Literary Translation in the Digital Era
Social Translating

About the Social Translating Project
Translated Books in 2018, 2019 and 2021
Published Translations
THE TRANSLATORS
What's new?

About the Social Translating Project

The Social Translating Project is testing a new social practice for literary translation.
Translators from Asia are translating a German-language novel into their respective native languages. During the process, they meet in a closed digital forum and work on their translations by interacting with one another and engaging in a close discourse with the author. An e-book platform with social functions has been used which allows the users to make marginal notes in the text of an e-book as well for the translators and the author to follow up on each other’s comments.

Additional translators outside Asia are being invited to participate in the Social Translating discourse through partnerships with German publishers who provide books for the Social Translating Projects.

The Merck Social Translating Project 2018 was developed by the Goethe-Institut Korea in partnership with Merck Korea.

Translated Books in 2018, 2019 and 2021

Foto (Detail): © S. Fischer / © Michael Witte

About the author and the book
Judith Hermann: “Home”

More about the author and his book “Daheim” (Home), which is currently translated as part of Social Translating Project 2021.

Photo: Jürgen Bauer, Suhrkamp Verlag

About the author and the book
Judith Schalansky: “An Inventory of Certain Losses”

More about the author and her book “Verzeichnis einiger Verluste” (An Inventory of Certain Losses), which is currently translated into six languages as part of the Social Translating Project 2019.

Photo: Dagmar Morath; Rowohlt-Verlag

About the author and the book
Thomas Melle: “The World at Your Back”

More about the author and his book “Die Welt im Rücken” (The World at Your Back), which was translated into ten languages as part of the project in 2018.

Published Translations

© Library House Original title: Daheim
Author: Judith Hermann
Translated by: Nantana Anuntkosol
Publisher: Library House
Year: 2023
ISBN: 9786168123973

Cover Verzeichnis einiger Verluste © Gamme Magie Editions Original title: Verzeichnis einiger Verluste
Author: Judith Schalansky
Translated by: Prodpran Arunyig
Publisher: Gamme Magie Editions
Year: 2022
ISBN: 9786165630375

© Library House Original title: Die Welt im Rücken
Author: Thomas Melle
Translated by: Anchalee Topeongpong
Publisher: Library House
Year: 2019
ISBN: 9786168123287

THE TRANSLATORS

Photo: Goethe-Institut Korea/OZAK

Translators of “An Inventory of Certain Losses”

Photo: Goethe-Institut Korea/OZAK

Translators of “The World at your Back”

What's new?

Photo: Prodpran Arunyig, Gamme Magie Editions

Interview with Prodpran Arunyig

the Thai translator of An Inventory of Certain Losses

Photo: Christoph Hassenzahl

July 15, 2020
“They are its lifeblood”

Christoph Hassenzahl works in the licensing department of the Suhrkamp Verlag, where he is, among other things, in charge of East Asian countries. We asked him four questions about the Social Translating Project, especially in regard to the discourse on Judith Schalansky’s “An Inventory of Certain Losses”.