Translated Autobiographies in an Interconnected World: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Religious Memoirs

Abstract

This article compares German, English, and Swedish versions of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century religious memoirs. We study four Moravian memoirs with two key dimensions in view: firstly, the tension between individuality and community, and secondly, the effects of global interconnectedness. By analysing how these traits were negotiated when the memoirs were translated, we demonstrate how gender, class, and colonial relationships affected autobiographical writing around the turn of the nineteenth century. We identify an inherent tension in the Moravian memoirs between hierarchy and egalitarianism. European ambitions for world dominance were growing, and in their missions abroad, the Moravians had to fit their religious agenda into colonial frameworks. But regional inequalities within Europe also put their mark on the memoirs. Theologically, the Moravians regarded the world as divided into core settlements, diaspora, and missionary areas. The division mirrored a general pattern of dependence on German culture in the Nordics. The negotiation of meaning playing out when texts were transferred between languages illustrates the secondary status of Swedish Moravians compared to the German core, as well as European colonial notions of non-European people. Also, women and women’s agency were toned down or removed entirely in the process of editing and translation.