(PSEUDO)POLONISMS IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S AMY FOSTER AND PRINCE ROMAN AND THEIR POLISH TRANSLATIONS
Ewa Kujawska-Lis
Katedra Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w OlsztynieAbstract
Joseph Conrad’s language has been subject to various analyses regarding its uniqueness
stemming from the writer’s trilingualism. Scholars have traced diverse influences from the
French and Polish languages in this writer’s artistic output. Nevertheless, the effects of such
influences are not thoroughly discussed. This article attempts to take a critical look at the
outcomes deriving from the appearance of phrases which may be classified as Polonisms or
pseudo-Polonisms in two short stories Amy Foster and Prince Roman and their translations
into Polish. In the former story, untypical phrasings which may have been calqued from
Polish serve to emphasise the alienation of the character of Yanko, in the latter, expressions
which are generally common for both English and Polish highlight both the distinctiveness
of Polish culture and its affinity with the European cultural setting. Unfortunately, in the
translations into the language from which such linguistic or cultural concepts originated, such
effects are much less distinctive.
Keywords:
literary translation, calques, cultural setting, bilingualism, ConradReferences
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Katedra Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie
