Prevajanje fantazijk

The author introduces a previously non-existent term in Slovene, namely fantazijka, to refer to fantasy fiction, i.e., a genre constructed from elements of an alien world and describing the magical conflict of Good and Evil. He also proposes new Slovene terms for subgenres of fantasy fiction, which he has derived from their respective narrative themes. Should the genre be read and translated as high literature, i.e., “periphrasti­cally” (after Nabokov)? The author names some classical and/or innovative authors in this genre (starting with Tolkien) who deserve such treatment. But in the publishing business there prevails the view that, since the genre – which is mostly composed of coming-of-age stories with young heroines – serves the reading needs of the young, the standards should be lowered to the reading capabilities and interests of this audience. That means that instead of translations this readership is more or less being served with adaptations-in-disguise. The author goes on to describe the two greatest scandals in Slovene translation history: the first around the second translation of The Lord of the Rings, the second regarding his perceived “takeover” of Harry Potter. The fruit of this battle of the fandom’s wishful thinking against the translator’s paraphrastophilia has been his lexicon Lord of the Rings from A to Z, explaining, among other things, Gradisnik’s “translatology”.