Poetics Dictionary

Universals of Translation

Ewa Kraskowska

a b s t r a c t

According to Mona Baker, universals of translation are linguistic features which usually occur in translated rather than original texts and are thought to be independent of the influence of the source language on the target language.

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The academic murder mystery

Ewa Kraskowska

a b s t r a c t

– is a variant of the so-called “academic” or “campus novel” that is popular in Anglophone literary culture and makes sporadic appearances in Polish literature. The defining feature of this (thematic) genre is campus life:1 into this setting, the academic murder mystery introduces the crime motif (typically involving murder) and the narrative thread of the investigation that then ensues.

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Prose Cycle (Narrative Cycle; Story Cycle)

A term in literary theory by which one might determine the external connections between the stories comprising the given cycle. In A Dictionary of Literary Terms (Słownik terminów literackich), edited by Janusz Sławiński, under the cycle and its related terms, we find the following definitions:

Novel sequence – a form of literary cycle: a series of novels tied together into an overarching whole by means of a compositional frame that embraces them all (e.g. (...)

Aptness

– (incisiveness). In what follows, this category is applied to a small fragment of a literary text: an expression or a single sentence. Though “aptness” (of expression) indicates a perhaps rather elusive, but relatively uncomplicated property of linguistic organization of a small fragment of a literary text, this essay deals with a broader problem, less specific, for which this term has been chosen “for lack of a better one” – its meaning comes closest to the range of poetological phenomena to be discussed here, although its dictionary definition does not encapsulate all aspects of the problem in an obvious way. (...)

Frivolous Rhyme

Precz mi z Febem! – Febus żak,
Precz z harmonią, czczy to dym!
Wiwat modnych wieszczów smak,
Wiwat podkasany rym!
(Down with Phoebus! – Phoebus the schoolboy,
Down with harmony, it’s vain smoke!
Long live the taste of trendy bards,
Long live frivolous rhyme!)

Thus wrote Stanisław Okraszewski, a poet of the late Enlightenment, mocking the jarring one-syllable consonances he is referring to. (...)

Book Trailer

– a concept imported from cinematography into literary life – a short film promoting a book. It is composed of dynamically edited images, with information about the author and the book itself, and often arrayed with advertising slogans. (...)

Blurb

– the word was invented by the American poet and art critic Gelett Burgess (1866-1951), though the practice to which it refers existed much earlier. Burgess wrote chiefly humoristic and nonsense verse; his works included the popular “Purple Cow” (translated into Polish by  Stanisław Barańczak). (...)

Spoken-word poetry

In the Anglo-American tradition spoken word poetry is a specific kind of poetry intended for public performance or reading on stage. This outwardly simple English term is difficult to define (or translate), as it can be understood two ways – more broadly, as spoken poetry in general, which would include all oral poetic forms – performative, experimental and jazz poetry, but also – and perhaps primarily – hip hop; and more narrowly – as a particular contemporary poetry subgenre of American provenance, closely linked to poetry slams[1] – poetry performed for an audience, usually without accessories, musical or dance accompaniment. (...)

Fan-Fiction

Fan fiction is defined by Lidia Gąsowska, the author of a book on the subject in Polish (and of many other related works), as a “form of pop culture disseminated via the mass media, consisting primarily of written works based on popular books, films, TV shows, comic books, and cartoons; they are created by fans of these works.”[1]

This definition contains three basic elements that tend to appear in other descriptions of the phenomenon. (...)