Kulturološki nivo prevođenja / Cultural Stratum of Translation

Abstract

Starting from the assumption that literary translation is not a neutral transfer of linguistic content, but a form of cultural mediation in which the translator makes a series of linguistic, stylistic and interpretative decisions, this paper examines how cultural and ideological meanings of the original text are transferred, modified or reshaped in the translation of selected passages from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. The aim of the paper is not to determine the absolute “accuracy” of individual translations, but to descriptively examine the types of translation shifts and their role in the target text. This approach allows individual translation decisions to be evaluated not only as linguistic deviations from the original, but as functional interventions that can potentially change the perspective or ideological articulation of the literary text. The paper refers to how the institution of marriage transforms from a mechanism of social reproduction (Pride and Prejudice), through the moral-social boundary of exclusion (Oliver Twist), to a symbolic and ideological construction (To the Lighthouse). These literary texts offer complementary, but also opposing perspectives on the social function of marriage and the position of women. The theoretical framework is based on strategies relevant to the translation of a literary text as well as theories of literary translation. The main focus of the paper is on comparative and translation analysis, followed by commenting and comparing translation equivalents and cultural specifics and differences in relation to selected texts in the original language.