Holenderskie elementy kulturowe w polskim przekładzie „De reünie” („Zjazd szkolny”) autorstwa Simone van der Vlugt. Analiza wybranych technik translatorskich
Dutch Culture-specific Items in the Polish Translation of „De reünie” by Simone van der Vlugt. Analysis of the Selected Translation Techniques

Summary/Abstract: Culture-specific items cause many translation problems and therefore they often pose a huge challenge to translators. Thereupon this issue has been researched by many translation theorists. The subject matter of this article are culture-specific items (CSIs) in the Polish translation of the thriller “De reünie” by Simone van der Vlugt. The first reading of this translation calls readers’ attention to the fact that it is a text rich in cultural references. Thereupon the author of this article found worth analyzing how the translator has dealed with this challenge. Especially that this kind of research can be useful for other translators, as well as for translation theorists and reviewers of translations. The aim of this article is to analyze the use of translation techniques for CSIs and to inquire into the frequency with which the analyzed translation techniques have been applied. This is the first research of this kind concerning this novel. The theoretical part is dedicated to the issues associated with CSIs, namely the definitions of this term, translation problems caused by CSIs and classifications of translation strategies and techniques. The command of these issues is a starting point for the next phases of the research. The analysis was carried out using the classification of translation strategies and techniques described by Aixelá (1996). Due to the fact that proper nouns are numerous, the chosen classification was supplemented with one strategy from the classification of Hejwowski (2007), namely with the approved equivalent. The presented analysis is based upon the most representative examples of CSIs. The author of this article has suggested alternative translation solutions to some examples. The aim of it was not to criticize the translation choices made by the translator, but to shed light on other translation possibilities. The analysis has shown that there have been used 17 translation techniques and combinations of them in the Polish translation of the novel „De reünie”. The most common technique used by the translator, Dorota Szafrańska-Poniewierska, has been the repetition – 105 times. Other translation techniques and combinations of them have been applied significantly less often. On the basis of the observations has been stated that the most translation techniques and the combinations of them belong to the conservation, category proposed by Aixelá (1996) and are exotic. That means that the most Dutch culture-specific items and consequently also the couleur locale of the whole novel have been retained. Thereupon it can be as- sumed that the choices of the translator may lead to the foreignization (Venuti, 1995). However, these are tentative conclusions and in order to draw further conclusions the analysis of this text should be broadened with the research at the macrostructural level that could be an interesting amplification of this research.

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