The ‘Polyglot Poetics’ of Ulrike Draesner's Schwitters (in the Lakes)

Abstract

Drawing from my experience working with novelist Ulrike Draesner on her forthcoming pair of novels – the German-language Schwitters and the English-language Schwitters in the Lakes – this article provides a unique insight into how a “polyglot poetics” functions in action and how the author’s process of translating her work from English to German and vice-versa has taken place. Extracts from Draesner’s novels are cited alongside examples of the rewarding difficulties in translating or rewording insights which often defy translation. Springing from Draesner’s efforts is a bold and radical linguistic experiment from which an ‘ordinary’ translator would have necessarily shrunk, given the dramatic structural changes between the two. Having situated this achievement in the context of self- translation studies and questions about the originality and hybridity of texts, the article concludes by proposing Draesner’s “polyglot poetics” as a model for understanding other self-translators and writers whose work goes beyond what is generally understood by self- translation.