Sexuality in translation. Exploring the troubled seas of (un)official censorshipJames Joyce's ulysses in serbo-croatian

Resumen

There are three translations of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) into Serbo-Croatian: Zlatko Gorjan Uliks (1957), Luko Paljetak Uliks (1991) and Zoran Paunović Uliks (2001). The first two translations are in the Croatian dialect, whereas the third is in the Serbian dialect. Additionally, Gorjan’s translation is important as it is among the first ten translations of Ulysses. Even before the original text was published in the form of a novel, it had certain censorship issues due to its sexual content. Moreover, many of the translations preceding the Serbo-Croatian translations show evidence of censorship and (self)censorship when it comes to sexuality-related topics. Thus, having in mind that two of these translations were carried out in Communist former Yugoslavia (Gorjan 1957) and during the Civil War (Paljetak 1991), while the third translation was conducted in a newly founded country, which broke ties with the Communist regime (Paunović 2001), we wondered whether sexuality-related topics may be (self)censored. We decided to analyze only Gorjan 1957 and Paunović 2003 – an edited and corrected version of Paunović 2001 – as Paljetak 1991 was based on a much criticized source text. In an attempt to explore and document how sexuality was translated in Gorjan 1957 and Paunović 2003, we selected 40 examples from Chapters 13 (“Nausicaa), 14 (“Oxen of the Sun”), 15 (“Circe”) and 18 (“Penelope”) containing sexuality-related topics. Furthermore, we conducted a paratextual and textual analysis of the translations, subsequently studying the selected examples on a macro and micro level. Throughout this dissertation we aimed at answering three Research Questions: 1) Which are the defining traits of Serbo-Croatian and the historical, cultural and religious context of Serbia and former Yugoslavia that could have influenced the translation of sex-related passages in Joyce’s Ulysses? If it did influence, how were the passages containing sexuality translated? 2) Was there any sort of (self)censorship employed in the two translations of Ulysses into Serbo-Croatian (Gorjan 1957 and Paunović 2003) and what were its mechanisms of functioning, if it was employed? 3) Did (self)censorship of female sexuality play a role in the Serbian translation of Ulysses (Paunović 2003)? Was female sexuality (self)censored more often than male? Our findings showed that our hypotheses were partially correct and partially incorrect. Namely, it appears that the target language, culture, society, traditions, ideologies and history may have influenced the translations (Gorjan 1957 and Paunović 2003) as modifications in meaning were detected when it comes to sexuality-related topics. In addition, as no official censorship laws were found, we concluded that these modifications belong to unofficial censorship and most likely (self)censorship. Further on, it seems that, in the Serbian translation, female sexuality is indeed (self)censored in more examples than male sexuality, but the difference is negligable and it appears that both male and female sexuality are down-toned, while references to homosexuality are omitted.