Dezs? Kosztolányi And/In Translation

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Dezs? Kosztolányi was one of the most avid and versatile Hungarian translators of the twentieth century. At the same time, translation offers a unique way of gaining insight into Kosztolányi’s own works, particularly into his last cycles of short stories, Esti Kornél (1933) and Esti Kornél Kalandjai (1936). Looking at these stories through the prism of translation reveals that Kosztolányi’s prose is very much like poetry. In it, linguistic form is at least as important as semantic content, if not more. Here, the recognition of formal patterns leads to semantic discoveries. Language has become the protagonist that manipulates the other characters. Translation points most straightforwardly to this fact because it is in translation that the loss, and, therefore, the presence of the original’s linguistic form are most acutely felt.In my presentation I discuss Kosztolányi’s approaches to translation as well as what questions raised in the process of translation reveal about his own fiction.


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