Dileme pri prevajanju izrazov za temnopolte v ameriških in angleških literarnih delih

Abstract

The analysis of strategies for translating terms for black people from Eng-lish to Slovenian showed that shifts happen frequently. In many translations of works where such terms play an important role, shifts on the microstructural level affected the macrostructural level to some extent. In several translations, for instance The Nigger of the “Narcissus” (Conrad, J.), Kim (Kipling, R.) and Gone with the Wind (Mitchell, M.), certain passages became incoherent because translators did not choose an appropriate strategy, i.e., they neutralized originally racist terms. For the same reason, the perception of certain characters was altered to some extent in translations of other works, for instance In Cold Blood (Capote, T.) and To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee, H.). Inadequate translation strategies for racist terminology can also affect the perception of relationships between individual characters or even between ethnic groups, as illustrated by examples from the translations of Light in August (Faulkner, W.) and Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck, J.). Furthermore, examples from the translations of the novels The Color Purple (Walker, A.) and Invisible Man (Ellison, R.) indicate that it is also important to carefully consider strategies for translating non-pejorative terms for black people, including when translating terms which, at the time of original publication, were considered neutral but are widely regarded as pejorative at the time the literary work is translated.