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Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 63:3 (2017) ► pp.322–342

Strategies for translating racist discourse about African-Americans into Slovenian

| University of Maribor

This article examines how racist discourse about African-Americans has been translated from English into Slovenian throughout history. Strategies for translating explicitly racist discourse, racial terminology and African American Vernacular English in translations published between 1853 and 2007 are analyzed. The results of the textual comparison are considered in the light of contemporary Slovenian attitudes towards black people and the socio-political situation in the target culture. The results show that the strategies for translating racist discourse in pre-World War II translations differed significantly from those used after a socialist regime was established in Slovenia. Translation strategies were also influenced by the important role that the Slovenian language played in the development of the national identity, by the target readership of the translations, as well as by contemporary relations between the source and target culture. Ideological interventions sometimes considerably affected the interpretive possibilities of a particular literary work.

Keywords: racist discourse, African-Americans, translation, Slovenia, ideological interventions
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Slovenian perception of black people
  • 3.The Slovenian terms for black people
  • 4.Translating explicitly racist discourse
  • 5.Translating racist terms for black people
  • 6.Translating African American Vernacular English
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 3 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.63.3.02tru
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