English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction

"This excellent book is the first ever study available in English on the translation of Polish children’s literature with a special focus on the translation of Janusz Korczak, a pre-eminent Polish children’s writer and pedagogue. Particularly welcome is the fact that this is a linguistically informed study presenting us with a thorough analysis of the translations in terms of register, discourse structure, sociolect, cultural references, style and ideology." --Juliane House, University of Hamburg, Germany

"Michał Borodo’s detailed and engaging investigation into Polish children’s author Janusz Korczak’s work in English draws on a wide range of translation paradigms. Incisive comparative analysis of four versions of one text with a particular focus on linguistic patterns highlights the creativity of individual translators as well as shifting socio-cultural constraints. Borodo’s case study represents a significant contribution to scholarship on translation for childrenin the twentieth and twenty-first centuries." --Gillian Lathey, University of Roehampton, UK
This book investigates major linguistic transformations in the translation of children’s literature, focusing on the English-language translations of Janusz Korczak, a Polish-Jewish children’s writer known for his innovative pedagogical methods as the head of a Warsaw orphanage for Jewish children in pre-war Poland. The author outlines fourteen tendencies in translated children’s literature, including mitigation, simplification, stylization, hyperbolization, cultural assimilation and fairytalization, in order to analyse various translations of King Matt the First, Big Business Billy and Kaytek the Wizard. The author then addresses the translators’ treatment of racial issues based on the socio-cultural context. The book will be of use to students and researchers in the field of translation studies, and researchers interested in children’s literature or Janusz Korczak.
Michał Borodo ​is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Linguistics at the Kazimierz Wielki University, Poland, where he is also the Head of Postgraduate Studies in Translation and Interpreting.