In view of the emergence of increasingly sophisticated tools for automatic translation, a legitimate question arises: what is the difference between human translation and machine translation, which competence surplus is brought by the human factor, what conditions must be met for human translation to be more perfect than machine translation? The author tries to answer the question discussing different types of competences with particular emphasis on literary competence related to the poetic function of the language. Referring to selected principles of the Translation Studies, postulated in Kubaszczyk (2019), the author argues why human being is still irreplaceable in literary rendering and shows, in reference to Jakobson (1960), how in literary rendering the translator shifts from the selection axis to the combination axis searching for the optimal solution. In the second part of the article, the theoretical argument is supported by empirical evidence. 

The article presents the previously unread novel Gluvne čini (Dead Spells) from 1930, by Aleksandar Ilić (1890–1947), the writer who, after the Second World War until 1982, was excluded from the space of Serbian culture for political reasons. Neurastenia – the disease of the main character of the novel becomes a kind of response to the modernization processes experienced by him.

The main aim of this article is to analyse the impact of the Second World War on the eponymous protagonist of William Golding’s third novel, Pincher Martin. Concentrating on Christopher “Pincher” Martin’s disconnected and often chaotic recollections, as well as his attempts to organise them into a coherent narrative, this article argues that his experience of war can be considered in terms of trauma. The article begins with a short overview of critical perspectives on Pincher Martin, and then goes on to analyse in detail chosen passages from this novel, which are discussed in the context of trauma theory, as formulated by Robert Jay Lifton, Cathy Caruth and Susan Brison. While the main focus of the article is memory and its role in the shaping of the protagonist’s identity, the discussion also accounts for the complex symbolism of Golding’s novel.

In recent years, in Bulgaria returns the belief of untranslatability formulated equally in relation to native literature, as well as culture and is expressed both by the creators and researchers. The term “untranslatability” appears essentially in two spaces – public discourse and scientific discourse. This article focuses on the second one, namely on scientific discourse. The paper analyzes selected articles, debates and scientific studies published in the beginning of 21st century. The purpose of the proposed exegesis is to try to understand what Bulgarian researchers understand using the term “neprevodimost”.

This article aims to present the key post-Soviet generational conflict in the Russian literary field, which has significantly influenced the present shape of the field. The most important mechanisms and stages of the discussed generational change, its institutional background and the most important actors of these processes will be highlighted. For the purpose of the text, manifestos, critical essays, interviews, polemics and other forms of expression on (around) literary issues published in literary magazines such as “Novy mir”, “Kontinent”, “Oktyabr”, “Znamya”, “Voprosy literatury”, “Ural”, “Literaturnaya gazeta”, “Literaturnaya Rossiya”, “NG Ex Libris” and the daily press, which is not profiled in literary terms. The basis of the research is the perspective of the social history of literature, based on two important theoretical approaches to the relationship between literature and social reality: the concept of the sociology of the literary field by Pierre Bourdieu and the concept of aesthetics as politics by Jacques Rancière. 

This paper focuses on the illustrations appearing in the Polish edition of the Kućni duhovi by Dubravka Ugrešić. Hardly anyone remembers that this world-famous Croatian writer made her debut as a writer for children (Mali plamen, 1971; Filip i srećica, 1976). Unfortunately, these  texts are almost unknown outside of Croatia. Only the collection of stories Kućni duhovi from 1988 has been translated into foreign languages. The author of the Polish translation is Dorota Jovanka Ćirlić, while the graphic design was created by Iwona Chmielewska, one of the most titled and recognizable Polish illustrators in the world. In her works, Chmielewska used many elements evoking socialist Yugoslavia. The Yugoslavian banknotes and coins, logos and labels, posters of musical bands and characters associated with this geographical area appearing in the illustrations were combined with Dutch and North European painting. Thanks to this, the pictures created by Chmielewska not only illustrate the content of the work, but they can also be read as a separate story – a kind of visual biography of Ugrešić, which consists of images from before the break-up of Yugoslavia and life in exile in the Netherlands. In this paper, I show that we are also dealing with a change of the ontological status of the book in the Polish edition of Kućni duhovi. Both the Croatian and Serbian editions are examples of illustrated books where basic communication code is text, while the image is only an illustration of the content. On the other hand, a picture book has been given to Polish readers, in which the text and image play an equal role.