One text – two reception horizons. On the Czech translation of the German novel Feuchtgebiete
Abstract
Drawing on the German novel Feuchtgebiete by Charlotte Roche and its translation into Czech – Vlhká místa, the paper will examine the different horizons of reception in the source and target cultures. Roche has brought many topoi belonging to the discourse of open corporeality to the centre of the canonized literary polysystem in the German space. Consequently, the author of this paper will discuss to what extent this centripetal movement can be transferred to the Czech literary landscape. While the German source text was labelled “a manifesto of sexual spontaneity” and was in the centre of media attention for a long time, the text of the Czech translation experienced a completely different reception. The paper has the following aims: 1) to show the differences that can be interpreted as direct consequences of the translation process; 2) to mediate the specifics of the reception of the source and target texts and to define their position in the respective literary polysystems.
