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History in different languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 9 of 51 27 July 2009 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | ||
When we deal with works written in languages that are confined to a relatively small area or associated with one ethnic group, then it's common to see interpretations which vary depending on the background (and native language) of the author. For example, interpretations in books on Transylvanian history can vary significantly depending on whether the author is Hungarian or Romanian (i.e. each author will write in his/her native language in order to cater to readers who'll be most receptive to his/her analysis). Based on such disparate examples, I guess that one can start to think that history written in one language will often vary from history written in another. However I find that the author's analysis depends more on factors that aren't related to the choice of language. Ideological, ethnic, spiritual or familial ties can also be the determining factors in informing a historical analysis/interpretation. A good example is the earlier mentioning of American, Canadian and British views of the war of 1812. All of the sources as far as I know were written originally in English but interpretations vary. Thus we have authors who use the same language but come to different conclusions. In another example, the British historian Norman Davies is a staunch Polonophile but writes the bulk of his works in English. The interpretations expressed in his study of Polish history, "God's Playground" are so impressive to Poles such that Polish translations of "God's Playground" have formed part of the reading list in history courses at Polish schools since the fall of communism. In general his works are somewhat iconoclastic for Western audiences but applying the logic that different language leads to different historiography doesn't work here. Otherwise a cursory glance at his book on Polish history that's written in English would mean that the book has to present a pro-British view or "less Polish" view on Polish history. But as my mother has sometimes said to me: "Don't judge a book by its cover". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 10 of 51 27 July 2009 at 6:52pm | IP Logged | ||
I suspect you are not talking about the French invasion of Russia??? But I am not aware of any other war around that time... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 11 of 51 27 July 2009 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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The "War of 1812" was fought between the USA and Britain (including the colony in Canada) from 1812 to 1815.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia is something different but did happen in 1812. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Russia 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 12 of 51 27 July 2009 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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The UK/US/Candadian war in 1812 clearly lost out to Napoleon's wars in Swedish history books...! I never heard a word about it until this day.
Kind of shows the point. I guess I ought to check the Wikipedia entry to find out what this war was about. (I wonder who wrote the entry, a Canadian, Brit or American? :-) ---- UPDATE: The US starts a war to secure advantageous trading arrangments... Surely not!!! ;-) (I should have guessed....) With the "special relationship" country, no less. Perhaps the start of a long tradition....? Interesting to learn about this anyway, haha! Edited by cordelia0507 on 27 July 2009 at 7:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 13 of 51 27 July 2009 at 7:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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A quick glance at the The War of 1812's discussion page shows that American, British and Canadian editors have been going at it with the occasional revert of this section or that :-P Some light skirmishing in cyberspace goes on long after 1812. Edited by Chung on 27 July 2009 at 8:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 14 of 51 27 July 2009 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks Chung! Interesting to learn about this.
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| krog Diglot Senior Member Austria Joined 6049 days ago 146 posts - 152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Latin | Message 15 of 51 27 July 2009 at 7:58pm | IP Logged | ||
I wouldn't say the Vikings are considered a blip in Britain - after all, they did settle large areas of the country. In fact, they had a decisive influence on Britain for about 300 years. In comparison, the amount of books there are on the Vikings, as compared to the Romans say, are fairly limited i.e. A History of the Vikings by Gwyn Jones, and not much else, at least not when I was looking. I think a lot of people my age would have at least heard of Ian Kershaw, because a large part of the school history curriculum is Nazi Germany. And apart from that WWII is still a fairly big topic in the UK. I did partly pick Ian Kershaw because my girlfriend's father has the same book (in German) that I read in the 6th form. I'd guess that at least in Germany he's reasonably widely read. Have I ever read anything in German about the war? Not yet, but I will. I have read a book in German about WWI. And if I could read Russian I would do the same, time permitting. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6079 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 51 27 July 2009 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I heard WW2 is pretty much skipped in German education, before university and the like of course. I don't know the validity of that though.
I'm excited to read some history books in Japanese, especially concerning World War 2. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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