Translating the perpetrator’s testimony : Kommandant in Auschwitz (Holocaust) and Une saison de machettes (Rwanda)
- Author
- Anneleen Spiessens (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- This chapter examines the impact of editing and translation on the way we collectively remember perpetrators and perpetrator testimonies. It is based on two case studies: the memoirs of former Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess, and Jean Hatzfeld’s transcribed conversations with Rwandan génocidaires. Perpetrator stories, as will be demonstrated, are highly polyphonic constructs, with editors, prefacers, and translators inserting themselves into the text. The focus of the analysis lies not on what is being said in the testimonies but rather on how it is being said. The perpetrator’s language is indeed very distinctive from that of the survivors: the investigated accounts contain many bureaucratic or technical elements, lack emotional investment, and show no sign of traumatic memory. It is the chapter’s aim to explore how translators deal with these stylistic particularities, and how mediators more generally frame the testimonies to ensure a critical reading. Since the detached voices are considered an indication of the killers’ state of mind at the time of events, and of their moral ignorance about the extent and nature of their crimes, framing and translation strategies have a real bearing on the way perpetrator stories are received and on the lessons we learn from them.
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8571279
- MLA
- Spiessens, Anneleen. “Translating the Perpetrator’s Testimony : Kommandant in Auschwitz (Holocaust) and Une Saison de Machettes (Rwanda).” The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Memory, edited by Sharon Deane-Cox and Anneleen Spiessens, Routledge, 2022, pp. 22–41, doi:10.4324/9781003273417-4.
- APA
- Spiessens, A. (2022). Translating the perpetrator’s testimony : Kommandant in Auschwitz (Holocaust) and Une saison de machettes (Rwanda). In S. Deane-Cox & A. Spiessens (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of translation and memory (pp. 22–41). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003273417-4
- Chicago author-date
- Spiessens, Anneleen. 2022. “Translating the Perpetrator’s Testimony : Kommandant in Auschwitz (Holocaust) and Une Saison de Machettes (Rwanda).” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Memory, edited by Sharon Deane-Cox and Anneleen Spiessens, 22–41. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003273417-4.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Spiessens, Anneleen. 2022. “Translating the Perpetrator’s Testimony : Kommandant in Auschwitz (Holocaust) and Une Saison de Machettes (Rwanda).” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Memory, ed by. Sharon Deane-Cox and Anneleen Spiessens, 22–41. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003273417-4.
- Vancouver
- 1.Spiessens A. Translating the perpetrator’s testimony : Kommandant in Auschwitz (Holocaust) and Une saison de machettes (Rwanda). In: Deane-Cox S, Spiessens A, editors. The Routledge handbook of translation and memory. London: Routledge; 2022. p. 22–41.
- IEEE
- [1]A. Spiessens, “Translating the perpetrator’s testimony : Kommandant in Auschwitz (Holocaust) and Une saison de machettes (Rwanda),” in The Routledge handbook of translation and memory, S. Deane-Cox and A. Spiessens, Eds. London: Routledge, 2022, pp. 22–41.
@incollection{8571279,
abstract = {{This chapter examines the impact of editing and translation on the way we collectively remember perpetrators and perpetrator testimonies. It is based on two case studies: the memoirs of former Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess, and Jean Hatzfeld’s transcribed conversations with Rwandan génocidaires. Perpetrator stories, as will be demonstrated, are highly polyphonic constructs, with editors, prefacers, and translators inserting themselves into the text.
The focus of the analysis lies not on what is being said in the testimonies but rather on how it is being said. The perpetrator’s language is indeed very distinctive from that of the survivors: the investigated accounts contain many bureaucratic or technical elements, lack emotional investment, and show no sign of traumatic memory. It is the chapter’s aim to explore how translators deal with these stylistic particularities, and how mediators more generally frame the testimonies to ensure a critical reading. Since the detached voices are considered an indication of the killers’ state of mind at the time of events, and of their moral ignorance about the extent and nature of their crimes, framing and translation strategies have a real bearing on the way perpetrator stories are received and on the lessons we learn from them.}},
author = {{Spiessens, Anneleen}},
booktitle = {{The Routledge handbook of translation and memory}},
editor = {{Deane-Cox, Sharon and Spiessens, Anneleen}},
isbn = {{9780815372158}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{22--41}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Routledge Handbooks in Translation and Interpreting Studies}},
title = {{Translating the perpetrator’s testimony : Kommandant in Auschwitz (Holocaust) and Une saison de machettes (Rwanda)}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003273417-4}},
year = {{2022}},
}
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