SLOVAK COMPARATIVE STUDIES 107

sehen ist, und dessen Quellen in einer oder mehreren anderen Literaturen zu suchen sind.

In Zusammenhang mit Hviezdoslav gilt dies fiir seine beson- dere Modifikation des Parnassismus. Fiir diese wird es not- wendig sein, Paralleleh in anderen Literaturen zu suchen, u. a. auch in der ungarischen Literatur.

Die Stilanalyse im Rahmen der nati~Snalen Literatur stellt bier natiirlicherweise komparatistische Aufgaben. Mittels der Aus- drucksanalyse ist die genannte Aufgabe mit ausreichender Zuverl~13igkeit zu 16sen.

AbschlieBend sei noch eine interessante Erkenntnis aus dem behandelten Fall angefiihrt. Die interliterarische Widerspiege- lung stellt meist keinen Ubergang der einzelnen Elemente und Merkmale dar, sondern erfolgt mehr oder weniger in System- form: In die empfangende Literatur bzw. in das empfangende Werk geht meist eine ganze Reihe untereinander systematisch verkniipffer Merkmale fiber.

FRANTI~EK MIKO

T H E ACTIVITIES OF SLOVAK TRANSLATORS,

A N D SLOVAK T R A N S L A T I O N S STUDIES

During the last years a great deal of work has been done to organize translation activities in Slovakia. Consequently, there has been both a qualitative and a quantitative growth of trans- lators and translations. The number of books published in trans- lation by Slovak publishing houses also testifies to this:

Year: 1970 Number ofeditions: 323

1971 407 1972 462 1973 565 1974 580

108 SLOVAK COMPARATIVE STUDIES

The activities of Slovak translators have been organized by The Union of Slovak Translators; and a Commission for Literary Translation has also been formed within The Slovak Literary Foundation. This commission has regulated and sup- ported the translators' activities. At present, there are 83 registered translators in Slovakia, and 230 more are in evidence. Every year, The J/m Holl~ Prize is awarded for the best poetry, prose, drama and essay translations. This prize is the greatest honour a Slovak translator can receive.

Great attention has been also devoted to the education and further training of translators. Translation and interpretation can be studied at the Philosophical Faculty (Faculty of Arts) at the Komensk~ University in Bratislava. The course of studies requires five years, and is the equivalent of a university degree in philology. Post-graduate study can lead to the higher degrees of PhDr. and CSc. The study specializes in interpretation, translation of special texts and literary translation.

A summer course of the theory and criticism of literary trans- lation is organized every year at the Nitra Pedagogical Faculty, the first one of its kind anywhere.

There are special courses for !iterary translators at the post- graduate level. Up to now, 19 students have finished such courses, submitting term papers, taking examinations.

Translation criticism has also become more active. There is a workshop for translation theory and criticism where new experts are trained under the guidance of experienced specialists. The activities of this group have culminated in an international conference on the problems of translation criticism, where the products of Slovak publishing houses have also been analyzed.

Papers by young criticism and theoreticians are edited period- ically with the aim of providing a practice forum for the young- er generation.

Theoretical works proper, as well as formulated poetics of translators, are published first of all in the journal Slavica Slovaca (editor-in-chief - A. Popovi6) and also in literary journals Romboid and Slovenskd Pohlady. During the last

SLOVAK COMPARATIVE STUDIES i09

threeyears, 5 monothematic numbers of Stavica Slovaca have appeared: vol. '6, 1971, No. 4 - "On translation"; vol. 7, 1972~ No. 4 - "History and theory of translation"; vol. 8i 1973, No. 3 - "Theory of technical translation"; vol. 8, 1973, No, 4 - "Translation, metatext"; vol. 9, 1974, No, 2 - " T r a n s - lation, interpretation". In the year 1975, problems of translation will be dealt with in the yearbook Targum which will be pub- lished by the Slovak Academy of Sciences in co-operation with Moiaton Publishers.

Among the theoretical works of importance, we must men- tion in the first place the material of the FIT Conference held in Bratislava in 1968, and published under thd title The Nature o f Translation. The editors of this publication were James S, Holmes, Frans de Haan and Anton Popovi& In 1972, Anton Popovi~'s Poetics of Literary Translation appeared; in 1975; its second ~ enlarged edition will appear. In 1974, the manual Research into Literary Translation in Czechoslovakia with a full bibliography was published by The Publishing House of Matica Slovensk6.

Slovak:translators and theoreticians of translation participate in international: conferences.

Siovak translators today are well provided for; their work is remunerated .on the basis of:governmefit regulations. When translating literary works of importance, they receive special grams and .premiums from the Slovak Literary Foundation. Professional translators also have full social benefits. The pres- ent .flowering o f translation activities is fully Supported by the organs of government, especially by the Ministry of CuRure of the Stovak Socialist Republic.

The activities of, the organization of Slovak translators, scientific research and the theory of translatioli are interdepend- ent. Theoretical works provide material and directi0nto semi- nars 'on the theor) of translation, while the theory of translation is enriched by the insights gained through practice of tranS- lation. . . . .

The link between the theory and practice of translation is the

110 SLOVAK COMPARATIVE STUDIES

text. Slovak translation studies devote much attention to textual features, to Stlucture and organization, with an eye to both the theory and practice of translation. The text, as the object to be communicated by translation, is studied from different aspects: as a fact of social communication; as a unit of commu- nication; from a stylistic aspect; as a unit which cross-refers to another text; or as a sum of texts from the point of view of the reader. A very important aspect is the semiotical approach, the study of the characteristics of textual communication within a given time and place. Translation as text functions in the meta- communicational system of literature.

Translation as'a text can be studied from a stylistic, commu- nicational, semiofical, comparative and a praxeological aspect.

What are the specific features of our methodological approach to the text ?

1. The theory of translation has been trying to estabIish a basic terminology for textual analysis on the basis of the ter- minology used in related fields.

2. Textual analysis must take into account the social, com- munieational, textual and the metatextual aspects of the work.

3. Textual analysis is not exhausted in giving a description of the surface structure, but must aim at discovering the deep structural features. The translation of a text has the task of reproducing just these features. The equivalence of the trans- lated text to the original is, in fact, its semiotical interpretation.

4. The communicational attitudes, situations and dispositions of the participants in the process of communication are manifest in the text as stylistic elements. Differences between the original and the translation can be measured bythe shifts in expression.

5. The elements of time and place also have an important role in the analysis of the original work, and must be solved in the translation on the semiotical and stylistical levels.

6. Translation functions in the system of metacommunica- tion. The place of the translation is determined on the basis of familiarity with the relationship of the secondary and primary texts. The special relationships between the translation and the

SLOVAK COMPARATIVE STUDIES 111

other texts in the system of metaliterature are characterized by the following signs which serve as instructions for the trans- lator: the presence of the intertextual invariant, the model char- acter of the text of the translation, the evaluation of the ideo- aesthetic characteristics of the original text by the translator and their realization in the text of the translation (affirmative metatext).

7. The method chosen by the translator characterizes his point of view, ideological approach and their expression in the translated text. The social context of the translator is not deter- mined only by his own social interests. His work is influenced also by his dependence on the cultural policy and on the claims of the text. His respect for the social aspects is reflected in his method, in his attitude towards the virtual percipient.

These are the axioms of the contemporary Slovak theory of translation. It would serve the integration of the theory of translation and its development if our starting points could be confronted with the contemporary state of research in the field of literary translation.

Along with theoretical research, we also publish works on the history of Slovak translation. The aim of this activity is to write the bistory of translation from the point of view of liter- ary processuality. For, we mean by the notion of the history of translation not only the history of its methods and concep- tions, but also the history of the nation's literature. In trying to find the place, where literary history and the history of trans- lation coincides, we work with the following assumptions:

1. The history of translation methods need not coincide with the periodization established for national literature.

2. Translations play a role in the process of the differen- tiation of the national literature in three respects: a) as an impulse for development - the shift from one structure to another, b) as a neutral fact as far as development is concerned, c) as a component which serves development.

3. Every analysis of the diachronic aspects must be a contri- bution to the modeling of the text of the translation, and on the

1{1~ SLOVAK COMPARATIVE STUDIES

other hand a diachronical aspect must be present in every syn- chronical study of the context of the translation.

There is then the praxeological aspect of the translation which has been treated recently as a specific branch. It deals with the sociological and pragmatical aspects of the translator's work. To this sphere belong the questions of the translator's life, his social conditions, his program (plan), the artistic value of the translations, the proposals for the translation of different works by the reading public, a critical institution and the education of ihe t rans la tors-mat ters o f editorial and publishing practice.

Science has the role of systematizing the external context of the translator and in this way help the practice. This entitles us to s ta te that the praxeology of translation has its right place in the system of studies on literary translation. 1

ANTON PoPovff:

SOME REMARKS ON COMPARATIVE LITERATURE :IN CZECHOSLOVAK ORIENTAL STUDIES

T h e Object of this review is to outline the development and perspectives of Comparative Literature in Oriental Studies in Czechoslovakia.

In both parts of this country (i.e. in the Czech regions: and in Slovakia) this kind of study has only a short history.

1 The conception of the Slovak theory of literary translation has been worked out in the following works:

Anton Popovi~, Poetika umeleckdho prekladu (Poetics of Literary Translation), (Bratislava; 1972); second enlarged edition of this work under the title: The Theory of Literary Translation (Bratislava, 1975).

The bibliographic survey of works of the Czechoslovak theory and history of translation is contained in the monograph by Anton Popovi~: Umeleckf preklad z CSSR (Literary Translation in ~SSR), Research, Bibliography (Martin~ 1975).