This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. REPORTING GOEBBELS IN TRANSLATION: A STUDY OF TEXT AND CONTEXT Elisabeth Anita Möckli PhD University of Edinburgh 2014 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis has been composed by me, that the work herein is mine and has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification except as specified. Edinburgh, 28th April 2014 Elisabeth Anita Möckli 1 ABSTRACT In its function as a mediating body between the political decision-makers and the population, the media have the potential to influence the public opinion and subsequently, policy making. Representations of political discourses are opinion-shaping instruments and often not mere reflections of a given reality; they incorporate implicit and explicit, conscious and unconscious evaluations. In cross-cultural contexts where information travels across languages the media are highly dependent on translation. Despite its central role, media translation as part of the political process has only recently gained visibility in Translation Studies (TS) and remains widely neglected outside the discipline. Current research in TS often prioritises either the textual analysis or, more recently, the identification of the shaping factors in the news production process, and often fails to address diachronic aspects. This thesis investigates the translations of Goebbels’ speeches as published in the French and British press during the interwar period. It combines a synchronic and diachronic textual analysis, inspired by CDA with an in-depth study of context which draws on socio-historical research and the analysis of archival material. Thereby, the thesis is able to link the textual makeup to a wide variety of socio-political and historical variables via the concepts of ‘framing’ and ‘agenda-setting’. In doing so the thesis demonstrates on the one hand, how translation can function as a means of discourse mediation and, on the other hand, it provides evidence that ideology and political expediency alone cannot explain all textual changes introduced by the translator-journalists. Moreover, describing the development of the media images not only allows to add a translational perspective to the reception of the Third Reich but also contributes to a better understanding of the varying influence of contextual factors. The results of the diachronic analysis show that throughout the interwar period the British media published very little about Goebbels and, up until late in 1938, reports focused on the peaceful intentions he expressed. In contrast, Goebbels was frequently reported on in France and the regime was early on represented as an aggressor. Whilst trends in the quantity mirror the differing economic conditions of the newspaper markets, the quality, i.e. the actual realisation, of the media images seems to be a reflection of the differing socio-political positions of France and the United Kingdom after WW1. The development of the images clearly illustrates that the political ideology of appeasement was finally overridden in the UK in 1938 when political expediency forced the government to take a different course of action. However, the study of the editorial correspondence of the Manchester Guardian brings to light that the mosaic of factors influencing the news production process is more complex. The intervention of the involved governments, personal convictions of the foreign correspondents and the editors, spatial and temporal restrictions, issues of credibility, etc. all impacted on the particular make-up of the media texts. The synchronic textual analysis, on the other hand, reveals that the range of framing devices through which the media images were established was largely determined by text type conventions. The strategies applied range from selective- appropriation of text, repositioning of actors and labelling, to audience representation. The analysis clearly demonstrates that intersemiotic translation, i.e. the representation of the speech context, is equally important as inter- and intra-lingual instances of translation. 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This winter I received a letter from my 92 year old grandmother that ended with the words: “I hope I will still be around to congratulate you on your degree”. Mind, my grandmother is in the best of health and still drives her own car (sometimes over her own dog) and to the present day I am still half convinced it was a ‘hint’ that I should speed up my work. Eight months later it is time to thank all those people who have helped me on this long, sometimes rocky but mostly amusing, eye-opening and enriching journey. First, I would like to express my gratitude to my primary supervisor, Dr Şusam Susam-Saraeva, for her continued support and guidance. Her unerring advice and feedback have guided me safely through the trials and tribulations of my PhD. I am also deeply thankful for the encouragement and help I received from my supervisor Dr Howard Gaskill. Our virtual tennis matches cheered up my working days. Sincere thanks go to my supervisor, Professor Peter Davies whose subject knowledge and advice were invaluable to my project. I am tremendously grateful for the funding I received from the CETRA Summer School in 2011. The teachings and comments of the CETRA staff members have shaped my research project in a profound way at a time when it was needed most. I am also indebted to Karen Jacques, who spared no efforts to accommodate my many requests when researching the Manchester Guardian Archive at the John Rylands Library. Moreover, I would like to thank my friends for their unwavering encouragement, the copious amounts of food delivered to my office and the many shared (pub and skype) nights to commiserate and celebrate the highs and lows of (PhD) life. In no particular order: Lisa Tobler, Mara Götz, Cristina Olivari, Dr Varia Christie, Ariane Hans, Nozomi Abe, Kristina Juricevic, Jemima Carroll, Susi Hasanovic, Wine Tesseur, Michele Gaudiano, Eva Iten, Mirjam Gasser, Stefano Mazza and Chelsea Sambells. Many thanks also to Dr Christopher Ferguson for proofreading my thesis (I told you I was not going down on my own) and to Elena Sanz Ortega with whom I set out on this journey. I am also grateful to the Edinburgh Jitsu and the Edinburgh Athletics Club, in particular to Stephen Meighan and Gunnar Droege, for inflicting enough pain on me to allow me to occasionally forget my thesis. Very special thanks go to my flatmate of five years, Méabh O’Donnell – it would have never been the same without you! Last but not least, it is time to express my deepest gratitude to my parents for years of unconditional love and support and to my many brothers and sisters (Simona, Philipp, Stephanie, Christopher, Tobias and Mirjam) who never failed to cheer me up. I would like to dedicate this thesis to my grandmothers, Elsa and Erna, and to their memories of the inter-war years. Thank you for sharing them. 3 Table of Contents DECLARATION ................................................................................................................... 1 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................................... 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................... 10 TABLE OF FIGURES, TABLES AND GRAPHS ............................................................................... 11 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 12 1 RESEARCH TERRITORY AND GAP ........................................................................................ 12 2 RESEARCH AIMS AND QUESTIONS ...................................................................................... 15 3 SCOPE ......................................................................................................................... 17 4 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ............................................................................................... 19 1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................................ 22 1.1 EUROPE BETWEEN THE WARS ........................................................................................ 22 1.1.1 THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS ....................................................... 22 1.1.2 NEW ORDER IN DANGER: 1920 – 1930 ............................................................................... 24 1.1.3 LANDMARK EVENTS ON THE ROAD TO WAR: 1930 – 1939 .....................................................