The British and German translations of Pippi Longstocking - a translational statistics analysis

This project examines the representation and reception of Astrid Lindgren’s first Pippi Longstocking book through its initial translations into English and German. The main corpus consists of the British translation (1954), the West German translation (1949) and the East German version (1975) of the Swedish source text (1945), which are compared with the early US translation (1950) as well as later retranslations into English (2007) and a reedition into German (2007). The project’s methodology builds on Malmkjær’s Translational Stylistics, which aims at analysing the impact of stylistic choices on processes of meaning-making in translation. The methodology is used in combination with a comparative focus on children’s literature in various cultures and on sociological frameworks to analyse the translation of Pippi Longstocking into selected target cultures. The analysis interprets the various types of changes and shifts used in the respective translations and considers both their impact on the meaning of the text and their link with literary, cultural and translational contexts and norms. The case of Pippi Longstocking is particularly relevant as Lindgren’s character has been considered as unusual and norm-breaking in the context of children’s literature. The project considers the adjustments made in the translations and the way in which these have affected the representation and reception of Pippi.