African American Musicals Translated into German

Anita Williams-Holzhausen

African American Musicals Translated into German. An Exploration of Their Transcultural Communicability and Artistic Veracity

ISBN 978-3-86821-403-1, 272 S., kt., € 31,50 (2012)

(Heidelberger Studien zur Übersetzungswissenschaft, Bd. 16)

In recent years, there has been more scholarly interest in intercultural communication within various academic fields, including Translation Studies. Additionally, more calls have been made to place focus on song translation and the translation of texts for music within this field. However, many aspects of this discipline remain unexplored, including pertinent elements such as assessing the transcultural communicability of content within selected texts, as well as the maintenance of artistic authenticity in translation. This remains true concerning the translation of myriad American musicals for Musical Theatre venues in Germany. This work is designed to bring awareness to the immense potential Translation Studies has for becoming an essential tool in enabling successful intercultural communication when using an artistic medium. With the aid of translation, American Musical Theatre works pertaining to various portrayals of American Life – for example, the African American Experience – can be shared and exposed to the international community. This work is an investigation within three interdisciplinary fields – American Musical Theatre, Cultural Studies and Translation Studies – in order to determine whether or not the artistic and cultural integrity of such musicals can be maintained in German translation.

Buchvorschau / Inhaltsverzeichnis (pdf)