Reactions of adolescent readers to omission in translated fiction – A focus group study

Abstract The purpose of the present study is to examine the young adult readers' reactions and expectations towards omission as a literary translation technique. The material was collected during five voice-recorded focus groups. 22 high-school students aged 17–18 were asked to discuss an extract from the Polish translation of a novel in which a portion of the original text was omitted. Then, the respondents were given the equivalent extract from the original English text and discussed the translation again. In each group, three pairs of original texts and their translations were used. The participants' opinion depended on whether they thought that a significant portion of source text was omitted in the translated version. If larger portions of the text, such as dialogues or full sentences, were removed, their comments were strongly negative. However, they accepted some instances of omission. The results suggest that an academic discussion around omission in translation would benefit if the technique was approached with less bias that stems from its generally accepted status as a controversial translation solution. More empirical research projects in which a neutral approach to omission is adopted are called for.