An overlooked but fascinating component of L.M. Montgomery studies involves international scholarship written in languages besides English.
Preamble
Every once in a while, I consult a variety of online sources (including search engines available to researchers through university libraries) to ensure that this website’s lists of materials pertaining to L.M. Montgomery—particularly book-length studies, book-length extensions, journal articles, book chapters, paratexts, dissertations/theses, and reviews—are as complete and up to date as possible. Not only are new contributions to the field of L.M. Montgomery studies being published all the time, but also, as search engines expand their reach and as more and more older print materials are digitized and thereby made text searchable, I frequently have the pleasure of discovering older items that I missed.
Recently, I stumbled upon several contributions that so far had escaped me, by virtue of the fact that they were not in English. But because most of them had been published in journals that offer English translations of titles and abstracts, I was still able to understand each item’s approach and argument.
Because I run this website on my own time, it isn’t possible for me to expand the scope of this website beyond materials available in English or in French. Instead, I offer a spotlight on a selection of international contributions to Montgomery scholarship published in the last five years or so, as a way to help fellow English-speaking readers and researchers get a better sense of international scholarship about Montgomery’s life, work, and legacy.
This article first appeared in November 2023, with more items added on 1 May 2024.
German
Limited animation, unlimited seriality. Die Konfigurationen des Seriellen in den Anime-Serien Haha o Tazunete Sanzann Marco, Akage No Anne und Tanoshî Mûmin Ikka
English Title: Limited Animation, Unlimited Seriality: The Configurations of the Serial in the Anime series Haha o Tazunete Sanzann Marco, Akage No Anne and Tanoshî Mûmin Ikka
Author: Herbert Schwaab
Publication Details: In Fernsehwissenschaft und Serienforschung: Theorie, Geschichte und Gegenwart (post-)televisueller Serialität [Television Studies and Series Research: Theory, History and Present of (Post-)Televisual Seriality], edited by Denis Newiak, Dominik Maeder, and Herbert Schwaab, 315–38. Wiesbaden: Springer, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-32227-4_13.
Abstract (provided by Google Translate): This article deals with the Japanese animated series Marco, Anne with the Red Hair and The Moomins, which were produced in the 1970s and 1990s and which offer idiosyncratic adaptations of children’s book classics in 50 to 52 episodes of 25 minutes. The slowness and precision of these adaptations is discussed as a specific form of seriality, as “unlimited seriality,” which fits into the television program in an awkward way. It is viewed as a product of an aesthetic of anime and limited animation described by Thomas Lamarre and other authors, which creates a different form of movement and a complex interplay of movement and stillness, which also affects an unsegmented televisual narrative form of constant advancement.
Korean
『빨강머리 앤』에 재현된 아동기의 상상력
English Title: Childhood Imagination in Anne of Green Gables
Author: Yunjeong Yang
Publication Details: The Korean Society for Teaching English Literature 26, no. 2 (2022): 233–54. https://doi.org/10.19068/jtel.2022.26.2.09.
Abstract: This paper intends to study the pastoral world of childhood in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908). The work has a vivid childhood imagination that expresses the writer’s own experiences, such as a deficiency in childhood and wish-fulfillment, a satire of religious practice, and awareness of a national important issue regarding the preservation of rural Canada in a literary way. Anne, an 11-year-old orphan girl and main character, was a hopeless, skinny child who was initially exposed to all kinds of excesses. However, she slowly grows up in a loving home provided by Matthew and Marilla, taming passion and imagination, and learns to live up to Avonlea’s social and behavioral expectations. Anne not only brings Matthew and Marilla a much more fulfilling and happy life than ever before, but she also influences the Avonlea community. Anne never loses her childhood imagination, even though she grows up to be a great member of Avonlea. Anne’s childhood imagination lets her move forward, keeping her and the community’s desperate needs alive in search of a utopia.
Polish
Adolescencja jako permanentny kryzys. Filmoterapeutyczna analiza serialu Ania, nie Anna
English Title: Adolescence as a Permanent Crisis: A Cinematherapeutic Analysis of Anne with an E
Author: Karolina Gierszewska
Publication Details: Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura 1, no. 1 (2019): 70–84. https://doi.org/10.32798/dlk.23.
Abstract: For many generations of women, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908) has been a faithful companion in the process of coming of age. Nevertheless, when judged solely by its setting and timeframe (1870s and 1880s), and the moment of its publication (the beginning of the 20th century), the book might appear somewhat anachronic. Several attempts at bringing Anne’s story to life on both the big and small screen have been made, but only one of them—Moira Walley-Beckett’s Anne with an E (2017–Present), produced for Canadian public network CBC and widely distributed by Netflix—can be said to have captured the novel’s spirit by re-embedding it in a truly modern context. The main goal of this paper is to analyse various elements of Walley-Beckett’s take on Montgomery’s opus with regard to their potential usefulness in therapeutic practice with young adults. The reflections made in the article are accompanied by contextual references to Hanna Liberska’s general model of identity development and Małgorzata Kozubek’s theory of cinema therapy.
„Festiwal kanadyjskiej pisarki”, czyli o mniej znanych polskich tłumaczeniach Anne of Green Gables Lucy Maud Montgomery
English Title: “A Festival of the Canadian Writer” or on the Lesser Known Polish Translations of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Author: Dorota Pielorz
Publication Details: Porównania 26, no. 1 (2020): 235–53. https://doi.org/10.14746/por.2020.1.13.
Abstract: The article deals with Polish translations of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s book Anne of Green Gables. The author focuses especially on the renderings published at the turn of the 21st century, when the so called “festival of the Canadian writer” began. This phrase is used in reference to the renascence of the popularity of Montgomery’s work in Poland. This cultural and marketing phenomenon not only affected readers, but also influenced the publishers’ and translators’ choices. In the article, some dimensions of this casus are discussed. Then some excerpts of translations are compared in order to show the features of the image of Canada inscribed in them by translators. What is more, the author points out that the Polish renderings can provide interesting information about the different aspects of Polish reality at the turn of the 21st century, in particular about the publishing policies and the Polish culture, aesthetic norms and trends or stereotypes.
Kim jest Gilbert Blythe? Portrety bohatera w powieści Ania z Zielonego Wzgórza Lucy Maud Montgomery i serialu Ania, nie Anna Moiry Walley-Beckett
English Title: Who Is Gilbert Blythe? The Portraits of the Character in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Novel Anne of Green Gables and Moira Walley-Beckett’s TV Series Anne with an E
Author: Karolina Starnawska
Publication Details: Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura 1, no. 1 (2019): 47–69. https://doi.org/10.32798/dlk.24.
Abstract: The author of the article attempts to characterise and compare two creations of Gilbert Blythe—the literary and the TV series ones. Apparently, Gilbert’s character in Moira Walley-Beckett’s TV series (2017–Present) has a different function than in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s novel (1908). Gilbert is a teenager, a pupil at the Avonlea school, and a boy who competes at school with the titular character of Anne of Green Gables. In the book, we get to know him only through Anne Shirley’s eyes—basing on what she says and thinks about him—and these insights are more opinions than facts. In the TV series, however, Gilbert is shown differently, as the creators of Anne with an E devote more screen time to developing this character and to bestowing him with new personality traits. Thanks to this, the relation between Anne and Gilbert becomes deeper and more realistic. The comparative analysis of the character’s creations in both cultural texts is conducted with the use of, inter alia, the tools of gender studies.
Prawo do inności i protodziewczyńskość – Jo March i Anne Shirley w perspektywie girlhood studies
English Title: The Right to Otherness and Proto-Girlhood: Jo March and Anne Shirley from the Perspective of Girlhood Studies
Author: Michalina Wesołowska
Publication Details: Czas Kultury 38, no. 2 (2022): 148–57. https://czaskultury.pl/sklep/prawo-do-innosci-i-protodziewczynskosc-jo-march-i-anne-shirley-w-perspektywie-girlhood-studies/.
Abstract: The author analyzes the creation of two heroines of canonical texts of so-called novels for girls—Jo March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) and Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1908). She reads them as proto-girlhood predecessors of Pippi from Astrid Lindgren’s novels. She examines the way in which the heroines are socialized and how they negotiate their independence and otherness. For context, she uses the film and series adaptations Little Women (2019, directed by Greta Gerwig) and Anne with an E (2017–2019, created by Moira Walley-Beckett).
Tłumacz architekt a tłumacz konserwator zabytków: Kanoniczny i polemiczny przekład Anne of Green Gables Lucy Maud Montgomery jako ogniwa serii translatorskiej
English Title: The Translator as an Architect or as a Conservator: Polemical and Canonical Translations as Links in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables Series of Translations into Polish
Author: Dorota Pielorz
Publication Details: Wielogłos 45 (2020): 79–103. https://doi.org/10.4467/2084395XWI.20.023.12831.
Abstract: Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables has always been very popular in Poland. Since its first publication in 1908, there have been more than a dozen Polish renderings of this novel, which can therefore be regarded as a translation series. This paper compares two opposite links in the series: Rozalia Bernstein’s canonical and Paweł Beręsewicz’s polemical translations. This paper also includes an analysis of those passages which reflect some characteristics of the juxtaposed renderings, especially the different roles that the translators can play in the reception of a foreign language text as well as the translation strategies they use.
Tłumacz jako istota historyczna: o (auto)cenzurze w pierwszym polskim przekładzie Anne of Green Gables oraz Anne of Avonlea Lucy Maud Montgomery w świetle koncepcji dziejów efektywnych Hansa-Georga Gadamera
English Title: The Translator as a Historical Being: On (Self-)Censorship in the First Polish Rendition of Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery in the Light of the Gadamerian Notion of Effective History
Author: Beata Piecychna
Publication Details: Acta Neophilologica 23, no. 1 (2021): 279–303. https://doi.org/10.31648/an.5490.
Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to uncover potential historical sources and traces of self-censorship, which in the first Polish rendition of both Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery have manifested themselves on the following levels: stylistic and lexical means, the translation of culture-specific elements and characteristics of the main protagonist. The analysis of the many culture-specific items which were naturalized by Rozalia Bernsteinowa, author of the first Polish renditions of the two volumes of Montgomery’s famous series under investigation, allow the author of the paper to put forward a tentative translatological hypothesis which posits that by resorting to self-censorship the literary translator attempts to maintain both a sense of cultural stability and the strong feeling of national identity among the target audience, which is always determined by the impact exerted on the translator’s decisions by so-called effective history, a concept delineated by Hans-Georg Gadamer. This hermeneutically-oriented paper also wishes to deploy one of the most important hermeneutic tenets into an analysis of the said translations. By doing so, the author of the article intends to contribute to the now developing field referred to as translational hermeneutics.
Portuguese
O brincar como experiência criativa na psicanálise com crianças
English Title: Play as a Creative Experience in Psychoanalysis with Children
Authors: Taísa Resende Sousa, Regina Lúcia Sucupira Pedroza, and Maria Regina Maciel
Publication Details: Fractal: Revista de Psicologia 32, no. 3 (September–December 2020): 269–76. https://doi.org/10.22409/1984-0292/v32i3/5754.
Abstract: This study focuses on the play as a creative experience in psychoanalysis with children, from Freudian contributions and deepening in Winnicott’s concepts, especially in relation to playing: an assumption that goes beyond the typical way children usually express themselves, regarding the continuity of the self. The objective is to reflect upon this theme, considering playing as a transitional phenomenon and creative experience peculiar to the expansion of the self. Two clinical vignettes are introduced, to illustrate the theoretical constructions of psychoanalysis with children, of playing, of the scribble game and of the melody as a transitional phenomenon. In conclusion, we used a Canadian television series, Anne with an “E,” as a reference and inspiration to reflect upon the life of a teenager who was adopted by a family that managed to provide the young girl a suitable environment. Just as in the analytical sessions, we understand that there must be a willingness to play, as well as a fruitful meeting between people so that they can achieve their creative potential.
Retraduções de Anne of Green Gables, de Lucy Maud Montgomery, em português
English Title: Retranslations of Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery, in Portuguese
Authors: Patrícia Rodrigues Costa and Germana Henriques Pereira
Publication Details: In “Tradução em Perspectiva: teoria, prática, crítica e outros discursos” [Translation and Perspective: Theory, Practice, Criticism, and Other Discourses]. Special issue, Interdisciplinar: Revista de Estudos em Língua e Literatura 40 (July–December 2023): 75–90. https://doi.org/10.47250/intrell.v40i1.p75-90.
Abstract: This article presents the initial part of a study related to the (re)translations of the work of Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery in Brazil, and deals with the rediscovery of the book Anne of Green Gables (1908) through its (re)translations into Portuguese. This study is based on the Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), as it aims not only to carry out a historical survey of the (re)translations of Anne of Green Gables into Portuguese, but also to understand the motivation behind their translations in Brazil. This research aims to examine the insertion of Anne of Green Gables’ Portuguese (re)translations into the historical context and not merely to record and catalogue its translations, thus, according to Pagano (2001), it can be characterized as historiographical research.
Spanish
Imaginando un pasado feminista: subversión femenina y asuntos de género en la serie Anne with an E
English Title: Imagining a feminist past: female subversion and gender issues in the show Anne with an E
Author: Camila Andrea Picardo Barrientos
Publication Details: Comunicación y Género 4, no. 2 (2021): 125–36. https://doi.org/10.5209/cgen.72030.
Abstract: This article analyzes the period drama and TV series Anne with an E from a gender perspective discussing its female representation and empowerment narrative. The methodology consisted on a textual analysis through characters and a sample of episodes which are contrasted with theoretical gender criteria. It was found that the show rescues the period’s female problematics highlighting the otherness discourse in opposition to the hegemonic patriarchal system. The female representation is subversive, innovative and the protagonist’s agency contains a type of feminist heroism which is uncommon to find in TV fiction. The show’s gender subversion discourse refutes the late 19th century gender rules and at the same time achieves to show relevance with present day gender issues.
Swedish
Anne på svenska: Hur tidsanda och produktionsvillkor påverkat huvudpersonens karaktärsdrag i svenska översättningar och adaptioner av Anne of Green Gables
English Title: Anne in Swedish: How the Spirit of the Age and Production Terms Influence the Protagonist’s Character Traits in Swedish Translations and Adaptations of Anne of Green Gables
Author: Anna Vogel
Publication Details: Barnboken: Journal of Children’s Literature Research 44 (2021). https://doi.org/10.14811/clr.v44.577.
Abstract: L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908) has received much academic interest. Drawing on related research on the novel and its Swedish editions, my article investigates how the variation in the Swedish versions influences the characterization of Anne 1909–2018. My study acknowledges the feminist view within translation studies as expressed by Sherry Simon, and uses Norman Fairclough’s linguistic model for contextualization. The primary material consists of Montgomery’s original text, the translations and adaptations by Karin Jensen, Aslög Davidson, Margareta Sjögren-Olsson, and Christina Westman as well as correspondence between the publishing houses and translators. Further, I have interviewed Westman and corresponded with her publisher. The texts are analysed regarding omissions and additions. On a micro-level, all active verbs where Anne is the grammatical subject are analysed. My results show that all editions give prominence to Anne’s academic ambition. A major finding is that the 1941 and 1962 versions increase Anne’s ambition by using more active verbs and stronger expressions. Westman’s 2018 edition, however, is a subtle revision of the first Swedish translation, with the result that Anne’s ambition is diminished again. Despite girls and women having gained more freedom over the last 100 years, the latest edition thereby interrupts the tendency to stress Anne’s ambition. This is understood as a result of clashing discursive and social norms. On the other hand, the emphasis on Anne’s ambition in the 1941 and 1962 editions comes with a cost of religious, moral, intellectual, and emotional aspects, creating a one-dimensional Anne.
Normer och restriktioner i det litterära polysystemets periferi: Om utelämningar i översättningar av klassiska flickböcker
English Title: Norms and Constraints in the Periphery of the Literary Polysystem: On Omissions in Translations of Girls’ Classics
Author: Laura Leden
Publication Details: Marginalia, edited by Ritva Hartama-Heinonen and Pirjo Kukkonen, 100–17. Helsinki: University of Helskini, 2020. Translatologica Helsingiensia 4. https://hdl.handle.net/10138/312804.
Abstract: Girls’ books are a genre about girls and girlhood reflecting girls’ contemporary conditions and possibilities. This genre has had a peripheral status in the literary polysystem due to the patriarchal structures of the society. This paper will analyze norms and constraints at work in the Swedish translation of L.M. Montgomery’s classic Emily trilogy to test Even Zohar’s (1990) polysystem hypothesis about translation, according to which translations with a peripheral status are likely to be acceptancy-oriented rather than adequacy-oriented. The analysis of the Swedish translations from 1955–1957 targeting a younger readership than Montgomery’s originals shows that due to didactic and pedagogical norms the translations are subject to major adaptation and abridgement in the form of purification, cultural neutralisation and plot-driven abridgement. The translations are used for educational purposes and the constraints imposed reflect a more restrictive image of girlhood conveyed to young girl readers.
Turkish
Lucy Maud Montgomery’nin “YeĢil’in Kızı” Adlı Kitabının Yazın Çevirisi Ve Makine Çevirisi Çerçevesinde KarĢılaĢtırmalı Ġncelenmesi
English Title: A Comparative Analysis of “Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery within the Framework of Literary Translation and Machine Translation
Author: Rabia Aksoy Arıkan
Publication Details: LOTUS: International Journal of Language and Translation Studies 1, no. 1 (2021): 22 pp. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/lotus/issue/72313/1166936.
Abstract: This study includes a discussion on the literary translation and machine translation of Anne of Green Gables, a novel by the Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery, one of the popular culture publications, the novel is a summary of the events that are narrated in what is originally a collection of eight books. In this article, differences between human and machine translation have been studied, with special emphasis on the importance of human factor in translation. This study has been conducted by using online machine translation applications such as Google and Yandex translation tools. The article aims to highlight the importance of features peculiar to the writer and the work at the stage of post-editing done by a human translator. Besides, this study tries to find out the best way to make translations of literary works in recent technological research on machine translation. An assessment has been made on the translation of the novel by conventional methods and by applications of computer-aided machine translations. One of the goals of this study is to show that, as with many types of publications, popular culture publications can be rendered through machine translation. In the evaluation, the method of “rule-based machine translation” has been preferred. This method, which allows the researcher to work more actively, has been found to be more scientific than other types of machine translation. Moreover, it has been found that machine translation systems such as Google Translate and Yandex Translate have a number of shortcomings in transferring concepts related to the sense being communicated, and that they operate by a system based on structures at lexical level. Today, with the machine translation becoming more widely available, it has been seen that postediting done by human editors contributes significantly to enhancing the quality of literary translations, including works of popular culture. In this process, special emphasis has been placed on issues such as post-editors’ conception of the task being done, their way of looking at the world, and their knowledge about literary translation. The examples given in this study revealed that, particularly in literary translation, every post-editing procedure does not always yield effective results, and that everything depends on the translator’s background knowledge and his/her competence in literary translation. Discussions have been made on this topic, with special emphasis on the translator’s ability to interpret a literary text.