Erich Fried’s Prose in Changes of our Times (in Honour of his 30 th Jubilee of Death 1988–2018)

The overall purpose of the researched study is to describe the confrontation between two basic translational principles in E. Fried’s prose and translational activities – naturalizing versus foreignizing (according to L. Venuti’s concept of the translation strategy named domestication in which a ST style is adopted in a TT, elaborated in contemporary Translation Studies). The further objective of the paper is to describe not only the issues for possible future translations of E. Fried’s prose (above all his crucial novel A Soldier and a Girl) into Slovak and Czech language, but also problems with the sense and the style of this author’s works in translations. The goal of this paper is to research not only the topics of antifascist and modernistic literature but also the topic of time and space (the historical setting in which the prose was produced – the addresses, circumstances, etc.) in E. Fried’s literary heritage and above all the history and the way of development of his crucial novel. Without that sense E. Fried’s famous novel and numerous tales cannot be translated into Slovak and Czech adequately and faithfully. The basic design of the study was built as follows: E. Fried’s prose in a broader context of the WWII exile literature; the modernistic novel of E. Fried as backlash on the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen trial 1945; background knowledge by the analysis of E. Fried’s prose and the role of authorial comments; naturalizing versus foreignizing as translational issues. Major findings in the field of literary research of E. Fried’s prose links to F. Kafka and his influence on the novel A Soldier and a Girl were shown in the part of the modernistic novel of E. Fried as backlash on the Belsen trial – i.e. the author’s turn from war-time antifascist literary production to a new modernistic stage during the writing of the novel (1945–46). Contemporary translational trends (the approach to translational principles of modernizing versus historicizing) are described in the two last parts of this paper. The conclusion stresses the impact of social and political circumstances on a controversial author as times change