Thomas Mann owes his place in world literature to the dissemination of his works through translation. Indeed, it was the monumental success of the original English translations that earned him the title of 'the greatest living man of letters' during his years in American exile (1938-52). This book provides the first systematic exploration of the English versions, illustrating the vicissitudes of literary translation through a principled discussion of a major author. The study illuminates the contexts in which the translations were produced before exploring the transformations Mann's work has undergone in the process of transfer. An exemplary analysis of selected textual dimensions demonstrates the multiplicity of factors which impinge upon literary translation, leading far beyond the traditional preoccupation with issues of equivalence. Thomas Mann in English thus fills a gap both in translation studies, where Thomas Mann serves as a constant but ill-defined point of reference, and in literary studies, which has focused increasingly on the author's wider reception.
David Horton's Thomas Mann in English is a book that, had the normal publishing logic triumphed, would never have been published. It's a single-author study of a non-Anglophone writer, it focuses on only one aspect of that author's reception history, it does not employ trendy jargon or speak to any topic that's ripped from today's headlines, and it does not even have a sexy title. And yet it is a supremely interesting work, not just because it sheds new light on Thomas Mann's oeuvre, but also because it raises thought-provoking questions about the future of literary study ... [It] is arguably the first absolutely rigorous, comprehensive, and even-handed treatment of a subject that has already attracted much attention in the scholarly literature, namely the impact of Mann's first translator, Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter. ... In my opinion, however, the most important service that Thomas Mann in English provides to German Studies has nothing to do with translation studies per se. It concerns, rather, David Horton's approach to reading. Over the past few years, literary criticism has been riven by serious methodological disputes, as advocates of computer-assisted 'distant reading' strategies have done battle with more hermeneutically oriented scholars and sociologically informed 'surface reading' approaches have begun to displace the psychoanalytic depth model pioneered by Fredric Jameson in The Political Unconscious (1982). But Horton moves easily among all these different strategies, treating them not as secular gospel, but simply as tools by which to better dissect his chosen texts. ... Any reader willing to read for the larger picture will walk away with hard evidence that literary study, contrary to its frequently expressed contemporary malaise, is actually more alive and methodologically vibrant than ever. This book is an impressive achievement, and fully lives up to the claim of providing new directions for its discipline.
