DOMESTICATING AND MODERNIZING HEART OF DARKNESS
Ewa Kujawska-Lis
Katedra Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w OlsztynieAbstract
The present paper seeks to analyse the development of the translation series of Joseph
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness with emphasis on domesticating and modernising tendencies. To
this end, two translations into Polish are compared: Aniela Zagórska’s version published in
1930 and Ireneusz Socha’s modern translation of 2004. Various levels at which domesticating
and modernising tendencies can be noticed are considered. It seems that, contrary to current
tendencies to foreignize translated texts, the modern version of Heart of Darkness, at least at
the linguistic level, may be labelled as the domesticated one in comparison with the earlier
translation. Generally, Zagórska tries to reproduce Conrad’s wording in Polish; whereas
Socha’s aim, or skopos, seems to be creating the text that reads naturally. The paper shows
in what ways the translators’ choices of particular translating strategies and procedures
accentuate the deforming tendencies, as defined by Antoine Berman.
Keywords:
domestication, foreignization, modernizing, Joseph Conrad, Antoine BermanReferences
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Katedra Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie
