Literary prose

1. Literary prose Lecture 6 Dr Jacob Blakesley

2. Outline • Genres of literary prose • Book clubs / assembly-line translation • Retranslations • Translator prefaces/notes • Case study • Publishing translated detective fiction in Nazi Germany

3. Genres • Historical novel • Bildungsroman • Philosophical fiction • Romance novels • Science fiction novel • Western • Crime fiction • Legal thriller • Children’s literature • Prosimetrum • Graphic novel

4. Historical novel

5. Mantel, Wolf Hall • Names, titles, forms of address (Henry VIII -> Hendrik?) • Administrative/legislative bodies, offices, and measures • Material and social culture • Historical events and origin stories • Religious culture • Foreign language elements • Quotations

6. Mantel, Wolf Hall • ‘the overwhelming majority of references in Wolf Hall were either borrowed (particularly in the case of proper names, transparent references pertaining to material or social culture, and foreign language quotations), translated literally (particularly in the case of government and household positions), or translated with an established equivalent (particularly elements of religious culture and measurements)’. • Suzanne de Jong, ‘The Translation of Cultural References in Historical Fiction: a case study of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall’

7. Bildungsroman • David Copperfield (Dickens) • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain) • A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man (Joyce) • The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) • Goodbye Columbus (Roth)

8. Bildungsroman • ‘realization of the protagonist’s identity through his integration into society and its values’ • ‘a young male protagonist who, in the course of his story, gets his girl and a position in the world, marries and becomes a philistine like everyone else’

9. Philosophical fiction • Voltaire, Candide • Tolstoy, War and Peace • Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov • Robert Musil, The Man without Qualities • Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain • Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones

10. Philosophical fiction • Type of translator • Target culture • Philosophical concepts • Goodness, morality, beauty • Religious concepts • God, devil, etc.

11. Grand Inquisitor • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om6HcUUa8DI

12. Philosophical fiction • ‘There is one difference between Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. In Dostoevsky, the narrator would be a person, a character. In Tolstoy, it’s Tolstoy’. • Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, ‘The art of translation’, The Paris Review

13. Romance novels • ‘Boy meets girl, the two overcome obstacles, happy ending’ • ‘emotions translate easily’ • ‘Women’s fiction authors are either British or North American’ (ElisabettaPovoledo)

14. Romance novels • ‘I don’t think that military and American uniforms are popular in the translation market’ (editor of Harlequin’s British imprint) • In France, 12 million romance novels sold yearly – all translations • German writers cannot use their own names • More than 160 million books a year in 25 languages

15. Science fiction • American author of science fiction, Wayne Mark Chapman • Best selling science fiction in Hungary • Chapman’s home in New Hampshire, published by Pengdragon Publishing in London.

16. Westerns • 1860-1900 USA • Setting • Ideology (racism)

17. Crime fiction • ‘the central engagement with what, who , and why a particular behaviour or action is deemed deviant gives insight into the structures and ideologies of power and is indicative of cultural and societal anxieties at a particular time in a particular culture’. • Karen Seago

18. Conan Doyle: A scandal in Bohemia • Late 19th century London • Horses and carriages • Telegrams • Metric system • The narrator is not Sherlock Holmes, but Watson

19. Legal thrillers Legal systems Legal terminology Definitions of crime

20. Children’s literature Elena Ferrante, The Beach at Night (2016) [La spiaggia di notte, 2007]

21. Ferrante, Beach at night • Elena Ferrante’s wondrous, newly translated picture book, “The Beach at Night,” is going to shock many Americans, especially those who might want to read it to young children. In Europe, darker picture books are common. Presumably just as the children of Europe willingly eat escargots and tripe stew at dinnertime, they fall asleep to picture books with titles like “My First Nightmare” and “A Visit From Death.” So Ferrante’s story of a lost doll’s utterly terrifying night at the beach…didn’t cause a stir when it was published in Italy in 2007. But it will very likely be a different story here. The audio publisher has classified the book, read by Natalie Portman, as for adults. First of all, there is an expletive in the book. That will not go over well with libraries and schools, not to mention with most American parents of younger children’. • Maria Russo, ‘Elena Ferrante’s Picture Book Embraces the Dark Side’, New York Times

22. Ferrante, Beach at night • Open your maw • I’ve got shit for your craw • Drink up the pee • Drink it up for me

23. Translation of children’s literature • Cultural context adaptation • Ideological manipulation • Dual readership • Features of orality • Relationship between text and image • Cecilia Alvstad.

24. Prosimetrum • Petronius’ Satyricon • 1001 Nights • Dante’s La Vita Nuova • Basho’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North

25. Prosimetrum – Vita Nuova • Mixture of poetry and prose • Artistic and technical competency of translator • http://digitaldante.columbia.edu/library/dantes-works/la-vita-nuova-frisardi/

26. Graphic novel

27. Graphic novels and comics • ‘the study of translated comics may provide useful insights into an understanding of translation as a complex process of intercultural communication, involving quite a few people and much more than simply the replacement of written text in speech balloons’. • Federico Zanettin, ‘Comics in translation studies’

28. Maus reception • Swastika (Germany, Russia) • Pigs (Poland) • Apartheid (South Africa)

29. Clube de Livro book club • 1) No ‘sub-standard language’ – standard Portuguese • 2) No polyphonic elements – French, poems, puns, rhymes, etc. • 3) Bowdlerization – sexual references eliminated, as well as scatological references • 4) Religious censorship, satires of the Catholic Church cut • 5) Political influence: ‘Red House’ -> ‘Yellow house’ • 6) Paternalistic: footnotes explain classical references, difficult words; warn against drinking alcohol and bad eating habits • J. Milton, Translating popular culture

30. Collaborative translation • Lack of ‘sacredness of the author’ • Translations collaborative: assembly line • Standardization of theme, language, style, size • Commercial strategies adapting for various readerships: female readers (Pride and Prejudice), children (Moby Dick) • No name of translator, or a pseudonym

31. Collaborative translations Deadlines are more important than correct text – Virginia Wolff, George Elliott, etc. • Translation of William Gibson’s Count Zero: a character Ramirez is erroneously called by the author ‘Rodriguez’. Hungarian translation notes: ‘(!!! Error in original!!!)’. This is printed in the actual translation.

32. Retranslations • Source texts change over time • Difference between revision and retranslation • Often arbitrary label of revision/retranslation • Often hybrid texts of both revised and retranslated passages • Translations for different markets (Canada, France; Spain, Latin America) • Passive v. active retranslations (Pym) • Cheaper to recycle already published translation than commission a new translation • ‘Special translations’, Scrupulously revised’ -> ‘enormous cuts • KaisaKoskinen & OutiPaloposki

33. Retranslation hypothesis; ageing; hot and cold translations • Antoine Berman: first translations can never be great translations (always domesticating) • Research shows this not to be entirely valid • Reviewers often claim translations age – but there are other reasons retranslations exist • Hot, contemporary translations v. cold, more knowledgeable translations

34. Publishers • Some publishers don’t list translators’ names on book covers – Faber • House of Anansi Press (Canada): ‘It’s an acknowledgment that it’s hard to get a readership to embrace a book that’s translated. The more we talked to readers and booksellers the more we realized that [translation] is a strike against the book in the marketplace’.

35. Translation prefaces • ‘The translator is the link between the original text and the translation, and for anyone who is interested in translations and their quality, prefaces might at best offer a good starting point—perhaps a key to the translated text or a window on the world of the translator’ (Hartama-Heinonen)

36. Translator notes • ‘Such self-presentations will indicate that the language of the translation originates with the translator in a decisive way, but also that the translator is not its sole origin: a translator’s originality lies in choosing a particular foreign text and a particular combination of dialects and discourses from British and American literature in response to an existing cultural situation. Recognizing the translator as an author questions the individualism of current concepts of authorship by suggesting that no writing can be mere self-expression because it is derived from a cultural tradition at a specific historical moment’ (Venuti)

37. Translators’ notes • ‘translators’ notes are often written in apology, as asides, endnotes or footnotes, introductions or afterwards, rather than communications from the space-between’ (Carol Maier, 1995)

38. Acknowledgment of translations • Rodney Troubridge, fiction buyer for Waterstone’s: ‘[Publishers] want people to assume that everything’s written in English’

39. 1945-today, English translations of fiction • 810 books • 80% no prefaces • 10% prefaces, but not about translation • 10% prefaces discussing translation

40. Translator prefaces • Prefaces explicitly dealing with translation were about fiction translated fromArabic, Catalan, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Serbo-Croat.

41. Translator prefaces • Foregrounding differences of cultures and languages • Promoting understanding of the source culture • Promoting understanding of the translator’s role and interventions • Helping critics assess the quality of the translation • Useful as process documentation

42. Errors? • Some translators correct the errors, without silently or with the author’s encouragement • Others don’t correct

43. Lowe-Porter translator of Mann • Her translation could ‘not lay claim to being beautiful, though in every intent it is deeply faithful’ (Lowe-Porter)

44. Detective fiction in Nazi Germany • Such fiction considered ‘alien’ and ‘un-German’ • Called ‘trash’ • 1926 ‘Law against Filth and Trash’ • 1935 censorship law extended • Most popular genre during Nazi regime • ‘literary vacuum’

45. Detective fiction in Nazi Germany • Ban on English and French translations in 1939 • 17 different institutions for censorship • More and more native German detective fiction • Clash between market (publishers, booksellers, readers) and institutions (regime and conservative intellectuals)

46. Polysystem and detective fiction • Detective fiction on the periphery of the German literary system • Translated detective fiction in the centre of the German literary system

47. Discursive features and language variety

48. Narrator • A first person narratorUses the pronoun "I" to tell the story, and can be either a major or minor character. • A second person narratoruses the pronoun "you" and is not used very often since it makes the reader a participant in the story • A third person narratoruses the pronoun "he" or "she" and does not take part in the story.

49. Narrator A subjective narrator He/she is in the story, and can only speak to his/her experience within it. An objective narratorAn observer that describes or interprets thoughts, feelings, motivations, of the characters. An omniscient narratorHas all the information regarding the actions and thoughts within fiction. A limited narratorHas a restricted view of events and doesn't "know" the whole story

50. Characters Main characters Vital to the development and resolution of the conflict, i.e., the plot and resolution of conflict revolves around these characters. Secondary characters Serve to complement the major characters and help move the plot events forward. Round character Character with a complex personalityand often portrayed as a conflicted and contradictory person. Flat character Notable for one kind of personality trait or characteristic