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Style in literary translation as perceived by Karel Hausenblas

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2022

Abstract

Karel Hausenblas, a pioneer of postbellum Czech studies, appears in most sources as an expert on stylistics. Translation as one of Hausenblas' fields of study is mentioned rather sporadically, mainly in relation to his studies "Překlady umělecké literatury" [Literary Translations] and "Styl a překlad" [Style and Translation]. However, the discourse of Hausenblas' unpublished works proves his significant efforts to interconnect the style and translation theories, resulting in the-oretical considerations on the preservation of stylistic qualities in a foreign language and culture.The paper focuses on translation as a major academic interest of Hausenblas, allowing him to interconnect stylistics with translation theory. Apart from published works, the core of the arti-cle lies in Hausenblas' manuscripts, lectures, and other materials that for decades had remained hidden in his archival fonds. Apart from his own theoretical theses on the style in translation, Hausenblas comments on key concepts suggested by Jiří Levý and Anton Popovič.

He speculates on translation style as a separate category, redefines the distinction of free and faithful translation, elaborates the concept of style unity, and addresses the principle of selective accuracy.