Graciliano Ramos in deutscher übersetzung – eine fallstudie

Abstract

Fleeing from persecution in Nazi Germany, due to his left wing ideas, the actor and theater director Willy Keller arrives in Brazil in 1935. One year later, the Alagoan writer Graciliano Ramos is arrested by the Brazilian government, without legal charges, perhaps serving as a political message to other intellectuals. More than political persecution, left ideology or interest for the oppressed, Ramos and Keller find themselves in the territory of literary translation. Since 1960, with the publication of São Bernardo by Carl Hanser Verlag, there have passed five decades of Graciliano Ramos in German, with his main novels translated by Willy Keller. Considering these facts, this research can be seen as a case study having as object of study the literary and cultural activities of a German immigrant in Brazil during and after the Nazi period, in particular its translations into German of one of the most important Brazilian writers of the twentieth century. The story of Willy Keller contributes to the understanding of the international dynamics related to the Second World War and beyond.