Scholarly Article
The Troubles with Memory - the Image of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Translation of Miljenko Jergović's Story Gurbet from The Second Kiss of Gita Danon
Maćkowiak-Kruczek, Maja
2019-08-14 · Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne · Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan
Abstract
The paper discusses the issue of cultural memory in a translation of literary text. Based on material of Miljenko Jergović's story Gurbet and its Polish translation, the article shows how elements of source cultural memory present in the original text are being "lost" when translated to other language and culture. The term of "losing memory" is used figuratively to present the consequences of a translator's (conscious and/or unconscious) decisions on which specific features of source culture are to be preserved (foreignization) or not (domestication) in the target text. These decisions influence the image of source culture that the reader of the translation can "produce" in the wake of reading. For instance, Polish translation of the story "Gurbet" only partly preserves the memory of Christian-Islamic and Slavic-Ottoman intercultural (or even transcultural) coexistence in the region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is one of the main topics and motifs of Miljenko Jergović's works. As a result, Polish reader cannot produce the same image of the source culture as the reader of the original.
Keywords
cultural memory, literary translation, Miljenko Jergović, Bosnia and Herzegovina literature
Citation Details
Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne, pp. 175-191