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RAINER MARIA KOEPPL–ALFRED HITCHCOCK AND JOHN WAYNE
TRANSLATION AS CENSORSHIP
ALFRED HITCHCOCK AND JOHN WAYNE IN CONTINENTAL.
EUROPE
INTRODUCTION
336
RAINER MARIA KOEPPL
University of Vienna (Austria)
Institute for Theatre, Film and Media Studies
(Translated by R. v. Paschen)
In his classic essay “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” (1959), the famous
linguist Roman Jakobson cites the Italian saying: “Traduttore – traditore”. In other words:
The translator is a traitor, translation is treason, to translate is to betray. (Jakobson 1971:
266.) This saying is ambiguous:
1. The translator as the betrayer of a message, e.g. a military secret.
2. The translator as the betrayer of the original form. There can be no
translation without transformation.We must change the form in
order to translate – despite our best intentions.
3. Translation is treason, if the translator purposely mistreats (or is
forced to mistreat) the original text. This leads to the fourth aspect,
which is the main point of my paper.
4. The translator as betrayer (in the sense of witness or informant) of
the historical, political and social circumstances in which he works.
NOTORIOUS (1946), A MASTERPIECE BY HECHT AND HITCHCOCK
[Notorious, USA 1946, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, screenplay by Ben Hecht, starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary
Grant, tells a story which is simply crawling with traitors. Yet, not only is the story of the film full of traitors, the
story behind the story is full of traitors, too.]
The screenplay for Notorious was written by Hecht in 1944/45 during World
War II. Notorious begins with a fantastic scene depicting the trial against the German-born
Nazi John Huberman. Huberman is found guilty of treason against the United States and
is sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Ben Hecht began his career as a court reporter in Chicago. During World War II,
he was very much politically engaged, investing a lot of time, energy and money into the
fight against Nazi Germany. When Ben Hecht wrote about a political trial against a Nazi,
he knew exactly what he was writing about. And as a director, Hitchcock also knew
exactly what he was doing.
The first scene of Notorious shows court reporters waiting in front of the
courtroom holding their cameras ready for a shot. The public has been barred from the
trial. But one of the reporters opens the door to the courtroom just a crack so that we, as