Triumf ideologii: literatura północnokoreańska w polskim przekładzie (1950–1955)
The Triumph of Ideology: North Korean Literature in Polish Translation (1950–1955)

Author(s): Ewa Rynarzewska
Subject(s): Other Language Literature, Translation Studies, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: North Korean literature; ideology; indirect translation; socialist realism; propaganda; dichotomy; utopia; 1950s
Summary/Abstract: The article examines Polish translations of North Korean literature published between 1950 and 1955. The analyzed corpus consists of four works, most of which were translated through Russian intermediaries. These texts represent literature dominated by ideological function, shaped by the rules of socialist realism, and portraying a communist society as an “ideal world.” The study focuses on literary topoi (suffering, land reform, the “new man,” utopia of the future) and on fundamental dichotomies: “us-them,” “past-future,” “reality-utopia.” The article argues that Polish translations of North Korean works should be seen as a specific literary construct, formed at the intersection of North Korean ideological vision and Polish conditions of reception. In this sense, these works should be regarded as a document of Cold War propaganda imagination, which subordinated literary and aesthetic values to political goals.

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