Abstract:
Anita Gostomska
The translation strategy in Dubravka Ugresic’s novel The ministry of pain
Summary
The text presents one of Dubravka Ugresic’s latest novels perceived as the subject of translation. The ministry of pain founded on (ex-)Yugoslavian past turns out extremely difficult, in some parts it seems close to the untranslability. The problem concerns especially the parts which are more essayistic and estimate Croatian literature or communism in former Yugoslavia. Dorota Jovanka Ćirlić, the translator, had decided to explain some of the difficulties in her special note added to the novel (the footnotes supplement the writer’s endnotes). The troublesome words and phrases left without that kind of explanation might find it directly in the novel (descriptively commented) or require reader’s self-reliance. Apart from the cultural setting there is also a language question in the novel which because of its complex character and the translation strategy shall be interpreted separately.
