Japonia w polskim przekładzie Diamentowej karocy Borisa Akunina, czyli o problematyce trzeciej kultury w przekładzie literackim

Abstract

Japan in the Polish Translation of B. Akunin’s Novel The Diamond Chariot – the Problem of the Third Culture in Literary Translations

The article briefly describes the problem of “the Foreign” in intercultural translations (based on research conducted by A. Berman, R. Lewicki, A. Bednarczyk and D. Urbanek). The text draws attention to a culture which is both foreign to the source language and the target language users, that is so called the “Third Culture”. The problem is illustrated by examples from the novel Almaznayakolesnitsa by a postmodern Russian writer Boris Akunin, and its translation into Polish (by Jerzy Gondowicz) entitled Diamentowa karoca. Here, the Third Culture turns out to be the Japanese culture, seen through the eyes of a Russian gentleman, the main character of The Adventures of Erast Fandorin book series. This article attempts to answer the question whether readers of the translation and readers of the original Russian novel experience the Third Culture in a similar manner.