Yours faithfully: "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers" for the English-language stage

Abstract

Although numerous different translations of Goethe's 1774 'nobility in suicide'-themed epistolary, psychological and therefore "untheatrical" novel "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers" have been published, no English-language stage adaptation has ever been described as "faithful". With reference to Goethe's three-tiered model of translation and cinema theorist Geoffrey Wagner's "Three modes of adaptation" the author has attempted to write a prosaic, transpositional and unaugmented translation/adaptation for the English-language stage. Each of the obstacles to faithful translation/adaptation were addressed, the hypothesis being that if the obstacles were systematically overcome, then an English-language stageplay closely corresponding in meaning to the principal themes of the novel - that is, a work arguably faithful to the novel - could be created.