The dynamics of German translations of texts by contemporary authors from Tito’s Yugoslavia

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the book market in the four German speaking countries (FRG, Occ. Germany, Switzerland and Austria) during the period of Tito’s Yugoslavia (1945-1980) based on the bibliography Serbo-Croatian writers in German translation (1776-1993) by Reinhard Lauer (1995). In chronological order the titles of books by contemporary writers translated from Serbo-Croatian into German are listed whereby the focus is directed to publishers. The label “Serbo-Croatian” as the name of the language spoken and written by several ethnic communities in former Yugoslavia as the source language from which the books were translated into the target language German has become a contested label ever since. The national affiliation of the respective author of a book overruled the aspect of adherence to a common language. The disentanglement of this literary cosmos has been at stake ever since the collapse of Yugoslavia; the label “Serbo-Croatian writer” writer has become obsolete.