HOW CHRISTOPHER ROBIN BECAME BEBO CHERVENUSHKO: BULGARIAN RECEPTION OF WINNIE THE POOH

Abstract

The paper discusses the two Bulgarian translations of A. A. Milne’s Pooh books within their socio-cultural context and in the light of polysystem theory. The 1945 translation was deliberately domesticated and affiliated to the dominant models of Bulgarian children’s literature. As a result, wordplay was downgraded and the child addressee – foregrounded. The 2001 translation is distinguished by a much higher degree of adequacy to the source norms. Through its linguistic creativity and the recourse to informal vocabulary, it targets a teenage or adult audience. At present both texts are functional in the target culture and their coexistence is a sign of its impulse towards renewal as well as of cultural continuity.