Schleiermacher’s Translation Theory and Varieties of Foreignization

AbstractForeignizing translation – allowing the features of the source language to influence the language of the target text – is the most prominent issue in the translation theory of the German romantics. Its major proponent, Friedrich Schleiermacher, saw it as key to the aesthetic and cultural education of the German nation. But what did foreignization in romantic practice look like? This article compares the work of August Wilhelm Schlegel, arguably the foremost romantic translator (though his work is not overtly foreignizing) with that of Johann Heinrich Voss, one of the period’s most heavily foreignizing translators and avowed enemy of all things romantic. The goal is to arrive at a fuller picture of the role played by foreignization in German romantic translation, both in theory and practice.