Culture in translation, translator in culture. A review of the book Third-culture elements in the translation process of the Dutch East Indies prose into Polish and German by Michał Gąska, Wydawnictwo Universitas, Kraków 2021, 276 pp.

Abstract

The article reviews the book by Michał Gąska entitled Third-culture elements in the translation process of the Dutch East Indies prose into Polish and German. The monograph was based on the PhD thesis under the same title submitted at the University of Wrocław, Poland. Beginning from preliminary remarks on the cultural diversity in the globalised world, the article focuses on the key ideas of the book, including the relation between language and culture, translation strategies, and anthropocentrism in translation with a model of the translation process adopted into the study. As it is the first review article of the book in question, it refers only to the previous reviews of Gąska’s dissertation. Although the thesis was recognised as pioneering, the reviewers pointed out that it needs to be revisited in terms of some imprecise statements, its structure, and language. While some of the comments seemed to be relatively easy to take into account before the publication of the book, other would have demanded a deeper insight into the questions posed. What should be emphasised is the fact that the author of the book considered the majority of changes suggested by the reviewers, which ensures the clarity of the description. The subsequent part of the article attempts to critically evaluate the book by Michał Gąska with particular attention paid to intercultural competence of the translator, translation techniques adopted by translators of the Dutch East Indies prose into Polish and German, and minor editing mistakes. In conclusion, the author states that the book Third-culture elements in the translation process of the Dutch East Indies prose into Polish and German presents an interesting insight into the translation of the third-culture elements and paves the way for further studies on the topic in question.