The Translator as Reconciliator: How Astrid Berger “Repatriated” Exile Writer Eva Kollisch In The Austrian Literary Field

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A webinar with Dr Karin Hanta (Middlebury College), organised by the Transnational Cultural and Visual Studies research theme at the School of Modern Languages.

Abstract
Feminist author Eva Kollisch penned her autobiographical work The Ground under My Feet in 2008. In this work, she recounts her childhood as a Jew in Austria and her escape from Vienna to England on a Kindertransport in 1938, and the formation of her transcultural identity. Starting in 2003, Eva Kollisch’s work was transferred to the Austrian literary field through translation. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw a confluence of two trends in Austrian Holocaust and exile literature: not only was a substantial amount of autobiographical writings by survivors and exiles published, but it was also women’s voices in particular that made themselves heard, adding a decidedly feminist nuance to Austrian memory culture. In this talk, I will argue that it took a wide variety of cultural actors to integrate Eva Kollisch in the Austrian literary field through cultural translation on a more metaphorical level and translation proper, i.e. the actual interlingual transfer. I will further argue that these feminist translation memory projects were grounded in both a nomadic subjectivity—on the author’s part—and an implicated subjectivity—on the Austrian cultural brokers’ part. As a result, a multidirectional “noeud de mémoire” evolved. What was most congenial about Eva Kollisch’s return to her “mother tongue” was the author’s intimate collaboration with feminist translator Astrid Berger, who—30 years younger than the author—was able to eventually “repatriate” the author’s work in the Austrian literary field.

Biography
A native of Austria, Karin Hanta holds M.A. degrees in American Studies (Notre Dame University) and in Translating and Interpreting (University of Vienna) and a PhD in Translation Studies from the University of Vienna. A polyglot educator and two-year Fulbright recipient, Karin directs the Feminist Resource Center at Middlebury College, where she also has taught “Intro to Translation Studies” during the college’s intensive January term semester. As a Professor of the Practice, Karin has also taught “The Holocaust and Exile in Translation” at Middlebury. Karin’s dissertation “Back to the Mother Tongue: Austrian Exile Writers in the Austrian Literary Field, 1990-2015” was published as a book by Mandelbaum Press in Vienna in fall 2020. Karin has also penned 15 travel books for publishing houses in Germany, covering destinations such as Brazil, Argentina, New York, and London.

Simultaneous Translation
The event will be delivered in the medium of English. You are welcome to ask questions in the medium of Welsh during the Q&A session. If you intend to do this, please contact mlang-events@cardiff.ac.uk by Thursday 29 April to request simultaneous translation. Please note that 10% or more of those planning to attend will need to request this provision in order for it to be sourced and will be subject to resource availability.

Registration
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