Envisioning or effacing the other: Different approaches to translation in the English and Hungarian literary traditions

Abstract

Though rarely made a subject of study, methods of literary translation may well reveal a great deal about the cultures in which they are practiced. In the case of the English canon, the prevalence of domesticating translation can be interpreted as an expression of the confidence of a colonial culture in the adequateness of its language as a means of universal expression. The use of translation as a means of introducing elements of style foreign to the target language in the Hungarian literary tradition, in contrast, suggests a culture more self-conscious of the particularity of its culture. A comparison of divergent approaches to translation in the Hungarian and English literary traditions offers a critical perspective from which to consider the self-conceptions of the two cultures.