one another, aggressive in their need for self-protection. Other languages also enter the conversation. Trieste, for example, is a city of three languages, its Slovene population at times as numerous as that in Ljubljana itself. Movement across languages is marked by the special intensity that comes from shared references and a shared history and indeed translation becomes the very condition of civic Cultures of mediation, in dual or multilingual cities, are immersed in the social and political forces that regulate the relations among languages. Translation can be seen to express two kinds of social interaction: (translation as the expression of the gulfs which distancing separate languages and cultures, with its most extreme form being over-writing or the effacement of one language), and (translation as the vehicle of esthetic interactions furthering and blendings). Distancing is what happens when translations serve to underscore the differences that prevail among cultures and languages, even when the gap may be the small distances of urban space. Distancing occurs when authors are treated as representatives of their origins, of their national or religious traditions, when translation is undertaken for ideological reasons, either in a mood of antagonism, of generosity or simply of politeness. Furthering, by contrast, involves what Grossman calls the and expansive “revivyfing effect” of translation, one language infusing another influences, alterations and ‘with combinations that would not have been possible without the presence of translated foreign literary styles and perceptions, the material significance and heft of literature that lies outside the territory of the purely monolingual.’ (Grossman 2010: 16) Cities of Central Europe In this essay, I would like to expand and broaden the notion of the dual city—and the conflictual forces of translation-- by focusing on the cities of Central Europe as a particular historical and geographical configuration of the city in translation. In the spirit of the theme of
one another, aggressive in their need for self-protection. Other languages also enter the conversation. Trieste, for example, is a city of three languages, its Slovene population at times as numerous as that in Ljubljana itself. Movement across languages is marked by the special intensity that comes from shared references and a shared history and indeed translation becomes the very condition of civic Cultures of mediation, in dual or multilingual cities, are immersed in the social and political forces that regulate the relations among languages. Translation can be seen to express two kinds of social interaction: distancing (translation as the expression of the gulfs which separate languages and cultures, with its most extreme form being over-writing or the effacement of one language), and furthering (translation as the vehicle of esthetic interactions and blendings). Distancing is what happens when translations serve to underscore the differences that prevail among cultures and languages, even when the gap may be the small distances of urban space. Distancing occurs when authors are treated as representatives of their origins, of their national or religious traditions, when translation is undertaken for ideological reasons, either in a mood of antagonism, of generosity or simply of politeness. Furthering, by contrast, involves what Grossman calls the “revivyfing and expansive effect” of translation, one language infusing another ‘with influences, alterations and combinations that would not have been possible without the presence of translated foreign literary styles and perceptions, the material significance and heft of literature that lies outside the territory of the purely monolingual.’ (Grossman 2010: 16) Cities of Central Europe In this essay, I would like to expand and broaden the notion of the dual city—and the conflictual forces of translation-- by focusing on the cities of Central Europe as a particular historical and geographical configuration of the city in translation. In the spirit of the theme of
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