The Slovene novel in English : bridging the cultural gap

Limon, David (author)

Among the many problems facing any attempt by a Slovene novel to reach a wider international audience through translation into English is cultural specificity. The difference between the Slovene cultural space - with its dictinctive Slavonic language, Catholicism, and Austro-German heritage - and the dominant Anglo-Saxon cultural model, may seem almost unbridgeable. However, the cultural world of the English-language novel contains plentiful precedents to suggest that even themost 'foreign' texts can thrive with it. This paper focuses on the potential difficulties involved in the translation of a work such as Drago Jančar's Katarina, pav in jezuit, finding some useful indicators in the novel The map of love, written in English by the Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Slovene literature, Slovenian novel, translation, translation into English, original text, target text, cultural gap, appropriateness of translation, foreignizing, domesticating, socio-cultural norm, rhetorical convention, D. Jančar, Katarina, pav in jezuit, A. Soueif, The Map of Love
• Typology: 1.08 - Published Scientific Conference Contribution
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2003
• Number of pages: Str. 637-643
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-165187
• UDC: 81'25:821.163.6.03-31=111
• COBISS.SI-ID: 22952034
• Publication date in RUL: 26.11.2024

Record is a part of a monograph

• Title: Slovenski roman
• Editors: Miran Hladnik, Gregor Kocijan
• Place of publishing: Ljubljana
• Publisher: Center za slovenščino kot drugi/tuji jezik pri Oddelku za slovenistiko Filozofske fakultete
• Year: 2003
• ISBN: 961-237-058-3
• COBISS.SI-ID: 125833472
• Collection title: Obdobja
• Collection numbering: 21
• Collection ISSN: 1408-211X

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Eden izmed problemov, s katerimi se sooča vsak prevod slovenskega romana v angleščino, je njegova kulturna specifičnost. Razlike med slovenskim kulturnimprostorom na eni strani, z zelo značilnim slovanskim jezikom, katolicizmom in avstro-nemško dediščino, in prevladujočim anglo-saksonskim kulturnim modelom na drugi strani se zdijo morda nepremostljive. P vendar kulturni svet romanov v angleščini vsebuje ničkoliko primerov, ki kažejo, da še tako 'tuje' besedilo lahko uspe v tem svetu. Pričijoči članek se osredotočana možne težave pri prevajanju dela, kot je na primer roman Draga Jančarja Katarina, pav in jezuit. Avtor članka ponudi nekaj koristnih nasvetovza prevajanje in se pri tem opira na angleški roman The map of love egiptovske pisateljice Ahdaf Soueif.

• Keywords: slovenska književnost, slovenski roman, prevodi, prevajanje, prevajanje v angleščino, kulturna razdalja, ustreznost prevoda, potujevanje, posvajanje, socio-kulturna norma, retorična konvencija, D. Jančar, Katarina, pav in jezuit, A. Soueif, The Map of Love