Abstract
How does the world of incongruity, created in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and enjoyed both by adults and by children, function in its modern translations into Polish? How is its black humour and nonsense rendered in translation? What kind of worldview do these translations give access to for today’s readers? The present chapter attempts to answer these questions using a passage from Lewis Carroll’s book and its Polish translations. The perspective adopted in the study is cognitive-ethnolinguistic, making use—among others—of the concept of linguistic worldview.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
“The understanding of a simple poem, for instance, involves not merely an understanding of the single words in their average significance, but a full comprehension of the whole life of the community as it is mirrored in the words, or as it is suggested by their overtones” (Sapir 1949: 162).
- 2.
Detailed analyses of the challenges of translating nonsense in the “Alice” books can be found in the chapter by Agata Brajerska-Mazur in this volume.
- 3.
All quotations from this source are translated into English by the author of the present text.
- 4.
According to Cecilia Alvstad, apart from ideological manipulation, other typical features of translation for children include: “cultural context adaptation”, “dual readership” of children and adults, “features of orality” and “the relationship between text and image” (Alvstad 2010: 22).
- 5.
In this respect, it is worth quoting remarks made by Alicja Baluch (following Edward Balcerzan) that in analysing children’s literature it is of the utmost importance to take into account the experience of a child (Baluch 1993: 7–11)
- 6.
The spelling of concepts using capital letters (as contrasted with words) follows the convention sanctioned in cognitive linguistics and, hence, also in linguistic worldview research.
- 7.
Cf. Alicja Baluch (2005: 14–15) on the function of lullabies as texts that introduce small children into a “wonderland” that helps them cope with bad moments in their lives.
- 8.
Cf. Robert Stiller’s remark on Martin Gardner’s Annotated Alice in Stiller (1990: 16), which Stiller used extensively in his translation.
- 9.
Cf. the title of Alicja Baluch’s book Książka jest światem. O literaturze dla dzieci małych oraz dla dzieci starszych i nastolatków. Kraków: Universitas, 2005.
- 10.
All quotations from Grzegorz Wasowski are translated into English by the author of the present text.
- 11.
http://context.reverso.net/t%C5%82umaczenie/angielski-polski/to+wipe+your+nose (accessed 1 April 2018).
Secondary Sources
5 Keys to Transcreation Success (2017). https://www.languagescientific.com/5-keys-to-transcreation-success/. Accessed 1 July 2019.
Alvstad, Cecilia. 2010. Children’s literature and translation. In Handbook of Translation Studies, ed. Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, vol. 1, 22–27. Amsterdam; Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing.
Baluch, Alicja. 1987. Dziecko i świat przedstawiony: czyli tajemnice dziecięcej lektury. Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy Nasza Księgarnia.
———. 1993. Archetypy literatury dziecięcej. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo M. Bagiński i Synowie.
———. 2005. Książka jest światem. O literaturze dla dzieci małych oraz dla dzieci starszych i nastolatków. Kraków: TAiWPN Universitas.
Bartmiński, Jerzy. 2009. Aspects of Cognitive Ethnolinguistics. Trans. A. Głaz, J. Zinken. Sheffield; Oakville, ON: Equinox.
Benetello, Claudia. 2018. When translation is not enough: Transcreation as a convention-defying practice. A practitioner’s perspective. The Journal of Specialised Translation (29): 28–44. https://www.jostrans.org/issue29/art_benetello.pdf. Accessed 1 July 2019.
Gicala, Agnieszka. 2018. Przekładanie obrazu świata. Językowy obraz świata w przekładzie artystycznym. Kraków: TAiWPN Universitas.
Hall, Edward T. 1959. The Silent Language. Garden City: Doubleday.
Katan, David. 2009. Translation as intercultural communication. In The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies, ed. Jeremy Munday, 74–92. London: Routledge.
———. 2016. Translation at the cross-roads: Time for the transcreational turn? Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 24 (3): 365–381.
Krysztofiak, Maria. 2011. Translatologiczna teoria i pragmatyka przekładu artystycznego. Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM: Poznań.
Munday, Jeremy. 2001. Introducing Translation Studies. Theories and Applications. London; New York, NY: Routledge.
Oittinen, Riitta. 2002 [2000]. Translating for Children. New York, NY; London: Garland.
Peze, Esther. 1987. Situational nonsense in postmodern American fiction. In Explorations in the Field of Nonsense, ed. Wim Tiggers, 215–228. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Pieciul-Karmińska, Elżbieta. 2018. Tłumacz się tłumaczy. Nie bójmy się obcości, An interview with Elżbieta Pieciul-Karmińska published on 8th February 2018. http://kultura.poznan.pl/mim/kultura/news/rozmowy,c,7/tlumacz-sie-tlumaczy-nie-bojmy-sie-obcosci,114823.html. Accessed 3 March 2018.
Puurtinen, Tiina. 1994. Dynamic style as a parameter of acceptability in translated children’s books. In Translation Studies: An Interdiscipline, ed. Mary Snell-Hornby, Franz Pöchhacker, and Klaus Kaindl, 83–90. Amsterdam; Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Sapir, Edward. 1949. Selected Writings in Language, Culture and Personality. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Shavit, Zohar. 2009 [1986]. Poetics of Children's Literature. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Six Ways Transcreation Differs from Translation. n.d.. https://www.smartling.com/resources/blog/six-ways-transcreation-differs-from-translation/. Accessed 1 July 2019.
Słomczyński, Maciej. 1990. Od tłumacza. In Przygody Alicji w Krainie Czarów. O tym, co ALICJA ODKRYŁA po Drugiej Stronie Lustra (trans. M. Słomczyński), Lewis Carroll, 5–7. Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie: Wrocław.
Stiller, Robert. 1990. Wielebny w Krainie Czarów. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland/Przygody Alicji w Krainie Czarów (trans. R. Stiller), Lewis Carroll, 5–19. Warszawa: Lettrex.
Tabakowska, Elżbieta. 2012. Słowo-po-słowie od tłumacza. In Alicja w Krainie Czarów (trans. E. Tabakowska), Lewis Carroll, 115–117. Wydawnictwo Bona: Kraków.
———. 2015 [2012]. Gdzie twój iPad, Alicjo? In Myśl językoznawcza z myślą o przekładzie. Wybór prac, ed. Piotr de Bończa Bukowski, Magdalena Heydel, 249–260. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
———. 2016. Grzegorz Wasowski na Czarytorium: potłumacz i pomagik. Porównania (19): 163–170. https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/p/article/view/10271. Accessed 1 June 2018.
Tamehi, Al. 2017. The complete guide to transcreation. https://translatorthoughts.com/2017/06/the-complete-guide-to-transcreation/. Accessed 1 July 2019.
Venuti, Lawrence. 2013. Translation Changes Everything. Theory and Practice. London; New York, NY: Routledge.
Victorian School. 2005. https://victorianschool.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/the-cane-and-corporal-punishment/. Accessed 1 July 2019.
Wasowski, Grzegorz. 2015. Zakończenie. In Perypetie Alicji na Czarytorium (trans. G. Wasowski), Lewis Carroll, 159–173. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Wasowscy.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gicala, A. (2020). How Can One Word Change a World? Black Humour and Nonsense in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its Polish Translations from the Cognitive-Ethnolinguistic Perspective. In: Dybiec-Gajer, J., Oittinen, R., Kodura, M. (eds) Negotiating Translation and Transcreation of Children's Literature. New Frontiers in Translation Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2433-2_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2433-2_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-2432-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-2433-2
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)