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Fehlerbegriff
u/a
Jun 12, 2014 14:07
9 yrs ago
1 viewer *
German term

Gefälligkeitsliteratur

German to English Social Sciences History History
I can't give the precise context without betraying client confidentiality. The client has written a history supporting one version of events and is going through everybody else's versions (which all support the other point of view) criticising them one by one saying things like "yet another monstrous example of Gefälligkeitsliteratur". I've got the idea of "saying what people want you to say/want to hear" and not listening to more objective views because your mind is made up. Just wondering if there's a more technical English term? Thanks for all your ideas. Much appreciated as always.
Proposed translations (English)
3 +2 tendentious writing
3 +1 coffee-table history
4 misrepresentation of history in literature
3 co-opted writing(s)

Discussion

Horst Huber (X) Jun 13, 2014:
In this neighborhood they call the stuff "puff pieces". Just reporting what I hear or read.
Yorkshireman Jun 13, 2014:
With thanks to Quentin Tarantino "Pulp fiction" would be a nicely scathing description of the work of other historians. Particularly by describing it as fiction against the "True Facts" of the author's own work.

Not necessarily lurid, but a very appropriate definition:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pulp fiction
Maureen Millington-Brodie (asker) Jun 13, 2014:
@Andrew am liking "ingratiating"...
Yorkshireman Jun 12, 2014:
Helen Finally something we can agree on :-)

BTW: Gefälligkeitsgutachten - an audit made to please the customer which misrepresents the true situation.
Helen Shiner Jun 12, 2014:
@Yorkshireman You are continually missing the point of Gefälligkeit - I give up. Let mbrodie pick whatever he/she chooses based on the actual context.
Yorkshireman Jun 12, 2014:
@Helen No - he is slagging off the other historians' opinions or research as being lightweight or bent to fit a purpose. i.e a gross misrepresentation. These are not necessarily "lightweight histories".

BTW, I think "monstrous example of misrepresentation" is pretty insulting when you are on the receiving end.
TonyTK Jun 12, 2014:
Can you do anything with ... ... "conformist history"?
Helen Shiner Jun 12, 2014:
@Yorkshireman This author is slagging off these lightweight histories with an ironic term. He is evidently throwing around insults, comparing them to coffee table books. This is the term mbrodie has asked us about. It is perfectly reasonable to use the EN equivalent in the same way. I don't understand why you are going way beyond the term. You are being literal rather than thinking about the insulting term. We need to keep to that since that is the question.
Yorkshireman Jun 12, 2014:
Rejection Coffee-table literature (rather than history) generally concerns large-format, extensively illustrated books. I have yet to come across histories (excepting, perhaps, company histories - which, then again, would probably not give cause for contention) in this format.

The author is vehemently rejecting the works of other historians as history bent to fit popular opinions or zeitgeist. There is no mention at all of "simplified history", but rather that any opinions other than his own are simply written as a courtesy to readers and their established opinions.

Prime examples of this are biographies of Winston Churchill and Erwin Rommel. Both of whom were (and still are) glorified, although history tells another story - Rommel (glorified by friend and foe) was not even there on D-Day (celebrating his wife's birthday at home) or at the battle of El Alamein (in Paris, buying shoes and perfume for his wife). The "great deeds" of WSC included intentionally withdrawing a naval escort for the "Lusitania" and an incident named the "Live-bait squadron" - with an enormous loss of life in the North Sea in WW I .
Helen Shiner Jun 12, 2014:
Gefälligkeitsliteratur is literally the kind of thing that a company will have printed to have on its office coffee tables to hand to clients. It is lightweight, possibly glorifying and certainly simplistic. That is what the author is likely to be saying. We can't see the context, so can only go on the term itself. If you want to know the warts and all, professionally researched version of whatever history it encompasses, you wouldn't go to such a book.
Yorkshireman Jun 12, 2014:
Historians I get the impression that the author believes that his/her interpretation of events is the "truth" (the whole truth and nothing but the truth) and considers all other historians who see things differently - regardless of whether they be serious or popular - to be simply barking up the wrong tree.
Helen Shiner Jun 12, 2014:
@mbrodie Difficult to tell without the precise context, but I read it as history that distorts by dumbing down. It might glorify a general who has otherwise got a rather dubious track record if you look at him in proper depth. I don't think it is specific to a victor's history, though that might come into it. If they think it can sell on the Anglo-Saxon market, it is the rather unfortunate tendency in some German academic quarters to reject inter-disciplinary studies in favour of rigorous, dry, unrelenting monographs, more typical of published German PhDs.
Yorkshireman Jun 12, 2014:
The victors There is a saying that history is always written by the victors - be it true or not.
opolt Jun 12, 2014:
Would it be possible to ... ... call this a "lopsided story/history" to transport the idea that it is biassed etc?
Maureen Millington-Brodie (asker) Jun 12, 2014:
Interesting. So there's no sense of trying to keep in with one party as opposed to another? I thought that was intended in the term because at one point he says "of course they all say that because this is better for sales on the Anglo-Saxon market".
Helen Shiner Jun 12, 2014:
@mbrodie This is often used to indicate 'dumbed-down', 'armchair' or 'made-for-TV' kinds of historical accounts rather than the rigorous, academic tomes that are not primarily intended for the general public. Another term might be 'coffee-table' history.

Proposed translations

+2
2 hrs
Selected

tendentious writing

tendentious: expressing or intending to promote a particular cause or point of view, especially a controversial one: e.g. 'a tendentious reading of history'
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/tendent...

propaganda
toeing the party line

Also not convinced that Gefälligkeits-/Beschönigungs-/Tendenzliteratur necessarily has to be a trivialisation of the subject.

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Note added at 7 hrs (2014-06-12 21:39:10 GMT)
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Maybe the text would allow you to work in ingratiating/ingratiation?
http://dict.leo.org/#/search=gefälligkeit&searchLoc=0&result...
Peer comment(s):
agree Yorkshireman : Sounds good to me! I don't see any trivialisation, either.
8 mins
agree Phoebe Indetzki
21 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
+1
18 mins

coffee-table history

I won't go with 'literature' here. And since it is historical accounts the author is talking about, I would use history. See my discussion entry.

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Note added at 19 mins (2014-06-12 14:27:54 GMT)
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The point is that it is a light read, maybe a trivial take on things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_table_book

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Note added at 1 hr (2014-06-12 15:44:11 GMT)
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http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=blp7d6m3mWkC&pg=PA17&lpg=...

Der Preußische Landbote hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, in verschiedenen Artikeln zum gesellschaftlichen, kulturellen und politischen Tagesgeschehen Stellung zu nehmen. Teils geschieht dies in essayistischer Form, teils werden Korrespondenzen abgedruckt, in denen dieser Anspruch zum Ausdruck kommt.
Es heißt, Ideale sind wie Sterne - man kann sich nach Ihnen orientieren - sie aber niemals erreichen.
Objektivität ist ein solches Ideal.
In all seinen Veröffentlichungen wird sich der Preußische Landbote jedoch um einen Kurs bemühen, der nach schonungsloser Objektivität ausgerichtet ist und möglichst großen Abstand zu Trivialität und Gefälligkeitsliteratur hält.
Beifall ist schön, aber der Landbote betrachtet ihn nicht als essentiell. Rosseau meinte, daß die Ehre des Beifalls sowieso nur selten dem Würdigsten, eher dem Geschicktesten zuteil werde. Merkantile Geschicklichkeit ist unsere Sache nicht! Soll sie auch nicht sein - denn sie verdirbt nur allzuoft den geraden Charakter!
http://www.landbote.com/insuibus/philosophie.html

Ich habe bei Schöllgen studiert und 2007 hatte mit Schöllgen in einer LV im kleinen Rahmen einen ausführliche Disput zum Thema. Mein Vorwurf wa eher, dass er sich natürlich leichter tut als seine Kollegen aus dem Mittelalter oder aus der Alten Geschichte: Schöllgen hat Kunden (Unternehmer). Wem sollen die anderen was anbieten? Das "messen lassen" stellt er sich meines Erachtens leichter vor als es ist. Schöllgen mahnte an, man solle es aber wenigstens versuchen. Also ZAG!

Zur hier formulierten Kritik kann ich sagen, dass gerade der "Verstoß gegen die Erinnerungskultur" (wie von seinen Kritkern formuliert) vielleicht gerade seine Leistung ist.
"Erinnerungskultur" klingt für mich nach common sense und der Pauschalverurteilung, die ganze Wirtschaft habe sich instrumentalisieren lassen.
Nur wird dabei übersehen: Die Firmen hatten keine Wahl! Außerdem wurden, gerade in High-Tec-Unternehmen, Zwangsarbeiter oft relativ gut behandelt, gerade weil man dringend Leute brauchte, die etwas konnten und die man angelernt hatte.
Ich verbinde mit "Erinnerungskultur" vor allem die Pauschalisierung, gegen die Schöllgen hier anschreibt. Das muss man nicht verurteilen. Mein Eindruck zeigt ein hohes Maß an Gewissenhaftigkeit Schöllgens und die Kompetenz seiner Kollegen in Erlangen ist augenscheinlich auch nicht eindeutig sakrosankt auf seinem Niveau.
"Hofberichterstattung", "Gefälligkeitsliteratur" und was noch alles fiel traue ich dem ZAG nicht als Konzept zu.
http://www.zeit.de/2011/18/Schoellgen/seite-3
Peer comment(s):
agree philgoddard : I think some German references would help, though. I had to research it myself before I agreed with you :-)
1 hr
Thanks, Phil - actually I did post some references, but it would seem they didn't stick. My internet connection is rather dodgy today.
neutral BrigitteHilgner : Given the explanation of the asker, this interpretation is wrong - ist's not "gefällig" in the sense of "pleasant", it's "gefällig" in the sense of doing somebody a favour (by distoring the truth).
2 hrs
I disagree, Brigitte. See my references.
neutral Yorkshireman : I agree with Brigitte's take on the distortion or misrepresentation of hard facts by other historians. What a coincidence, so am I :-)
17 hrs
Yorkshireman, I am in the business of translation. it is not me who is wilfully distorting the meaning of the term./State your case elsewhere. Let the OP do what they chose. I've given my references. Back your own in your own post. Leave me out of it.
Something went wrong...
37 mins

misrepresentation of history in literature

Usually described as "Geschichtsverklitterung"

"yet another monstrous example of the misrepresentation of history in literature."

"...of storytelling rather than historical facts."



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Note added at 39 mins (2014-06-12 14:47:18 GMT)
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"...yet another example of opinionated storytelling"

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Note added at 1 hr (2014-06-12 15:13:47 GMT)
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Also "gross misrepresentation"

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Note added at 20 hrs (2014-06-13 10:40:32 GMT)
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Just a thought, it could also be interpreted (not translated) as "another monstrous example of pandering to the illiterate"

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Note added at 22 hrs (2014-06-13 12:12:03 GMT)
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"...another monstrous example of pulp fiction"

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Note added at 22 hrs (2014-06-13 12:19:28 GMT)
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http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pulp fiction
Peer comment(s):
neutral Helen Shiner : This is not a translation of the term but a response to the context mbrodie gives.
1 hr
True - it is an interpretation of the quote to fit the context. Could you point out where you found anything about light reading, trivial, simplistic in "... example of Gefälligkeitsliteratur". IMO, literature written as a "Gefallen" to its readers.
Something went wrong...
23 hrs

co-opted writing(s)

"Yet another monstrous example of co-opted writing"

I think this is what we're looking for. Compare with satirical quote below:

"If public opinion and response are going to be the basis of his new work and if these co-opted writings are going to be recontextualized and slapped with a price tag falling, presumably, somewhere around $250,000 (the going price the response piece entitled Made by Mass MoCA (Training Ground for Confidentiality)). As I see it, this is probably my best shot at somehow "making it" in the art world."
Reference:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/willy-blackmore/christoph-buchels-trainin_b_102511.html

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