Children’s literature and translation studies

2013 ◽  
pp. 469-481
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Translation Studies

scholarly journals “Quality not Quantity”

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Berry
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Professional Collaboration ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Small Press ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up

This article takes as its subject the project of British author and editor Aidan Chambers to set up a small press dedicated to publishing modern European children’s literature in translation, 1988–92. Positioned within Gideon Toury’s framework of Descriptive Translation Studies, this paper outlines the history of the firm and its founding ideology to publish children’s literature “with a difference” for a British audience. As a result, preliminary norms (relating to text, author and translator selection) and operational norms (relating to translation strategies) for four novels by Maud Reuterswärd, Peter Pohl and Tormod Haugen are identified and analyzed. Fundamental to the article’s methodology is the use of bibliographical, archival and oral history primary sources. The principal focus of research interest is Chambers’ use of language consultants in addition to his commissioned translators in an unusual and sometimes challenging professional collaboration of editor-translator-consultant within a Nordic-British setting.

scholarly journals Några tankar om nordisk barnlitteratur och dess översättning ur ett polskt perspektiv

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-57
Author(s):  
Hanna Dymel-Trzebiatowska
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Book Market ◽  
Implied Reader

Abstract The article explores two aspects of translations of Nordic children’s literature, which is more and more often defined by its authors as aimed at all readerships with no respect to age (allålderslitteratur). This stance may affect the theory of translation in reference to the category of the implied reader, which will have to be reconsidered. The concept of all-age literature is presented in the article as a solution to long academic discussions about the presence of an adult implied reader of children’s literature. The other perspective shows the presence of Scandinavian picturebooks on the Polish book market which have been published within the latest decade (e.g. by Svein Nyhus, Gro Dahle, Pernilla Stalfelt, Pija Lindenbaum, and Ulf Nilsson). These books are brave, taboo-breaking and translated without purifications, which refutes Elżbieta Zarych’s (2016) observations about the rules and mechanisms which are prevalent, i.e. that translators are still expected to mitigate and omit painful moments. The final part combines two aspects - the above-mentioned translations are free of adaptations, but it is difficult to assess whether the translators have taken into account the postulates of Scandinavian authors and their ambition to create all-age literature. Answers to the questions posed at the end (e.g. if the books are created for all, should they be translated for all?) might complete the translation studies with important and future-oriented insights.

scholarly journals Narratology meets Translation Studies, or, The Voice of the Translator in Children’s Literature

2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 197-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emer O’Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Target Languages ◽  
Agent Of Change ◽  
The Voice

Abstract When critics identify ‘manipulations’ in translations, these are often described and analysed in terms of the differing norms governing the source and the target languages, cultures and literatures. This article focuses on the agent of the translation, the translator, and her/his presence in the translated text. It presents a theoretical and analytical tool, a communicative model of translation, using the category of the implied translator, the creator of a new text for readers of the target text. This model links the theoretical fields of narratology and translation studies and helps to identify the agent of ‘change’ and the level of communication in which the most significant modifications take place. It is a model applicable to all translated narrated literature but, as examples illustrate, due to the asymmetrical communication in and around children’s literature, the implied translator as he/she becomes visible or audible as the narrator of the translation, is particularly tangible in translated children’s literature.

scholarly journals Andersen’s beautifully clueless fairy tales

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 338-343
Author(s):  
Jana Segi Lukavská ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Disturbing Potential ◽  
Wide Audience ◽  
Primary Focus

The article reviews the recently reprinted Czech monograph Slavíci, mořské víly a bolavé zuby: Pohádky H. Ch. Andersena: mezi romantismem a modernitou (Nightingales, Mermaids and Toothaches: Andersen’s Fairy Tales between Romanticism and Modernity) by Helena Březinová. By outlining the Czech context of research in the field of children’s literature and analyzing Březinová’s book, the review shows the substantial contribution of the publication for the Czech speaking audience. Březinová carefully analyzes several examples of Andersen’s work to convincingly show its ambiguous, disturbing potential, which was lost in the vast majority of Czech retellings and adaptations. Consequently, Andersen’s work is commonly perceived as purely children’s literature in the Czech context. Březinová questions this notion by thoroughly uncovering Andersen’s subtle play with genre norms and readers’ expectations on multiple text layers. Březinová’s book is intended not only for literary experts, but also for a wide audience of readers with her eloquent and witty writing. Her primary focus is a narratological analysis, however, she makes good use of translation studies, literary history, linguistics, and philosophy as well. In her close readings, she shows Andersen’s simple, yet highly sophisticated stories as rooted in romanticism but also anticipatory of modernist themes such as the crisis of language and subject.

scholarly journals SLANG AND DIALECT IN HARRY POTTER: THE TRANSLATOR AS MEDIATOR OF MARKED LANGUAGE

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-162
Author(s):  
Caroline Reis Vieira Santos
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Initial Hypothesis ◽  
Descriptive Translation Studies

The present research covers the intersection between Descriptive Translation Studies and Children’s Literature and aims to investigate the important role of the translator as mediator of marked language, more specifically by dialect and slang. This paper is based both on Santos’s (2010) concluded mastering thesis which investigated the translation of the dialect of the character Rubeus Hagrid and Santos’s ongoing PhD research which deals with translation into Brazilian Portuguese of slang words in the Harry Potter series. The initial hypothesis is that dialects and slang words will be translated by standard language and this translator choice is influenced by the particularities of its readership.

scholarly journals Translation for Reading Aloud

2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 81-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cay Dollerup
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Read Aloud ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Narrative Tradition

Abstract The article takes a look at the translation of children’s literature intended for reading aloud. The pragmatic (or theoretical) point of departure is a ‘narrative contract’ between the child (audience) and the reader as in the oral tradition of yesteryear. It is therefore argued that, at least initially, children’s literature for reading aloud was a continuation of the narrative tradition in the extended family adapted to the conditions and mores of the nuclear family. The nuclear family was a 19th century innovation promoted by the new middle classes, and they best carried on the narrative tradition by means of stories such as those of the brothers Grimm in Germany and Hans Christian Andersen in Denmark. Referring to an informal questionnaire among Translation Studies scholars covering eleven countries, it is concluded that the tradition of reading aloud for children is alive and well. This leads to a model for the translational situation for read-aloud literature that calls for guiding principles in the exploration of differences between ‘originals’ and ‘translations.’ Having introduced such layers, viz. the structural, the linguistic, the content and intentional ones, a paratextual and chronological layer are also called for, because of the ubiquity of modern co-prints and the need to introduce diachronic perspectives. The article discusses decision-makers in the process of translation, such as publishers and the like, and also briefly views questions of translational traditions before it discusses translations of the Grimm Tales into English and Danish, to conclude that there are two different schools of ‘respectable translators,’ one targeting stories for reading aloud and another for silent reading, even though the translators may not be aware of this. The final part takes up questions concerning the translation of names, rhymes, and a highly complex text which is discussed in depth. The conclusion is that translation for reading aloud is an art requiring great competence of translators. It also ought to attract more attention from Translation Studies scholars because it questions fundamentals in translation work that are also found in other types of translation. Readers should read aloud the passages cited in order to appreciate the commentary!

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