The Question of Translation in Fleur Jaeggy: Perspectives from Huston and Kundera

Abstract

"Jaeggy is a certain kind of writer, holding a certain place in world literature. Her work is as unmistakeably Swiss (and
more specifically Swiss-German), just as Huston was unmistakably Canadian (and more specifically Western-Canadian) in the early 1990s and Kundera has remained unmistakably Czech (or Czechoslovak). But in all three cases, the approach to culture is through that dark glass of Corinthians, an image that has so often been used as a metaphor for translation. Even though literal translation is not always an issue chez Jaeggy, any more than it is with Huston or Kundera, there is an imperative to interpret their work through the spirit of translation. In this way, they served as avatars for a more globalized European literature that is still in the process of emerging."