8. Translating Books: Translation and New Media

Translation can also involve rendering a text created in a natural language into another system of signs. A classic example of this is a film adaptation of a literary work, while particularly modern examples include the creation of video games based on literature and rendering  film and TV series dialogues in such a way as to reflect the linguistic and cultural specificity of a given country or region.

 

In this broad sense, translation is an important study area at the Faculty of Polish Studies. Our activity extends beyond books: E. Modrzejewska translated the fact-checking game Bad News, whereas students majoring in translation have translated a board game whose aim is to train players in rhetoric.

Research on the process of translation of books into other media includes analyses of film adaptations of works by B. Prus and S. Wyspiański, titled: „Faraon”. Poetyka filmu („Faraon”: The Poetics of Film), „Faraon”. Rozmowy o filmie („Faraon”: Conversations about the Film), and „Wesele”. Filmowa mandala („Wesele”: Film Mandala), edited by S. Kuśmierczyk.

Further research of this sort is summarized in the volume by S. Kuśmierczyk and L. Rezoničnik, titled Masterpieces of Polish Literature and Film: Pharaoh, The Wedding, Mother Joan of the Angels. The researchers demonstrate the cultural processes through which literary texts inscribed themselves in subsequent phases of literary and film discourse. They have selected works whose film adaptations were crucial for the historical development of  Polish cinematic poetics.

The journey of a cultural text – from book to silent film to digitized and web-based cinema – is explored by J. Stachowicz in the book titled Komputery, powieści i kino nieme. Procesy remediacji w perspektywie historycznej (Computers, Novels and Silent Cinema: Processes of Remediation Processes from a Historical Perspective). He discusses the transformations of film through its history, its relationship with literature, and the convergence of these media.

A distinct form of translation  – in this case, not of texts themselves, but rather of research methodology – is the employment of concepts and frameworks of modern literary studies in the research on video games. P. Kubiński develops this approach in his book titled Gry wideo. Zarys poetyki (Video Games: An Outline of Poetics).

Using well-established story-building patterns, we also develop software to improve the process of creating video game plots.

 

(In the photo: rhetorical board game; photo by M. Kaźmierczak)