Polish and English Discourses on the History of Medieval Italy: A Polysystem Study

• Authors: Paweł Marcinkiewicz

Title variants

IT

I discorsi polacchi ed inglesi sulla storia dell’Italia medioevale: uno studio di polisistema

Abstracts

IT

L’articolo affronta il problema delle differenze di polisistema tra testi storici polacchi e inglesi che trattano del Medioevo. Nella tradizione letteraria polacca, le poetiche rinascimentali della traduzione prediligevano il libero adattamento, del tutto indipendente dall’originale. La tradizione britannica della traduzione, codificata alla fine del XVIII secolo non permetteva la parafrasi. Al contrario, la traduzione dovrebbe trasmettere totalmente l’idea del testo originale, mentre lo stile e il modo di renderle dovrebbero avere le stesse caratteristiche dell’originale. Per quanto riguarda la retorica della scienza, nella lingua polacca, essa è stata dapprima formata da modelli letterari latini altamente declinanti e in seguito da modelli francesi di prosa ornata. Nella lingua inglese, la dizione scientifica era basata su modelli orientati alla sintassi germanica e normanna e l’apertura verso modelli stranieri era valutata come una resistenza ad una lettura scorrevole e ad interpretazioni chiare. L’articolo analizza l’introduzione di Henryk Samsonowicz a Rozkwit średniowiecz-nej Europy [Lo splendore dell’Europa Medioevale] (2001), così come la traduzione polacca di Medieval Rome. Stability and Crisis of the City di Chris Wickham (2015). Si conclude che i testi scientifici polacchi ed inglesi – non solo quelli che trattano dell’Italia nel Medioevo – appartengono a generi diversi. Mentre gli autori polacchi cercano di creare saggi linguisicamente trasparenti, scorrevoli e stilizzati appartenenti alle belles-lettres, i loro colleghi inglesi sembrano essere più concreti e precisi, conservando consapevolmente le tracce dell’alterità culturale (italiana/romana).

EN

The article deals with the problem of polysystem differences between Polish and English historical text dealing with Middle Ages. In the Polish literary tradition, the Renaissance poetics of translation favored free adaptations, totally independent of the originals. The British tradition of translation, codified at the end of the eighteenth century, did not allow paraphrase. On the contrary, translation should give a full transcript of the idea of the original text, while the style and manner of rendering should have the same character as in the original. As for the rhetoric of science, in the Polish language, it was first shaped by literary models of highly declensional Latin and then French models of purple prose. In the English language, scientific diction was based on inherent Germanic and Norman syntax-oriented models and openness to foreign patterns which was valued as a resistance against smooth reading and straightforward interpretations. The article analyses Henryk Samsonowicz’s introduction to Rozkwit średniowiecznej Europy [The Heyday of Medieval Europe] (2001) as well as the Polish translation of Chris Wickham’s Medieval Rome. Stability and Crisis of the City, 900–1150 (2015). The conclusion is that Polish and English scientific texts – not only those treating about Italy in the Middle Ages – belong to different genres. While Polish authors try to create linguistically transparent, smooth, and stylized essays belonging to belles-lettres, their English colleagues seem to be down-to-earth and precise, consciously preserving traces of cultural (Italian/ Roman) foreignness.

Keywords

EN

polysystem theory; Polish tradition of translation; British tradition of translation; historical discourse; Middle Ages

• Publisher: Akademia Ignatianum w Krakowie
• Journal: Perspektywy Kultury
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 2/1
• Pages: 163-180

Dates

published

2023

Contributors

author

Paweł Marcinkiewicz

• University of Opole

• https://orcid.org/0000000270861805

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.35765/pk.2023.410201.13

Biblioteka Nauki

37502701