Translating disability: The first German translation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus (1818 and 1831) is a novel about aesthetic disability and monstrosity. This chapter examines how Frankenstein’s creature is portrayed in the first German translation of the novel by Heinz Widtmann, published in 1912, for a readership that was interested in alternative science, artificial life, and the occult. Widtmann's translation alters Shelley’s characterisation of the creature in ways that raise ethical concerns about his translation strategy. While Shelley contests the automatic connection between physical and moral monstrosity by emphasising the creature’s emotional, moral, religious, and human dimensions, in contrast, Widtmann alters the novel’s compassionate stance with omissions and modifications that reinforce the assumed links between the creature’s monstrous appearance and monstrous character. Furthermore, Shelley evokes narrative sympathy by depicting the social causes of the creature’s violent acts, whereas Widtmann reduces the reader’s sympathy for the creature by limiting his emotional range and omitting many humanising aspects, such as his cultural and emotional education through reading, which produces complex emotions, enlightened ideas, and moral thoughts. This chapter argues that Widtmann uses a dehumanising translation strategy that compromises the creature’s becoming human story, reduces his redeeming characteristics, and supports the idea that the human exterior reveals the interior.