The Dilemma of Double Address. Polish Translation of Proper Names in Tove Jansson’s Moomin Books

Abstract

The article discusses the Polish translation of selected proper names from the nine Moomin books (1945–1970) written by the Finnish-Swedish author Tove Jansson. The analysis focusses on double address—a technique which is today more and more explicitly employed by authors and intensively discussed within academia. Although it has numerous names (ambiguity, crossover, Scandinavian allålderslitteratur—literature of all ages, dual/double or multiple address, fusion literature), it is not new and is typical of, for example, Jansson’s Moomin books, which are an excellent example to study the dilemma of double address in translation. The analysis includes a compact presentation of the source-language meaning in correlation with the referent’s characterisation and/or its origin. When investigating the interpretation of target-language names, both expert and novice readers will be considered. Methodologically, the study follows the taxonomy of translation techniques applied by Anna Fornalczyk (Translating Anthroponyms as Exemplified by Selected Works of English Children’s Literature in Their Polish Versions, 2010, based on Krzysztof Hejwowski, Translation: A Cognitive-Communicative Theory Approach, 2004) and Yvonne Bertills (Intertextualities, Continued. The Connotations of Proper Names in Tove Jansson. In Children’s Literature as Communication: The ChiLPA Project, ed. Roger D. Sell, 2002, based on Theo Hermans, On Translating Proper Names, with Reference to De Witte and Max Havelaar. In Modern Dutch Studies: Essays in Honour of Peter King, ed. M. Wintle and P. Vincent, 1988). This approach allows one to pose questions about the impact of double address on translation and translation studies, and in particular the future of translation for children and its theory as a separate field of research.