Tempo e spazio nelle Favole di Karel Čapek

The paper focuses on the problematics of translation of toponyms used in a particular litterary text, Devatero pohádek by Czech author Karel Čapek. First we will try to give a general definition of a fairytale, its origins and characteristics. Next we will focus on the differences between the concepts of time and space in the traditional fairytales and in those written by Capek. The following part analyses the use of the toponyms in the Czech original text and its English and Italian translations. The analyzed toponyms were divided in three main groups according to their provenience, i.e. domestic czech and foreign with international forms, domestic czech without international forms, imaginary toponyms. In each of these groups the terms were subsequently categorized by the following criteria: untranslated, translated and replaced. We have seen how both of the translators treat the toponyms differently and that the ratio of toponyms in the three main groups divided by the default criteria differ to some extent.