This study is about ‘literary translation’, and the nature of its being. The notion of
literary translation is here understood as a translation of a literary work of art.
The doctoral thesis focuses on the relationship between a work of literature as an
original and its translation. The research aims to answer the question of whether
a literary translation is the same work as the original literary work. This question
of identity is an ontological issue. The research question can also be expressed as
a question about the ‘translatability’ of a literary work of art. Accordingly, if a work
is translatable, it can survive translation and remain the same.
What kind of an entity is a literary translation? We know that a literary translation
is a new cultural entity that has never existed before, and yet some literary practices,
especially the culture of reviewing, seem to approach translations of literature
as identical with their originals. The relationship between original and identity
appears unclear. Obviously, there are several ways to understand the key notions
of translation, original, and identity. This doctoral thesis focuses on exploring
the notional complexity of the issue of translatability, and further, on answering
the question of ‘being the same’.
The research method for investigating the identity issue is qualitative analysis, more
exactly, a conceptual analysis. The key notions are examined in two theoretical
frameworks, Translation Studies and the Philosophy of Art. To be analysed, there
are different scholarly approaches from both academic fields.
The doctoral dissertation consists of five sub-studies and a summary. It includes
four published original articles. In this study, the ontological peculiarity of a literary
translation is clarified. I argue that a literary translation is not the same as the
original; it is a work that should be considered as a version. I propose that a
literary translation as an ontological derivative is a presented work of art. As a
presentation, it can be regarded as a performed work of art.
Key notions: literary work of art, translation, original, identity, translatability,
ontology, presentation