Structural metaphors in the English and Hungarian version of George Eliot's Middlemarch

Bezecky, Gábor (2001) Structural metaphors in the English and Hungarian version of George Eliot's Middlemarch. Hungarian Studies, 15 (1). pp. 113-119. ISSN 0236-6568

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Abstract

When we are trying to decide whether the translation of a particular novel is good or bad, we shall usually find that there are quite a few equally valid points of view and powerful arguments on both sides. It should also be noted that in order to reach a decision it seems necessary to by-pass temporarily the views according to which languages are incompatible and translation is either impossible or illu- sory. Putting aside the views on linguistic relativity does not simplify matters, it just makes the decision possible. The temporary suspension of such views is, to some extent, justified by the practice of those people who correlate texts in differ- ent languages and look upon them as saying the same thing. They may be wrong and the supposedly identical texts can turn out to be different, but it must be ad- mitted that identity in cultural matters is always arbitrary. If people insist on trans- lating as they obviously do, there should be some criteria within the theoretical framework of translatability to judge the relative merits and failures of what they produce.

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