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Mellan barock och modernism. Några tendenser i svenska Szymborskaöversättningar

Publication date: 2023

The Smorgasbord of Scandinavian Philology, 2018, 3 (2018), pp. 75 - 84

Authors

Krzysztof Bak
Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków, Poland
Stockholm University. Sweden
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Titles

Mellan barock och modernism. Några tendenser i svenska Szymborskaöversättningar

Abstract

The article investigates some main tendencies in the translations of Wisława Szymborska’s poetry into Swedish. According to scholars of Polish literature, the poetical work of Szymborska can be placed within two literary traditions: on the one hand modernism, on the other hand premodern literature with a heavy accent on baroque aesthetics. The leading thesis of this article is that Swedish translators strengthen the modernistic character of the poems while weakening their baroque features. The line of argument comprises four stages. In the first stage, the history of Swedish translations of Szymborska’s poetry is summarized. In the second stage, it is demonstrated that Swedish translators successfully reproduce the majority of Szymborska’s modernistic devices (metaphor, free verse, depersonalization, polyphony, colloquialism etc.). In the third stage, it is analogously shown that Szymborska’s baroque devices (conceit, pun, play with rhetorical figures and intertextual artefacts etc.) tend to abate or simply disappear in Swedish translations. In the fourth stage finally, the translatory practice of substituting Szymborska’s baroque components is examined. Whether the translators try to find literal equivalents to her conceits or turn them into colloquial Swedish idiom, the article argues, the result of both strategies is an intensification of the poems’ modernistic style.

Information

Information: The Smorgasbord of Scandinavian Philology, 2018, 3 (2018), pp. 75 - 84

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Swedish: Mellan barock och modernism. Några tendenser i svenska Szymborskaöversättningar
English:

Between Baroque and Modernism. Some Tendencies in the Swedish Translations of Szymborska’s Poetry

Authors

Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków, Poland

Stockholm University. Sweden

Published at: 2023

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Krzysztof Bak (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

Swedish

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