Sunanda Mahajan earned a degree in German Studies from the University of Pune. After completing her teacher training in Hyderabad, she went to Mumbai and completed her Doctorate in Comparative Literature with a focus on women’s literature. She began working at the University of Pune, in the state of Maharashtra, India, in 1984 and was appointed to a professorship in literature and literary criticism there in 2006. She also spent time doing research in Germany and Austria. She retired in 2019.
Sunanda Mahajan is the co-editor of a quarterly journal for translations that publishes Marathi translations of literary texts from various foreign languages. She has translated many texts for this and other journals, primarily narratives, poems, and excerpts from novels and autobiographies. She was also involved in producing a trilingual dictionary for Marathi, Russian, and German.
Sunanda Mahajan received support from the Austrian Exchange Service (OeAD) to spend a month in Vienna for the translation of Elfriede Jelinek’s Die Liebhaberinnen (Women as Lovers). She has received numerous awards for her translations. Sunanda Mahajan lives in Pune.
Sunanda Mahajan about Social Translating
The Social Translating Project makes it possible for us to engage in productive dialogue with other translators and especially with the author, who not only gives new insights into the text and points out other ways of approaching the text, but also makes an important contribution to the translation.
Selected translations
Ulrich- Alexander Boschwitz: Der Reisende. Kalasakta, Pune, 2021.
David Wagner: Leben. Continental Prakashan, Pune, 2019.
Thomas Melle: Die Welt im Rücken. Continental Prakashan, Pune, 2018.
Bertolt Brecht: Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui. Kelyane Bhashantar, 2016.
Elfriede Jelinek: Die Liebhaberinnen. Continental Prakashan, 2012.
Clemens Mädge: Im Stillen. Einakter. Continental Prakashan, 2011 (translated by Vidyasagar and Sunanda Mahajan)
Tikadun Analelya Goshti, Novelle und Povest. Anthologie der deutschen und Russischen Novellen bzw. Povest. Hrsg. von Sunanda Mahajan, Anagha Bhat. Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya ani Sanskruti Mandal, Mumbai 2020.
Anthologie übersetzter Erzählungen zeitgenössischer Literatur aus verschiedenen Sprachen. Hrsg. von Sunanda Mahajan, Anagha Bhat. Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya ani Sanskruti Mandal, Mumbai 2018
Holocaust chya kavita. Continental Prakashan, 2006 (life and works of Gertrud Kolmar, Else Lasker-Schüler, Nelly Sachs and Rose Ausländer, with a translation and analysis of selected poems on the Holocaust)