5019 T Street, Little Rock, Arkansas

Nina Wallnig

5019 T Street, Little Rock, Arkansas: Reconstructing the World of Nathan Jacob Rook

ISBN 978-3-86821-117-7, 195 S., 64 Abb., Bilddatenbank mit 351 Abb., € 26,00 (CD-ROM, 2009)

(Cultural Studies in the Heartland of America, Bd. 16)

Analyzing personal letters and documents from the past provides valuable insights into bygone eras of history and sheds light on the life and living conditions of individuals during that time. From the viewpoint of translation studies research, these documents serve as valuable scientific research material, since they support the study of translation in its cultural context. The majority of the material obtained for this thesis consisted of documents from Nathan Jacob Rook, an optometrist who was born in 1908 in Seattle, Washington. Analyzing the content of these documents sheds light on the living and working conditions of Little Rock’s middle-class and on their changing socioeconomic environment. Genealogical research enabled the author to trace Nathan’s family history back over five generations and to gain insight into the lives of individuals during the time spanning from the American Revolutionary War to the Klondike Gold Rush. Additionally, a content analysis based on word frequencies was conducted in order to determine the most important concepts that influenced Nathan’s life in 1929. A glossary is provided in order to familiarize the reader with important terms used throughout this project. In the appendix, the reader will find a transcription of Nathan’s diary and of each of the letters that make up this collection of his personal correspondence. In addition, all the documents were scanned and saved in an image database, which can be found at the end of this thesis.