Translating Trauma into Literature and Film

Millersville University's 41st Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide theme is
Translating Trauma into Literature and Film

In testimonies of survivors, the Holocaust is sometimes described as taking place in a realm akin to a different planet. As Jonathan Freeland wrote recently in his introduction to one Holocaust memoir, it was “a place where the usual laws of moral gravity did not apply; where evil was good, black was white, and night was day.”  Therefore, the act of describing life on this foreign planet to those who have never experienced it is similar to translating from a foreign language. Like translators, authors of narratives focused on the Holocaust or genocide must carefully strategize how to convey a set of unfamiliar, often unthinkable concepts to their audiences.

Among the many approaches to translation, the discipline of modern Translation Studies identifies two contrasting ones: “domestication” and “foreignization.”  The former means roughly “bringing the world of the text to the audience” to ensure a smooth, comfortable and digestible experience. The latter entails “bringing the audience to the world of the text” to immerse readers or listeners in the truth of the original, even at the expense of personal comfort. Both approaches come with costs; “domestication” may sacrifice the authenticity of the original story for the sake of readers’ engagement while “foreignization” risks alienating the audience in an effort to preserve the unvarnished truth. In this year’s conference, we will meet with authors who have taken up the challenge of translating the trauma of the Holocaust and genocide into literature and film.  We will explore their struggles to balance “domestication” and “foreignization” in their approaches, and we will discuss what effects their artistic decisions had on the reception of their work and their overall goal of raising historical awareness of trauma. The literal issues of translation will be part of our conversations as well. As the English-language authors tell stories about events that took place in non-English speaking contexts, their language choices matter greatly in the way they shape the audiences’ perceptions.

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