ABSTRACT
A pseudotranslation, sometimes also known as a fictitious translation, is a text that is presented and/or widely received as a translation, but for which no single corresponding source text has ever existed. Regardless of an author–pseudotranslator's motivations, it is important to point out that a pseudotranslation can only be studied as such once the text's true nature has been revealed, or as Toury puts it, 'after the veil has been lifted'; up until that point, it is received, quite simply, as a translation. In situations where literary creativity is significantly curtailed by censorship, pseudotranslation can be a convenient and somewhat safer way for writers to comment on sensitive topics or introduce politically or socially controversial themes. Hungarian writers of genre fiction, who were credited as translators rather than as authors, did not have sufficient power to have much of a voice in the matter.
