Translating Canada

From Beautiful Losers to No Logo! German Readings of Jewish Canadian Writing

From Beautiful Losers to No Logo! German Readings of Jewish Canadian Writing Fabienne Quennet University of Marburg The main thesis that Michael Greenstein expounds in his seminal study Third Solitudes: Tradition and Discontinuity in Jewish-Canadian Literature (1989) is that the work of the poet and novelist A. M. Klein (1909–1972) constitutes the beginning of Jewish Canadian writing in Canada. According to Greenstein, texts of writers coming after him are revisions and reinscriptions of Klein’s work and are, in particular, preoccupied with his novel The Second Scroll (1951). Such authors, of whom Norman Levine (1923–2005) and Mordecai Richler (1931–2001)1 have been translated into German, “construct texts that in their rewriting of other texts transmute the world into a scene of eternal Diaspora ... where meaning can only be construed as a patchwork of trajectories” (Blodgett 2003, 227). Unfortunately, Klein’s novel has not been translated into German, so that the tradition and discontinuity typical of Jewish Canadian writing—and inherited from Klein— cannot be fully grasped when we look at the body of German translations of Jewish Canadian authors. Nonetheless, those titles that were translated into German between 1967 and 2000 can indeed be considered representative of Jewish Canadian writing in Canada. The transfer of Jewish Canadian literature to Germany always entails a cautious handling of European, Jewish, and Canadian sensibilities, an approach WKDW LV RI FHQWUDO VLJQLÀFDQFH IRU H[DPSOH LQ WKH FDVH RI $QQH 0LFKDHOV·V Holocaust survivor novel Fugitive Pieces, 1996 (Fluchtstücke, 1996). The intricacies affecting this transfer can be seen when we look at the reception of the German translations of Jewish Canadian authors. Writers such as Mordecai Richler and 1. These authors, along with Matt Cohen (1942–1999), are those whom Greenstein considers. Of FRXUVHDXWKRUVVXFKDV/HRQDUG&RKHQDQG$QQH0LFKDHOVKDYHDOVREHHQLQÁXHQFHGE\$0 Klein. $QQH0LFKDHOVKDYHEHHQUHFRJQL]HGVSHFLÀFDOO\DV-HZLVKZULWHUV DOWKRXJKQRW all the reviews stress this fact). Others, such as Leonard Cohen and Naomi Klein, have been regarded as international authors whose topics and success transcend regional or national boundaries and book markets. Norman Levine, along with +RZDUG(QJHODQG0DWW&RKHQKRZHYHUDUHVHHQÀUVWDQGIRUHPRVWDVCanadian writers. There are a number of questions underlying the reception of these writers. 2QHPLJKWDVNZKHWKHU*HUPDQUHYLHZVLQDQ\ZD\UHÁHFWWKH-HZLVK&DQDGLDQ DVSHFWRIWKHZULWLQJDQGLIVRZKLFKIDFWRUVDUHVLQJOHGRXWDQGGHÀQHGDVHLWKHU Canadian or Jewish or both. Another question might address the way in which the German reception accounts for the success of Jewish Canadian writing on the German book market. This chapter explores which authors and books have been published in German and how they have been reviewed. It concentrates on English-language Jewish Canadian prose works, with the exception of Leonard Cohen’s translated poetry collections. Only one poem by Irving Layton has been published in German, “In the Midst of My Fever,” 2000 (“In der Mitte meines Fiebers”; see Layton 2000). Anne Michaels’s poetry collections have not been translated at all. Nor has Jewish Canadian work been translated from French. 7KHWHUP´-HZLVK&DQDGLDQOLWHUDWXUHµDVDJHQHULFGHÀQLWLRQQHYHURFFXUVLQ reviews. However, although the term is not used to designate a genre or type of writing in Germany, I contend that it needs to be used. Interestingly, the most outspoken and visible Jewish writers, such as Richler, Michaels, and—to a much lesser extent—Levine, are the most successful in terms of public attention and number of books sold in Germany, even though their Jewish origins are more or less ignored by the public. Cohen is in a different category since his success is based on his international popularity as a musician. By showing how Jewish Canadian writing has been received by German publishers, critics, and readers, ,VHHNKHUHWRGHÀQHWKHERG\RIZRUNVWUDQVODWHGLQWR*HUPDQDVDQHQWLW\WKDW reveals the diversity of this particular kind of Canadian literature. EARLY TRANSLATIONS As early as 1955, Mordecai Richler’s novel The Acrobats, 1954 (Die Akrobaten), was published by the German publisher Kindler. It was followed in 1958 by Der Boden trägt mich nicht mehr, 1957 (A Choice of Enemies), and in 1963 by Sohn eines kleineren Helden,1955(Sonof aSmallerHero),bothbyKindler.Therearenoreviewsavailable for the early editions of Richler’s novels, and, interestingly, there was a substantial publication pause of seventeen years before his novel St...