Ziméo and Oroonoko in the transatlantic world. Literary translations and adaptations in the context of colonialism and enslavement (1688-1809)

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Sigrid Gisela Köhler
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 505215980

Throughout the 18th century, translations and adaptations of the novel Oroonoko (1688) by Aphra Behn and the story Ziméo (1769) by Jean-François Saint-Lambert emerge in European literatures. Here, scholars consider Behn’s novel to be the central model for the Ziméo narrative. In addition to adaptations in English and French literature, translations can be found in Spanish, Dutch, Polish and Russian literature as well as nearly thirty translations in German literature. Both Oroonoko and Ziméo tell the story of a fictional black resistance fighter. Colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, and the 17th- and 18th-century plantation system in the Caribbean provide the historical context which is made present through paratexts and in-text references.The Oroonoko and Ziméo characters are innovative because they are not exoticized as ‘noble savages’ but instead established as political actors and portrayed equal to the European characters in terms of education and morality. This is achieved by telling the West African heritage story and by staging the characters as eloquent speakers. Consequently, the Ziméo character in particular appears to be culturally different, as can be shown in a translation theoretical approach. In both English and Romance studies, the importance of these texts has been known for some time. Yet so far, there is no comprehensive study of the German-language text corpus, largely determined by popular authors. Additionally, both a comparative approach to the transnational text corpus as well as a translation-theoretical approach are research desiderata. In reference to current and historical translation theories, the aim of this project is to analyze the representation of the political agency of black characters, the contemplation of the knowledge of the ‘world’ as well as the strategies of European self-positioning in the German translations and adaptations, taking especially the English and French versions into account. It will be shown how the transatlantic space is designed as a global space of communication and interaction and how German participation in it is reflected. The translations will be considered in their interlingual and intermedial dimensions as well as with regard to their historical and cultural transfers. It will be examined which strategies the texts find to translate cultural and religious diversity into European representation grids and knowledge formations, and how sensitive to difference as well as Eurocentric or racist they are in doing so. In an overarching perspective, the project examines the aesthetical and politically innovative potential of popular literature in treating contemporary history as global history. Based on textual strategies of representation, the project further considers how the text corpus relates to common periodizations in literary and cultural history.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants