Abstract

For this research project in Translation Studies, we intend, by taking as a starting point the recent theories about ethics in translation of different authorities, to inquire if there also exists an ethics for adaptation, which would necessarily be different from the ethics of translation itself. The different researchers are Antoine Berman, Lawrence Venuti, Henri Meschonnic and Jean-Marc Gouanvic. It was Jean-Marc Gouanvic who gave the impetus to this project by asking several pertinent questions about adaptation in relation to his social theories about translation. As corpus for our textual analysis, we have chosen the Leatherstocking Tales of James Fenimore Cooper, in particular the story of the Last of the Mohicans, written in 1826, one of the first German translations made in 1826 by Heinrich Döring, as well as the first German adaptation for children, written by Alexander Friedrich Franz Hoffmann and published in 1845. After having presented James Fenimore Cooper, his work and the complete German translation of the Last of the Mohicans by Heinrich Döring seen in the light of the theories of our researchers, we have put the emphasis on the theories of Lawrence Venuti, allowing us, within an exposition about the reception, imitators and epigones of James Fenimore Cooper in Germany, to present an overview of the literature generated by this first Indian novel. Thereafter follows a detailed textual analysis between the English original, the complete German translation and the first adaptation for children in accordance with the criteria of the notions of signifiance and illusio that we have taken from Henri Meschonnic and Jean-Marc Gouanvic. Finally, we have put forward several hypotheses and conclusions in the end of the analysis.