Modern Indian Literature in Translation in the GDR – Between Ideology, Censorship and Cultural Diplomacy
This project considers translations from modern Indian languages, including Indian English, which were published in the GDR in a field of tension between ideology and cultural diplomacy. With reference to the official framework of publishing in the GDR, which was characterised by the institutionalised practice of censorship, the discourse on the political-ideological evaluation of the text and the author is analysed. In addition, the literary and aesthetic evaluation of the texts is of interest, especially with regard to a postulated ideal of an “international contemporary literature” acceptable for the “Leseland” / “reading country” GDR. Between 1963 and 1990, there were a total of ca. 45 such translations from Indian languages, which were initially often mediated via English or Russian.
Two case studies are planned: one deals with the discourse that accompanied the politically motivated publication of translations of Tagore’s literary works for the centenary celebrations, while another focuses on controversial translations from the entire period under consideration. The role of the actors – publishers’ editors, reviewers, translators and cultural functionaries - will also be considered. I assume that the analyses of the evaluations of literary works from modern South Asian languages will show that they reflect political developments in the GDR, internal cultural policy and bilateral relations between India and the GDR. This will shed light on the role of translations in the cultural diplomacy of the GDR towards India before the political recognition of the GDR and on the growing autonomy of literary experts and their evaluations from the early 1970s onwards. In this way, I hope to situate these published translations within the broader framework of the entangled relations of South Asia and the GDR in the fields of literature, culture and politics.
This research project is part of Modern India in German Archives, 1706–1989 (MIDA), a long-term project supported by the German Research Council (DFG) with the participation of Prof. Dr. Ravi Ahuja, Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), Universität Göttingen, Dr. Heike Liebau, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) Berlin, and Prof. Dr. Michael Mann, Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften (IAAW), HU Berlin.