The concept of empathy emerged at the end of the nineteenth century and described an emotional aspect of aesthetic experience. In the context of art, empathy was supposed to enable an art lover to...Show moreThe concept of empathy emerged at the end of the nineteenth century and described an emotional aspect of aesthetic experience. In the context of art, empathy was supposed to enable an art lover to experience art more deeply or even merge one’s emotional life with the artwork’s motivation and meaning. On the other hand, empathy, as connected to the arts, represented a chance of improving one’s empathic reactions, both towards the artwork as well as towards other human beings. Although very beneficial, this outlook on empathy has been lost, and the meaning of the term has changed significantly. Empathy, which is especially visible in the realm of medicine, turned into an instrument used for the collection of knowledge on the patient. Despite the change in its meaning, empathy can be successfully reconsidered with the help of art.Show less
In 1986, Zohar Shavit claimed in her Poetics of Children’s Literature that children’s literature’s position may cause translators to neglect the beauty and structure of a source text and focus more...Show moreIn 1986, Zohar Shavit claimed in her Poetics of Children’s Literature that children’s literature’s position may cause translators to neglect the beauty and structure of a source text and focus more on the readability of the target text. According to Shavit, the lower position of children’s literature leads to the fact that a translator of children’s literature is permitted to take greater liberties in a translation, leading to what Antoine Berman would call a “textual deformation”. Among translators and translation theorists, disagreement exists on whether staying close to the source text, which would lead to a foreignizing effect, or bringing the text to the reader, creating a domesticating effect, is the most desirable strategy. Lawrence Venuti and Antoine Berman are strongly in favor of foreignizing translations, and do not deem the readability of a translation as most important, but instead advocate exposing the reader to foreign concepts from the source text and language. In order to test Zohar Shavit’s claim that children’s literature is translated rather freely and link it to Lawrence Venuti’s accusation that Anglo-American translations are predominately domesticating, I will analyze six children’s books and their translations by means of a selected number of Antoine Berman’s deforming tendencies, i.e. rationalization, expansion, clarification, and the destruction of expressions and idioms.Show less
