Od Jądra ciemności przez Serce mroku ku Sercu ciemności, czyli o eksperymentach przekładowych Jacka Dukaja

From Jądro ciemności via Serce mroku towards Serce ciemności or on Jacek Dukaj’s Translatory Experiments

The article examines two works by Jacek Dukaj Serce mroku and Serce ciemności. The former is Dukaj’s short story inspired by Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness while the latter is an experimental translation of it. The author argues that in both cases Dukaj uses similar methods for experiential transference. The techniques comprise amplification, explication and condensation, among others. Dukaj called his form of translation „transfiguration or transfusion” whereas the author proposes for this the term transcreation. Transcreation is an aesthetic reinterpretation of the original work suited to a new target language audience. In other words, it is an authorial version of Heart of Darkness which leaves no space for interpretative indeterminacy.