The study deals with the relationship between Jaroslav Hašek’s Švejk and postmodern Hungarian literature. The first part of the study examines the characteristics of the postmodern Hungarian literature (intertextuality, metafiction, pseudonymous and mask literature, irony, parody, pastiche) and covers its most significant achievements (Peter Esterhazy, Peter Nadas, Dezső Tandori, Lajos Parti Nagy, Andras Ferenc Kovacs). The second part of the study deals with the interpretation and the rewriting of the figure of Švejk and Hašek’s novel in postmodern Hungarian literature and it analyzes the novels and poems of Peter Nadas, Peter Esterhazy, Gyorgy Spiro, Dezső Tandori, Otto Orban and Andras Ferenc Kovacs. The study is focused mainly on the analysis of the works of bohemist writer Istvan Voros as well as the postmodern translation techniques and Švejk-reworking in the texts of Lajos Parti Nagy.
V Polsku je velmi populární tzv. český humor. Otázka, jak je překládán, je zodpovídána na základě rozboru krátkých úryvků z Haškova románu o Švejkovi a hry Divadla Járy Cimrmana — dvou rozdílných typů humoru, se kterým se sami Češi ztotožňují natolik, že některé obraty přecházejí do každodenního jazyka. Analýza románu o Švejkovi ukázala zásadní rozdíl mezi první a poslední, už třetí verzí překladu — první překlad zaměňuje mnoho neutrálních obratů originálu na stylisticky zabarvené s konotacemi citového prožitku, třetí překlad přesně odráží příznakovost originálu; ale právě odstupňované zabarvení vyvolává prostřednictvím postupné konfrontace nesourodých prvků komický efekt. Analýza hry Divadla Járy Cimrmana dokázala, že humor týkající se převážně české identity může být tlumočený, ale ne přeložený. Oba příklady vedou k formulování dvou základních kulturních bariér v překladu: jazyková bariéra a bariéra tradice.
EN
So-called Czech humour is very popular in Poland. This contribution analyzes short sections of Hašek’s novel about Švejk and a play by the Jára Cimrman Theatre in order to explore how humour is translated. The chosen texts represent two different types of humour that Czechs identify with to such an extent that some expressions actually seep into everyday language. The analysis of the novel about Švejk suggests significant differences between the first and final (in fact third) translation into Polish. While the first translation replaces a number of originally neutral expressions with stylistically marked ones to denote emotional experiences, the third one reflects the original’s stylistic marks. Yet, it is the gradual use of these marks that brings about a comic effect through the gradual confrontation of disparate elements. The analysis of the play by the Jára Cimrman Theatre shows that humour that mainly involves Czech identity can be interpreted but not translated. Both examples suggest two basic cultural barriers in translation: the language barrier and the barrier of tradition.
This article purports to give an outline of the major evolutions in Hašek’s literary output around the year 1918, a year that saw not only the end of the world war, but also, for the writer himself, the start of the Russian civil war. The Russian Revolution meant for Hašek, as he wrote in 1918, the transition from a “war between States” – or “war between Empires” – to a “war of the proletariat against capitalism”. The lack of safe information about Hašek’s biography during this short, yet crucial, period of his life does not still prevent us from retracing the repercussions of the great events of 1918 on the east front – the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the founding myth of the Czechoslovakian Legion and the beginnings of the Soviet Union – in the literary works of an author who has been taxed for being a renegade to each of the three aforementioned causes. The particular issue of Švejk’s maturation during the war may help us to put the year 1918 into a perspective with the end (though, only to some extent) of the conflicts and the beginning (however protracted) of the post-war period. Whereas the novel was about the Good Soldier’s bursting into the conflict, this article observes Hašek himself, walking out of the world war.
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