The strategic role of a regional voice : Translations of Flemish rural literature in Germany during the first World War

Among other factors, the import from certain 'minor' literatures played a key role in the modernization of the German literary system at the beginning of the 20th century. Via the translational import of foreign models German literature tried to emphasize its own identity and, simultaneously, to dispense with French cultural superiority. Within the framework of the German Flamenpolitik (a strategic cultural policy towards the Dutch speaking part of Belgium), also from the 'minor' Flemish literature many translations were published during the First World War, although a major part of the appeal of Flemish literature consisted in its standard image of rurality. And apart from the dialogues in dialect or regiolect, it was especially the typifying descriptions of rural scenes and characters that were widely acclaimed. A case study looks into the German translations of Cyriel Buysse’s works (novels and short stories), which combine typical with nontypical characteristics. Although Buysse's themes are mostly rural, he appears to be the only Flemish author whose works in translation were published with a wide circulation not only by the conservative-oriented, but also by the sociodemocratic German press. A striking phenomenon hereby is the translation strategy adopted by Buysse’s German translators. In many respects the expressive qualities of the author’s texts, especially the use of dialect, turn out to have been ‘moderated’ and considerably reduced with regard to their original emotionality. In this way the translators seem to have integrated Buysse into the then flourishing circuit of the German Dorfgeschichte, a popular genre of rural epics.status: publishe