Language in Relation to Socio-Cultural Identity and Literary Verism. On the Silesian Edition of Gerhart Hauptmann’s "the Weavers" ("Tkŏcze")

Abstract

The article examines selected aspects of the Silesian edition of Gerhart Hauptmann’s drama The Weavers. In Mirosław Syniawa’s translation, the characters speak either Polish or Silesian depending on their social class. The Silesian variant captures the specific nature of the weavers’ existence – poverty, destitution, hunger, illness, and exhaustion – but it is also employed in more elevated communicative contexts, such as interactions with the sacred. The veristic nature of communication is also reflected in the use of idiomatic expressions, lexical expressive forms, and the stylistic rendering of proper names. The observations presented in the article lead to the conclusion that the Silesian edition of the drama The Weavers (Tkŏcze) is a compelling and significant text for contemporary humanities research, including linguistic studies. Its linguistic layer is particularly important both due to the verism and mimetic character of the represented world – as situated within Polish and Silesian (in the original version in German and Silesian) cultural contexts – and because of the themes and interpretations related to Silesian identity that can be drawn from this original and notably intriguing translation. Engaging with Gerhart Hauptmann’s play in Mirosław Syniawa’s Silesian translation demonstrates the value of such translational efforts, as they shed new light on various issues within a complex culture shaped by a centuries-long, intricate history.