Herr Wie-wenn-mann. Zur Frage der Übersetzbarkeit und der Übersetzung von „sprechenden Namen“ in Witkacys Bühnenstücken

Abstract

The question of translatability and translation of „meaningful names“ in Witkacy’s Plays. In the plays of the Polish dramatist, writer and artist Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz („Witkacy“) the characters normally bear „meaningful names“. These can but need not necessarily serve the characterization of the respective figure. They are often just a mere play on words, achieved through usually applying the techniques of shifting and compaction. Translating the names requires to transfer this play on words into the target language in a way, that as few aspects of the original as possible, get lost, though this cannot always be achieved completely. The essay examines in a vast number of examples, how the creation of the names was done in the Polish original, and if and how Makarczyk & Schuster succeeded in translating the plays. (Translated by Karl-Heinz Förster)