STRATEGIEN DER ENTLAKUNISIERUNG VON SCHIMPFWÖRTERN IN DER ÜBERSETZUNG VON ION LUCA CARAGIALE

Abstract

The translation of literary texts is inextricably tied to complex cultural negotiations, especially when stylistic features such as invectives or colloquial registers are present. This dynamic is particularly evident in the works of Ion Luca Caragiale, whose satire is defined by the precision with which he embeds his characters in specific social, cultural and temporal contexts. Despite Caragiale's central role in Romanian literature, his German translations have rarely been examined with regard to the strategies employed for addressing linguistic-cultural gaps, described by the ethno-psycholinguistics as lacunae. The present paper seeks to begin to reduce this research gap by analysing how Caragiale's language is transferred into German, using the concept of Entlakunisierung, understood as the overcoming of lacunae in the target text. Methodologically, the study is based on a contrastive textual analysis of three translations (1962, 2002, 2019). This study focuses on both semantic-pragmatic and stylistic dimensions in order to trace the translators’ strategies. The analysis addresses the central question of how linguistic informality, invectives, and culturally bound terms are rendered in German. The findings emphasise the importance of strategies such as register shifts, creative neologisms, and context-dependent substitutions in order to maintain Caragiale's satirical effect