Email this article Translating the “literary” in literary translation in practice
Abstract
Abstract - The aim of this paper is to explore the ‘literary’ in literary translation. It begins with a discussion of what makes a text literary, focussing on some very famous literary works which did not (and indeed do not) necessarily fit what is generally considered the literary canon. The features that translators should identify when first reading a text, on the look-out for potential literary value, are then outlined. These features are both textual (covering non-casual language, rhetorical features and equivalences) and contextual (connotations, implicatures, intratextual and culture-bound associations). The paper then discusses changing translation theory and practice, in particular illustrating points with comments made by translators and theorists in this book and elsewhere. Importance is also given to the profession itself, to literary translator beliefs about their role, the changing importance of the model reader and to changing beliefs about accepted style, making reference also to results of a global survey recently carried out on the subject.
Riassunto -
L’articolo si propone di esplorare il “letterario” nella traduzione letteraria. Si parte da una discussione di ciò che rende letterario un testo, facendo riferimento ad alcune opere letterarie molto famose che non rientravano (e non rientrano tuttora) in ciò che viene generalmente ritenuto il canone letterario. Si definiscono, poi, gli aspetti che i traduttori dovrebbero individuare leggendo un testo per la prima volta nella prospettiva di ricerca di un potenziale valore letterario. Tali aspetti sono sia testuali (il linguaggio ‘non casuale’, le figure retoriche e le equivalenze) sia contestuali (connotazioni, implicature, associazioni intratestuali e legate alla cultura). L’articolo discute, poi, l’evolversi della teoria e pratica della traduzione, illustrando in particolare alcuni punti commentati da traduttori e teorici di questo volume e al di fuori. Si sottolinea inoltre l’importanza della professione del traduttore e della percezione che il traduttore letterario ha del proprio ruolo, mettendo in evidenza come l’importanza del lettore modello e dei valori relativi a uno stile condiviso stia cambiando, facendo anche riferimento ai risultati di una recente intervista globale sull’argomento.
References
Academy of American Poets (n.d.) http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/just-say.
Baker M. 1992, In Other Word: A coursebook on translation, Routledge, London/New York.
Barthes R. 1977, Image, Music, Text, Hill and Wang, New York.
Benjamin, Walter (1923/1968) ‘The Task of the Translator’, in Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn, H. Arendt (ed), New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanoch, 69-82.
Blésius C. 2003, Copyright and the Translator: Who Owns your Translations?, in ”ITI Bulletin”, pp. 9–12.
Booth, W.C. 1983, The Rhetoric of Fiction, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Chwast S. 1996, Selling ‘Huck Finn’ Down the River, in “The New York Times”, March 10, 1996. https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/05/specials/smiley-huck.html (20.07.2015).
Delbanco N. 1991, Judgement: An Essay, in Pack R. and Parini J. (eds.), Writers on Writing, Middlebury College Press, New England, pp. 29-40.
Dodds J. 1994, Aspects of literary text analysis and translation criticism, Campanotto Editore, Udine.
Eco U. 1995, The Role of the Reader. Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Fowler R. 1977, Linguistics and the Novel, Methuen Publishing, London.
Fowles J. 1970, Aristos, New American Library, New York.
Gotti M. 2005, Investigating Specialized Discourse, Peter Lang, New York/Oxford.
Halliday M.A.K. 1971, Linguistic Function and Literary Style: an Inquiry into the Language of William Golding’s The Inheretors, in Chatman S. (ed.), Literary Style: A Symposium, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 330-365.
House J. 1997, Translation Quality Assessment: A Model Revisited, Narr, Tübingen.
Jakobson R. 1960 Closing Statements: Linguistics and Poetics, in Sebeok T.A. (ed.), Style In Language, MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, pp. 350–377.
Katan D. 1993a, Conversational Implicatures and Translation Implications in ‘Troilus and Cressida’, in Caliumi G. (ed.), Shakespeare e la sua eredità, Atti del XV Convegno Nazionale A.I.A., Parma, 22-24 Ottobre 1992, Edizioni Zara, Parma, pp. 347-355.
Katan D. 1993b, The English Translation of Il Nome della Rosa and the Cultural Filter, in (eds.) Avirovic L. and Dodds J., Umberto Eco, Claudio Magris: Autori e Traduttori a Confronto, Trieste, 27-28 November 1989, Campanotto Editore, Udine, pp. 149-165.
Katan D. 2004, Translating Cultures: An introduction for translators, interpreters and mediators, Routledge, London/New York.
Katan D. 2008, The Pearl of the Gospel is scattered abroad and trodden underfoot by swine’: habitus and translation through the ages, in “Socially-Conditioned Language Change: Diachronic and Synchronic Insights”, Edizioni del Grifo, Lecce, pp. 356-379.
Katan D. 2009, Translation Theory and Professional Practice: A Global Survey of the Great Divide, in “Hermes” 42, pp. 111-153.
Katan D. 2011, Occupation or profession: A survey of the translators’ world, in Sela-Sheffy R. and Shlesinger M. (eds.), Profession, identity and status: Translators and interpreters as an occupational group, John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, pp. 65-88.
Katan D. 2013, Cultural Mediation, in Gambier Y., Doorslaer Y. and Van, D. (eds.), The Handbook of Translation Studies 4, John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, pp. 84–91. DOI: 10.1075/hts.4.int5
Katan D. 2015, “Translation at the cross-roads: time for the transcreational turn?” Perspectives Studies in Translatology, pp.1-16.
Ladmiral J-R. 1979, Traduire: théorèmes pour la traduction, Payot, Paris.
Leech G., Short N. and M. 2007, Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose, 2nd edition, Harlow, Pearson Education.
Lefevere A. 1977, Translating Literature: The German Tradition from Luther to Rosenzweig, Assen, Van Gorcum.
Levin S. 1962, Linguistic Structures in Poetry, Mouton and Co, The Hague.
Longenbach J. 2009, The Art of the Poetic Line, Graywolf, Saint Paul, Minn.
Paz O. 1992, Translation: Literature and Letters, in Schulte R. and Biguenet J. (eds.), Theories of Translation: An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp.152–162.
Pederson J. 2011, Subtitling Norms for Television, John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.
Radford G. 2002, Beware of the Fallout: Umberto Eco and the Making of the Model Reader.
http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_papers_radford.html (06.12.2014).
Robertson G. 2010, The trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, in “Guardian Review”. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/22/dh-lawrence-lady-chatterley-trial (22.10.2010).
Sandbrook D. 2010, Lady Chatterley trial – 50 years on. The filthy book that set us free and fettered us forever, in “The Daily Telegraph”. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8066784/Lady-Chatterley-trial-50-years-on.-The-filthy-book-that-set-us-free-and-fettered-us-forever.html (16.10.2010).
Seder J. 2012, 11 Early Scathing Reviews of Works Now Considered Masterpieces. http://mentalfloss.com/article/30497/11-early-scathing-reviews-works-now-considered-masterpieces (20.04.2012).
Sela-Sheffy R. 2008, The Translators’ Personae: Marketing Translatorial Images as Pursuit of Capital, in “Meta: Journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal” 53 [3], pp. 609-622.
Shakespeare W. 1960, Il teatro di Shakespeare, Lodovici C.V. (ed.), It. transl. by Lodovici C.V., Einaudi, Torino, 3 vv.
Shakespeare W. 1977a, Troilo e Cressida, It. transl. by Squarzina L., in Melchiori G. (ed.) Teatro completo di William Shakespeare, Milano, Mondadori vol. 3, I drammi dialettici, pp. 346-617.
Shklovsky V. 1917/1965, Art as Technique, in Lemon L.T. and Reiss M.J. (eds.), Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, pp. 3-24.
Snodgrass M.E. 2000, Cliffs Notes American Poets of The 20th Century, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston.
Spiegelman W. 2002, Interview: Weaver W., The Art of Translation no. 3, in “The Paris Review” 161. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/421/the-art-of-translation-no-3-william-weaver (20.07.2015).
Spivack G.C. 1992, The Politics of Translation, in Barrett M. and Phillips A. (eds.), Destabilizing Theory, Polity Press, Oxford, pp. 177-200.
Tanabe K. 2010, Revealing How Japanese Translators view their own social roles. http://www.unesco.org/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/languages/pdf/TANAB E-NUOVO.pdf (06.12.2014).
Taylor C. 1998, Language to Language: a practical/theoretical guide for Italian/English translators, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Tooney P. 1983, The Case of the Murderous Monks, in “The Times” (03.11.1983), p.3.
Ulin D. 2010, Celebrating the genius of ‘Huckleberry Finn’, in “Los Angeles Times”, 14th November 2010. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/14/entertainment/la-ca-mark-twain-20101114/2 (06.12.2014).
Venuti L. 1998, The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference, Routledge, London/New York.
Verga G. 1925, Little Novels of Sicily, En. transl. by Lawrence D.H., Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Vieira E. 1999, Liberating Calibans: Readings of antropofagia and Haroldo de Campos’ poetics of transcreation, in Bassnett S. and Trivedi H. (eds.), Post-colonial translation: Theory and practice. Routledge, London/New York, pp. 95–113.
Voegelin C.F. 1960, Casual and Non-Casual Utterances within Unified Structure, Sebeok T. E. (ed.), Style in Language, Mass, Cambridge, pp. 57-68.
Weatherill P.M. 1974, The Literary Text: An Examination of Critical Methods (Language & Style), Blackwell Publishers, London.
Wimsatt W.K. and Beardsley M.C. 1954, The Intentional Fallacy, in “The Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry”, U of Kentucky P, Lexington, pp. 3-18.
Yagoda B. 2010, Trial and Eros: When Lady Chatterley’s Lover ran afoul of Britain’s 1959 obscenity law, the resulting case had a cast worthy of P.G. Wodehouse, in “American Scholar” 79 [4], p. 93.
Full Text: pdf
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
