Robert Schopflocher’s Self-Translation in Argentinian Exile: Reflections on German-Jewish Cultural Memory and Collective Identity

This chapter discusses the case of Robert Schopflocher, a German-Jewish writer who emigrated to Argentina from Nazi Germany when he was fourteen years old. After working in Jewish settlements, he turned to his ‘first love’, literature, in the 1980s. He wrote several novels, short stories, and a play in Spanish, which earned him some success. In the 1990s, he started to publish his work in Germany. Some of it would be issued only in German, but several stories were self-translations of works originally written in Spanish. This chapter analyzes three short stories, first published in Argentina and later included in German short story collections: “Señorita Liliana/Fräulein Juliana”, “El plazo/Termingeschäfte”, and “Maternidad/Eine Mutter”. During the translation process, the plots were altered. Even though Schopflocher alludes to these changes, giving the different background knowledge of the audiences as a reason, the result is that the Jewishness of the characters is emphasised, and the conflict between Jews and Germans becomes more prominent. Our analysis proceeds from the insight that Schopflocher’s translator habitus, influenced by his membership of German-Jewish Bildungsbürgertum, is foundational to comprehend the functioning of his exilic translating and his representation of German-Jewish identity in the wake of the Holocaust.