konets vega -- fin de siecle?

[Benjamin Sher]

Dear friends:

Have any of you ever seen "konets veka" (the context is art
history, specifically film history) translated into English as
"fin-de-siecle"? It would seem to me that "fin-de-siecle"
refers only to the specific time period of the end of the 19th
century and is not transferable to any other period, either
before or after it. On the other hand, certain terms, once
translated, even UNidiomatically, become the norm. For
instance, the media often speaks of "NATO enlargement",
which is clearly unidiomatic English. "Enlargement" refers to
a physical process, such as in medicine ("enlargment of the
pancreas or esophagus" or photography, not to conceptual,
abstract processes (in this case: "NATO expansion"). This
may be due to reverse translation. Is it conceivable that "fin-
de-siecle" might suffer a similar fate? No doubt there are
many other such examples.

Any thoughts on the matter?

Benjamin

Sher's Russian Web
http://www.websher.net
Benjamin and Anna Sher
sher07 at mindspring.com

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