Translations of the works of the American-born author Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) have been particularly abundant in the German speaking countries. From the 1970s to the early 2000s, key figures of the neo-avant-garde translated Stein’s works into German. These translations are defined by an exceptional visibility of the author-translator, presenting the text as the result of a form of collaborative authorship. The project focuses on Stein translations as integral parts of the literary production of six German-speaking author-translators: Helmut Heißenbüttel, Ernst Jandl, Oskar Pastior, Ulrike Draesner, Barbara Köhler and Ulf Stolterfoht. I aim to show how translations of Stein’s work revalue and interrogate her avant-garde poetics within different historical and cultural contexts, and how they, in so doing, contribute to the creation of literary communities. ...read more