Ambiguity and the Uncanny in Henry James’s "The Turn of the Screw" and Its Polish Translations

Authors

  • Bartosz Sowiński Jagiellonian University, Kraków

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/MOaP.23.2017.35.03

Keywords:

ambiguity, uncanny, interpretation

Abstract

Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw poses an interpretative challenge to its researchers, readers, and translators. The unique character of the novelette, which is surrounded by the aura of the uncanny, is closely related to the ambiguous narrative and linguistic devices used by the author. Major interpretations of the text followed Gothic, Freudian, and metanarrative approaches. The paper sets out to investigate the extent to which the translations proposed by Witold Pospieszała and Jacek Dehnel adhere to any these approaches and whether and how they try to deal with the ambiguities that make James’s masterpiece so uncanny.

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References

Dehnel, J. (2015) = James, H. (2015), Dokręcanie śruby, przeł. J. Dehnel, Wydawnictwo WAB, Warszawa.

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Heilman, R.B. (1999), “The Freudian Reading of The Turn of the Screw”, in: Esch, D., Warren, J. (eds.) The Turn of the Screw, 2nd ed., W.W. Norton & Company, New York–London, p. 177-184.

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Wilson, E. (1999), “The Ambiguity of Henry James”, in: Esch, D., Warren, J. (eds.), The Turn of the Screw, 2nd ed., W.W. Norton & Company, New York–London, p. 170-173.

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Published

2017-03-31

How to Cite

Ambiguity and the Uncanny in Henry James’s "The Turn of the Screw" and Its Polish Translations. (2017). Między Oryginałem a Przekładem, 23(1/35), 23-35. https://doi.org/10.12797/MOaP.23.2017.35.03

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