TRANSLATION IN THE FACE OF CENSORSHIP AND SELFCENSORSHIP – THREE CASE STUDIES IN ALBANIAN TRANSLATIONS OF KEY TEXTS

Abstract

: In this paper, we highlight some problems of literary translation in Albanian culture by examining the relationship between the source text and the translation context, as well as the influence of the cultural and ideo-political context on the phenomena of censorship and self-censorship during the translation process. As paradigms of these problems, we considered the Albanian translations of "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes (Part One); "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo and "Love in the Time of Cholera" (translation and retranslation) by Gabriel García Márquez, which we view as typical examples of these flagrant shifts. Through the comparative approach of the works translated into Albanian with the source texts, as well as the translation and retranslation of the same work, but in different ideological and cultural periods (one in the period of communism and the other, the retranslation, in the period of democracy), we have identified concrete examples of deviations and deformations that the source text suffered during translation. We have analyzed the nature and reasons that led to these deviations or deformations of these translations, by giving our opinion for each case, as well. From the analysis, it turns out that the processes of censorship and self-censorship were enforced by two factors: the socio-cultural context, the horizon of the reader’s expectations of the time (the case of “Don Quixote”) and the ideo-political constraints (the cases of “Les Miserables” and “Love in the Times of Cholera”.)