Translation between Eastern and Western Europe. Postcolonial Contexts and Parallels

This article discusses possible applications of the term “postcolonialism” as a framework to describe translation trends present in the literary exchange between Eastern and Western Europe. In translation studies the notion of “postcolonialism” has gradually broadened to embrace various forms of “internal colonialism” within Europe itself (Cronin) and to refer to all types of cultural relations based on hegemony or power imbalance. The translation discourse developed notions of “ethnocentric violence” (Venuti), hegemonic and dominated cultures, minority and majority languages, and the aim of the article is to test whether the postcolonial framework is a useful tool for the description of the asymmetries between the West and the “other Europe”. Norman Davies in his essay “West Best, East Beast” stresses that the construct know as “Eastern Europe” can be traced back to the Enlightenment, when West was equated with the light, progress and culture, while the East of Europe was associated with half-barbarian lands plunged in intellectual darkness. The inner divisions and hierarchies within Europe are also a legacy of the cold war and communism and, Eastern European countries, including Poland, continue to be constructed as the other, despite significant changes on the political and economic arena. The paper focuses on showing how this dichotomy affects the translation strategies, and finally, the reception of the translations among the target readership. I shall test some of the theoretical propositions described above against the case studies, i.e. translations of Polish novels into English and their presence (as products) on the Anglo-American book market. Of particular interest to me are the ways in which translations may become vehicles for cultural representation and the ways in which they generate images or social constructs referring to being “Eastern European” or “Polish” and which become part of a larger cultural discourse.