Consolidating the Universe. Translation Criticism among Contexts of Translational Reception of H.P. Lovecraft’s Poetry in Poland Cover Image

Scalanie uniwersum. Krytyka translatorska pośród kontekstów recepcji przekładowej poezji H.P. Lovecrafta w Polsce
Consolidating the Universe. Translation Criticism among Contexts of Translational Reception of H.P. Lovecraft’s Poetry in Poland

Author(s): Arkadiusz Luboń
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Translation Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: H.P. Lovecraft; poetry translation; critical reception; translational shift

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the influence of translator’s criticism and other extra-textual factors on the translations of poetry by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Since the very first renditions of his Fungi from Yuggoth sonnets by Jerzy Płudowski and Leszek Lachowiecki included in two anthologies of horror poetry, Polish versions of Lovecraft’s verses have always been modified in the process of interlinguistic transfer according to either sole preferences of the publishing houses and evaluations proposed by critics of the English originals or the translators’ reception of the previous Polish variants. In most cases these modifications resulted from more or less stereotypical visions of the American writer held by the translators and were aimed at establishing links to his other works already published in Poland (short stories, essays, letters). Thus effects of the semantic shifts, detectable also in the latest variants by Krzysztof Azarewicz and Mateusz Kopacz, can be referred to as consolidating the universe of the writer’s biographical legend and literary works which is more coherent in the Polish target texts than in the originals.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 42
  • Page Range: 92-115
  • Page Count: 24
  • Language: Polish