Type of dissertation:
doctoral dissertation
Author:
Charlotte Bosseaux
Author contact details:
University of Edinburgh, UK
Keywords:
corpus-based translation studies, narratology, point of view, transfer of narratological structures
Dissertation abstract:
Narratology does not usually distinguish between original and translated fiction and narratological models do not pay any attention to the translator as a discursive subject. Since the 1990’s, the visibility of translators in translated narrative texts has been increasingly discussed and researchers like Schiavi (1996) and Hermans (1996) introduced the concept of the translator’s voice, which attempts to recognise the ‘other’ voice in translation, i.e. the presence of the translator. Corpusbased studies have also focused on recurrent features of translated language (see, for example, Baker 1993; Kenny 2001; Laviosa 1997; Olohan and Baker 2000), and corpus techniques and tools are being employed to identify the translators’ ‘style’ in their translations (Baker 2000).
The present thesis seeks to explore the nature of the translator’s discursive presence by investigating certain narratological aspects of the relation between originals and translations. Until recently comparative analysis between originals and their translations have mainly relied on manual examinations; the present study will demonstrate that corpus-based translation studies and its tools can greatly facilitate and sharpen the process of comparison. My work uses a parallel corpus composed of two English novels and their French translations: Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse (1927) and its three translations (Promenade au Phare, 1929, translated by Michel Lanoire; Voyage au Phare, 1993, translated by Magali Merle; Vers le Phare, 1996, translated by Françoise Pellan), and The Waves (1931), and its two translations (Les Vagues, 1937, translated by Marguerite Yourcenar and Les Vagues, 1993, translated by Cécile Wajsbrot). The relevant texts have been scanned and put in machine-readable form and I study them using corpus-analysis tools and techniques (WordSmith Tools, Multiconcord). My investigation is particularly concerned with the potential problems involved in the translation of linguistic features that constitute the notion of point of view, i.e. deixis, modality, transitivity and free indirect discourse, and seeks to determine whether and how the translator’s choices affect the transfer of narratological structures.
Supervisor:
Theo Hermans
Awarding institution:
University College London
Examiner(s):
Not Provided
Completion date:
2004
Publications based on dissertation:
Not provided
Translation and Narration: A Corpus-based Study of French Translations of Two Novels by Virginia Woolf
Posted by: Luis Perez Gonzalez date: 01-09-2005 | 12:13 PM.
