Abstract:
The article sketches the potential of Siegfried Unseld Archive (Deutsches
Literaturarchiv Marbach) for research in Polish literature transfer to German-
speaking countries. The study touches upon the methodological issues vital
for archivists and for literary translation sociology. The author analyses the problem
of proper presentation of documents, which helps to avoid ‘archive positivism.’
Within the scope of literary transfer historiography, the paper presents the
‘bibliogenesis’ of Polish literature translation into German in Suhrkamp Verlag.
Based on comprehensive archive material, it shows the dynamics of publishing
proposals, sketches the profiles of literary intermediaries, and includes the
collected data into four case studies. The first refers to the figure of Siegfried
Unseld as to an active agent in Polish-German literary transfer, the second discusses
the function of Polish and German literary agencies, the third is a proposal
of ‘exclusion historiography,’ namely incorporating not realised (though taken
into consideration) publishing projects into the studies in reception, while the last
one insights into an insufficiently researched aspect of foreign cultural policy
connection with the publishing field.
