Postanthropocentric Transformations in Children’s Literature: Transcreating Struwwelpeter

Abstract

Heinrich Hoffmann’s controversial Der Struwwelpeter belongs to the canon of children’s literature. Created in the mid-nineteenth century, this precursor of the modern picturebook lives on in numerous translations, adaptations and parodies, continuing to spark controversies even today. Analysing the text-image dynamics, this chapter aims to investigate how the eponymous character has been transcreated from a central, iconic and monumental child hero to a posthuman monster and how this transformation was initiated and mediated by translation rather than the original source text. The case in point is the award-winning newest retranslation and reillustration of the book into Polish, Złota różdżka (2017), with the focus on the eponymous poem from Hoffmann’s tales, “Der Struwwelpeter” (“Piotruś Czupiradło”). The chapter argues that the analysed transcreated poem, reflecting the posthuman trends in contemporary entertainment industry, is evidence of transformative power of translation (Derrida, The Ear of the Other: Otobiography, Transference, Translation, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1985) that goes beyond the verbal layer. Further, the chapter examines how creative and innovative illustrations of the 2017 edition undermine the centrality of the child figure and result in multiple images that play with, redefine and dissolve Struwwelpeter’s core identity.