Agnieszka Waligóra
Przekładaniec, Numer 44, 2022, s. 111 - 128
https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.22.005.16511Author as Translator’s Property? Frank O’Hara, Piotr Sommer and the (Translational) Criticism
The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between the author of an original work and the translator (and the target culture) not in a ‘traditional’ valuation that places the signatory of the work in the original language higher, but precisely from a reversed perspective. A case in point is the translation relationship between Frank O’Hara and Piotr Sommer, which has so far been analysed not from a translationist or philological perspective, but on the basis of the specificity of the reception of translations in the literary life of the 1980s and 1990s. The text therefore aims to examine the character that Sommer gave to O’Hara and the image of this character in the Polish reception, which will allow us to answer the question – can an author become “property” of a translator?
Agnieszka Waligóra
Wielogłos, Numer 2 (48) 2021: Teksty konwersyjne, 2021, s. 139 - 160
https://doi.org/10.4467/2084395XWI.21.016.14344Conversions of “Autothematicism,” or Autothematicismas a Possibility of a Turn
The article is an attempt to describe autothematicism [autotematyzm] – a term coined in Poland by Artur Sandauer in the mid-20th century, referring to the quality of radically meta-reflexive works – from seven complementary perspectives. The Sandauerian understanding of the concept of metareflection was slightly different from the Western visions of mise-en-abyme or metafiction; it was described in the context of German idealistic philosophy and aesthetics. Sandauer defined the artistic “theme” as an objectivization of content (an author’s perceptions and experiences); therefore “autothematicism” is not synonymous with the other terms mentioned above, which can provide interesting interpretations of self-referential works. The present paper shows that the Sandauerian concept of self-referentiality can be seen as an end product of various transformations (conversions): literature’s (or the subject’s) retreat from all kinds of transcendence and reality, self-reflection of the creative “I,” or the text’s orientation to its own ontology. However, this understanding can be reversed. Autothematicism (as an operative concept) can also be seen as a mechanism that enables the autonomous positioning of art in relation to the “reality” it co-constructs, which enables literature to take active participation in the rebuilding of the world.