ABSTRACT
The chapter illustrates the impact of Poland's transition towards democracy and capitalism on the position of English-Polish translations of popular fiction (specifically, science fiction, fantasy, and horror) by describing the translation market pre-transition, in its immediate aftermath, and in a more stable state at the turn of the 21st century. In the late 1970s, Polish fans of the genres attempted to overcome the dearth of publications by establishing clubs to exchange books and produce amateur magazines and translations. Widely available translations from English started to appear in the 1990s and were instrumental in establishing the popularity of speculative fiction in Poland. At this stage, they occupied what polysystem theory calls a central position. However, the democratic transition exposed translations to new pressures, notably from the accumulating body of previous translations, including audiovisual and digital texts in major series and franchises. As a result, literary translations have been undergoing a demotion from their genre-making role to a default, peripheral role in the polysystem. As written texts and their translations now constitute a smaller section of the spectrum of genre fiction available to fans, translations are expected to comply with previous models and canonised renderings while preserving ties to other texts, notably digital and audiovisual ones.
