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Translation trouble

Translating sexual identity into Slovenian
  • Suzana Tratnik
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Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts
This chapter is in the book Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts

Abstract

This chapter explores the cultural context of post-communist Slovenia for the translation of Western lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgendered (LGBT) and queer literature and theory. Situating this period within the history of queer visibility in Slovenian society and culture, this chapter examines the challenges of translating theoretical categories and social types for which there are no Slovenian counterparts. The author, who is herself the translator of many seminal Western works of gay and lesbian fiction and queer theory, recounts her struggle to find solutions, often by assuming the authority to introduce new concepts and terms into the Slovenian language.

Abstract

This chapter explores the cultural context of post-communist Slovenia for the translation of Western lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgendered (LGBT) and queer literature and theory. Situating this period within the history of queer visibility in Slovenian society and culture, this chapter examines the challenges of translating theoretical categories and social types for which there are no Slovenian counterparts. The author, who is herself the translator of many seminal Western works of gay and lesbian fiction and queer theory, recounts her struggle to find solutions, often by assuming the authority to introduce new concepts and terms into the Slovenian language.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Notes on contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Part I. Contexts
  7. Shifting contexts 19
  8. Nation and translation 33
  9. Vasilii Zhukovskii as translator and the protean Russian nation 55
  10. Romania as Europe’s translator 79
  11. Translating India, constructing self 97
  12. The water of life 117
  13. Translation trouble 137
  14. Part II. Subtexts
  15. Between the lines 149
  16. Translation theory and cold war politics 171
  17. The poetics and politics of Joseph Brodsky as a Russian poet-translator 187
  18. Squandered opportunities 205
  19. Meaningful absences 219
  20. Part III. Pretexts
  21. Translated by Goblin 235
  22. “No text is an island” 249
  23. Russian dystopia in exile 265
  24. Between cosmopolitanism and hermeticism 277
  25. The other polysystem 295
  26. Translation as condition and theme in Milan Kundera’s novels 317
  27. Index 323
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.89.11tra

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Notes on contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Part I. Contexts
  7. Shifting contexts 19
  8. Nation and translation 33
  9. Vasilii Zhukovskii as translator and the protean Russian nation 55
  10. Romania as Europe’s translator 79
  11. Translating India, constructing self 97
  12. The water of life 117
  13. Translation trouble 137
  14. Part II. Subtexts
  15. Between the lines 149
  16. Translation theory and cold war politics 171
  17. The poetics and politics of Joseph Brodsky as a Russian poet-translator 187
  18. Squandered opportunities 205
  19. Meaningful absences 219
  20. Part III. Pretexts
  21. Translated by Goblin 235
  22. “No text is an island” 249
  23. Russian dystopia in exile 265
  24. Between cosmopolitanism and hermeticism 277
  25. The other polysystem 295
  26. Translation as condition and theme in Milan Kundera’s novels 317
  27. Index 323
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