Beyond borders: translation, cosmopolitanism, and humanism in Stefan Zweig

Abstract

This article investigates the relevance of Stefan Zweig's translation activity, traditionally relegated to the background by literary criticism, reinterpreting it as the central core of his cosmopolitanism, humanism, and pacifism. It is argued that Zweig's practice, far from being a mere technical exercise, constitutes a coherent project that elevates literature to a space of mediation and reconciliation. To this end, the study illuminates Zweig’s intellectual trajectory through the lens of the concept of universal literary citizenship, intuited from his own writings and translational practice, as an expression of his ethical stance toward nationalisms. This is manifested on several fronts, for example: in the dissemination of authors such as Verhaeren and the alliance with Romain Rolland, seeking conciliation between peoples; in the translation of poetry by Baudelaire and Verlaine as a gesture of symbolic welcoming; in biographies such as that of Erasmus of Rotterdam, viewed as the paradigm of the supranational intellectual, and that of Marie Antoinette, used as an existential translation of his own crisis; and in the essay To My Friends Abroad as public resistance to belligerent nationalism, among other examples. Consequently, the analysis demonstrates that, by confronting the nation-state and totalitarianism through the written word, Zweig converted his literature, including translations, into a discursive trench, reaffirming his unconditional belief in supranational human fraternity. Ultimately, the article concludes that Zweig’s writing is a paradigm of lucidity, and his translational gesture remains an ethical invitation to listening and resistance in times of cultural ruin.