Making Translation Visible: Interpreters in European Literature and Film
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Making Translation Visible: Interpreters in European Literature and Film by Robin Isabel Ellis A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in German and the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Deniz Göktürk, Chair Professor Winfried Kudszus Professor Mark Sandberg Summer 2016 Making Translation Visible: Interpreters in European Literature and Film © 2016 by Robin Isabel Ellis Abstract Making Translation Visible: Interpreters in European Literature and Film by Robin Isabel Ellis Doctor of Philosophy in German Designated Emphasis in Film Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Deniz Göktürk, Chair This dissertation examines interpreter figures in European literature and film since the Second World War, from the implementation of simultaneous interpreting at the Nuremberg Trials to the growth of the European Union and the rise of a global information economy. I approach interpreting as an embodied act of translation, and the works I analyze explore the frictions that arise when an embodied subject is employed as a supposedly neutral medium of communication. In contrast to fantasies of instantaneous transfer and unlimited convertibility enabled by digital translation technologies, the interpreter’s corporeality attests to the material and culturally specific aspects of linguistic communication within larger processes of international exchange. Working against a tradition of effacement, I investigate aesthetic representations that render the interpreter’s body visible, audible, and even tangible, and thereby offer new possibilities for conceiving of translation as a multi-directional encounter rather than a form of hermeneutic extraction and transfer. This approach also highlights the gendered nature of interpreting as a form of intimate, affective service work, which is further figured in relation to traditional discourses of translators as potentially duplicitous women. Both Ingeborg Bachmann’s short story “Simultan” (1968/72) and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1979) employ female interpreter figures to stage the ongoing relevance of Germany and Austria’s National Socialist past to the historical moments in which they originated. While the protagonist of “Simultan” experiences historical and linguistic fragmentation as an instrumentalized “language machine,” Maria Braun attempts to exercise agency through sexual, economic, and linguistic exchanges that are nonetheless constrained by larger social forces. In Yoko Tawada’s novella Das Bad (1989) and novel Das nackte Auge (2004), the dangers of translation as hermeneutic violence are inscribed upon female bodies, yet these bodies also hold the potential for alternative forms of translation as a shared experience of encounter. Finally, Hans-Christian Schmid’s film Lichter (2003) positions interpreters as key points of facilitation, friction, and intimate exchange within an unstable border zone. 1 Table of Contents Introduction: Embodying Translation, Interpreting Europe 1 1. Working Women: Interpreting as Gendered, Bodily, and Affective Labor 22 2. Postwar Echoes: The Nuremberg Trials and Ingeborg Bachmann’s “Simultan” 37 3. Occupied Bodies: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Die Ehe der Maria Braun 64 4. From Post-War to Post-Wall: Yoko Tawada’s Das Bad and Das nackte Auge 81 5. European Border Traffic: Hans-Christian Schmid’s Lichter 102 Conclusion : Global Disorientations 123 Bibliography 141 i Acknowledgments This dissertation was made possible by the generous support of numerous individuals and organizations. First and foremost, I wish to thank the members of my dissertation committee, who have each supported my endeavors in ways too numerous to list here. Deniz Göktürk has been a mentor, an intellectual role model, and a catalyst for academic collaboration, development, and exchange. She is also the finest ironic juxtaposer I know. I thank Winfried Kudszus for introducing me to Translation Studies during my first semester at Berkeley and for inspiring me to continue exploring this fascinating field. I am grateful to Mark Sandberg for his insightful comments as a reader, which helped propel my thinking forward in the later stages of this project. I have benefited from the opportunity to present parts of this dissertation at a number of colloquia, workshops, and conferences, including a workshop on “Concepts of Circulation” with Regina Bendix organized by Deniz Göktürk and Charles Briggs, a panel series on post- hermeneutic medialities at the German Studies Association organized by Gizem Arslan and Jacob Haubenreich, a seminar on transnationalism at the German Studies Association organized by Carrie Smith-Prei, Stuart Taberner, and Elisabeth Herrmann, the UC Berkeley German graduate colloquium led by Niklaus Largier, and the PhD-Net Das Wissen der Literatur colloquium at the Humboldt University in Berlin led by Joseph Vogl. I am very grateful for the feedback I received on each of these occasions. I learned a great deal from my fellow participants in the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on The Centrality of Translation to the Humanities, for which I especially thank the organizers, Elizabeth Lowe and Chris Higgins. I am also indebted to Leslie Adelson for the generous gift of her time and advice during my stay at Cornell University. I am grateful to all of the faculty and graduate students in Berkeley’s German Program, who have, at one time or another, contributed to this dissertation through thought-provoking seminars, reading recommendations, insightful questions, and practical advice. I have also benefited from the ongoing intellectuals conversations sustained by both the BTWH working group and the Multicultural Germany Project. I am grateful to Niko Euba, my fellow Graduate Student Instructors, and my students at Berkeley for teaching me how to teach, which has, in turn, informed my scholarship as well. Many thanks to the members of my immediate and extended cohort, including Dagmar Theison, Eric Savoth, Mason Allred, Kurt Beals, Ashwin Manthripragada, Emina Mušanović, and Kevin Gordon, for countless discussions, inspirations, and acts of solidarity. I would also like to express my appreciation to the staff of the Berkeley German Department, especially to Graduate Advisors Elisabeth Lamoreaux and Andrea Rapport for helping me navigate my way to this degree. I had the good fortune to meet two wonderful colleagues at Berkeley, Kristin Dickinson and Priscilla Layne, with whom I collaborated on a number of translation-related projects. I am grateful for the experiences we have shared together, and I look forward to many more in the years to come. Annika Orich has also been an incredible friend and colleague, from whom I am constantly learning. Special thanks to Kristin and Annika, who generously read and commented on large portions of this dissertation at various stages of development, and whose support, ii encouragement, and humor kept me going over the past year. I also thank Tuncay Köroğlu, Anwalt meines Vertrauens, both for his legal expertise and his friendship. Thank you to the members of the Oberlin College German Department, particularly Heidi Tewarson, Steve Huff, Elizabeth Hamilton, Marina Jones, and Gabriel Cooper. I greatly value the training in critical thinking and literary analysis I received at Oberlin as an undergraduate, and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to return as a visiting faculty member. Thank you for your mentorship, collegiality, intellectual engagement, and support for my dissertation project. I have been lucky to have a great number of friends and family members who have contributed to this project in a variety of ways; I am grateful for all of the words of encouragement and all of the help that enabled me to do this work. I wish to thank Al and Mary Dobryden for their generous support in numerous forms. Many thanks go to Jenna Ingalls, wedding coordinator, move supervisor, academic colleague, and friend. Thanks also to Carol Bryson and Jennifer Shapiro for years of friendship and logistical support, and to Kiri Patel for endless conversations that keep me thinking. I am grateful to Elisa, Karen, and Carrie for believing in me during difficult times. I am so thankful for my mother, Diana Ellis, who shared her love of language with me at an early age, and who has been cheering me on my entire life. Mom, thanks also for making me go to Saturday morning German school as a kid—it turned out to be pretty useful. Finally, thank you to Paul Dobryden, who has given me unconditional support on a daily basis through all the ups and downs of this process, and whose co-presence in my life brings me enormous joy. iii Introduction Embodying Translation, Interpreting Europe A Pashtun-speaking asylum applicant answers a German-speaking interviewer through an interpreter. An English-speaking doctor dials into a telephone interpreting system for help communicating with a Vietnamese-speaking patient. Chinese investors are accompanied by an interpreter on a visit to an Australian mining site. An American Sign Language interpreter simultaneously interprets a graduation ceremony for deaf attendees. At the UN General Assembly, a team of simultaneous interpreters translates between the organization’s six official languages.1 Although these situations differ widely, they all illustrate the essential role of interpreters in facilitating communication