The project “Telling Sounds” (www.mdw.ac.at/imi/tellingsounds) has the goal of preparing online available audio-(visual) sources (clips) as a basis for understanding contemporary musical history. The metadata of these clips will be enriched and grouped according to thematic aspects as a starting point for case studies. As a basis for such a digital research environment, a special tool will be developed which makes it possible to visualize the connections between clips and the entities and meanings, thus open them up for further research. As an example of the consequences and possibilities of such a music-historical representation, the following text relates different musical and media forms of expression in Vienna in the 1970s: the Beethoven anniversary, the history of Austropop, the communication of women-related topics on the radio and the propagandistic significance of this medium during the Cold War in connection with the topos “Music Country Austria” are thus made comprehensible as facets of music-related constructions of meaning in a concrete historical time and place.

Portant sur la période de tensions politiques extrêmes 1937-1982, la thèse propose de considérer autrement le statut de la traduction à partir des œuvres d’Aragon, de Landolfi et de Nabokov, écrivains et traducteurs de Pouchkine. Discutant et prolongeant la pensée d’Henri Meschonnic, ce travail défend, à travers le cas exemplaire de ces écrivains-traducteurs, l’existence de liens étroits entre le contexte, l’écriture et la traduction. Après une présentation des trois circuits éditoriaux principaux de la période, le face à face entre le traducteur et les forces politiques est étudié. L’analyse du corpus de traduction permet de révéler la grande activité d’Aragon, de Landolfi et de Nabokov sur la période considérée. Il s’agit ensuite de réfléchir aux modalités des échanges éditoriaux Est-Ouest en s’intéressant notamment aux anthologies et aux retraductions. La question de l’historicité des traductions de Pouchkine conduit à revenir au contexte. L’étude révèle que les communistes comme les capitalistes refusent de prendre en compte véritablement l’expérience du mal absolu que résume le nom d’Auschwitz. En guise de réponse, le littéralisme, souvent affiché durant la Guerre froide, a eu l’ambition de prendre en compte la volonté de l’auteur disparu. Le choix de traduire Pouchkine entend également apporter une réponse à la division du monde. Pouchkine questionne le face à face dans ses œuvres, le poète russe affrontant ainsi la question du mal tout en proposant une écriture morale. La dernière partie de ce travail défend l’idée d’une continuité entre l’activité de traduction et l’œuvre des écrivains. Elle montre combien le nom, la figure, les œuvres de Pouchkine nourrissent le travail d’Aragon, de Landolfi et de Nabokov. Elle propose enfin de considérer d’une autre manière la prose poétique, la parodie et l’histoire littéraire. / Focusing on the extreme political tensions during the 1937-1982 time span, this work suggests that the status of translation can be considered from a different angle based on the works of Aragon, of Landolfi and of Nabokov, writers and translators of Pushkin. Studying the examples of those writers and translators, discussing and expanding upon the theory of Henri Meschonnic, this work defends the idea that close links exist between context, writing and translation. The three main translation circuits of the period are initially presented introducing the study of the confrontation between the translators and the political forces. A closer look at the corpus of translations shows the important activity of Aragon, Landolfi and Nabokov at that period. The third part of this work concentrates on the ways of editing translations of Russian literature in the West through the study of anthologies of translations and retranslations. The historical character of the translations of Pushkin’s works leads to reconsider their links to the context. The study reveals that Communists and Capitalists refused to actually take into account the Evil experience that the name “Auschwitz” summarizes. In response, on a literary level, literalism promoted by Aragon, Landolfi and Nabokov during the Cold War has for vocation the respect of the will of the deceased author. The decision to translate Pushkin also represents a reaction to the division of the world. The Russian poet questions the conflict in his works and does not refuse to confront the question of Evil through a literary style based on morals. The final section of this thesis promotes the idea of continuity between the translations and the other works of Aragon, of Landolfi and of Nabokov. It demonstrates to what extent the name, the figure and the works of Pushkin influenced those writers and translators. Finally, poetic prose, parody and literary history are reconsidered from an entirely new angle.

This thesis is about a remarkable experience lived through by Latvian émigrés in the mid-1950s. They were the targets of a Soviet repatriation campaign, operated by the KGB, which not only envisioned their repatriation to the Soviet Latvian homeland, but also anticipated the destruction of their émigré society as they knew it. The purpose of this thesis is to portray and analyze this repatriation campaign and the émigré Latvian reactions to it. By looking at the activities of the Committee For Return to the Motherland in East Berlin, the contents of the Latvian language repatriation newspaper Par atgriešanos Dzimtenē (For Return to the Motherland), and the reactions to the campaign in contemporary émigré press, this study shows how highly developed strategies and tactics were implemented in order to elicit certain behaviors from émigrés, and how émigrés advanced their own counter-strategies to offset the effects of the campaign. More specifically, this study examines the standardized narratives in Par atgriešanos Dzimtenē that were meant for émigré self-identification and emulation. This thesis proposes that the repatriation campaign was a highly complex Soviet propaganda effort. The publicly announced goal of repatriation included several parallel goals, aims, and purposes and encompassed many types of activities. Above all, deception was used to cover the actions undertaken against émigrés and to mislead host country governments and agencies. This thesis concludes that notwithstanding the Soviet superiority in organization and resources, a small, unprotected, and internally divided community could withstand the concerted efforts of Soviet propaganda if the group’s sense of mission was sufficiently strong and firm. / Denna avhandling behandlar de lettiska flyktingarna från andra världskriget och deras erfarenheter av ofrivilliga kontakter med Sovjetlettland vid mitten av 1950-talet, då flyktingarna blev måltavla för en sovjetisk repatrieringskampanj. Målet för denna kampanj var repatriering, dvs att få flyktingarna att återvända till hemlandet, det av Sovjet ockuperade Lettland. Ett annat mål var att splittra flyktingarnas sammanhållning. Avhandlingen beskriver och analyserar den sovjetiska repatrieringskampanjen och de lettiska flyktingarnas reaktioner. Studien bygger på källmaterial från kampanjverkamheten Committee For Return to the Motherland, som hade sin bas i Östberlin, samt från artiklar i den lettiskspråkiga tidskriften Par atgriešanos Dzimtenē (For Return to the Motherland) som riktade sig till de lettiska flyktingarna. Flyktingarnas reaktioner studeras genom en rad lettiska tidningar som utgavs i Väst. Min avhandling visar hur väl utvecklade strategier användes i syfte att framkalla önskade reaktioner från flyktingarna, samt vilka motåtgärder flyktingar själva utvecklade mot repatrieringskampanjen. Mer specifikt analyseras standardberättelser i Par atgriešanos Dzimtenē som var avsedda för flyktingarnas självidentifiering och igenkännande. Avhandlingen pekar på att den sovjetiska repatrieringskampanjen var en mycket komplex propagandaverksamhet. Utöver det offentligt tillkännagivna kampanjmålet fanns flera parallella målsättningar och avsikter som omfattade en stor mängd skiftande aktiviteter. En strategi som användes aktivt var vilseledning, bl a för att dölja verksamheter riktade mot flyktingarna, och för att förvilla statsledningar och myndigheter i de nationer där flyktingarna vistades. Avhandlingens slutsats är att trots den sovjetiska överlägsenheten i organisation och resurser kunde en liten oförsvarad och inom sig splittrad lettisk gemenskap motstå de samordnade ansträngningar från den sovjetiska propagandan.