© Thienemann Verlag

In the Thursday issue of Die Zeit, an article was published by Ulrich Greiner in the Dossier section, which discussed whether the word “Neger” should be removed from German children’s classics such as Die Kleine Hexe by Otfried Preußler, written in 1957, or Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer by Michael Ende, written in 1960. The article was prominently billed on the front page of Die Zeit with the caption “Unsere liebste Kinderbücher werden politisch korrekt umgeschreiben – ist das Fortschritt?” (Our favourite children’s books are being rewritten in a political correct way – is this progress?) I suppose the caption warned me that the answer was going to be “No.” But what I wasn’t prepared for was the arsenal of weapons that Ulrich Greiner lined up in his five-column defence of the word “Neger”. Firstly, he cites paragraph 5 of the German Constitution “Eine Zensur findet nicht statt”. (Censorship may not take place). The fact is, some German children’s book publishers, among them Klaus Willberg from Thienemann Verlag, have announced that they will reissue Michael Ende and Otfried Preußler’s stories after having changed “outmoded and politically incorrect terms”. This falls into Greiner’s idea of censorship.

Perhaps it’s because I am a translator and have come up close to the idea that there is no such thing as an untouchable text, in fact every text can be revised and reworked ­– you only need to take a polished manuscript to a seminar for literary translation to see this in practice ­– that I found this a rather odd idea. Surely, by removing racist vocabulary, you don’t necessarily change the author’s intentions? Unless the author’s intention is to offend, alienate and abuse. Therefore, why would changing a racist label be censorship? Ideologies change, times move on, language is in flow and naturally, it embodies concepts that have since been deemed dangerous or belittling, murderous or serving to preserve social hierarchies. Read the rest of this entry »