Caitlyn Tetmeyer and Dr. Cindy Brewer, Germanic and Slavic Languages

In the year 1762, an extraordinary German princess was crowned empress of Russia. She had entered Russia with no knowledge of the language, no acquaintance with the man she would be forced to marry, and no prescience that she would be required to embrace the Orthodox faith before ascending the throne. Despite this, she became Russia’s beloved “Little Mother,” and she is now remembered as one of the most important women in the history of the world. Catherine the Great, the Czarin of Russia, left lasting impacts in more ways than one.

In addition to going down in history for her political accomplishments, Catherine the Great was a successful dramatist. Much has been written about Catherine’s historical and political influence, but it is often overlooked that she also wrote more than a dozen plays, opera libretti, and comedies throughout her life. This is especially true with the reception of her translated works in Germany, the country of Catherine’s birth. Although many of her works were translated into German, many of these texts are not available to a broad readership.

As a research assistant for Sophie: A Digital Library and Resource Center for Early German-Speaking Women’s Works 1740-1923, I wanted to investigate these almost unknown texts of Catherie the Great. My main focus was to find, transcribe, and submit several of Catherine the Great’s dramatic works to the digital library. I located five texts by the author: Der Familienzwist), Märchen vom Zarewitsch Fewei, Der Betrüger, Der Verblendete, and Der sibirische Schaman. The last three plays are arranged in a collection called Drey Lustspiele wider Schwärmerey und Aberglauben, which includes an introduction by Catherine the Great, who uses the pseudonym I.K.M.d.K.a.R.

All the texts were in microfiche form, so I scanned them into a computer and onto a disk, from which they could be printed. I then transcribed each play from its original Gothic type into Times New Roman. This made the plays easier to read, for those who are not familiar with the older typeface. Both the original images and the transcribed versions have been submitted to Sophie, which digital library is Internet-accessible worldwide.

Because these texts by Catherine the Great will be included in the Sophie library, scholars in many countries will be able to access them for study. Professors may print them for use in the classroom, and researchers will have them more readily available than ever before. Simply stated, a much broader readership will be able to access these literary works, which add a new dimension to our understanding and appreciation of Catherine the Great.

In addition to writing a partial English translation of Der Familienzwist, I wrote a paper entitled “Catherine the Great’s Der Familienzwist” and submitted both documents to Sophie: A Digital Library and Resource Center for Early German-Speaking Women’s Works 1740-1923. My biggest difficulty during this project was writing the paper, because of my lack of academic writing experience. Analyzing the text required more mental effort than did scanning or transcribing it, of course, although translating was also difficult. Before attempting to translate Der Familienzwist, I had never translated from German to English. That portion of the project was also a great learning experience for me, and my understanding of the German language increased because of my translating efforts.

Locating, scanning, transcribing, translating, analyzing, and writing about Catherine the Great’s works has been a valuable experience for me. Not only have I learned a great deal and developed skills that are academically essential for my own career, but other scholars will soon be able to appreciate the texts of Catherine the Great. I hope that students and researchers will learn and benefit from this extraordinary empress’s works.