Ent-Fernungen. Fremdwahrnehmung und Kulturtransfer in der deutschsprachigen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur seit 1945 [Alterity. Representations of the other and cultural transfer in German-language children's and young adult literature since 1945] (review)

This worthwhile study on the perception and literary representation of alterity (with a focus on cultural alterity) in German children's literature and literature translated into German between 1945 and 2000 is a product of a research project at the University of Leipzig. Methodologically, it draws on studies of cross-cultural transfer and on descriptive translation studies developed during the 1990s. 'Which texts were translated, when, why, how and why in the particular way they were?' – those are the guiding questions formulated by Ulrich Nassen, director of the project, in the extensive introduction to the two-volume study.

The first volume presents a reflection on the development of the adventure novel of the second half of the 20th century, ranging from didactic attempts at fictionalised history to fantasy worlds and modern science fiction. The practices of 'cross-writing' and 'cross-reading' are illustrated using the work of authors who adapt the same text written for adult readers to a younger audience. One chapter is dedicated to texts written about minorities in Germany or by authors belonging to these minorities. A comparison of the different translation strategies of East and West Germany is particularly illuminating. Their distinctive choices of translations from Scandinavian and Soviet literature as well as their idiosyncratic images of Italy clearly illustrate how translations help shape the literary canon as well as cultural stereotypes. The ideological nature of the book market – dominated by administrative-political control in communist Germany and by the laws of a capitalist media economy in West Germany – largely accounts for the striking differences in this cultural transfer of children's literature. The case of the German translation of Pippi Långstrump [Pippi Longstocking] shows that West German publishers, unlike their eastern counterparts, could risk bold ventures to develop their individual profiles.

The second volume analyses texts from Poland, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Canada translated into the German target language. It closes with a bibliography of secondary literature and an index; the complete titles of all primary texts can be consulted on the enclosed CD-ROM.

By offering a comprehensive overview of the changing practices of literary cultural transfer in postwar Germany, this voluminous work makes an important and long-desired contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship in children's literature.