Kreativität und Hermeneutik in der Translation by Larisa Cercel, Marco Agnetta, and María Teresa Amido Lozano (review)

Creativity and Hermeneutics in Translation is a major contribution to Translation Studies and an important development in Translational Hermeneutics. Given the wide spectrum of the topics addressed in the volume (ranging from Medieval theory of art to empirical, corpus-based, and model-based research), it can be regarded as a definitive source for studying diverse aspects of creativity and translation. The book includes a total of twenty-three papers (excluding the introduction) written in German, English, French and Portuguese. These papers are thematically divided into three sections (rhetoric and literature; hermeneutics and philosophy; applied linguistics and translation practice).

In the introductory paper, Larisa Cercel, Marco Agnetta, and María Teresa Amido Lozano briefly review the most important contributions to the notion of "creativity" in translation, especially since 1990s. Creativity in this context is not bound to literary translation as it represents an important sub-component of "translational competence"; the authors, of course, conceptualize creativity within a hermeneutic philosophy of understanding/interpretation, while considering other disciplines such as rhetoric, literature and linguistics. The contributions of Alberto Gil are used as guidelines in defining and mapping the areas where hermeneutics, translation and creativity meet (e.g. translator self-identity, development of rhetoric/style in translation, exploring the capacities of original texts, etc.) (11–13).

The first section is devoted to "Rhetoric and Literature," including ten papers. Jörn Albrecht tries to situate translation in the Medieval categories of arts (grammar, dialectic and rhetoric). Given the strategic nature of rhetorical articulation, he believes that artistic translation is compatible with (but not in service of) rhetoric, as exemplified by imitatio (mentioning features of an earlier text) and aemulatio (artistic elevation of the original in translation) (17–29). Re-visiting the history of the notion of creativity, Rainer Kohlmayer focuses on the graphical and acoustic dimensions of rhetorical production in literary translation. Although he believes that translation starts with elocutio (style), he mentions that it can also include inventio (plot) and dispositio (structure) (31–58).

Jean Boase-Beier deals with the problem of translating poems depicting historically real events (Paul Celan's Mit Äxten spielend in this case). The poem under investigation arose from a multilingual context and involved various sources of creativity incorporated into it by Celan. Boase-Beier emphasizes that creative poetry translation is aware of the original text's creativity and accuracy while framing a "poetics" in itself and representing the "state of mind" (e.g. trauma) experienced by the poet (59–76). Concerned with (German) translators' lack of sensitivity for the delicacies of children's literature, Wolfgang Pöckl advocates translation theories/methods that foreground a lingual intuition (Sprachgefühl) suitable for the age and perception of children, despite the difficulties of defining this controversial notion. As he explains, the perceived simplicity of children's literature books and less economic profitability arising from such publications (compared to adults' novels) are some of the reasons behind the unappealing quality of some translations in the field (77–93).

Angela Sanmann comparatively analyzes German translations of Queneau's Exercices de style to show how re-translation can contribute to "infinite proliferation" by re-creating the potential in the original over time. Sanmann uses qualitative and even some quantitative data to demonstrate how re-translation is a process of continuing and updating previous translations (95–112). Investigating Roud's French translation of Müller's Des Baches, Irene Weber Henking concentrates on the stages that Roud went through to achieve his final translations; Henking, contrary to some twentieth century theories that demand strict fidelity, emphasizes the creative writer-translator interaction in the literary production (113–27).

Analyzing three German translations of Dominique Manotti's novels, Ursula Wienen tries to identify the specifications of criminal law discourse in a literary work. Wienen highlights the complexity and heterogeneity of legal language, as well as Manotti's writing profile. Such textual categories as borrowing, substitution...