Jules Verne’s Transylvania: Cartographic Omissions
173
ethnographic information. Some translators and editors even thought
that the fictional information on Transylvania was so flattering and
accurate that it needed just a few corrections to be perfect: in order to
make every detail better correspond to the Romanian realities, they reconstituted what they thought was the right spelling of towns or rivers,
rewrote the idiomatic expressions, and re-baptized the characters
(Miriota became Miorita, Gortz became Gorj, Frik, Frig, and so on).
6
Happy to correct these minor “mistakes”, Romanian readers
seemed ready to overlook the criticism. As Verona points out, one can
still find numerous “negative comparisons [which], though comical,
widen the cultural gap between the French knowledge and Romanian
ignorance, as one country obviously ‘has’ what the other ‘lacks’”
7 as
the novel seems to expose the “lack of vegetation, lack of civilization,
of humanity, and of knowledge”.
8
However, even if Verne’s portrayal of Transylvania does not
always seem very flattering (for instance, Werst is designated as “l’un
des plus arriérés villages du comitat de Koloswar”,
9 untouched by
Western civilization), we may say that such images are still more positive than many other of Verne’s “extraordinary” destinations. As Jean
Chesneaux points out, Verne often treats foreign nations or ethnic
groups with an openly racist disdain based, probably, on the belief of
the superiority of Western Europe,
10 or, more specifically, that of
___________________________
6 Verona, “Jules Verne in Transylvania”, pp. 141-42; Verona examines various translations and interpretations, showing that: “When Hobana, the knowledgeable specialist of Verne’s works, reviews Romanians’ animated reception of the novel, he notices
that some translators tried to give it a Romanian turn by changing the Hungarian or
German names into Romanian ones and correcting any topographical errors. While
Verne is Gothicizing the local, Romanian translators are localizing the Gothic” (p.
145). See also Raluca Anamaria Vida, “L’Île mystérieuse – Insula misterioasa comme
paradigme du phénomène retraductif roumain dans le cas de Jules Verne”, Jules
Verne dans les Carpates. Caietele de l’Echinox., vol. 9 (Cluj: Universitatea BabesBolyai, 2005), pp. 262-72, and Muguras Constantinescu, “Remarques sur la traduction
en roumain du Château des Carpathes de Jules Verne”, Atelier de traduction, 3
(2005), 99-111.
7 Verona, “Jules Verne in Transylvania”, p. 142.
8 Verona, “Jules Verne in Transylvania”, p. 139.
9 Verne, Château, p. 8.
10 Jean Chesneaux talks about “un mépris quasi raciste” (p. 18) and of “tout
l’Occident du machinisme moderne et du capitalisme ascendant qui crie son orgueil
d’être ‘européen’ et qui étend son contrôle à la surface de la planete – ou du moins
croit naïvement qu’il pourra le faire sans encombres”. (p. 22). “Le Tour du monde en
173
ethnographic information. Some translators and editors even thought
that the fictional information on Transylvania was so flattering and
accurate that it needed just a few corrections to be perfect: in order to
make every detail better correspond to the Romanian realities, they reconstituted what they thought was the right spelling of towns or rivers,
rewrote the idiomatic expressions, and re-baptized the characters
(Miriota became Miorita, Gortz became Gorj, Frik, Frig, and so on).
6
Happy to correct these minor “mistakes”, Romanian readers
seemed ready to overlook the criticism. As Verona points out, one can
still find numerous “negative comparisons [which], though comical,
widen the cultural gap between the French knowledge and Romanian
ignorance, as one country obviously ‘has’ what the other ‘lacks’”
7 as
the novel seems to expose the “lack of vegetation, lack of civilization,
of humanity, and of knowledge”.
8
However, even if Verne’s portrayal of Transylvania does not
always seem very flattering (for instance, Werst is designated as “l’un
des plus arriérés villages du comitat de Koloswar”,
9 untouched by
Western civilization), we may say that such images are still more positive than many other of Verne’s “extraordinary” destinations. As Jean
Chesneaux points out, Verne often treats foreign nations or ethnic
groups with an openly racist disdain based, probably, on the belief of
the superiority of Western Europe,
10 or, more specifically, that of
___________________________
6 Verona, “Jules Verne in Transylvania”, pp. 141-42; Verona examines various translations and interpretations, showing that: “When Hobana, the knowledgeable specialist of Verne’s works, reviews Romanians’ animated reception of the novel, he notices
that some translators tried to give it a Romanian turn by changing the Hungarian or
German names into Romanian ones and correcting any topographical errors. While
Verne is Gothicizing the local, Romanian translators are localizing the Gothic” (p.
145). See also Raluca Anamaria Vida, “L’Île mystérieuse – Insula misterioasa comme
paradigme du phénomène retraductif roumain dans le cas de Jules Verne”, Jules
Verne dans les Carpates. Caietele de l’Echinox., vol. 9 (Cluj: Universitatea BabesBolyai, 2005), pp. 262-72, and Muguras Constantinescu, “Remarques sur la traduction
en roumain du Château des Carpathes de Jules Verne”, Atelier de traduction, 3
(2005), 99-111.
7 Verona, “Jules Verne in Transylvania”, p. 142.
8 Verona, “Jules Verne in Transylvania”, p. 139.
9 Verne, Château, p. 8.
10 Jean Chesneaux talks about “un mépris quasi raciste” (p. 18) and of “tout
l’Occident du machinisme moderne et du capitalisme ascendant qui crie son orgueil
d’être ‘européen’ et qui étend son contrôle à la surface de la planete – ou du moins
croit naïvement qu’il pourra le faire sans encombres”. (p. 22). “Le Tour du monde en