Language varieties and their translation as literary expression of hybrid identities. On the example of the novel "Król" by Szczepan Twardoch and its German translation by Olaf Kühl

Abstract

The article deals with the question of linguistic hybridity and its translation using the example of the novel Krol by Szczepan Twardoch and its German version by Olaf Kuhl. The main topic is the role of linguistic varieties – dialects, sociolects, styles – as literary expression of identities. The author notes that Twardoch deliberately uses a mixture of language (varieties), such as Yiddish or the jargon of Warsaw gangsters, to challenge the dominance of Polish as the standard language and to emphasize the cultural heterogeneity of interwar Warsaw. Linguistic sub-variants, especially Yiddish, symbolize the marginalization and social exclusion of certain groups, but at the same time represent their identitary autonomy. From a postcolonial perspective, Twardoch shows hybrid identities that come into conflict with hegemonic cultural and linguistic structures. Kuhl reproduces this linguistic heterogeneity in his translation by preserving elements of Yiddish, Russian and the sociolect of the Warsaw underworld, thus bringing Polish-Jewish multiculturalism closer to the German reader. The translation thus becomes a ‘third space’ in which different languages and identities merge. Kuhl succeeds in bringing to the fore both the authenticity of the characters and the cultural tensions that are relevant to the post-colonial interpretation of Twardoch’s novel.