Informatologia, Vol. 41 No. 2, 2008.
Original scientific paper
INTERCULTURAL AND TRANSCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN THOMAS MANN´S WORK "DIE VERTAUSCHTEN KÖPFE" ("THE TRANSPOSED HEADS")
Petra Žagar-Šoštarić
; Department of German Language, Faculty of Philosopy, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
Through the translation activity, the intercultural and transcultural communication have become an obvious part of the literary communication. Among other things literature can be understood as catalyst and product of certain cultural mirroring processes, what comes to light particularly well in the intercultural and transcultural context, because the self inevitably reflects itself in the others.
In the everyday intercultural and transcultural communication, misunderstandings continuously arise, especially when members of different social groups and cultures contradictorily and incongruously interpret other people`s norms and customs, thus they act and react in different ways.
Myths and rituals as products of particular cultures can also be misunderstood. In literary works they are communication acts which can have a “harmonious” or “disharmonious” effect on the communication processes of the work. The communication processes, realized through mythic symbols and rituals, will be analytically represented in this paper on the example of the so-called Indian legend Die Vertauschten Köpfe (The Transposed Heads), written by Thomas Mann. Exotic motifs of the Indian caste system culture do not only determine the plot and the content of the work, but they are used as expedient to depict some aspects of one`s own contemporary German Culture in the light of the others.
Keywords
Thomas Mann; transcultural communication; translation
Hrčak ID:
25455
URI
Publication date:
19.6.2008.
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