Tradurre le emozioni della DDR a trent’anni dalla caduta del muro. Als wir träumten di Clemens Meyer a confronto con Eravamo dei grandissimi a cura di Roberta Gado e Riccardo Cravero

Abstract

Following the footsteps of present Italian and German studies, the purpose of this paper is to examine the typical words and expressions of the DDR contained in Als wir traumten by Clemens Meyer (2006) – a novel where the protagonist evokes the DDR, a historic reality no longer existing – and to compare them with the Italian translation entitled Eravamo dei grandissimi (2016). Even if in the first instance the focus is on the lexicon, the goal of this research is to highlight the emotional charge of the “language of the DDR”, going beyond mere linguistic and lexical aspects, taking into consideration the cultural dimension of this linguistic variety. This paper aims to determine the main strategies used by the translators in the specific cases analysed, with the aim of reflecting on the concept of translation as a means to transmit both the cultural heritage and the emotional dimension.