Katarzyna Biernacka-Licznar

My aim in this article is to present the life and work of Zofia Ernst, nee Kostanecka (1918–1994), a connoisseur of Italian culture and literature and an accomplished translator of Italian books for adults and children. In my argument, I draw on the ethnographic approach, using a common ethnographic tool: the qualitative interview (structured interview) to address important moments and events in Ernst’s life. The focus on the life-story of one translator will help me depict the environment she lived and worked in as well as identify her embedment in particular familial and professional settings which crucially affected her work. I will also discuss Ernst’s formative contribution to the image of Italian literature in Poland in the years 1953–1979, i.e. in the period of her translation activity.

My aim in this article is to present the life and work of Zofia Ernstowa, nee Kostanecka (1918–1994), an ardent connoisseur of Italian culture and literature and an accomplished translator of Italian books for adults and children. In my argument, I draw on the ethnographic approach, using a very common ethnographic tool: the qualitative interview (structured interview) to address important moments and events in Ernst’s life. The focus on the life-story of one translator will help me depict the environment in which she lived and worked as well as identify her embedment in particular familial and professional settings which crucially affected her work. I will also discuss Ernst’s formative contribution to the image of Italian literature in Poland in the years 1953–1979, i.e. in the period of her translation activity.

The paper discusses Polish publishers referred to as “Lilliputians”, i.e. a group of small independent publishing houses set up after 2000 that publish artistically refined books of high literary quality for children and young adults.

Drawing on Itamar Even-Zohar’s theory of culture repertoire, we posit that in the 1990s, the cultural repertoire of Polish children’s literature was distinctly limited, while the development of the Lilliputian publishers at the onset of the third millennium was a reaction against that limitation. We believe that the role played by the Lilliputian publishers in Polish children’s literature is best captured by the notion of idea-makers, i.e. people who are a driving force of change in culture repertoire.

The aim of this descriptive exploratory paper is to identify and analyse Polish and foreign books released by those publishers and to define distinctive features of those publications with a special focus on literary imports from France and Italy. Our findings imply that the choices made by the Lilliputian publishers have modified the repertoire available to Polish readers of children’s literature at the turn of the millennia.