Goethe's Faust in English : problems of poetic faithfulness

Abbott, Robert (1988) Goethe's Faust in English : problems of poetic faithfulness. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (16MB) [English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. (Original Version)

Abstract

This study explores some of the main reasons why Goethe's Faust has not been satisfactorily translated into English, and concludes that an elusive but discernable quality of "poetic faithfulness” is largely absent from most English-language versions of the work. This quality is defined and described at length in the introduction, with reference made both to the general background and the specific problems of Faust translation. A middle section of six chapters, each one devoted to a short passage from one of six chosen scenes from Faust, gives examples of the passage from five major English translations and discusses the background of the passage, its specific translational difficulties, and the translators' success or failure in approaching fidelity to the original poetry. Finally, the conclusion summarizes the various approaches to translating Faust, as well as the work of the chosen translators, and offers concluding remarks on the difficulties, shown in the quoted examples, of translating the work into English with a high degree of poetic faithfulness.

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