Translators of Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Czech Republic and the Fandom Influence Master’S Diploma Thesis
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Magisterská diplomová práce Hana Šimečková 2016 Hana Šimečková 20 16 Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English-language Translation Hana Šimečková Translators of Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Czech Republic and the Fandom Influence Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph. D. 2016 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature I would like to thank Zdeněk Rampas, RNDr., for his enthusiastic approach regarding this thesis and for providing me with the access to the valuable information about the fanzine translators. Big thanks also go to Daniela Mičanová, who introduced me to Antonín K. K. Kudláč and his monograph Anatomy of the Sense of Wonder that influenced the concept of this thesis. I am also very grateful to all the translators who dedicated their time to filling out the survey and answering my questions. And, most importantly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, PhD., for his infinite patience and his kind supervising of this thesis. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 7 1.1 Methodology and Thesis Structure .................................................................... 8 2. Terminology ..................................................................................................... 10 2.1.1 Science Fiction ............................................................................................. 11 2.1.2 Fantasy .......................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Fans .................................................................................................................. 14 3. Fandom ............................................................................................................. 16 3.1 History of the Anglo-American SF Fandom .................................................... 18 3.2 History of the Fandom in the Czech Republic ................................................. 19 3.2.1 1979 - 1989 ................................................................................................... 21 3.2.2 1990 – 2003 .................................................................................................. 22 3.2.3 2004 – 2016 .................................................................................................. 23 4. Czech Translators of Fantastic Literature ........................................................ 23 4.1 Translators before 1989 .................................................................................... 24 4.1.1 Assorted Fanzines ......................................................................................... 25 4.1.2 Klub Julese Vernea (1969-1970,1984-) ....................................................... 27 4.1.3 Villoidus (SFK MFF UK) (1979-) ............................................................... 29 4.1.4 Klub Literární Fantastiky (1982) .................................................................. 30 4.1.5 AF 167 (1984-1990) ..................................................................................... 31 4.1.6 Klub Stanisłava Lema (1990) ....................................................................... 33 4.1.7 Ikarie (XB-1) (1990-2010, 2011-) ................................................................ 34 4.1.8 Translators .................................................................................................... 37 4.1.9 Non-affiliated Translators ............................................................................ 37 4.1.11 Writers ...................................................................................................... 38 4.2 Translators after 1990 ...................................................................................... 39 4.3 Translators after 2000 ...................................................................................... 40 5. Criticising the Fantastic Literature Translations: Genre specifics ................... 41 5.1.1 Fictional worlds and their rules .................................................................... 41 5.1.2 Neologisms ................................................................................................... 43 5.1.3 Intertextuality ............................................................................................... 44 5.2 Feedback from fans .......................................................................................... 45 5.3 Professional feedback ....................................................................................... 45 5.3.1 Koniáš ........................................................................................................... 46 5.3.2 Ceny Akademie Science Fiction, Fantasy a Hororu ..................................... 46 6. Translators of Fantastic Literature – Who Are They? ..................................... 46 6.1 Initial hypotheses ............................................................................................. 46 6.2 Questionnaire Analysis .................................................................................... 48 6.2.1 Demographic Data ........................................................................................ 48 6.2.2 Education ...................................................................................................... 49 6.3 Translating ........................................................................................................ 50 6.3.2 Experience .................................................................................................... 50 6.4.4 Encountering the fantastic literature ............................................................. 55 6.4.4.1 Translating the fantastic literature ............................................................ 55 6.4.4.2 Specialization ............................................................................................ 56 6.5 Connections with Fandom................................................................................ 57 6.6 Final notes ........................................................................................................ 58 7. Results: Average Fantastic Literature Translator? ........................................... 59 8. Conclusion........................................................................................................ 60 References .................................................................................................................. 62 Summary .................................................................................................................... 70 Resumé ....................................................................................................................... 72 Appendix A ................................................................................................................ 73 Appendix B ................................................................................................................ 74 1. Introduction During the last decade, there was a shift of general opinion about the science fiction (hereafter shortened as sci-fi or SF) and fantasy genres, as well as their fans and culture. General audience slowly starts to abandon the pathological image of a fan as a nerdy guy with glasses, rubber pointy ears and “no life” (Jenkins, 2012), and some people are even inclined to the opinion that „geek is the new jock“ (Muniowski, 2016). Even though the “fan studies” in the Anglo-American countries have existed since the 1980s, it is only in the last decade the fan culture has become a topic of more extensive academic studies in the Czech Republic (most notably Pohl 2008 and Kudláč 2016). While the basic outline of the Czech fandom history is relatively well mapped due to the efforts from within the fandom (Neff, Adamovič, Langer, Macek, Kudláč), there is no thesis or encyclopaedia focused on the Czech translators that are or were a part of the fandom. Considering that fan translations were the source of most Anglo- American sci-fi and fantasy literature during the Communist era and currently, according to the Svaz českých knihkupců a nakladatelů (2014), there are over 6000 books translated from different languages published per year and around 600 of those are sci-fi or fantasy novels1, it seems hardly believable that no attempts have yet been made to document such important aspect of the fan culture. This lack of interest could be attributed to the fact pointed out by Taalas and Hirsjärvi (2013) that “the invisibility of translations does not only cover the translator as a person but the cultural processes of translating texts” (originally Venuti, 1995). The translators of sci-fi and fantasy share the same struggles with the recognition of their work as the mainstream literature translators (they are mostly being reduced to a name in the copyright or imprint). Moreover, until the last decade, their situation has been accentuated by the relative seclusion of sci-fi and fantasy fiction from the mainstream literature. The aim of this thesis is to provide an overview of the translators of sci-fi and fantasy literature in the Czech Republic and ground it