Translation anthologies and British literature in Portugal and Hungary between 1949 and 1974
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Zsófia Gombár
Abstract
A comparison of translation anthologies published in Portugal and Hungary when both countries lived under differing forms of dictatorial rule reveals not only different attitudes towards British literary works, but also towards literature in general. The different role ascribed to literature in Estado Novo Portugal and Socialist Hungary is also well evidenced by their dissimilar approach towards the publishing industry. The total control over book publishing and distribution in Hungary appears to show that literature played a more significant role in the Hungarian propaganda machine than in Portugal. The dominance of crime fiction anthologies in the Portuguese book market, for example, may probably be explained by the fact that, due to the lack of adequate government funding, private publishing houses were obliged to rely mostly on profitable bestsellers. Conversely, the idealistic belief in the educational power of politically reliable classics in establishing Socialism might have had the effect of depriving Hungarian readers of light and entertaining literature, but also of providing them with thousands of remarkably low-priced high-quality books and anthologies. In fact, one of the main tenets behind the Hungarian cultural politics of this period was to re-educate society with the help of the “ideologically progressive” literary heritage of tried-and-true classic authors such as Shakespeare, Shelley, Dickens, or Hardy, while in Portugal, political control was principally based on a policy of keeping the population in relative ignorance with regard to social and cultural alternatives.
Abstract
A comparison of translation anthologies published in Portugal and Hungary when both countries lived under differing forms of dictatorial rule reveals not only different attitudes towards British literary works, but also towards literature in general. The different role ascribed to literature in Estado Novo Portugal and Socialist Hungary is also well evidenced by their dissimilar approach towards the publishing industry. The total control over book publishing and distribution in Hungary appears to show that literature played a more significant role in the Hungarian propaganda machine than in Portugal. The dominance of crime fiction anthologies in the Portuguese book market, for example, may probably be explained by the fact that, due to the lack of adequate government funding, private publishing houses were obliged to rely mostly on profitable bestsellers. Conversely, the idealistic belief in the educational power of politically reliable classics in establishing Socialism might have had the effect of depriving Hungarian readers of light and entertaining literature, but also of providing them with thousands of remarkably low-priced high-quality books and anthologies. In fact, one of the main tenets behind the Hungarian cultural politics of this period was to re-educate society with the help of the “ideologically progressive” literary heritage of tried-and-true classic authors such as Shakespeare, Shelley, Dickens, or Hardy, while in Portugal, political control was principally based on a policy of keeping the population in relative ignorance with regard to social and cultural alternatives.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction: Translation anthologies and collections 1
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I. Discursive practices and scholarly agency
- Forms and functions of anthologies of translations into French in the nineteenth century 17
- The short story in English meets the Portuguese reader 35
- Cancioneiro Chinez 57
- Academic navel gazing? Playing the game up front? 75
- Las antologías sobre la traducción en la Península Ibérica 89
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II. National and international canonization processes
- Poetry anthologies as Weltliteratur projects 107
- Publishing translated literature in late 19th century Portugal 123
- Short stories from foreign literatures in Portugália’s series Antologias Universais 137
- Patterns in the external history of Portuguese collections with translations of Polish literature (1855–2009) 153
- Extra-European literatures in anthology during the Estado Novo (1933–1974) 171
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III. Selection and censorship
- Children’s literature in translation 189
- Translating German poetry into French under the Occupation 205
- The reception of science fiction and horror story anthologies in the last years of Francoist Spain 217
- Censored discourse in anthologies and collections of the Far West 229
- Philosophical collections, translation and censorship 247
- Translation anthologies and British literature in Portugal and Hungary between 1949 and 1974 259
- Notes on contributors and editors 275
- Name index 281
- Subject index 285
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction: Translation anthologies and collections 1
-
I. Discursive practices and scholarly agency
- Forms and functions of anthologies of translations into French in the nineteenth century 17
- The short story in English meets the Portuguese reader 35
- Cancioneiro Chinez 57
- Academic navel gazing? Playing the game up front? 75
- Las antologías sobre la traducción en la Península Ibérica 89
-
II. National and international canonization processes
- Poetry anthologies as Weltliteratur projects 107
- Publishing translated literature in late 19th century Portugal 123
- Short stories from foreign literatures in Portugália’s series Antologias Universais 137
- Patterns in the external history of Portuguese collections with translations of Polish literature (1855–2009) 153
- Extra-European literatures in anthology during the Estado Novo (1933–1974) 171
-
III. Selection and censorship
- Children’s literature in translation 189
- Translating German poetry into French under the Occupation 205
- The reception of science fiction and horror story anthologies in the last years of Francoist Spain 217
- Censored discourse in anthologies and collections of the Far West 229
- Philosophical collections, translation and censorship 247
- Translation anthologies and British literature in Portugal and Hungary between 1949 and 1974 259
- Notes on contributors and editors 275
- Name index 281
- Subject index 285
