Résumés
Abstract
Moving literary texts from a peripheral language to a hyper-central one (Heilbron 1999) goes against the general flow of translations, and agents involved in this process play crucial roles in it. In this article, on the case of English translations of Slovak poetry, I set out to investigate how such processes work. My research starts with assembling a bibliography of English translations of Slovak poetry published in book form between 1989 and 2020. The list contains no fewer than 2,500 poems by 161 poets, translated by more than 50 translators. A few observations from the quantitative analysis I conducted help answer such questions as what kind of agents translate poetry in these projects, who gets translated and how likely it is that the volumes reach an international readership. Subsequently, I use tools from Bourdieu’s field theory and Latour’s actor-network theory (ANT) to trace actor-networks pertaining to those translation projects concerning the rendering of two chosen Slovak poets who hold different positions in the Slovak literary field—Mila Haugová (born in 1942) and Milan Richter (born in 1948).
Keywords:
- Slovak poetry,
- translation into English,
- cultural export,
- internationalisation,
- peripheral literature
Résumé
Le transfert littéraire d’une langue périphérique à une langue hyper-centrale (Heilbron 1999) va à l’encontre du flux général des traductions et dépend largement des agents humains ou institutionnels. Dans cet article, j’examine le fonctionnement de ce processus en m’appuyant sur les traductions anglaises de la poésie slovaque. Ma réflexion part d’une bibliographie des traductions anglaises de la poésie slovaque publiées sous forme de livres entre 1989 et 2020. La liste comprend plus de 2500 poèmes, écrits par 161 poètes et traduits par une cinquantaine de traducteurs. Les observations tirées de l’analyse quantitative permettent d’identifier quels types d’agents traduisent la poésie slovaque en anglais, qui sont les poètes traduits et dans quelle mesure les livres qui résultent de ces projets bénéficient d’un lectorat international. Ensuite, je me sers de la théorie des champs de Pierre Bourdieu et de la théorie de l’acteur-réseau (ANT) de Bruno Latour pour retracer les réseaux d’acteurs qui sous-tendent les projets de traduction des oeuvres de deux poètes dont les positions dans le champ littéraire slovaque divergent : Mila Haugová (née en 1942) et Milan Richter (né en 1948).
Mots-clés :
- poésie slovaque,
- traduction en anglais,
- exportation culturelle,
- internationalisation,
- littérature périphérique
Resumen
El flujo de los textos literarios de la lengua periférica a la lengua hiper-central (Heilbron 1999) se opone al flujo general de las traducciones y agentes involucrados en este proceso desempeñan papeles decisivos en el proceso. En nuestro artículo, usando como ejemplo las traducciones de la poesía eslovaca al inglés, investigamos como esos procesos funcionan. Empezamos nuestra investigación con recopilación de la bibliografía de las traducciones de la poesía eslovaca al inglés publicadas en libro entre 1989 y 2020. La lista incluye no menos de 2500 poemas escritos por 161 poetas traducidos por más de 50 traductores. Algunas observaciones de nuestro análisis cuantitativo ayudan a contestar preguntas como cuales agentes forman parte del proceso de la traducción de poesía en estos proyectos, quien es traducido o con cual probabilidad los volúmenes obtienen lectores internacionales. Posteriormente, usamos instrumentos de Bourdieu’s teoría de los campos y Latour’s teoría del actor-red a descubrir actor-redes pertenecientes a las traducciones de dos poetas eslovacos elegidos que mantienen posiciones diferentes en el campo literario eslovaco – Mila Haugová (nacida en 1942) y Milan Richter (nacido en 1948).
Palabras clave:
- poesía eslovaca,
- traducción en inglés,
- exportación cultural,
- internacionalización,
- literatura periférica
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- Andričík, Marián (2021): Slovenská poézia v anglických knižných prekladoch [Slovak poetry in English book translations]. Košice: Univerzita Pavla Jozefa Šafárika.
- Blakesley, Jacob (2016): Examining Modern European Poet-Translators “Distantly.” Translation and Literature. 25(1):10-27.
- Bokníková, Andrea (2000): Žena ako autorka—žena ako téma v slovenskej poézii od šesťdesiatych rokov po súčasnosť [Woman as an author—woman as a topic in Slovak poetry since the 1960s until present]. In: Jozef Baďurík, Andrea Bokníková, Silvia Dillnbergerová, et al. Studia Academica Slovaca 29. Bratislava: Stimul, 24-52.
- Boll, Tom (2016): Penguin Books and the Translation of Spanish and Latin American Poetry, 1956-1979. Translation and Literature. 25(1):28-57.
- Bourdieu, Pierre (1983): The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed. (Translated from French by Richard Nice) Poetics. 12(4-5):311-356.
- Bourdieu, Pierre (1983/1986): The Forms of Capital. (Translated from French by Richard Nice) In: John G. Richardson, ed. Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood Press, 241-258.
- Bourdieu, Pierre (1996): The Rules of Art. Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. (Translated from French by Susan Emanuel) Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
- Buzelin, Hélène (2004/2005): Translation studies, ethnography and the production of knowledge. (Translated from French by Paul St-Pierre) In: Paul St-Pierre and Prafulla C. Kar, eds. In Translation – Reflections, Refractions, Transformations. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 39-56.
- Buzelin, Hélène (2005): Unexpected Allies: How Latour’s Network Theory Could Complement Bourdieusian Analyses in Translation Studies. The Translator. 11(2):193-218.
- Buzelin, Hélène (2007): Translations in the making. In: Michaela Wolf and Alexandra Fukari, eds. Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 135-169.
- Callus, Ivan and Corby, James (2015): Editorial: Countertextuality and the Political. CounterText. 1(1):v-x.
- Casanova, Pascale (2002/2021): Consecration and accumulation of literary capital: translation as unequal exchange. (Translated from French by Siobhan Brownlie) In: Lawrence Venuti, ed. The Translation Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 407-243.
- Classe, Olive, ed. Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English. Volume 2. M–Z. London/Chicago: Routledge.
- Chrobáková-Repar, Stanislava (2002): Mila Haugová. Bratislava: Kalligram.
- Cornis-Pope, Marcel and Roberts, Dagmar (2004): Epilogue. East-Central European Literature after 1989. In: Marcel Cornis-Pope and John Neubauer, eds. History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe. Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Vol. IV: Types and stereotypes. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 561-629.
- Cronin, Michael (2016): Reading the signs. Amodern 6. Consulted on 15 May2020, https://amodern.net/article/reading-the-signs/.
- Davenport, Thomas H. and Beck, John C. (2001): The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business. Cambridge: Harvard Business School.
- Deleuze, Gilles (1968/1990): Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza. (Translated from French by Martin Joughin) New York: Zone Books.
- Gavura, Ján (2009): Poézia ako akcident, poézia ako podstata [Poetry as an accident, poetry as the essence]. In: Ľubica Somolayová, ed. Literárnokritická reflexia slovenskej literatúry 2008 [Literary-critical reception of Slovak literature 2008]. Bratislava: Ars Poetica/Ústav slovenskej literatúry SAV, 143-153.
- Gavura, Ján (2014): Slovenská poézia po postmoderne – k básnickým zbierkam 2012 – 2014 [Slovak poetry after postmodernism—on collections of poetry 2012 – 2014]. Romboid. 49(5-6):88-94.
- Heilbron, Johan (1999): Towards a Sociology of Translation. Book Translations as a Cultural World-System. European Journal of Social Theory. 2(4):429-444.
- Heilbron, Johan and Sapiro, Gisèle (2007): Outline for a sociology of translation. Current issues and future prospects. (Translated from French by Susan Emanuel) In: Michaela Wolf and Alexandra Fukari, eds. Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 93-107.
- Heim, Michael Henry, Elsie, Robert, Razor, Sasha, et al. (2009): East-Central European Literatures Twenty Years After. East European Politics and Societies. 23(4):552-581.
- Holý, Jiří (2021): The Wrecked Temple in Me (Vo mne zbúraný chrám). In: Elisa-Maria Hiemer, Jiří Holý, Agata Firlej, et al., eds. Handbook of Polish, Czech, and Slovak Holocaust Fiction. Berlin/Boston: DeGruyter, 456-459.
- Hostová, Ivana (2013): Haugovej Plathová, Plathovej Haugová. O prekladoch poézie Sylvie Plathovej [Haugová’s Plath, Plath’s Haugová. On translations of the poetry of Sylvia Plath]. Prešov: Prešovská univerzita v Prešove.
- Hostová, Ivana (2021a): Mila Haugová. In: Charles Sabatos, ed. The Literary Encyclopedia: Exploring literature, history and culture. Vol. 1.8.1: Czech and Slovak Writing and Culture. London: Literary Dictionary Company Limited. Consulted on 4 January 2021, https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14791.
- Hostová, Ivana (2021b): On Slipping Beauty and Gender Identity in Poetry Translation. Notes on James Sutherland-Smith’s Translations of the Poetry of Mila Haugová. Bridge. 2(1):37-52.
- Hrabčáková, Katarína (2021): Semiopoetický aspekt básnickej identity [The semiopoetic aspect of poet’s identity]. Fintice: FACE.
- Jakobson, Roman (1959): On linguistic aspects of translation. In: Reuben A. Brower, ed. On translation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- Jareš, Michal, Rácová, Veronika, and Schmarcová, Ľubica (2014): Poézia [Poetry]. In: Ivana Taranenková and Radoslav Passia, eds. Hľadanie súčasnosti [A search for the present]. Bratislava: Literárne informačné centrum, 111-195.
- Jones, Francis R. (2016): Partisanship or Loyalty? Seeking Textual Traces of Poetry Translators’ Ideologies. Translation and Literature. 25(1):58-83.
- Latour, Bruno (1996): On actor-network theory: A few clarifications. Soziale Welt. 47(4):369-381.
- Latour, Bruno (2005): Reassembling the Social. An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Lefevere, André (1992): Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London/New York: Routledge.
- Mikula, Valér, ed. (2005): Slovník slovenských spisovateľov [Dictionary of Slovak writers]. Bratislava: Kalligram.
- Milton, John and Bandia, Paul (2009): Agents of Translation and Translation Studies. In: John Milton and Paul Bandia, eds. Agents of Translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1-18.
- Naughton, James (2012): Slovakia, poetry of. In: Roland Greene, ed. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1310-1312.
- Palumbo, Giuseppe (2021): “Visible” at Last? Some Notes on English as a Target Language and Translated Books in the US. ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries. 18(1):55-69.
- Pánisová, Ľudmila (2014): Slovenská literatúra v anglickom preklade – história a súčasnosť (1832 – 2013) [Slovak literature in English translation – history and present]. Nitra: Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa, Filozofická fakulta.
- Partridge, James (2000): Slovak. Literary Translation into English. In: Olive Classe, ed. Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English. Volume 2. M–Z. London/Chicago: Routledge, 1292-1295.
- Rácová, Veronika (2014): Spôsoby sebastvárnenia. Mila Haugová a Etela Farkašová [Ways of self-creating. Mila Haugová and Etela Farkašová]. Romboid 49(5-6):78-83.
- Rácová, Veronika (2016): Archív, mapa, sen, zápis, coda, canti, amore: Ja [Archive, map, dream, note, coda, canti, amore: Me]. Romboid. 51(2):76-80.
- Šafranová, Lenka (2020): Mila Haugová (1942). Srna pozerajúca na Polárku [Mila Haugová (1942). Doe looking at the north star]. In: Marta Součková and Ján Gavura, eds. TOP 5 2016. Fintice: FACE, 52-62.
- Šafranová, Lenka (2021): Poetologické konštanty a premenné súvisiace s tematizovaním smrti v básnickej zbierke M. Haugovej Z rastlinstva [Poetic Constants and Variables in depicting death in Haugová’s collection Z rastlinstva (From plant life)]. In: Ján Gavura, ed. K vybraným aspektom slovenskej literatúry po roku 1989 III [On selected aspects of Slovak literature after 1989 III]. Prešov: Prešovská univerzita v Prešove, Filozofická fakulta, 110-118.
- Sapiro, Gisèle (2010): Globalization and cultural diversity in the book market: The case of literary translations in the US and in France. Poetics. 38:419-439.
- Šimková, Viera (2005): Milan Richter. In: Mikula, Valér, ed. Slovník slovenských spisovateľov [Dictionary of Slovak writers]. Bratislava: Kalligram, 471-472.
- Solum, Kristina (2018): The tacit influence of the copy-editor in literary translation. Perspectives. 26(4):543-559.
- Sperling, Matthew (2013): Books and the market: Trade publishers, state subsidies, and small presses. In: Peter Robinson, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary British and Irish Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 191-212.
- Šrank, Jaroslav (2013): Individualizovaná literatúra [Individualised literature]. Bratislava: Cathedra.
- Šrank, Jaroslav (2015): Aktéri a tendencie literárnej kultúry na Slovensku po roku 1989 [Actors and tendencies of literary culture in Slovakia after 1989]. Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského.
- Šrank, Jaroslav (2021): Účastníci poézie [Poetry actors]. Fintice: FACE.
- Šrank, Jaroslav and Rédey, Zoltán (2005): Rytíři textových polí I [Knights of textfields I]. In: Jaroslav Šrank, Zoltán Rédey and Miroslav Zelinský, eds. Rytíři textových polí I. Antologie slovenské poezie postmoderny [Knights of textfields I. Anthology of Slovak postmodern poetry]. (Translated from Slovak by Miroslav Zelinský) Zlín: Marek Turňa, 258-278.
- Sutherland-Smith, James (1993): Translator’s preface. In: Peter Milčák and Braňo Hochel, eds. Not waiting for miracles. Levoča: Modrý Peter, [6]-[9].
- Taranenková, Ivana and Passia, Radoslav, eds. (2014): Hľadanie súčasnosti [A search for the present]. Bratislava: Literárne informačné centrum.
- Venuti, Lawrence (2011): Introduction. Poetry and Translation. Translation Studies. 4(2):127-132.
- Vimr, Ondřej (2020): Supply-driven Translation: Compensation for Lack of Demand. In: Rajendra Chitnis, Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen, Rhian Atkin, et al., eds. Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 48-68.
- Winthereik, Brit Ross (2020): Is ANT’s radical empiricism ethnographic? In: Anders Blok, Ignacio Farías and Celia Roberts, eds. The Routledge Companion to Actor-Network Theory. London/New York: Routledge, 24-33.
- Zajac, Peter, ed. (2014): Sondy [Probes]. Bratislava: Kalligram.
- Zelinský, Miroslav (2005): Ivan Štrpka. In: Mikula, Valér, ed. (2005): Slovník slovenských spisovateľov [Dictionary of Slovak writers]. Bratislava: Kalligram, 546-548.