Beata Śniecikowska – författare

The objective of this book is to continue the reflection on the innovative potential of misunderstanding in　cross-cultural encounters　which we started by publishing the first part of the book (Understanding Misunderstanding. Vol. 1: Cross-Cultural Translation, Peter Lang 2019). The main purpose of these two corresponding volumes is to embrace not only the cross-cultural adaptation of texts, ideas and discourses in distant geo-historical contexts, but also the culturally-based mechanisms of creatively transforming and re-shaping the source-text in target environments. The notions of misunderstanding and semantic transformation are seen as crucial in this process, yet still not widely acknowledged.

This book explores the covert and overt creative potential　of misunderstanding. Viewed from the authors’ perspective, misunderstanding proves an elementary and unavoidable aspect of linguistic and cultural communication that can have a surprisingly beneficial impact on social relations and concomitantly stimulate the emergence of new cultural forms. As the authors of the book prove, cross-cultural contact is definitely a dynamic and asymmetric process rather than a static and symmetric transfer of values from one culture to another.

The monograph presents the Polish history of haiku and the forms associated with this genre – in literature and visual arts. Polish works are confronted with Japanese poetry (along with its aesthetic, philosophical and ethical contexts) and with haiku-inspired miniatures produced by poets from various European and American countries. The book also touches upon the theory of literary genres and translatological problems (translations of Japanese haiku as a touchstone of changes in Western literature). The presented discussion with haiku as the central theme allows for a unique and panoramic perspective of Polish poetry of the last hundred years. It also facilitates original analyses of the relationship between literature and visual arts – in the field of book art, painting and multimedia.