From romanticism to Nazism: Translation and transmediation of Lord Byron’s Manfred

Abstract

In light of the most recent proposals within translation studies, there is nowadays a tendency toward the redefinition of the very concept of translation, in which transmediality should play a key role. Viewing translation not as a mere bridge between two bounded verbal texts, but as a phenomenon underlying every layer or form of human language, helps in conceiving and representing reality as a heterogeneous, hybrid blend of materials and means of expression. The present chapter aims at contributing to such a theoretical framework through the exploration of a comprehensive and complex phenomenon that involves both translation and transmediation: a palimpsest of successive resignifications of Lord Byron’s Manfred. Byron’s dramatic poem was translated into different musical compositions by Robert Schumann, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Friedrich Nietzsche during the nineteenth century. The chapter also suggests that Nietzsche could have discovered in the Byronic hero’s supernatural and indomitable character the seed for his famous “superman” or Übermensch, which was later appropriated and subverted by Nazi ideologues to legitimate their Fascist discourse. This case offers itself for the study of transmediality, for many of the features of contemporary transmedia storytelling can be found in this early example of transmediation of narratives. The topic leads to a discussion about the risks that the (mis)use of language entails, and the possibility of manipulating transmedial constructs to vindicate certain narratives — although sometimes in the most horrific direction.