SAME BOOK, DIFFERENT NAME? ANALYSING THE TRANSLATED TITLES OF BART VAN ES'S MEMOIR THE CUT OUT GIRL

Abstract

The Cut Out Girl, by the Dutch-born Oxford professor Bart van Es, won the Costa Book of the Year Prize in 2018. Written in English, the work deals with van Es delving into his own family history to learn, inter alia, about his grandparents’ role in sheltering a young Jewish girl named Lien during the Second World War in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, and who later acted as her foster family. In sharing Lien’s story with the world, van Es’s memoir proved controversial for its frankness, opening up discussions about a difficult time in Dutch history. Though it looks back on real events, creative elements do occur within the book, especially with regard to reenacting situations and conversations that occurred many decades ago. Noting the nexus between memoir, life writing, and biofiction, this contribution zones in on one of the most important aspects of any book: the title. The work’s unusual name refers to a description of Lien that cannot easily be rendered into other languages; consequently, many foreign language editions have opted for different titles. In addition, the volume also has a subtitle, which again provides interesting material for analysis. Hence, after providing an overview of the work, its reception, and its translation into over a dozen languages, this study adopts a text-based approach, seeking to compare and contrast the different translated titles of the book and to examine how they reflect various facets of the book’s subject matter, characters, and setting.