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Zofia A. Brzozowska, Mirosław J. Leszka, Nowogród Wielki. Historyczno-kulturowy przewodnik po średniowiecznej republice, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2019, ss. 266
Get PDFThe book Novgorod the Great. A Historical and Cultural Guide to the Medieval Republic by Zofia A. Brzozowska and Mirosław J. Leszka (1963–2024) is the result of a research project carried out between 2017 and 2019. It consists of a foreword, ten chapters, lists of Novgorodian rulers, bishops, and archbishops, and a comprehensive bibliography. The authors explore the history and political structure of the Novgorod Republic, focusing on the monuments of its capital, Novgorod the Great, arranged geographically. Their knowledge of written sources, especially the Novgorod First Chronicle, enabled them to reconstruct even lost or poorly preserved buildings. Field research helped verify historical accounts. The book discusses secular architecture and over forty churches, reflecting the city’s wealth and importance until its annexation by Moscow in 1478 and its devastation by Ivan IV’s troops in 1570. Detailed descriptions include the Kremlin (Detinets), the Market with nine churches, the Sophia Side with twelve churches, and the Market Side with nine. The final chapter presents seven sites from the surrounding area. Though not a traditional guidebook, the publication offers a panoramic view of medieval Novgorod’s architecture. Enhanced with maps, plans, and color photographs, most taken by Mirosław J. Leszka, it provides a valuable contribution to Polish scholarship on Eastern European history.Książka Nowogród Wielki. Historyczno-kulturowy przewodnik po średniowiecznej republice autorstwa Zofii A. Brzozowskiej i Mirosława J. Leszki (1963–2024) jest efektem projektu naukowego realizowanego w latach 2017–2019. Składa się z przedmowy, dziesięciu rozdziałów, wykazów władców, biskupów i arcybiskupów nowogrodzkich oraz obszernej bibliografii. Autorzy ukazują historię i strukturę republiki nowogrodzkiej, koncentrując się na zabytkach jej stolicy – Nowogrodu Wielkiego, w układzie geograficznym. Dzięki znajomości źródeł, zwłaszcza Latopisu nowogrodzkiego pierwszego, możliwe było odtworzenie także nieistniejących obecnie budowli. Badania terenowe pozwoliły skonfrontować przekazy źródłowe z rzeczywistością. Książka omawia zarówno budowle świeckie, jak i ponad czterdzieści cerkwi, co świadczy o bogactwie i znaczeniu miasta aż do jego podporządkowania Moskwie w 1478 r. i późniejszego zniszczenia przez opryczników Iwana IV w 1570 r. Szczegółowo opisano kreml (Dietiniec), Targ z dziewięcioma cerkwiami, Stronę Sofijską z dwunastoma cerkwiami oraz Stronę Targową z dziewięcioma. W rozdziale końcowym przedstawiono siedem obiektów z okolic miasta. Publikacja nie jest typowym przewodnikiem, lecz oferuje panoramiczny obraz średniowiecznej architektury Nowogrodu Wielkiego. Wzbogacona o mapy, plany i kolorowe zdjęcia, w większości wykonane przez Mirosława J. Leszkę, stanowi cenne uzupełnienie polskich badań nad historią Europy Wschodniej
Less Is More? Microcredentials as an Alternative to Degree-Awarding Translator Education
No full textMicrocredentials have recently attracted substantial attention in academia. While short, practice-oriented courses and the concept of lifelong learning (e.g. Jarvis 2009) have been around for decades, the idea of receiving credit in the form of open digital badges and stacking them to form a personal portfolio is new – and exciting. Add to it the ongoing discussion on the decline of the university diploma as such, and a viable alternative to traditional translator education looms in the distance.
This paper explores the rise of microcredentials in general and in language and translation studies in particular. The numerous approaches to translation competence (see Quinci 2023 for a more recent one) seem to be in agreement that it is a construct made up of several subcompetencies. It is logically sound, therefore, to acquire these subcompetencies separately in the process of competence development that is individual and free from the typical constraints of university education, such as completing it in the allotted time. However, this system means that there is no authority to tell the trainee that they are „competent enough”, other than perhaps the employer, who chooses to hire them or not. As regards the translation market, microcredentials are too new to be universally recognised, so for the time being translation agencies will prefer more traditional qualifications. This, in turn, leads to higher education institutions shying away from offering them (and students from taking them), since they do not yet constitute a fully-fledged qualification.
The paper includes a presentation of a pilot microcredential on offer at University of Lodz, as well as the results of a focus group survey on microcredentials in translation
Tackling Nominal Chains in a Specialized Translation Classroom
No full textNominal chains are regarded as a feature of specialized discourse in English and their disambiguation as a challenge for translators and translation trainees. They occur in all types of specialized discourse and include legal terms, technical terms or institutional terms. In Czech the relations between the constituents need to be expressed more explicitly. The chapter draws on an experiment aiming to test how well translation trainees can decipher the relations between individual constituents of nominal chains and identify types of nominal chains most susceptible to wrong interpretation. Based on these results, this chapter discusses how the analysis of nominal chains may be supported in a specialized translation classroom and proposes a series of specific activities to the effect
Intelligibility-based Instruction and English as a lingua franca
No full textThis paper draws heavily from my previous work on intelligibility (Hodgetts, 2020). It advocates basing pronunciation instruction on intelligibility goals, rather than native-like production goals and investigates the research available on the segmental and suprasegmental features that should be prioritized in order to enhance intelligibility and comprehensibility. First, the Chapter defines and explains the concepts of intelligibility, comprehensibility and accentedness, before discussing the merits of native and intelligibility-based targets of instruction in various contexts. It then examines which elements of segmental and suprasegmental language instruction might be included in an intelligibility-based syllabus. The crucial role of the listener is explored, as is the issue of English used as a lingua franca
A Dramaturgy of Translation: The Brussels City Theatre as a Site of Negotiation between Language Policy and Practice
No full textState-funded city theatres play an important role in keeping a finger on the pulse of society. As porous institutions that act as meeting places between artists and citizens, they can present themselves as reflexive or subversive voices. The combination of Brussels’ idiosyncratic sociolinguistic situation and its artist-driven performing arts landscape provides an exceptional context for encounter between the wealth of language communities and heterogeneous audiences. In this article, I examine how the Royal Flemish Theatre (KVS) uses this bottom-up dynamic to reflect the city’s urban multilingualism both on stage and in its outreach strategies. I consider the institution’s exemplary role in structurally embedding a trilingual translation policy, and its latitude in relation to politically conditioned requirements in a city where Dutch is increasingly becoming a minority language. This way, I demonstrate that, far beyond catering for the Flemish minority, KVS’s language and translation policy, as well as its principles, align with a future-oriented political project based in actual language practices. Furthermore, I highlight the particular role of the in-house “city dramaturg,” who probes the urban fabric and guards the institution’s vision while navigating the conditions imposed by funding bodies. It is argued that, by destabilising long-standing linguistic and cultural relations, KVS functions as a translation site, a shared space of debate to negotiate language relations and translation practices
Refiguring and Normalizing Urban Space: Naguib Mahfouz’s Awlād ḥāratinā and Its English, Polish, and Spanish Translations
No full textThe Arabic term ḥāra denotes a specific topographical unit of the traditional Middle-Eastern, especially Egyptian, city. Variously translated into English—e.g., as lane, alley, but also quarter, district, neighbourhood—it belongs to the category of culture-bound terms. This article presents an analysis of its use in the novel Awlād ḥāratinā (1959) by the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006), in which it plays a crucial role, and of how it has been rendered in four translations into English, Polish, and Spanish. The difficulty which the translators had to negotiate when dealing with ḥāra lies not only in its cultural specificity, but also in its polysemy: five semantic facets of this term are distinguished in this study (geographic, metonymic, architectural, social, and cultural/economic), of which four can be found in the novel. A number of occurrences of ḥāra in these four senses and their equivalents used in the four translations are discussed in terms of their semantics and connotations. Special attention is paid to the non-canonical use of this term to which Mahfouz resorted in order to refigure the topography of the Egyptian city and to give the novel an allegorical dimension. In translation, this meaningful alteration is reverted and literary space normalized back into a conventional shape. The analysis shows how the translators have domesticated the literary representation of urban space to suit Western notions, normalizing it in certain cases, but in some others have opted for foreignizing solutions
Between Translation and Translocation: How Art Sensorially Explodes Language in the Airport Space
No full textAfter Bataille, one can argue that, like the “castle, church, temple, or palace” before, nowadays the airport terminal—as elementary architecture of modern urban communication—emerges as a “grand didactic monument.” Erected to manage landside movement prior to flight, the air terminal as a techno-capitalist structure axiomatically operates with language, thus training the sensorium. Drawing from Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical toolbox, in the first part of this essay, I will elucidate how language, spatially deployed in the airport, operates as a system of order-words. In doing so, I will account for how translation moves away from textual experience to become a logistic and increasingly automated procedure, thus contributing a negative understanding of air terminal space as an alienating non-place. Curiously, leading airports are simultaneously incorporating art to create unique and memorable encounters which enhance passenger experience by constructing a sense of place. In the latter part, I will engage with Eve Fowler’s A Universal Shudder, exhibited at LAX in 2022, exploring aesthetic manners in which it configures language and/in the air terminal. I propose that this artwork heightens awareness not so much of art as art (in the airport), but rather of the translocating power of language itself, which it sensorially stimulates. Consequently, the pragmatics of translation will be shown to coincide with a political aesthetic of translocation, which explodes the airport regime of order-words, thus yielding a novel mode of experiencing and understanding the air terminal
Translating Istanbul: Divergent Voices in Travel Writing
No full textIntersemiotic research on urban discourse provides a dynamic perspective for interdisciplinary analysis, particularly within the context of Translation Studies. Drawing on Roland Barthes’s claim that the city is a “discourse” and Kevin Lynch’s notion that the image of the city is dynamic and influenced by the observer’s standpoint, in this study I examine three representations of Istanbul. Constantinople by Francis Marion Crawford, Letters from Constantinople by Georgina Adelaide Müller, and Constantinople: Old and New by H. G. Dwight are all treated here as examples of what Sündüz Öztürk Kasar terms traduction en filigrane (watermark translation). I also draw on Theo Hermans’s concept of “the translator’s voice” and adopt Bento’s categorization of tourist, traveler, and migrant travel writers to demonstrate how three distinct voices shape evolving interpretations of Istanbul through their authors’ unique experiences and backgrounds. Four recurring themes are identified across the travelogues: Galata as a site of cultural and social exchange, everyday life in Istanbul, the city’s mosques, and its cemeteries. Each translator leaves concrete “watermark” traces in their attempts to convey culturally embedded concepts to their audience; however, the extent and form of these traces vary depending on the translators’ level of cultural familiarity. This is particularly evident in Müller’s narrative, where the traces of traduction en filigrane are noticeably fewer; as a tourist translator with limited knowledge of the city and its traditions, she has fewer cultural elements to process and integrate into her text, which results in a more surface-level representation of Istanbul
Profesor Leszek Kajzer (1944–2016)
No full textProfessor Leszek Kajzer was one of the founders of historical archaeology in Poland, adapting this field to local conditions. Today, historical archaeology is pursued – albeit with varying intensity – by university departments, research institutes, and institutions of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Although its tentative beginnings in Poland date back to the 1920s, it was only through Kajzer’s work that both the subject matter and methodology of the discipline were clearly defined. Its scope includes the cultural landscape (sacred complexes and cemeteries, defensive structures, urban and rural settlements, architecture, and movable artefacts), as well as societies of the early and late Middle Ages and of modern times up to the present day.
This article presents a profile of Professor Leszek Kajzer and summarises his academic achievements.
RECEIVED 20.05.2025 • VERIFIED 25.06.2025 • ACCEPTED 02.07.2025
Funding Information: University of Lodz
Conflicts of interests: None
Ethical Considerations: The Authors assure of no violations of publication ethics and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.
The percentage share of the author in the preparation of the work is: J.S. 100%
Declaration regarding the use of GAI tools: not usedProfesor Leszek Kajzer jest jednym z twórców archeologii historycznej, adaptowanej na grunt polski i uprawianej obecnie z różną intensywnością przez katedry i instytuty uniwersyteckie oraz placówki PAN. Nieśmiałe jej początki można wskazać już w latach dwudziestych XX w., ale dopiero w Jego pracach zakreślono przedmiot i metodykę badań. Przedmiotem jej jest krajobraz kulturowy (zespoły sakralne i cmentarzyska, zespoły obronne, miejskie i wiejskie osadnictwo, architektura i zabytki ruchome), społeczeństw wczesnego i późnego średniowiecza, czasów nowożytnych aż po lata nowoczesności.
Artykuł jest przedstawieniem sylwetki Profesora Leszka Kajzera i podsumowaniem Jego działalności na niwie naukowej.
RECEIVED 20.05.2025 • VERIFIED 25.06.2025 • ACCEPTED 02.07.2025
Funding Information: University of Lodz
Conflicts of interests: None
Ethical Considerations: The Authors assure of no violations of publication ethics and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.
The percentage share of the author in the preparation of the work is: J.S. 100%
Declaration regarding the use of GAI tools: not use
Miecz zawłaszczony przez Karola IV Luksemburga
No full textThe so-called sword of Charles IV of Luxembourg, preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Weltliche Schatzkammer in Vienna, has long been the subject of debate concerning its origin and date. The discussion focuses primarily on the pommel, which, according to researchers, was made specifically for Charles IV. The sword itself is believed to have been produced in Sicily for Henry VI Hohenstaufen or his son Frederick II.
An analysis of the coats of arms on the pommel reveals that they were executed by two different craftsmen. The eagle coat of arms is engraved with fine lines on the same plane as the pommel, whereas the lion coat of arms is carved into the surface, extending below its level. In my view, a third coat of arms was originally present, created using the same technique as the eagle. This emblem was associated with the Sicilian branch of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and may have represented either the coat of arms of Sicily or that of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
RECEIVED 20.05.2025 • VERIFIED 15.07.2025 • ACCEPTED 17.07.2025
Funding Information: University of Lodz
Conflicts of interests: None
Ethical Considerations: The Authors assure of no violations of publication ethics and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.
The percentage share of the author in the preparation of the work is: MG 100%
Declaration regarding the use of GAI tools: not used Tak zwany miecz Karola IV Luksemburga, przechowywany w Kunsthistorische Musem, Weltliche Schatzkammer w Wiedniu, od dawna budzi dyskusję na temat swojego pochodzenia i datowania. Dotyczy to głównie głowicy, którą zdaniem badaczy wykonano specjalnie dla Karola IV Luksemburga. Miecz miał powstać na Sycylii, dla Henryka VI Hohenstaufa lub jego syna Fryderyka II.
Analiza herbów znajdujących się na głowicy pokazuje, że wykonały je dwie różne osoby. Herb orła wyryty jest delikatną linią w tej samej płaszczyźnie co głowica. Herb lwa jest wybrany w powierzchni głowicy i poniżej jej poziomu. Moim zdaniem znajdował się tu inny herb, wykonany tą samą techniką co i herb orła. Widniał tu herb związany z rodem sycylijskich Hohenstaufów i mógł to być herb Sycylii lub Królestwa Jerozolimy.
RECEIVED 20.05.2025 • VERIFIED 15.07.2025 • ACCEPTED 17.07.2025
Funding Information: University of Lodz
Conflicts of interests: None
Ethical Considerations: The Authors assure of no violations of publication ethics and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.
The percentage share of the author in the preparation of the work is: MG 100%
Declaration regarding the use of GAI tools: not used