scholarly journals Three Faces of the Monster: Interpreting Disability and Creating Meaning in Translations of Alice Munro’s “Child’s Play”

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
Anna Antonova
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Emotional Involvement ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Child's Play ◽  
Russian Literary ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Creating Meaning

This article addresses the problematics of creating meaning in literary translation by comparing three versions of Alice Munro’s short story “Child’s Play” translated into German, Ukrainian, and Russian. Proceeding from a fluid and unstable source text that represents the conflict of socially perpetuated normative thinking and non-conforming “monstrous” bodies marked by intellectual disability, the translators renegotiate the meaning of embodied otherness and its stigmatization in society in unique ways that reflect their personal perspectives on translation and individual agendas in their translation projects. Munro’s focus on the relationship between a special needs girl and the narrator responsible for her death exposes the society’s deeply ingrained aversion, fear, and hate against people with intellectual disabilities. These prejudiced views find their expression in equating “special” bodies with passive objects, repulsive animal-like creatures, and wild monsters. However, this metaphorical language reflects first and foremost on the narrator, whose hateful speech, breaking through the surface of her seemingly impartial account, unmasks the true faces of the victim and the perpetrator. Each translator ascribes a different meaning to Munro’s deliberately ambiguous narrative: while the German version accentuates the original’s insistence on complexity and uncertainty, the Ukrainian translation increases intensity of the protagonist’s emotional involvement bringing her hatred and disgust to the extreme to make a point about social marginalization of the vulnerable other. The Russian text, conversely, rationalizes the narrator’s actions and turns her tale into a deeply tragic personal confession to align it with a typical plotline of the Russian literary tradition. Overall, three target-language versions of the story add new dimensions to the original text and further destabilize it by consolidating their preferred readings in their treatment of the socially constructed opposition between “monstrous” and “normal”.

scholarly journals SOME PECULIARITIES OF S. LEACOCK’S SHORT-STORY «THE MAN IN ASBESTOS: AN ALLEGORY OF THE FUTURE» TRANSLATION INTO UKRAINIAN

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (17) ◽  
pp. 68-73
Author(s):  
Maryna Volkova
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Canadian Literature ◽  
The Future ◽  
Semantic Development ◽  
English Canadian

The role of S. Leacock as a representative of English-Canadian literature and peculiarities of his creative works are given in the article. The peculiarities of the literary translation which aim is to reflect ideas, feelings transforming the author’s images with the help of another language material, the main features that make it different from a classical one were stated. The scholars who scrutinize the problems of a literary text translation in the contemporary linguistics was found out. The differences between the original text of S. Leacock’s short-story «The Man in Asbestos: an Allegory of the Future» and the text of translation and its translation by A. Yevsa were analyzed in the article. The translation can be called adequate as some change of content of the original text by the target language means did not impact into general perception of the short-story in its translation. The translator conveys the author’s ideas provoking reader’s reaction to the story. A. Yevsa preserved its content, the system of images and the author’s style, emotional atmosphere and plot identity of the original text and the choice of linguo-stylistic devices used in the original text. General peculiarities of the translation into Ukrainian, main grammar and lexical transformations used by A. Yevsa were marked, among which are generalization, concretization, compensation, semantic development and combination of sentences prevail.

scholarly journals Balzac Retranslated

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-117
Author(s):  
Marie-Christine Aubin
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Linguistic Constraints ◽  
Hierarchical Constraints ◽  
Situational Constraints

Literary translation is tricky. Hardly ever do you hear a critic say that the translation of a book is “good”. In the best of cases, people pretend that, even though they have been reading a translation, they were in fact reading Balzac, or Dostoevsky, or any other author of universal renown. For those who are able to read the original text, the translation is more often than not rejected as “inaccurate”, “stylistically inadequate”, “loose”, “overly free”, “not doing justice to the original”, or simply “bad”. James Payn even claimed that Balzac “is not translatable, or when translated is not readable” (67). Yet Balzac was translated and retranslated many times in a variety of languages and in many ways. In this paper, the word retranslation will be used for the realisation of a new translation from the original source language into a target language in which a translation already exists, and relay translation for translations done from a translated source. As for the term translation, it will be extended, in the sense that Patrick O'Neill gives this term (6), to include adaptations such as movies, TV series, or even graphic novels, in any language, because adaptations, whatever the medium, are subjected to the same constraints as translations, creating effectively a new “language” to transfer the author’s story and message. Thus this paper will focus on how Balzac's novels have been extended when translated and/or adapted to other media, taking in consideration Roulet’s Discourse Analysis parameters (2001 44), that is, the hierarchical constraints related to the text structure; the linguistic constraints related to the syntactic or lexical norms of the language or linguistic variety that is being considered; and the situational constraints of the receiving culture. To do so, an analysis of the hierarchical constraints of translating, retranslating or adapting Balzac’s La Cousine Bette will be carried out, as well as of the linguistic constraints related to the translation of gender in Balzac’s short story Sarrasine, or to the translation of accents and other oral features in various novels; and finally of the situational constraints related to translating Balzac into English in the Victorian era, and into Chinese at the turn of the 20th century. From these parameters a new, prismatic view of Balzac’s creations will emerge, embodying the dialogue that translators and retranslators enable between cultures.

scholarly journals PECULIARITIES OF COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATION OF E.SETON-THOMPSON’S SHORT STORY ‘THE ВIOGRAPHY OF A GRIZZLY’

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 111-118
Author(s):  
M.Yu. Volkova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Transformation Techniques ◽  
Artistic Images ◽  
The Given

The role of Ernest Seton-Thompson as a writer who started the genre of animal short-story and his contribution into the national Canadian literature are discussed in the article. Peculiar features of animal-personages from his short-stories which are close to people were singled out. The peculiarities of the literary translation which aim is to reflect ideas, feelings transforming the author’s images with the help of another language material, the main features that make it different from a classical one were stated. Contemporary scholars who scrutinize this aspect in modern translation studies were found out. The notion of adequacy in the process of a literary text translation, the necessity and strive of the translator to reflect the sense, embodied in artistic images, to preserve genre and style and structural-compositional peculiarities of the original text in the context of comparative analysis of the literary text were noted. The differences between the original text of E.Seton-Thompson’s short-story “The Biography of a Grizzly” and its translation by М.Chukovsky were analyzed in the given article. The translation can be called adequate as some change of content and form of the original text by means of the target language did not impact into general perception of the short-story in its translation. The translator conveys the author’s ideas provoking reader‘s reaction to the story. М.Chukovsky  preserved its content, the system of images and the author’s style and plot identity of the original text. Peculiarities of his translation, main structural-grammar and lexical transformations used in the translation were marked. Among the most frequently used transformation techniques actual division of the sentence, grammar changes, change of the sentence parts, concretization, generalization, addition, omission and antonymic translation are noted.

Those Who Hoped

2021 ◽  
pp. 206-255
Author(s):  
Stefano Evangelista
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
National Language ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Artificial Languages ◽  
World Citizenship ◽  
Max Müller ◽  
New Type ◽  
Universal Communication ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores the relationship between the proliferation of artificial languages and literary cosmopolitanism at the turn of the century: both strove to promote ideas of world citizenship, universal communication, and peaceful international relations. The two most successful artificial languages of this period, Volapük and Esperanto, employed literature, literary translation, and the periodical medium to create a new type of cosmopolitan literacy intended to quench divisive nationalisms and to challenge Herder’s theories on the link between national language and individual identity. Starting with Henry James’s lampooning of Volapük in his short story ‘The Pupil’ (1891), the chapter charts the uneasy relationship between literature and artificial language movements. Ludwik L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, stressed the importance of literary translation for his utopian ideal and used original literature to explore the complex affect of his cosmopolitan identity. The chapter closes with an analysis of the growth of the Esperanto movement in turn-of-the-century Britain, focusing on its overlap with literary, artistic, and radical circles, on contributions by Max Müller, W. T. Stead, and Felix Moscheles, and on the 1907 Cambridge Esperanto World Congress.

Phraseologie: übersetzerische Entscheidungen zwischen Text und Wörterbuch. Analytische Beobachtungen anhand der deutsch-slowenischen literarischen Übersetzung

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-128
Author(s):  
Vida Jesenšek
Keyword(s):  
Literary Translation ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Source Language ◽  
System Equivalence ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractMost phrasemes contain varied semantic, stylistic, functionally pragmatic, and text-forming properties. Furthermore, phrasemes also contain additional semantic and pragmatic properties. Hence, they are regarded as complex for the translation process. Their complexity becomes even more evident during literary translation. The relationship between dictionary equivalence and text equivalence within interlingual connections is considered as particularly important. Consequently, it is observed in the present paper. The research is based on recorded instances of translated phrasemes between German as the source language and Slovene as the target language. The paper outlines how original German phrasemes were translated into Slovene, which translation procedures and strategies were applied, and to what extent dictionaries were used during the translation process. It has become evident that contrastive-linguistically defined and lexicographically documented phraseological system equivalence does not sufficiently cater for the active translator. The active translator namely principally seeks functionally pragmatic interlingual equivalence, which has to be determined in compliance with a given context. The analysis has shown many phrasemes to feature specific semantic characteristics. Consequently, the meaning of each phraseme is essentially dependent on context. Meanings of phrasemes vary significantly and can lexicographically be accurately deduced only by taking different contexts into consideration. Requirements for highlighting phraseology in dictionaries appropriately - in order for dictionaries to be applicable as viable translation aids - should therefore be based on the essential semantic characteristics of phrasemes in order to enable the user (translator) to access a vast repository of tentative translation equivalents.

scholarly journals LITERARY TRANSLATION AS THE UNIQUE OVERLAP OF THE MENTAL STRUCTURES OF THE AUTHOR AND THE TRANSLATOR

2021 ◽  
pp. 154-157
Author(s):  
Kovpik S.I.
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Original Language ◽  
Linguistic Model ◽  
Multilingual Communication ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
Mental Spaces ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The 19Th Century

The purpose of the paper is to identify the peculiarities of literary translation of small genre works by the Polish writer of the 19th century B. Prus into Ukrainian. In accordance with the purpose of the study, the following methods have been used: the analysis of the translated text, the analytical review, the synthesis method.Results. This paper reveals the attempts of exploring the literary translation as a kind of the lingual perspective of the translator mental structures, basically represented by the process of reconstructing one type of information into another. The difference between the linguistic and mental model of the original text and its literary translation primarily is caused by the absence of “common areas” in the mental spaces of the author and the translator. It is extremely difficult for the translator to preserve the mental originality of the text.The overlap areas of mental structures of the author and the translator should have as many similarities as possible, since it makes the literary translation more successful. The translator’s knowledge of the customs, traditions and culture of the original language text contributes to establishing a functional correspondence between the original text and its translation. Translation is an obvious presentation of inter-literary and intercultural relations, which is the basis for the development of multilingual communication. The similarity of the mental structures of the author and the translator allows optimizing intercultural multilingual communication.This paper determines the essence and content of the overlap areas of the mental spaces of the Polish writer B. Prus and the Ukrainian translator D. Andrukhiv in the literary translation of the short story “Antek”.Conclusions. As a result of translating the work of fiction from one language into another, the semantic code of the text changes due to interpenetration of cultural signs. Analyzing the quality of literary translation of the story of “Antek” by the Polish writer B. Prus in Ukrainian proves some differences between the linguistic model of the original text and its literary translation into another language.Key words: mental space, translator, author strategy, common area space. Мета статті полягає у тому, щоб виявити специфіку художнього перекладу українською мовою творів малих жанрів поль-ського письменника ХІХ ст. Б. Пруса. Відповідно до мети дослідження були використані такі методи, як: аналіз перекладаць-кого тексту (у процесі визначення відповідних стильових особливостей тексту (вживання стилістичних прийомів, тобто заміна в перекладі елементів тексту одного функціонального стилю елементами іншого та експресивних засобів мови, фразеологіч-них одиниць, асиндетичних (синонімічних) іменникових сполучень тощо), аналітичний огляд (використано на етапі вивчення актуальності дослідження), метод синтезу (для підбиття підсумків, узагальнення результатів дослідження).Результати. Авторка статті спробувала дослідити художній переклад як своєрідну лінгвальну проєкцію ментальних структур перекладача, основу якої становить процес переробки одного виду інформації в інший. Розбіжність лінгво-ментальної моделі тексту оригіналу та його художнього перекладу на іншу мову зумовлена насамперед відсутністю «загальних зон» ментальних просторів автора тексту оригіналу та перекладача. Надзвичайно складним завданням для перекладача є збереження ментальної своєрідності тексту оригіналу. Дуже важливо, щоб зони перетину ментальних структур автора та перекладача мали якомога більше спільних ознак, що робить художній переклад успішним. Зона перетину ментальних структур автора та перекладача презентує смислове ядро тексту перекладу, де дуже добре можна відстежити те, настільки ментальність перекладача виявилася спорідненою з ментальністю автора. Обізнаність пере-кладача зі звичаями, традиціями та культурою мови оригіналу сприяє встановленню функціональної відповідності між текстом оригіналу та перекладу.Висновки. У результаті перекладу тексту твору художньої літератури з однієї мови на іншу змінюється смисловий код тексту, відбувається взаємопроникнення культурних знаків, котрі презентують авторську стратегію. Усе це сприяє успішному функціонуванню тексту в іншій культурі. Аналіз якості художнього перекладу оповідання польського письменника Б. Пруса «Антек» українською мовою дав можливість установити певні розбіжності лінгвоментальної моделі тексту оригіналу та його художнього перекладу на іншу мову. Лінгвальна розбіжність на культурологічному рівні зумовлена тим, що перекладацький текст став відображенням зони перетину ментальних просторів автора тексту оригіналу та перекладача. Проте вказані розбіжності суттєво не вплинули на зміст твору та не стали перепоною у сприйнятті художньої інформації реципієнтом.Ключові слова: ментальний простір, перекладач, авторська стратегія, простір спільної зони.

scholarly journals Challenges of Translating Poetry: The Filipino Translation of William Shakespear's Sonnet 18

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-55
Author(s):  
Kay Tepait Juanillo
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Poetry Translation ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Experimental Strategies ◽  
Intended Effect

Translation plays an important role in understanding different cultures and societies. Among the various kinds of translation, many scholars have debated the difficulty even impossibility of literary translation, especially Poetry. Translation of poetry requires the preservation of the specific aesthetic and expressive value when the work is transferred from the source language to the target language, which may be changed or altered after translating the work. This study discusses the different linguistic, cultural, and aesthetic issues in translating poetry. This study also discusses the translation issues in the Filipino translation of William Shakespeare�s Sonnet 18. The study shows the complications and sometimes impossibility in translating poetry as compared to other literary works like prose. This study is significant as it encourages experimental strategies that can show the uniqueness of translation as a linguistic and cultural practice.As a result, it can be concluded that the task of the translator is not to express what is to be conveyed but to find the intended effect upon the language into which she/he is translating in a way that leads to produce the echo of the original, even though it is impossible to be able to create a replica of the original text.

Benjamin and Borges

Babel ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-80
Author(s):  
Rasool Moradi Joz ◽  
Hossein Pirnajmuddin
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Bear Witness

Abstract Borges’ works deconstruct the time lag conceived in the binaries such as the work’s production vs. its criticism, the original text vs. its translation, the source text vs. the derivative nature of the target text, and reality vs. fiction. Benjamin, as Borges’ near contemporary, echoes rather the same idea in his post-Nietzschean philosophy of translation. Focusing on the similarities between the views of Benjamin on translation and those of Borges as reflected in his stories as well as his essays, particularly in his well-received essay on translations of Thousand and One Nights and in his meta-fictional short story ‘Pierre Menard’: Author of the Quixote, this paper aims at bringing the two scholars together in the context of literary translation studies in the postmodern era, where intersemiotic and intertextual collage (in Eco’s terminology) and mimicry bear witness to the claim that translation, like other intertextual enterprises, is neither inferior to the other intertextual undertakings such as writing, nor is it detached from language as post-structurally conceived. Furthermore, another core objective of this study is to show how Borges’ ‘Menard’ heralds and truly represents the translation theories built upon the underlying assumptions of deconstructionism since the 1980s. It is concluded that as far as postmodern and poststructuralist theories are concerned, both Borges’ and Benjamin’s works had predicted the future of literary and translation theories in which the decisive role of translation and translator in the construction of culture and identities cannot be denied.

scholarly journals C-E Translation of Jiang Zilong’s Short Story Mr. Big on the Basis of Functional Equivalence Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 486
Author(s):  
Min Shen
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Functional Equivalence ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Artistic Style ◽  
The Core ◽  
Literal Translation ◽  
Equivalence Theory ◽  
Translation Methods

In recent years, an increasing amount of excellent foreign novels and short stories are translated and introduced into China while limited Chinese short stories are presented overseas. This paper, on the basis of Nida’s functional equivalence theory, analyzes and reviews the translated version of the short story “Mr. Big” written by Jiang Zilong through the application of functional equivalence theory from lexical and syntactic level. The translator, with the target language reader at the core, fully comprehends the original text, emotions, style, and mood of the short story, and appropriately uses various translation methods, such as transliteration with annotation and literal translation for translating culture-loaded words; literal translation, liberal translation, supplementary translation, divided translation, adapted translation, conversed translation, etc. to faithfully reproduce the original content and artistic style of the original work, and achieve functional equivalence. This paper is supposed to enhance the foreign understanding of Jiang Zilong’s short story and to provide reference and inspirations for Chinese-English translation of novels and short stories.

scholarly journals Transitivity System as a Tool for Producing (In)accurate Mental Images through Translation

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Ali Almanna
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Mental Image ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Source Text ◽  
English Only ◽  
Force Dynamics ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
Ultimate Objective

The ultimate objective of this study is to show some of the contributions of Halliday’s transitivity model to the actual act of translating between two languages that are culturally distant, such as Arabic and English. To this end, I have analysed the translation of a short story, and then compared it with its source text, based on Halliday’s (1994) transitivity model. Halliday’s transitivity model has been adopted in the current study as it offers effective toolkits to analyse and describe the original text. It produces a repertoire of features of the original text, which can be compared to the corresponding profiles of the target text with the aim of identifying a) the similarities and differences between the source text and the target text and b) whether the translators have produced an accurate mental image or not. Added to this, this study intends to determine whether this model can be used as a theoretical framework for analysing certain socio-cultural experiences encoded linguistically in a text, regardless of the language itself. It has been shown from the discussion of the data that this model does not confine itself to English only, but can be applied to other languages such as Arabic. Further, the processes along with their participants and circumstances utilized by the writer in the current study lend themselves easily to equivalent processes in the target language. Again, it has been shown that in order to produce an accurate mental image, it is not enough to pay extra attention to the process itself along with its participants and circumstances, but adequate consideration should also be given to the interaction between the participants of the process and the flow of energy, force dynamics, scope of attention, time lapse and metaphorization.

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