From Rilke to Waldheim: Materialising Memory a Translator Study of Catherine Hutter & Erika Mitterer

Book: Cultural Memory in Translation: Revisiting Cultural Memory Through Interpretative Lens from India by CSMFL Publications

Dr. Petra Schön
BA, MA, MBA, University of Vienna, Austria.

10.46679/9789349926639ch08
This chapter is a part of: Cultural Memory in Translation: Revisiting Cultural Memory Through Interpretative Lens from India
ISBN (Ebook):978-93-49926-63-9
ISBN (Hardcover Print):978-93-49926-41-7
ISBN (Softcover Print):978-93-49926-75-2

© CSMFL Publications & its authors.
Published: November 10, 2025

Schön, P. (2025). From Rilke to Waldheim: Materialising Memory A Translator Study of Catherine Hutter & Erika Mitterer. In A. G. Uppal & D. Barot, Cultural Memory in Translation: Revisiting Cultural Memory Through Interpretative Lens (pp 101-121). CSMFL Publications. https://dx.doi.org/10.46679/9789349926639ch08

Abstract

This Translator Study (Chesterman, 2009, p. 12) builds on initial research for the Erika Mitterer Gesellschaft in 2021, investigating the life and works of the Austrian author, poet and translator Erika Mitterer (1906–2001). The focus of this follow-up study lies on Mitterer’s US translator Catherine Hutter (1907-1997), translating Mitterer’s WW II-novel Alle unsere Spiele as All our games in the 1980s. In addition to analysing transla-tion- and translator-related (Chesterman, 2009, p. 13) dimensions and traumata, it pro-vides insight into the long and stony path to publication. This interdisciplinary case-study exemplifies non-text-related obstacles that almost prevented the publication of All our games. It sheds light on micro-historical (Levi, 1991, pp. 93) developments, com-mercial transformation (Fernández-Moya, 2024, 1) and cultural interactions among au-thor, translator, agent and publisher. The study presents the “people behind the text” and contextualises the impact of the “Waldheim affair” (Good and Wodak, 1999, p. 14) on the publication. Finally, this research showcases the complex, yet fragile position of fe-male foreign authors to be translated into English – and their translators.

Keywords: Translation studies, Erika Mitterer, Catherine Hutter, Austrian literature Translation, World War II Literature, Female Translators

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