Literature for Children in Translation: The Hungarian Public Encounters Michael Bond’s A Bear Called Paddington

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to investigate the Hungarian translation of children’s literature in English, focusing on a prose text. The first and last books of Michael Bond’s popular Paddington Bear book series (1958–2018) were translated into Hungarian by Dezső Tandori and published in 2008. The present article explores the question how the world of such a stereotypically British character like Paddington is rendered in Hungarian. After a brief outline of research on children’s literature in translation, a thorough comparison of the source and target texts is carried out, highlighting the preservation or change of the stereotypical culture-specific elements in the target text, the marking of formal or informal address forms (Tu/Vous pronouns). Besides, as the ST abounds in wordplay and verbal humour, their rendering in the TL is also examined. As a result, it is concluded that through the translation of children’s literature – the Paddington stories are no exception – youngsters can learn about cultural differences and gain access to one of the finest examples of English children’s prose in their Hungarian mother tongue.