The Fields of Translation and Translators in the First Half of the 20th Century 1.

The Translator on the Stage of Society

Abstract

The phenomenon and function of translation in the 19th and 20th centuries was not only a matter for the sciences, Hungarian literary history, and canonical literature, but also appeared in surprisingly rich and varied discourses in the columns of daily newspapers and periodicals. The paper explores text of different genres, forms, registers, depths, and lengths (news, essays, columns, reviews, short stories, anecdotes, humour, advertisements, etc.) in the context of the first half of the 20th century, using two approaches. On the one hand, it tries to show how translation, going beyond its own strictly literary and linguistic poetics, became a means of representing cultural, social, and political situations and processes. On the other hand, it also traces the image that may have existed or developed about translators, as well as the channels, genres, themes, situations, and discourses through which the „news” about translators reached the public and what imaginary and reflective spaces it evoked.