The Hermeneutic Method of Translating and Reading Translations

Rendering Cultural References in Sue Townsend’s The Queen and I into Polish

Abstract

Even though George Steiner’s hermeneutic motion is often criticised, some scholars see its validity as a proposition that successfully outlines an ethics of translation. Starting from those readings of Steiner’s work, this article aims to show how the hermeneutic motion could be combined with Antoine Berman’s text-deforming tendencies, a typology grounded in hermeneutics and psychoanalysis, to examine the possibility of a more detailed approach to the hermeneutic consideration of translation. Moreover, this combination could help in recognising and limiting unconscious biases in producing translations, which this article also attempts to demonstrate. The proposed framework is then used to analyse translations of selected cultural references in Sue Townsend’s novel The Queen and I as they appeared in its only Polish version. The analysis confirms that combining the hermeneutic motion with the system of textual deformation results in a model which is useful in both producing and discussing translated texts.