1796: When the Terror Ballad Came to Britain

• Main Author: Robert William RIX
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Gaziantep University 2019-12-01
• Series: Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences
• Subjects: gottfried august bürger; ballad; translation; romanticism; polysystem theory; book market
• Online Access: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/912118

In 1796, numerous English translations of the German writer Gottfried August Bürger’s poem “Lenore” were published. Critics have long seen this intense publication activity (within just one calendar year) as both remarkable and difficult to explain. The article examines the factors that made the poem such an immediate sensation. By analyzing prefaces and reviews related to the English translations of “Lenore,” it becomes clear that the poem offered something new: it was a Kunstballade that drew on vernacular poetic forms and thereby challenged existing verse genres. In order to understand the popularity of the ballad, the article revisits aspects of the theorist Itamar Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory, which provides a useful departure for a discussion of translations as the conduits through which a domestic repertoire of literary genres can be expanded and renewed. In this connection, it is important to look at how the various translations were aimed at different segments of the book market. However, as an innovation, Bürger’s poem was not universally welcomed. Conservative detractors and, remarkably, some of the translators themselves baulked at introducing Bürger’s superstitious ballad to an English reading public insofar as “Lenore” could be seen to contest British rationality and offend religious sensibilities.