Man's inhumanity to woman: an extended translation analysis of the Greifswald project pertaining to sexual violence in 1945 Germany

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Date
2018
Authors
Syms, Adelina
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University College Cork
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Abstract
This thesis seeks to contribute to knowledge of female experience in the aftermath of the Second World War in Germany, and the concomitant trauma of German women who suffered rape ordeals at the hands of the Russian Red Anny. With the provision of transcriptions and translations of rape testimonies uncovered by the Greifswald project conducted by a team of psychologists from the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University in Germany, it serves to supplement mainstream historical accounts of 1945 and raise questions about the behaviour of the victors. These interviews provide a snapshot of the trauma of rape inflicted on an estimated 2 million women and girls, and according to Anthony Beevor approximately 250,000 women in Germany died in conjunction with their rape ordeals (2002: 410). In addition, the corpus showcases the way in which the testimonies function as snapshots of women's history, the situation of women in post-World War II Germany as well as the long-term impact of rape and sexual violence. In promoting an awareness of the scale and consequences of wartime rape, it contributes to the developing body of literature on rape in a range of war zones. This project takes a feminist approach to translation following the works of scholars; Luise von Flotow, Sherry Simon, and Barbara Godard and highlights the plight of German women and their war-time experiences hitherto not foregrounded in official historiographies.
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Sexual violence in aftermath of World War II , Wartime rape , Translation , Russian Red Army
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Adelina, A. 2018. Man's inhumanity to woman: an extended translation analysis of the Greifswald project pertaining to sexual violence in 1945 Germany. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.