Led by
Jayne Winter (Newcastle University)
28 March 2013
Percy
Building Postgraduate Common Room, Newcastle University
Departing
from our usual focus upon long nineteenth-century English literature, the subject
of this month’s reading group was the effects of translation upon the folk
ballad tradition in England, Scotland and Germany. Exploring the ways in which oral culture
became appropriated by different nationalities and crucially, different languages,
this session was valuable in terms of its questioning approach to ideas of literary
heritage. Concentrating upon texts by the
English Thomas Percy, William Wordsworth and Matthew Lewis, the Scottish Walter
Scott, and the German Johann Gottfried Herder and Gottfried August Bürger, the
session sought to investigate not only the challenges posed by issues of
translation, but also what translation itself lends to the concept of the folk
tale.
Beginning by focusing upon Herder’s translation of Percy’s poem ‘Sweet William’s
Ghost’ (1773), we considered the former’s awareness that this is a manufactured
myth, borrowed from English oral tradition in order to be incorporated into
German folk culture. As an admirer of
the Ossian correspondences, we discussed how Herder was attracted to this idea
of an ancient bardic culture and regarded it as desirable for establishing such
a culture in Germany. It was suggested
that, as Germany during this period was fragmented both politically and
culturally, Herder’s preoccupation with oral traditions perhaps reflects this
desire for a stable national history.
Parallels were also drawn with eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century
Italy, as an example of a nation that was displaced linguistically, as well as
politically.
Those of us who were German speakers remarked upon the language Herder uses in
his translation of ‘Sweet William’. It
was suggested that, rather than reproducing Percy’s poem faithfully, Herder
deliberately incorporates vocabulary that makes its themes more archaic in
translation. This implies that he is not
only amalgamating an English ballad into German culture, but in turn,
transforming it in order to appeal to the Gothic sensibilities of that
culture. Through this process, it was
suggested that Herder may be seen as contributing to the reputation German
literature would acquire in England; the home of horror stories and Gothic narratives. Interestingly, it was pointed out that it was
England, and Scotland in particular, that held this reputation for Gothic
literature in the eighteenth-century German psyche.
Moving on to look at the other texts, we were introduced to the demand for this
kind of translated Gothic-esque literature in the eighteenth century. For example, Bürger also copied material from Percy’s poems
into his Gothic romance ‘Lenore’ (1789), which was then itself swiftly
translated back into English by Walter Scott.
Furthermore, Wordsworth made elements of ‘Lenore’ famous in the folk
traditions and narrative of several of The
Lyrical Ballads (1798/1802), whilst Matthew Lewis appropriated ‘Lenore’
into poems that were proclaimed to be based upon the Germanic tradition.
We wondered what effect this act of translation from English/Scots dialect to
German, and then back again, had on the original poems. Certainly, Herder’s view on the purpose of
poetry was not merely to convince his readers of their ancientness, but also to
inspire a new kind of thinking about German culture and the function of
literature within it. Members were
interested in Herder’s concept of history, which was seen to share many
parallels with that of the Scottish Enlightenment. Like philosophers such as Adam Ferguson, and
later writers such as Thomas Love Peacock, Herder regarded history to be split
into distinct ‘stages’, in which poetry must be aligned with particular points
in national development. It was
suggested that such an approach contradicted that of other Scottish contemporaries
such as Dugald Stewart, who perceived poetry and historical development as
having a more dynamic relationship.
Nevertheless, this insight into Herder’s views reflected the wider
relevance of his ideas on poetry, translation and national identity. It also inspired detailed discussions on the
affinities between German and Scottish literature during this period.
Overall, this session was valuable for the way that it highlighted the
importance of translation and its place in national consciousness during the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
It also introduced our mainly English literature-focused members to
ideas that were both prevalent in European thought, and that share parallels
with contemporary views of poetry and its purpose in England. The NENC organising committee would thus like
to thank Jayne for a thought-provoking, lively and interesting session.
Leanne
Stokoe, Newcastle University
