<p>The implied reader of a novel is the person that the author writes for. In the case of Åsa Larsson’s Swedish detective novel Solstorm, the implied reader is familiar with Swedish politics, history, and geography but also with biblical references and Swedish customs. When the novel is translated into English, The Savage Altar: Innocence will be Sacrificed, there is a new implied reader, the translator’s implied reader. When culture-specific material is either omitted or misunderstood, or a cultural filter changes the material to suit the new target audience, the context of the novel is also changed. The result is a loss of context.</p>

The implied reader of a novel is the person that the author writes for. In the case of Åsa Larsson’s Swedish detective novel Solstorm, the implied reader is familiar with Swedish politics, history, and geography but also with biblical references and Swedish customs. When the novel is translated into English, The Savage Altar: Innocence will be Sacrificed, there is a new implied reader, the translator’s implied reader. When culture-specific material is either omitted or misunderstood, or a cultural filter changes the material to suit the new target audience, the context of the novel is also changed. The result is a loss of context.

Exploring theoretical intersections of translation studies and linguistic landscape studies, this thesis both sums up existing research and presents new ideas, so as to show how the two disciplines can benefit from each other. The main focus of the first chapter is distinctive features of translations in linguistic landscape. The empirical part has several aims. The linguistic landscape of Prague's city centre is examined, above all the use of foreign languages and translations on signs, employing some of the theoretical concepts from the first chapter. The thesis also looks into translativity in linguistic landscape. A selection of translations from Czech to English is then assessed by language specialists who are native speakers of English, helping us identify flaws in the translations.