Art and Subversion

Literary texts display many linguistic peculiarities, as well as social and cultural aspects of our lives and, thus, we can assert that literary translation is one of the main ways of communication across cultures. Translating literary texts, however, is not an easy task, since it certainly poses many problems for the translator. One of the problems a translator can face arises from the fact that some words or phrases denoting objects, facts, phenomena, etc… are so deeply rooted in their source culture (SC) and so specific (and perhaps exclusive or unique) to the culture that produced them that they have no equivalent in the target culture (TC), be it because they are unknown, or because they are not yet codified in the target language (TL). When discussing the problems of correspondence in translation, “differences between cultures may cause more severe complications for the translator than do differences in language structure” (Nida 130). Moreover, several theorists, such as Santoyo,...

Kuja iz Ureda za vize rekla je: „Svaki emigrant ima pravo na tri kofera. Takva je norma. To su posebni propisi ministarstva.“Nije imalo smisla proturječiti. Ali ipak sam morao: „Samo tri kofera?! Što bih trebao sa stvarima?“„Na primjer?“„Na primjer, sa svojom zbirkom trkaćih auta?“„Prodajte je“, odsutno odgovori službenica. Zatim doda, lagano se namrštivši: „Ako nečim niste zadovoljni, podnesite žalbu.“„Zadovoljan sam.“Nakon zatvora bio sam svime zadovoljan.„Pa onda se i ponašajte tako.“Za tjedan dana već sam pakirao stvari. Ispostavilo se da mi je bio dovoljan jedan jedini kofer. Gotovo sam zaplakao od muke. Pa imao sam trideset i šest godina. Od toga sam osamnaest godina radio. Zaradio bih pa kupio nešto. Mislio sam da imam nekakvu imovinu. A na kraju – jedan kofer. I to prilično skromnih dimenzija. Ispada da sam siromah? Kako je do toga došlo?Knjige? Imao sam uglavnom zabranjene knjige. One nisu prolazile kroz carinu. Morao sam ih podijeliti poznanicima zajedno s takozvanim arhivom.

Znala je da je još netko u sobi. Nije bilo nikakvog zvuka, samo nagovještaj, slabo premještanje zraka. Neko je vrijeme bila sama, sjedila je na klupi posred galerije okružena slikama, ciklusom od petnaest platna, i činilo joj se kao da sjedi u mrtvačkoj kapelici uz tijelo rođaka ili prijatelja. To se zove bdijenje, pomislila je. Gledala je Ulrike, glavu i trup, ranu od užeta na vratu, iako nije sa sigurnošću mogla reći koju su spravu koristili kod vješanja. Čula je kako se netko približava klupi, muškarac teška koraka, ustala je i otišla stati pred Ulrikinu sliku, jednu od tri s istim motivom, na svakoj mrtva Ulrike, leži na podu ćelije, s glavom u profilu. Platna su bila različitih veličina. Pojava te žene, njezina glava, vrat, rana od užeta, kosa, crte lica, naslikani su, od slike do slike, u zagasitim i izblijedjelim nijansama, na jednoj jasnije nego na drugoj, usta iskrivljena na jednoj slici izgledala su prirodno na drugima, sve skupa nesistematično. „Što misliš zašto je to tako n...

In his essay on Australian poetry of the early twentieth century, Nicholas Birns claims that the poetry of the given period was not at the time fully appreciated in the rest of the world, and that metropolitan centres placed low esteem on Australian poetic production (173). There was the lack, as he puts it, of “an efficient market”, caused by various factors, including the remoteness and isolation of the country, its distance from the hotspots of political crisis, and its “perceived rejection of modernism” (Ibid). It was the Anglo-American experimental modernism that the young Australian poets rejected, composing verse that “tended to rhyme and obey metrical contentions” (Ibid, 174) or at least have a certain melodic quality. In its stylistic aspect, this poetry was rather traditional, and the themes used were also quite different from those explored by American or English modernist poets: exploration by sea and land, and the European explorations of Australia in particular, was a ver...

Probing the dramatic monologue mould of Robert Browning (1812-1899) has maintained a long tradition of portraying this poet as an experimenter and pursuer of the Victorian representation de-norming process. Browning’s narrative verse employs ambiguation through syntactic rendition of his dramatic personae who voice their minds beyond the restraints of dialogic turn-taking and divulge their impulses through verbal dominance. Browning’s bicentenary seems a most auspicious moment to creatively explore the tenacity of his discordant narrative vein in literary translation. Browning’s fixation on engendering a poetic form that would fully sustain the self-projecting techniques of his protagonists resulted in the employment of narrative verse whose dialogic nature is undermined and embedded in his creations’ monologues. The poet utilizes innuendoes which originate not only from the pool of poetic references but also from the syntactic realizations disclosing a disparity between the speakers’ ...

In 2000 the final volume of the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials was published in London. Although it was only after New Line Cinema announced the film adaptation that it attracted world wide attention, it is undeniable that Pullman’s work made an immense contribution not only to children’s literature, but to British literature in general. The fact that Pullman was the first children’s author to receive The Whitbread Award, as well as the sales of more than 15 million, speak in favour of the significance his work. However, because of his public outbursts against the boycotters of his works, Pullman came under strident criticism. Unconventional usage of traditional religious and Church-related concepts as literary devices brought into question his integrity as an author and designated him as a fervent atheist. The central aim of this paper is to show how Pullman uses various religious concepts, which are mainly related to Christian tradition and doctrines. The resonant imagery of His ...