Censorship, Translation and English Language Fiction in People’s Poland

Book excerpt: This book studies the influence of censorship on the selection and translation of English language fiction in the People’s Republic of Poland, 1944-1989. It analyses the differences between originals and their translations, taking into account the available archival evidence from the files of Poland’s Censorship Office, as well as the wider social and historical context. The book examines institutional censorship, self-censorship and such issues as national quotas of foreign literature, the varying severity of the regime, and criticism as a means to control literature. However, the emphasis remains firmly on how censorship affected the practice of translation. Translators shaped Polish perceptions of foreign literature from Charlie Chan books to Ulysses and from The Wizard of Oz to Moby-Dick. But whether translators conformed or rebelled, they were joined in this enterprise by censors and pulled into post-war Poland’s cultural power structures.