Kafka Translated

by Michelle Woods

Kafka Translated is the first book to look at the issue of translation and Kafka's work. What effect do the translations have on how we read Kafka? Are our interpretations of Kafka influenced by the translators' interpretations? In what ways has Kafka been 'translated' into Anglo-American culture by popular culture and by academics?

Michelle Woods investigates issues central to the burgeoning field of translation the notion of cultural untranslatability; the centrality of female translators in literary history; and the under-representation of the influence of the translator as interpreter of literary texts. She specifically focuses on the role of two of Kafka's first translators, Milena Jesenská and Willa Muir, as well as two contemporary translators, Mark Harman and Michael Hofmann, and how their work might allow us to reassess reading Kafka. From here Woods opens up the whole process of translation and re-examines accepted and prevailing interpretations of Kafka's work.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literature, Literary Criticism

296 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2013

Reviews

[Olivia Tonelli]

I’ve never even read any Kafka, but this was very interesting.

[Katy Derbyshire]

Excellent exploration of four of Kafka's many translators, lifting the cloak of invisibility, and what they've done for us. Followed by more on translation in his work, translation onto celluloid and the translation of Kafka himself into the figure Max Brod made of him.