Mid-century Modernism, Magazines, and Translation

This seminar is a hybrid event, available to join in person or online via Zoom. 

British Modernism, Translation and Illustration in Post-War German Journals

Journals in the late 1940s used modernist writing to investigate key cultural questions initiated by the destruction of the war years, and to explore how a new, European literature could be shaped. In the German context, post-war periodicals were used as conduits by the occupying forces to reinforce the goals of denazification, re-education and reconstruction. What role did prominent authors such as Virginia Woolf or T. S. Eliot play in these processes through the translation and inclusion of their work for a German reading public? How did these journals reposition British modernist writing for a post-war European stage, which themes and questions were addressed that were relevant to contemporary debates, and how did editorial processes of selection influence which British voices were heard? Since illustration was a key marketing strategy in a rapidly evolving post-war publishing market, it is also worth reflecting on how British authors, German translators and illustrators were brought into dialogue with each other through the medium of the magazine – an area still largely overlooked both in periodical studies and in translation studies. A particularly rich space of encounter is offered by the German magazine Karussell (1946-1948). Published in the western German city of Kassel, host of the international contemporary art exhibition Documenta, it included work by leading German post-war artists such as Arnold Bode, as well as extracts from writing by Woolf, Maugham and Sackville-West that were published in translation with accompanying images. This raises intriguing questions about the transformative potential of illustrated translation, and with it the positioning of British modernism within cultural, political and literary developments in post-war Germany.

Alison E. Martin is Professor of British Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz/Germersheim. She is the German PI for the DFG-/AHRC-funded project Spaces of Translation, European Magazine Culture 1945-1965 and has worked extensively on translation and Anglo-German cultural exchange. She co-edited a 2018 Special Issue of Modernist Cultures on "Global Modernisms" and the article “Reframing the Past: Post-War German Periodical Culture and Hans B. Wagenseil’s Translation of Vita Sackville-West’s Thirty Clocks Strike the Hour” in Letteratura & Letterature 14 (2020). She is currently working on a book that examines the reception of Vita Sackville-West’s writing in the German-speaking countries from 1920 to 2020.

Prof. Alison E. Martin

Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz/Germersheim

[email protected]

‘ “Foreign poets? No!”: Translation and Magazines in Mid-Century Modernism

This paper offers some provisional thoughts about the shape and nature of mid-century modernism in Britain and Europe, drawing upon the corpus studied as part of the Spaces of Translation in European Magazines project (SpaTrEM https://spacesoftranslation.org/ ). Many writers explored the new world of culture and politics in post-War Europe, trying to redefine the meanings of modernism as a movement and this work has received more attention from scholars over the last few years (e.g. Mackay, Mellor, Davis, Esty). This paper approaches the question of mid-century modernism from a different perspective, that of the magazine culture which flourished in European after 1945. Magazines often looked to the international modernism established before the war as a way to further the project of cultural renewal, a central aspect of which involved the translation of works from other countries as a sign of crossing boundaries and renewed dialogue between nations. Thus the bilingual magazine, Das Tor/The Gate declared in 1947 that art, music and literature were ‘not the property of one nation alone’ and that ‘a deeper understanding of our cultural ties with Europe is a surer way to international friendship than political treaties’. In particular the paper will concentrate upon the fortunes of modernism in three British-based magazines: New Road, edited by Fred Murnau; The London Magazine of John Lehmann; and Encounter, co-edited by Stephen Spender.

Andrew Thacker is Professor of Twentieth Century Literature at Nottingham Trent University. He is the author or editor of several books on modernism and modern periodicals, including the three volumes of The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines (2009-13) and Modernism, Space and the City (2019). HIs most recent book is the co-edited collection, Magazines and Modern Identities: Global Cultures of the Illustrated Press (Bloomsbury, 2023). He was a founder member and first Chair of the British Association for Modernist Studies. Currently he is the UK PI for the Spaces of Translation project on European Magazines, 1945-65.

Andrew Thacker

Nottingham Trent University

[email protected]