Poprawność polityczna w przekładzie literatury dla dzieci. Analiza serii translatorskiej powieści Marka Twaina Przygody Tomka Sawyera

Abstract

This article is concerned with the translation of children’s literature; it focuses on the ways in which Polish translators of Mark Twain’s novel Adventures of Tom Sawyer deal with the descriptions of the Black minority. The first part of the paper provides a historical overview concerning the publication of the novel and its first editions. It also looks at its status on the Polish market. Next, the paper discusses the notion of political correctness and its role in works written for young audiences. It also examines the terms used to refer to Afro-Americans in eight translations of the novel. Three of them, i.e. the translations by Jan Biliński, Marceli Tarnowski and Kazimierz Piotrowski, appeared in the first half of the 20th century; the remaining ones, i.e. the translations by Paweł Łopatka, Paweł Beręsewicz, Marta Kędroń and Barbara Ludwiczak, Aleksandra Kubiak, Jędrzej Polak, were published after 2000. All the versions were examined to identify the situations in which the writer, narrator and the characters refer to the representatives of the Black minority. The analysis aimed at the identification of the changes in the translation of fragments describing Afro-Americans resulting from political correctness.