Home Linguistics & Semiotics Translation as condition and theme in Milan Kundera’s novels
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Translation as condition and theme in Milan Kundera’s novels

  • Jan Rubeš
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
To Publisher Page
Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts
This chapter is in the book Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts

Abstract

In this chapter the author explores the problematic relationship of the Czech novelist Milan Kundera to the translation of his work. On the one hand, translation offers authors who write in languages of limited diffusion entrée onto the world stage. On the other hand, translation entails the author’s loss of control over his work. The author traces the emergence of what may be a fictitious translator, conjecturing that this translator was in fact Kundera himself. The chapter raises important questions about the translator’s agency, the nature of literature in translation, and the very idea of a national literature.

Abstract

In this chapter the author explores the problematic relationship of the Czech novelist Milan Kundera to the translation of his work. On the one hand, translation offers authors who write in languages of limited diffusion entrée onto the world stage. On the other hand, translation entails the author’s loss of control over his work. The author traces the emergence of what may be a fictitious translator, conjecturing that this translator was in fact Kundera himself. The chapter raises important questions about the translator’s agency, the nature of literature in translation, and the very idea of a national literature.

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.89.24rub

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
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 29.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/btl.89.24rub/html
Scroll to top button