Translation of Catholic lexis from English into Bulgarian in the context of a novel by Oscar Wilde
Translation of Catholic lexis from English into Bulgarian in the context of a novel by Oscar Wilde

Summary/Abstract: The article studies the problem of the translation of Catholic lexis from English into Bulgarian in the context of a specific extract from the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The analysis is based on the theories of Itamar Even-Zohar and Guideon Toury about the place of translated literature within a literary polysystem. The place of the translated literature in Bulgarian could be defined as central because of the lack of consolidated home traditions. Due to a combination of factors, both historical and political, models were borrowed from specific cultures excluding the British one, which makes the translation of Oscar Wilde in Bulgarian a quite curious phenomenon. The research focuses on three Bulgarian translations of the book published in three successive decades as the main concern of the author is how the Catholic terms are translated in the extract – as an adaptation to Orthodoxy and the target culture or by keeping their Catholic identity considering the fact that a Catholic society exists in Bulgaria.

• Details
• Contents