This paper raises the issue of transculturality in Portuguese-language African literatures and draws attention to the difficulties of showing transculturality in translation. It describes the meaning of transcultural transformations in postcolonial literature and looks for their manifestations, focusing especially on modifications of common expressions, proverbs and phraseological compounds that indicate the fusion of traditional orality with writing, in order to adapt the official language (Portuguese) to the described (African) reality. The comparative material comes from the novel Terra sonâmbula by Mia Couto (Mozambique) and its translation into Polish by Michał Lipszyc. Artykuł porusza zagadnienie transkulturowości w portugalskojęzycznych literaturach afrykańskich i zwraca uwagę na trudności związane z ukazywaniem jej w przekładzie. Opisuje znaczenie transkulturowych modyfikacji w literaturze postkolonialnej i szuka ich przejawów, skupiając się szczególnie na modyfikacjach potocznych wyrażeń, związków frazeologicznych i przysłów, które wskazują na łączenie tradycyjnej oralność z literaturą w celu dostosowania języka urzędowego (portugalskiego) do opisywanej (afrykańskiej) rzeczywistości. Materiał porównawczy został zaczerpnięty z powieści Terra sonâmbula autorstwa Mii Couto (Mozambik) i jej tłumaczenia na język polski, dokonanego przez Michała Lipszyca.
The history of traditional wrestling is arguably little known amongst many literary scholars, and yet the sport features in a number of historic literary texts, including some by Shakespeare, Chaucer and Thomas Hardy as well as more recent authors such as Winston Graham. This review article suggests that a literary scholar might benefit from learning more about the sport history. Mike Tripp’s Cornish Wrestling: A History is an examination of a little known and, currently, little practised sport which was once popular in both England and amongst the English diaspora, featuring in a number of nineteenth-century English novels, such as R.D. Blackmore’s Lorna Doone. The review shows how Tripp’s detailed history of the sport might be used to illustrate potentially useful details in selected literary texts, which might otherwise be obscure to a literary researcher, including examination of the wider culture and practice of wrestling in the English West Country, and remarks on how the history of Cornwall can explain the sport’s presence and role in various literary texts.
Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird die Monographie Zur Kommunikation von Kletternden – eine pragmatisch und lexikalisch orientierte Analyse von Krzysztof Sakowski besprochen, in der die Kommunikation von Kletternden aus pragmatischer und lexikalischer Perspektive untersucht wird. Die Studie analysiert die Klettersprache im Deutschen und im Polnischen, wobei sowohl Fachterminologie als auch umgangssprachliche Begriffe betrachtet werden. Ein besonderer Fokus liegt auf der Struktur und Funktion von Seilkommandos, der Benennung von Kletterrouten sowie der Entwicklung des Kletterjargons im Zuge neuer Disziplinen wie Bouldern oder Free-Solo-Klettern. Zudem wird die Rolle digitaler Medien bei der Verbreitung und Standardisierung der Kletterlexik beleuchtet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich die Sprache des Kletterns durch eine Mischung aus präziser technischer Kommunikation und kreativ geprägtem Soziolekt auszeichnet, der sich stetig weiterentwickelt.
Mary Webb, whose novels and poetry portray her native county of Shropshire, was a keen reader of Thomas Hardy. Several biographers and scholars – including Gladys Mary Coles, Andrew Radford and Carol Siegel – have noted Hardy’s influence in her work. However, while these authors have explored aspects such as sexual politics, classical myth, and biographical details, they have focussed less upon Webb’s use and description of landscape, as well as Shropshire mythology and folklore. This article will build upon a small amount of research by these scholars, and not only examine the influence of Hardy’s works in Webb’s own writing but also note how she developed her own style stimulated by Hardian influence. It can be assumed that Webb’s use of local legends, vernacular, and landscape mirrors, to some extent, Hardy’s aesthetic depiction of his native Wessex. Additionally, her use of legend and folk beliefs creates a kind of Gothic rendering of a fictional Shropshire, akin to some of Hardy’s portrayals of Wessex. This article examines Webb’s life and literary influences – particularly Hardy, to whom she dedicated her fourth novel – and, following Coles, considers how her time spent living in the West Country, influenced the creation of her first novel.
