Translation, conflict and the politics of memory: Jan Karski's Story of a Secret State

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines the interaction of translations and retranslations of historical texts and political narratives of the past. Focusing on English-Polish translation and the portrayal of Polish-Jewish relations during World War II in Jan Karski's Story of a Secret State, the article argues that textual and paratextual revisions in subsequent editions of the book are embedded in larger dominant narratives of the past. Examining the role played by translations in the debates on the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish wartime relations, the article suggests that translated texts can influence memory politics and national identity formation. Thus, translators and publishers of translated texts can be viewed as political and historical agents whose work simultaneously shapes and is shaped by cultural memory of the past in various national and historical contexts.