Rewriting women's discourse across cultures: Reception and translation of Ingeborg Bachmann's prose in Poland and in the United States

The dissertation examines the transfer of Ingeborg Bachmann's prose into two language cultures, Poland and the United States. The main vehicle for this examination is an analysis of Bachmann's reception in these two cultures, and a comparative analysis of the translation of her prose into Polish and English. Its methodological framework builds on theories of Cultural Studies, Reception Theory, Translation Studies, and feminist writing. The processes of reception, canonization, and translation are treated as modes of reading and rewriting that necessarily involve intercultural mediation and appropriation. Bachmann's seminal role in the creation of a distinct feminist voice in German-language literary production, the link between her reputation and the reception of her writing, and, finally, her central position in the contemporary German and Austrian canon make her a productive resource for a reception and translation study. The use of two markedly different cultures, the American and the Polish, makes it possible to explore what other cultures consider to be Austrian cultural heritage and how they approach female authorship and gendered writing. Part One introduces Bachmann as an Austrian feminist author and gives an overview of Bachmann's reception in Austria and Germany. Part Two looks at Bachmann in Poland, examining the scholarly and non-expert responses to her work as well as translations of her writing into Polish, all within the context of Poland's and Austria's cultural proximity and Polish conservative notions of female authorship and feminism. Part Three follows Bachmann both in the American literary market and in the academy to show how the reception of her texts accommodates American attitudes about Austria and expectations of feminist writing. The Appendix supplements the project with two sets of interviews conducted with Bachmann's Polish and American translators: Krzysztof Jachimczak, Mark Anderson, Philip Boehm, and Peter Filkins. In proposing translation as the most tangible document of an appropriation of gender and cultural identities as constructed by literary texts, this project demonstrates that Translation Studies makes an indispensable contribution to the fields of Cultural Studies and Gender Studies.