Shakespeare translations re-edit?

In mid-June 2022, the three organizers Dr. Claudia Bamberg (University of Trier, TCDH, Executive Director and Head of Research “Digital Edition and Lexicography”), Prof. Dr. Christa Jansohn (University of Bamberg, Chair of British Culture) and Dr. Stefan Knödler (University of Tübingen, Akademischer Rat am Deutschen Seminar) welcome the expert audience and interested parties to the conference on Romantic Shakespeare translations in Dresden. The conference will be held in cooperation with the Commission for the Edition of Texts since the 18th Century in the Working Group for Germanic Editions and with the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library (SLUB).

The conference will focus on the scholarly debate surrounding the Shakespeare translations of August Wilhelm Schlegel and the circle around Ludwig Tieck - canonized as 'Schlegel/Tieck' - which first appeared in their entirety between 1825 and 1833. Alongside Johann Heinrich Voß's translation of the Homeric epics, the 'Schlegel/Tieck' is today regarded as one of the most important works of German literature, and in the book trade as well as in the theater it can only with difficulty be supplanted by more recent translations such as those by Erich Fried (from 1962) or Frank Günther (1995-2020). Despite its uninterrupted popularity over 200 years, there is still no historical-critical edition, or indeed any edition at all, that would do even rudimentary justice to the complicated history of the creation and publication of 'Schlegel/Tieck'. The history of its reception has also hardly been dealt with and has received little attention in Germanist and Englishist research. The international conference will critically examine these gaps in research and at the same time point to further research tasks.

The conference will therefore provide a review of these translations, with which Shakespeare became the third German 'classicist', and will ask about the contexts and the requirements for a future edition. The importance of Shakespeare within the early Romantic program and the literary-political debates around 1800 will be discussed, as well as the pioneering concept of a 'poetic' Shakespeare translation at the time. The differences in the procedures of A.W. Schlegel and the Tieck circle will be elaborated and it will be shown why these translations are to be separated from each other. In addition, the reception and printing history will be critically examined. Finally, the question will be addressed as to how the texts could most usefully be edited historically-critically today, what philological requirements must be observed, and what digital procedures must be employed in such an urgently needed edition.

Prof Claudine Moulin will speak on "Flashes of Luʃtigkeit, wackrer Krieger und Liebsgetändel. Lexical Creativity at the Interface of Romantic Language Theory and "Poetic" Translation in A.W. Schlegel's Hamlet Manuscript," and Dr Claudia Bamberg and Dr Thomas Burch will present a first digital edition concept in their talk "Hamlet - digitally edited".

The results of the conference will be published in a special issue of "editio".

Those who wish can listen digitally, access data after a short mail to: Dr. Claudia Bamberg.

Image copyright: William Shakespeare Statue, August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845) Porträt. Öl auf Leinwand von Adolf Hohneck (1810–1879), um 1830. 67,5 × 58 cm. Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden Foto: Regine Richter SLUB Dresden und https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Datei:August_Wilhelm_von_Schlegel.png, Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853) www.shakespearealbum.de (April 2014, ed. Christa Jansohn in Kooperation mit der Mainzer Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur, Theatersammlung der Universität Köln, und der Shakespeare Library, University of Birmingham), http://www.shakespearealbum.de/biographien/ludwig-tieck.html, Dorothea Tieck (1799–1841) Porträt mit faksimiliertem Sinnspruch und Unterschrift. Lithographie von Franz Seraph Hanfstaengl (1804–1877) nach Zeichnung, 1838, von Auguste von Buttlar (gest. 1857). Bl. 34 × 27,5 cm. Berlin, Sammlung Archiv für Kunst und Geschichte. Bildnummer: AKG286503 Kollektion: akg-images, https://www.akg-images.de/archive/-2UMDHUK6I9YM.html, Wolf Heinrich Friedrich Karl Graf von Baudissin (1789–1878) www.shakespearealbum.de (April 2014, ed. Christa Jansohn in Kooperation mit der Mainzer Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur, Theatersammlung der Universität Köln, und der Shakespeare Library, University of Birmingham).