Abstract: | In 2010, only three years after the Polish edition, a translation by Jana Unuk of the novel
Ostatnia Wieczerza (‘The Last Supper’) by Paweł Huelle appeared.
The mental schema of The Last Supper (the basis of a stereotype), which is in the character
of a sacrificial feast and consists of: the shared supper of Jesus and the apostles, the knowledge of
Jesus about the betrayal by Judas, about His own martyrdom, sacrifice and transubstantiation and
the message of faith, covers the structure of the entire novel. The stereotype has been introduced
into the context of the contemporary events as an argument of a broader dialogue on the topic of
community, freedom, betrayal, religion and art.
In a way, Jana Unuk has become a co‑author
of the novel by transferring the sense and the
idea of the original version to the Slovenian culture, due to the performed language transfer. Despite
the faithfulness to the original and the translation art of the translator, the mental schema
of The Last Supper that is oriented upon the future did not receive the potentiality of the original
(giving hope) because of the different pragmatics of the Slovenian language and its slightly different
cultural conception.
Entering into an accepting culture, the original assumes its features even on the level of
translating stereotypes that are as stable as religious stereotypes. |