Censorship or Cultural Adjustment? Sexualized Violence in Hungarian Translations of Asimov’s Second Foundation

Abstract

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy is one of the most popular works of American speculative fiction in Hungarian translation. It exists in multiple editions and two major translations, which diverge from the English original in subtle but key aspects. In this chapter, I examine how the portrayal of telepathic invasion is repeatedly described using the vocabulary of sexualized violence in the English-language text, which comparison is tied to the main antagonist’s characterization as a sterile mutant. In the Hungarian translations, telepathy is presented by analogy to a knife assault or an animal attack. Are these differences due to censorship practices prevalent in the Communist era related to queer sexuality and/or rape, or a cultural adjustment to make the text more palatable to Hungarian audiences—or possibly a combination of these approaches? I will examine these issues with a close contrastive reading of the texts involved, and also take a look at how the far-reaching influence of Second Foundation led to different developments in the portrayal of telepathy in Hungarian and American science fiction. I will contextualize the findings in light of feminist translation studies commentary on the ambiguities involved in translating rape, and cross-cultural comparisons involving the gendered context of telepathy.