Elżbieta Skibińska

Crime novel is considered one of the most important innovations of the twentieth century in the field of fiction. Together with cinema, television and “elite” literature which often take over some of its features (themes and plots), it plays a significant role in creating the representation of reality proposed to the readers. The investigation described in the novels is set in a context which refers to the real world, in its social, political or historical aspects. The realistic dimension of the crime story makes it a kind of “social document”, which attracts the attention of researchers, including non-literary scholars. Reading crime novels allows them to acquire strictly literary information, but also some knowledge about communities, which leads them to an interpretation of relationships between literature and society. In this paper, the translated crime novel is seen as a special means of enriching the reader’s knowledge of the source culture. The realistic character of the work, which is supposed to fulfil a primarily ludic function, implies a certain tension in the work of the translator, who is led to ask himself: “shall I entertain or shall I entertain and teach”? If realism becomes a constitutive feature of crime fiction, if, as stated by Maryse Petit and Gilles Menegaldo, “under the pretext of attracting a crime novel client, the intention is to give him a history lesson or to make him think about a certain state of society”, the translator may be bound to include in the translation some elements that supplement the “encyclopaedic” knowledge of the target reader. The analysis is based on two novels by Marek Krajewski – his first novel, Death in Breslau (1999), set in the inter-war period, featuring the German policeman Eberhard Mock, and The Minotaur’s Head, published a decade later, which action takes Mock to Lwów in the time when it was a Polish city and makes him befriend a Polish commissioner, Popielski. A comparison of some of their translations (eight for the first book, three for the second) shows differences in the treatment of the historical component of the novels, both in the treatment of selected text elements, as a result of the translator’s project, and in the peritexts, which, however, usually do not depend on the translator, but on the publisher.

Trans. by Xavier Chantry

Is a Translated Crime Novel Likely to Teach History? About the Translations of Śmierć w Breslau [Death in Breslau] and Głowa Minotaura [The Minotaur’s Head] by Marek Krajewski

Crime novel is considered one of the most important innovations of the twentieth century in the field of fiction. Together with cinema, television and “elite” literature which often take over some of its features (themes and plots), it plays a significant role in creating the representation of reality proposed to the readers. The investigation described in the novels is set in a context which refers to the real world, in its social, political or historical aspects. The realistic dimension of the crime story makes it a kind of “social document”, which attracts the attention of researchers, including non-literary scholars. Reading crime novels allows them to acquire strictly literary information, but also some knowledge about communities, which leads them to an interpretation of relationships between literature and society. In this paper, the translated crime novel is seen as a special means of enriching the reader’s knowledge of the source culture. The realistic character of the work, which is supposed to fulfil a primarily ludic function, implies a certain tension in the work of the translator, who is led to ask himself: “shall I entertain or shall I entertain and teach”? If realism becomes a constitutive feature of crime fiction, if, as stated by Maryse Petit and Gilles Menegaldo, “under the pretext of attracting a crime novel client, the intention is to give him a history lesson or to make him think about a certain state of society”, the translator may be bound to include in the translation some elements that supplement the “encyclopaedic” knowledge of the target reader. The analysis is based on two novels by Marek Krajewski – his first novel, Death in Breslau (1999), set in the inter-war period, featuring the German policeman Eberhard Mock, and The Minotaur’s Head, published a decade later, which action takes Mock to Lwów in the time when it was a Polish city and makes him befriend a Polish commissioner, Popielski. A comparison of some of their translations (eight for the first book, three for the second) shows differences in the treatment of the historical component of the novels, both in the treatment of selected text elements, as a result of the translator’s project, and in the peritexts, which, however, usually do not depend on the translator, but on the publisher.

City landscape design in the approach presented here is a process that combines the language of contemporary urban design, landscape and the phenomenon that the landscape represents. Using it allows the most important values, meaning and the identity of the space to be recognised, which gives the opportunity to accurately highlight its shortcomings and its potential. The method of city landscape design process presented within includes a distinctive landscape analysis and a system of results synthesis and interpretation. Three aspects have been presented: the general approach to the research process, the role of lighting, and the importance of urban furniture in the design of the city landscape.

Streszczenie

Projektowanie krajobrazu miasta w przedstawionym ujęciu jest działaniem odnoszącym się do łączenia języka współczesnej urbanistyki, krajobrazu i fenomenu, jaki krajobraz sobą reprezentuje. Pozwala rozpoznać najważniejsze wartości, znaczenia i tożsamość badanej przestrzeni, przez co daje możliwość dokładnego uwypuklenia jej mankamentów i potencjału. Przedstawiona metoda pokazuje drogę postępowania analitycznego oraz specyficzny sposób syntezy wyników i ich interpretację w procesie projektowym. Przedstawiono tutaj trzy aspekty: ogólne ujęcie procesu badawczego, a także rolę oświetlenia i znaczenie umeblowania w kształtowaniu krajobrazu miasta.

The Agonistic Nature of Translation. Notes on Traduction et violence by Tiphaine Samoyault

The article discusses the ideas from the book Traduction et violence by Tiphaine Samoyault, professor of literary and comparative studies at the Sorbonne, literary critic and translator. Samoyault’s book is part of a current of reflection on translation showing that translation is used not only to facilitate human communication and contact, but also appears in situations of tension and conflict. The author refers to theoretical works in translation research and to testimonies (including literary ones) showing the use of translation when an element of domination or violence is at stake. Inspired by the political thought of Chantal Mouffe, she borrows the concept of agonism and distinguishes “translation antagonisms”. This term refers to the connections of translation with a struggle between languages, whose manifestations may be external (historical antagonisms, visible, for example, in colonization processes or – in the most extreme form – in extermination camps) or internal (antagonisms, visible in the act of translation as a “war of languages”). The remarks on Samoyault’s book close with a brief indication of the applicability of her perspective to research on the functioning of translation in Polish history.