Issue 51

Early View

Publication date: 27.11.2025

Licence: CC BY

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief dr hab. Magda Heydel

Secretary dr Paulina Kwaśniewska-Urban

Issue editors dr Paulina Kwaśniewska-Urban, dr hab., prof. UJ Agnieszka Romanowska-Kowalska

Issue content

Od bazy tłumaczeń do panoramy tłumaczenia: próba stworzenia procedury badawczej

Karolina Dębska, Magdalena Heydel

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 7-30

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.020.22461

One of methodological problems translation historians face is a limited availability of bibliographic material – a result of the systemic marginalisation of translators and translations in catalogues. New research tools such as metadata databases offer hope for a breakthrough in the availability of reliable, well-organised and validated bibliographic data. However, this is only a starting point for historical research; another challenge is to develop a procedure to move from the data to a narrative and, subsequently, to a historical panorama. In the research project ‘A Century of Translation. Translators and their work in Polish literature after 1918’, we have been able to tackle the first of these problems quite well. However, the second one still needs to be addressed.
This article attempts to create a procedure leading from bibliographic metadata to a historical-translational narrative and proposes some procedures that can be applied to a big and complex data set. We want to observe verifiable and reproducible results and show the limitations of this type of research. As a case study we select 400 records from the database: translations from the French made by women and published in the years 1945–1970. We offer a quantitative analysis and contextualise the results in order to understand the meaning behind the numbers, trace the lines of inquiry they suggest and draw lines of interpreting their social, cultural and ideological contexts in order to reach conclusions regarding the structure and conditions of the literary translation field of the period.

Papier, maszyna, oko. O materialności w przekładzie na podstawie listów Julii Dickstein-Wieleżyńskiej do Raffaele Pettazzoniego

Anita Kłos

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 31-55

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.021.22462

As Michael Cronin and Karin Littau highlight in their seminal studies on materiality and translation, “translation without tools simply does not exist.” In recent years, there has been growing interest among translation scholars in the material aspects of translational phenomena, approached from various interdisciplinary perspectives. The present study explores the role of objects in the translation process, particularly during the analogue era, through the letters written by Julia Dickstein-Wieleżyńska (1881–1943) to her friend and academic mentor, Raffaele Pettazzoni (1883–1959), a prominent Italian scholar of the history of religions. The extensive collection of her previously unpublished letters is preserved in Pettazzoni’s archive, now housed at the public library “Giulio Cesare Croce” in San Giovanni in Persiceto.
Dickstein-Wieleżyńska was a scholar of literature and philosophy, a poet, journalist, educational and feminist activist, and a literary and scientific translator, working from multiple languages into Polish and from Polish into Italian. The letters frequently reference the material elements and the technosphere of her translation work. Operating in a relatively provincial academic center like Warsaw, she contended with the absence of an established tradition in Italian studies. Additionally, she faced disruptions due to political upheaval, which caused shortages of various goods and hindered international intellectual exchange. Drawing on the aforementioned archival material, this article will analyse the role of translation tools and their accessibility for translation work (Paper), the entanglement of humans and objects in translation through assemblages and networks (Machine), and the ergonomic and bodily conditions affecting a translator’s work (Eye).

„Nie mogliśmy być oknem”: o wyłanianiu się „Literatury na Świecie” na podstawie zbiorów archiwalnych ZLP i Pen Clubu (1950-1971)

Przemysław Pożar

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 56-80

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.022.22463

The aim of this article is to present the extensive archival material depicting the efforts of the translators’ community to establish a journal devoted to literary translation and, in the longer term, the process of creating “Literatura na Świecie”. The main sources for the analysis are stenographic records from the meetings of the Translation Section of the Polish Writers’ Union and previously unpublished minutes from the meetings of the Translators’ Section of the Polish PEN Club. By juxtaposing these sources, I want to capture the continuity between the initiative to establish “Literatura na Świecie” and the discussions of literary translators in the 1950s urging to create a professional forum for discussing literary translation.

Tłumacze fantastycznego leksykonu w niezwyczajnych rolach. O Słowniku miejsc wyobrażonych

Marta Kaźmierczak

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 81-109

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.023.22464

The article concerns the translation of Manguel and Guadalupi’s The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, a dictionary that is intended to entertain and educate, and whose scope and size make it an intimidating translation task. The author examines what the Polish Słownik miejsc wyobrażonych (2019) communicates about the forms of translators’ (team) work and about the competences they were required to exercise. The peculiar nature of the reference book warrants examining how translators performed the roles of authors (sic), experts (some of them had translated certain works covered in the dictionary), researchers, bibliographers and even cartographers. The Polish edition is surveyed as a source of literary knowledge and reading pleasure, but also of misunderstandings (e.g. as to the authorship of some elements of the text).

Barańczak i Sosnowski przekładają „The Map” Elizabeth Bishop. Między mimesis a deziluzją, ocaleniem a nicością

Bartosz Sowiński

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 110-132

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.024.22465

This article examines Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Map” and its Polish translations by Stanisław Barańczak and Andrzej Sosnowski. The first section outlines key interpretations of Bishop’s work, presenting her as a poet negotiating the tension between vision (mimesis) and language (disillusion). Here, I draw on Geoffrey Hartman’s reading of imitatio Christi, which he understood as a process of individuation. In the second section, I interpret Barańczak’s translation as an expression of a mimetic and individualising theory of translation and of Bishop’s poetry, heavily influenced by Gerard Manley Hopkins. The third section considers Sosnowski’s version as a manifestation of an antimimetic and de-subjectivising approach to both translation and the reading of Bishop’s work, inspired by his reading of Paul de Man. The conclusion highlights the paradoxes inherent in both approaches and suggests possible directions for further interpretation, particularly with regard to Sosnowski’s translations, which are yet to be investigated in detail.

„Requeerowanie przekładu” – ze szczególnym odniesieniem do Franka O’Hary

Joanna Orska

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 133-152

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.025.22466

In the article I address the problem of the reception of translations from the poetry of the New York School. In the late 1980s and early 1990s in Poland this reception was determined by issues of political transformation, which precluded the possibility of reading O’Hara’s poetry in relation to queer studies. O’Hara’s works, whose style and strategies largely depend on camp stylistics, present a distinctly queer character. Through the setting of Piotr Sommer’s translations in Twoja pojedynczość (1987), the metatexts collected for the publication of O'Hara's poems in the New York issue of “Literatura na Świecie” (1986: 7), and finally through poetic allusions in the translated poet's texts, this element was exposed in a sufficiently expressive way. Neither in the 1990s nor later has the ‘queer orientation’ of O'Hara’s poetry shape the Polish reception of his work in any way.

Niewysłuchane wyznania Włocha. Le confessioni di un italiano i Na zamku Fratta. O powieści Ippolita Nieva oraz jej recepcji i polskim przekładzie

Natalia Chwaja, Agnieszka Liszka-Drążkiewicz

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 153-167

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.027.22468

Ippolito Nievo was an Italian revolutionary and author, known mainly for his posthumously published novel, Confessioni di un italiano (1867), included by many critics amongst the best literary works of the Risorgimento period. The novel was translated in various languages, and since the beginning of the 21st century it is being republished or retranslated in different countries. The Polish translation of the first five chapters – considered of greater literary value than the others – authored by Barbara Sieroszewska was published in 1954 as Na zamku Fratta, with an introductory note from Jerzy Adamski. The paper is an attempt at clarifying the circumstances of the publication of the Polish version, and its assumed role in the Polish literary polysystem. The paper also analyses the novel’s reception in Italy, Poland (mainly immediately after its publication) and – briefly – other European countries, and considers various factors that may have influenced the lack of interest it faced in Poland despite its importance in Italy and experienced Polish translator.

Rushdie nad Wisłą: recepcja, przekład i polityczność literatury światowej

Jakub Czernik

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 168-191

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.028.22469

Salman Rushdie’s work has undoubtedly become a central reference point in the canon of postcolonial literature, as well as a key component of contemporary world literature, as constructed within the frameworks of Western literary scholarship. At the same time, it is clear that the reception of Rushdie’s writing in Poland has followed a distinct trajectory from that of the global context. While he is a recognizable author among Polish readers, and all of his prose works, along with most of his essay collections, are consistently published in Polish translations shortly after their original English release, accompanied by substantial media and promotional attention, academic studies on Rushdie by Polish scholars remain relatively scarce. Rushdie, a foundational figure in global postcolonial literature, appears to be so extensively examined in the English-language context that he seems less appealing to Polish researchers than writers occupying more peripheral positions. A closer look at the early decades of Rushdie’s reception in Poland, however, reveals more complex dynamics shaping his Polish readership. These include not only questions of translation, cultural foreignness, and its transmission, but also various forms of political entanglement and the evolving position of Polish culture in relation to the global literary landscape. His first novel was met with significant scepticism from Polish reviewers as early as the 1970s. Midnight’s Children, published in 1981, was largely interpreted as a mere “offshoot” of magical realism, and several different excerpts were translated by various translators for Polish literary journals. The Satanic Verses was long read almost exclusively through the lens of Muslim backlash and the so-called “Rushdie Affair”. During Poland’s early post-communist transition, public debate in the press even questioned whether such a novel should be translated at all, with responses heavily influenced by the political leanings of the commentators. Only over time did attention begin to shift toward the literary quality of Rushdie’s texts and the thematic issues he explores. The Polish reception of Salman Rushdie’s work thus serves as a lens through which to examine the complexities of how postcolonial discourses and authors find their place in Polish cultural space, as well as how global literature and its cultural contexts are received, translated, and reinterpreted.

Japońskie przekłady Heart of Darkness Josepha Conrada – słowa wspólne i przykłady rozbieżności

Aleksandra Szczechla

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 192-212

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.029.22470

The article offers an analysis of the complex process of reception and translation of Heart of Darkness in Japan. It explores the history of translations, the varied approaches and interpretations of Japanese translators and publishers, and the ongoing relevance of this literary masterpiece for Japanese readers. A comparative analysis of selected excerpts from translations and strategies for annotating the text sheds light on the challenges faced by literary translators and how their decisions influence the work's reception.

Dubbing polskojęzyczny w okresie międzywojennym

Elżbieta Plewa

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 213-254

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.030.22471

This article aims to discuss Polish-language dubbing in the interwar period. The main aim is to compile the most comprehensive corpus of dubbed films and to provide relevant information about each translation. The data has been retrieved from Polish archives and press articles. Polish audiovisual archives contain only three films that were analysed, with a special reference to the metadata concerning individuals who had created the films. However, neither the films nor the metadata were sufficient to examine and assess the dubbing used in the movies. Therefore, most of the information about the films discussed in the article has been collected by analysing press articles taken from daily papers as well as film magazines. The numerous quotes cited in the article are intended to illustrate that dynamic period of film translation. They demonstrate that Poland did not lag behind the worldwide trends in film translation. Actually, this country did play its role in the development of dubbing of European and American films, though sometimes with difficulty and imperfectly. Over time, Poland developed its dubbing staff, while that specific mode of translation improved. Finally, in the late 1930s, thanks to individuals such as Ryszard Ordyński and his translation of Disney’s Snow White, Polish dubbing stood out against other dubbing practices.

Reviews

Trans-, czyli Non serviam! Gabriel Borowski, Transkreacje. Wybór pism Haroldo de Camposa, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2024

Adam Lipszyc

Przekładaniec, Issue 51, Early View, pp. 257-260

https://doi.org/10.4467/16891864PC.25.031.22472

Słowa kluczowe: translation databases, translation history, research procedure, gender in translation, “Century of Translation”, Julia Dickstein-Wieleżyńska, materiality of translation, translation tools, translation archives, translation process, assemblages, history of literary translation, „Literatura na Świecie”, archives, authorship and translation, literary-scientific texts in translation, lexicography in translation, intertextuality, mimesis, disillusion, ambiguity, subjectivity, queer studies, American neo-avant-garde poetry, reception and translation in comparatist approach, political transformation in Poland, New York School of Painters and Poets, poets-translators, “Literatura na Świecie”, Ippolito Nievo, The Castle of Fratta, Confessions on an Italian, translation in the Polish Peoples Republic, reception, Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, postcolonial literature, world literature, reception, Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, translation, interpretation, film translation, dubbing, versioning, dubbing director

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