MasarykUniversity FacultyofArts DepartmentoftheEnglishandAmericanStudies DanaSoukupová Czech Literature in English Translation Magisterskádiplomová práce Vedoucí práce:Mgr.SimonaMazáčová Brno2006 I declare that I have workedonthis final thesis independentlyusingonlythe sources listedintheworkscitedandused. DanaSoukupová I would like to thank to Mgr. Simona Mazáčová for her pantience, inspiring commentsandveryhelpful materialsverymuch. Content 1. Introduction 6 1.1 IntheBeginningWastheCuriosity 7 1.2 GenerallyonTranslationLiterature inEnglish-speakingCountries 8 2. Czech–EnglishTranslationsformItsBeginnings to1989 11 2.1 TheVeryBeginnings 11 2.2 HussiteMovementand16 th Century 11 2.3 PeriodoftheCounter-ReformationandafterThat 12 2.4 TheEarlyEraoftheCzechNationalRevival 13 2.5 TheRestofthe19 th Centuryandthe FirstRealTranslationfromCzechinto English 13 2.6 Early20 th Century 15 2.7 Translationof Máj 15 2.8 Pargeter’sTranslationsfrom CzechintoEnglish 17 2.9 TranslationsfromtheFirstHalfofthe20 th Century 17 2.10 TranslationsoftheSecondHalfofthe20 th Century 18 2.11 Anthologies 20 3. Situationafter1989 24 3.1 IndividualAuthors 25 3.2 Anthologies 39 4. Reception 44 5. Translators 53 5.1 AbouttheTranslators 53 5.2 TheirMotivation 60 6. WhoAssignedYoutheTranslation 64 -4 7. Publishers 70 7.1 CatbirdPress 71 7.2 TwistedSpoon 72 8. PromotionofLiterature 73 8.1PromotionofCzechLiterature 73 8.2PromotionofIrishLiterature 76 9. GeneralTranslationProblems 78 10. Conclusion 83 Appendix1 86 Appendix2 93 Appendix3 95 Appendix4 106 ListofWorksCitedandUsed 109 -5 1.Introduction Mydiploma thesis aims at the Czech literaryworks translated into Englishand published in both the Englishspeaking countries, predominately in the United Kingdom and in the United States, and, partly, in the Czech Republic after 1989. I wouldlike toofferaninsightintothematterascomprehensiveas possible. First,I will give a brief summaryof the translations form CzechintoEnglish because I believe that it is both interesting and generally unknown for most of the people whoare not involvedinthis veryfieldof study.I alsoassume that there is a strongconnectionbetweenpastandpresent,especiallywithinthe20 th century. Second, I will try to describe the situation in the field of translations from CzechintoEnglishaftertheVelvet Revolutionof1989. Third, I will concentrate on the ways Czech literature is promoted in the Englishspeakingcountries,especiallyintheUnitedStatesandintheUnitedKingdom. I conducted my investigations and collecting the materials over the period October 2005 to June 2006. My research is based on the responses of several translators from CzechintoEnglishthat I receivedfrom the translators themselves via electronic mail. I also sought the views of the bothCzech publishers andpublishing houses in the Englishspeaking countries and other agencies who are involved in promotion of Czech culture. Besides, I will use other sources such as various interviewsandarticlesfromdifferentkindsof magazines. -6 1.1IntheBeginningWastheCuriosity The reasonI decidedtoelaborate this topic is reallyverysimple –the curiosity. I tookseveral courses in translationduringmystudies.All these courses were aimedat thetranslationfromEnglishintoCzech,logically. Inaddition,whenI gothroughanybookstore in the CzechRepublic,I always findfull bookshelvescoveredwiththemostdiversetranslations,fromEnglishmostly. Toestablish how muchforeignfictionwas publishedinthe CzechRepublic in 2005I searchedthe website of Svaz českýchknihkupcůanakladatelů whichprovides the visitors of the website withstatistical data about the bookproductioninthe Czech Republic.Withregardto the bookproduction,the year 2005is notedfor the stabilityif compared with the year 2004. In 2005 15350 titles were published; 3340 works of fictionofthetotalamount(nearly22%). Books inCzechdominatedthe bookproduction,almost 88% (13493titles). Translations from 45languages constitute about one third(28,8%) of the entire book production,whichplaces the Czech Republic to the sovereignworldpeak.Although the translations from English have slightly decreased, English remains the biggest source language because 2211 translations from English were brought out, which is one half of all translations (2211 translations from English of the total 4423 translations). English is followed by German (980 translations) and French (243 translations)(Císař). This made me realize how manybooks are beingtranslatedfrom Englishinto Czech.That was the waymycuriosityhas been awakenanda persistent questionhas beenpesteringinmymindwhether this phenomena works alsothe other wayround, that is, if Czech literature is transferred into English and so the Englishspeaking -7 audience has the opportunityto enJoyCzechnovels,short stories,drama andpoetry as well. Accordingtothe Polysystem theoryformulatedbyEvenZohar,the translation literature is “a part of the literary polysystem” (Weissbrod). Inthis respect,the crucial fact is its position ina culture.Generallyspeaking,“it [translatedliterature] maybe positioned at the center of the polysystem, in its periphery, or in any one of its systems” (Weissbrod). It follows from the above mentionedfacts that the translation literature holds a significant place within the Czech culture and, thus, the translated works, especially those from English, take up the central position of the literary polysystem. 1.2GenerallyonTranslationLiteratureinEnglish-speakingCountries Is it,thus,possible that anauthor from a tinylittle Central Europeancountry suchas the CzechRepublic manages to make his/ her waywithhis/ her literary work inthe worldthat has beendominated bythe Englishlanguage for several past decades? Theoretically–whynot?But inreality? Literarytranslationfrom Czechinto Englishis not mentionedor touched upon veryoften.Eventhoughit sounds a little bit odd,it is not a subject of science-fiction andanunrealistic thinganddefinitelyit is not Just one of the results of releasingthe political conditions in the Czech Republic after the socalled Velvet Revolution in 1989.It has beenhappeningfor several years and,surprisinglyenough, there is soto speak a sort of “tradition” that dates back into the 15 th century although the most radical step was takenin1832whenthe first real translationfrom CzechintoEnglish wasdone. -8 Before we explore the current situation concerning the contemporary translations from Czech into English, let us have a quick look at the way the circumstancesinthetranslationfieldlooklikeingeneral. In 2001 a literature conference was held in Prague that was “organised by Mercator Centre and BookWorld Prague 2001 International Book Fair as part of Literature Across Frontiers, a European programme of literary and translation activities, exchange and policy debate, and attended by 150 participants from 22 countries” (Büchler). Some of the conclusions of the conference cast a light on the contemporarytranslation problems that every, especially the ‘minor’ ones,culture has to face so that the actual problem with translations of these days can be better understood. One of the most significant results of the conference concerns the domination oftheEnglishlanguagenotonlyinbusiness butalsoinliteraryworld: “The position of small language literatures in the international sphere was commentedonfrom manypoints of view andthe problem of low demandfor translations from nonmainstream languages was linked to the economics of publishingandthe media ingeneral, anarea dominatedbyEnglish,bothas a maJorlanguageof publishingandasthelanguage mosttranslatedfrom butleast translatedinto ”(Büchler). Further,not less important item applies topublishers.It canbe statedonthe whole that the interest intranslation literature has beenvanishingfrom the markets of theworldpublishers: -9 “The growing commercialisation of the book market was seen as one of the maJor obstacles to wider dissemination of literature in translation. With the exceptionof the occasional bestseller,translations are consideredcommercially unviable,andpublishers,especiallyintheEnglishspeakingworld,avoidtaking themon” (Büchler) . This trend is also supported by the statistical data that say that in smaller countries such as the Czech Republic the translation literature prevails over the original writings.Oncontrary,incountries that canbe calledas literarypowers suchas Germanyor GreatBritainthesituationisthecompleteopposite–inGermany30%and inGreat Britainonly2,5% are translations onthe bookmarket (Mandys).Škvorecký explainsthistrendwiththesewords: “Až donedávna se prakticky nic nepřekládalo, kromě klasiků. Oni si stačili sami. Angličanů Je kolik, padesát milionů, Američanů Je Já nevím dvě stě padesát milionů,takže si stačili dodávat literaturu.[…] ToJe vlastně Jev až po druhýsvětovýválce a možná posledníchtřiceti letech,že se začalove zvýšený míře překládat” 1(Čulík). Accordingtothe Polysytem theory,it is clear that inthe Englishspeakingcountries thetranslatedliteratureoccupies the peripheryoftheliterarypolysystem. 1 “Actually, nothing was translated until recently, apart from the classics. They were self-sufficient. How many Englishmen are there – 55 millions and the Americans, I don’t know, 250 millions, so that they managed to supply themselves with their literature. Actually, it is a phenomenon of the period after WWII or maybe of the last thirty years when they started to translate [foreign] literature in greater extent.” -10 2.HistoryofTranslationfromCzechintoEnglish Before we focus onand explore the current situationinthe fieldof translations fromCzechintoEnglishwithinthe periodofthelate1989tothe