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A humanist in exile. Victor Klemperer’s linguistic experiment
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2026-3-40-51
Abstract
The article examines the diaries of the German philologist Victor Klemperer, which contain his reflections on historical and social transformations in Nazi Germany, events in the private lives of the Klemperer family, as well as his reflections upon the modifications of the German language enforced by the new ideology. Klemperer’s reminiscences entitled I Shall Bear Witness, To the Bitter End [Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum Letzten] are considered along with his The Language of the Third Reich: A Philologist’s Notebook [Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen]. The paper demonstrates Klemperer’s use of intralingual translation to describe a model of linguistic dominance and expansion within a single culture. Klemperer’s linguistic experiment is assessed within its contemporary context: the linguistic and comparative studies by K. Vossler, L. Spitzer, and E. Auerbach, as well as in the context of the university life in 1930s Germany with its complicated turns and circum- stances that resulted in both external and internal emigration of scholars and writers.
Keywords
V. Klemperer,
E. Auerbach,
L. Spitzer,
the Vossler school,
translation,
comparative studies,
Nazism,
diary
About the Author
E. M. Lutsenko
Russian State University for the Humanities; Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Elena M. Lutsenko, Doctor of Philology
6 Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047
References
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Review
For citations:
Lutsenko E.M. A humanist in exile. Victor Klemperer’s linguistic experiment. Voprosy literatury. 2026;(3):40-51. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2026-3-40-51
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