Kafka Translated

IntroductionKafka Translated Milena Jesenská Willa Muir Mark Harman Michael HofmannKafka TranslatingAdapting KafkaInterpreting KafkaBibliographyIndex

This is a smart, timely, well-informed book that addresses, with a delightful polemical edge, some long-unexamined aspects of translation. Michelle Woods - Irish and Czech - connects so-called 'mistakes' in the translation of Kafka's novels and stories to intentions arising from the cultural history of the translator, with a real gain of understanding. In accurate, original, spirited prose, on the strength of erudite and witty close readings of Kafka's works, Woods explores the relation of text, translation, and translator in captivating new ways. -- Stanley Corngold, Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature, Princeton University, USA, and highly acclaimed translator of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis and Kafka's Selected Stories. A highly complex and thoughtful 'story' that covers both the issues of translating and domesticating Franz Kafka into Czech and English. Insightful in theoretical framing and rich in contextual background material, it offers an original and comprehensive interpretation of Kafka. Delving deep into Kafka's fiction, which is accessible to any reader, Michelle Woods unveils the stories behind the texts through a dialogical reading that unfolds like a perfect detective story. -- Petr A. Bilek, Professor of Modern Czech Literature, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic This is a book on interpretation, reception, adaptation, understanding, and reading Kafka. It is also a book on multilingualism and gender in Kafka. All this makes it an excellent book on translation. In highly readable prose, Michelle Woods accompanies the reader in an original 'under the skin' biographical narration of four important Kafka translators: their stories illustrate remarkably the complex mechanisms of translation: how life, experience, love, are so decisive in a translator's work and choices. At the same time they show how material and cultural pressures condition translators in their work. This is a ground-breaking volume that demonstrates how our