staging history. Chapter five investigates the literary language of The Tempest, arguing that Shakespeare\u27s word magic is produced by what is always already a “translated” language. Chapter six delineates the ten translators\u27 positions and strategies, their approaches to Shakespeare, and, where applicable, their specific appraisal of The Tempest. This chapter examines, moreover, how the translational practices of the various translators contribute to the construction of a narrative of national identity in the receptor cultures. In chapters seven and eight, five passages from The Tempest and their respective translations are examined, again with an emphasis on the supernatural and fantastic aspects. In the last chapter, the results are summarized and the rewriting of Shakespearean texts is placed in a global context