The travellee-translator and cultural memory : Thomas Nugent’s Travels through Germany (1768) and its German editions

Abstract

Taking as its focus three different German editions of Thomas Nugent’s Travels through Germany (1768), this article investigates how translation and re-translation enable travelogues to be circulated internationally at specific historical moments and thus intervene in debates around national images, (self-)representations and stereotypes. More specifically, it examines how the act of (re)translation can also be understood as a form of travellee response undertaken with a particular socio-political agenda in mind. By focusing on the figure of the travellee-translator as a transcultural mediator, editor, and commentator, this article explores how the temporal gaps between different translations highlight various aspects of the tension between individual and collective memory. It also explores how (re)translation can be used over time as a compelling way for the travellee culture to renegotiate the relationship between cultural memory, identity and place.