Question 6. In what sense does a translator narrate?
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Douglas Robinson
Abstract
This chapter, as the Introduction (A, Sections 1–2) makes clear, explores the notion that translators (re)narrate the source text in translating it, adding their own narratorial voice or style to it; this is part of the DTS attention to target-side phenomena associated with translation. In the Theory section (B, Sections 3–11), we shift to a “post-classical” narratological intervention offered by Jan-Louis Kruger, with a focus not on “structural” roles like implied author and implied reader but “impostulations,” relational engagements in which the translator seeks to pressure the actual reader to shift imaginatively from outside the narrative to the inside, where s/he is urged to “narrativize” it – to read the marks on the page as a narrative. The shift I offer in this chapter is from “impostulation” to heteronyms, as imagined by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (Sections 10–11). The rest of the chapter is divided into discussions of the translator as a reliable narrator (C, Sections 12–33: traditional normative assumptions about translation) and the translator as an unreliable narrator (D, Sections 34–48: experimental translation). The specific “reliable” translator heteronyms considered in the chapter are: the source author as s/he is named at the head of a translation or in paratexts as a heteronym projected by the translator (Sections 15–23) the translator as the heteronym of the source author (Sections 24–25) the translator projecting not the source author but the translating self as a narratorial heteronym (Sections 26–27) the target reader as the translator’s heteronym (Sections 28–29) the source reader as the translator’s heteronym (Sections 30–33) Next we move to the experimental translator as an unreliable narrator (D, Sections 34–48), with examples taken from my transcreation of Volter Kilpi’s Gulliver’s Voyage to Phantomimia, and a whole new raft of (unreliable) heteronyms: f. the source author projecting a translatorial heteronym (Section 37) g. the translator projecting an editorial heteronym (Section 37) h. the translator and partial writer projecting a transcreatorial heteronym (Section 40) i. the transcreator projecting a critic heteronym (Section 41) j. the transcreator projecting a publisher heteronym (Section 43) k. the transcreator projecting a poet heteronym (Section 44) In the Conclusion (E, Sections 49–52) we reflect back on the issue of the translator’s narratorial reliability (an audience-effect that cannot be empirically adjudicated), Jan-Louis Kruger’s talk of the translator’s “positionality,” and motivations for the courting of perceptions/accusations of narratorial reliability.
Abstract
This chapter, as the Introduction (A, Sections 1–2) makes clear, explores the notion that translators (re)narrate the source text in translating it, adding their own narratorial voice or style to it; this is part of the DTS attention to target-side phenomena associated with translation. In the Theory section (B, Sections 3–11), we shift to a “post-classical” narratological intervention offered by Jan-Louis Kruger, with a focus not on “structural” roles like implied author and implied reader but “impostulations,” relational engagements in which the translator seeks to pressure the actual reader to shift imaginatively from outside the narrative to the inside, where s/he is urged to “narrativize” it – to read the marks on the page as a narrative. The shift I offer in this chapter is from “impostulation” to heteronyms, as imagined by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (Sections 10–11). The rest of the chapter is divided into discussions of the translator as a reliable narrator (C, Sections 12–33: traditional normative assumptions about translation) and the translator as an unreliable narrator (D, Sections 34–48: experimental translation). The specific “reliable” translator heteronyms considered in the chapter are: the source author as s/he is named at the head of a translation or in paratexts as a heteronym projected by the translator (Sections 15–23) the translator as the heteronym of the source author (Sections 24–25) the translator projecting not the source author but the translating self as a narratorial heteronym (Sections 26–27) the target reader as the translator’s heteronym (Sections 28–29) the source reader as the translator’s heteronym (Sections 30–33) Next we move to the experimental translator as an unreliable narrator (D, Sections 34–48), with examples taken from my transcreation of Volter Kilpi’s Gulliver’s Voyage to Phantomimia, and a whole new raft of (unreliable) heteronyms: f. the source author projecting a translatorial heteronym (Section 37) g. the translator projecting an editorial heteronym (Section 37) h. the translator and partial writer projecting a transcreatorial heteronym (Section 40) i. the transcreator projecting a critic heteronym (Section 41) j. the transcreator projecting a publisher heteronym (Section 43) k. the transcreator projecting a poet heteronym (Section 44) In the Conclusion (E, Sections 49–52) we reflect back on the issue of the translator’s narratorial reliability (an audience-effect that cannot be empirically adjudicated), Jan-Louis Kruger’s talk of the translator’s “positionality,” and motivations for the courting of perceptions/accusations of narratorial reliability.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Questions for equivalence theories
- Question 1. What is semantic equivalence, and what might it become if we thought about it more carefully? 10
- Question 2. What is dynamic in Nida’s dynamic equivalence? 41
- Question 3. What is the deverbalized sens in the théorie du sens ? 67
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Part II. Questions for Descriptive Translation Studies
- Question 4. How are norms formed? 94
- Question 5. What is the legal status of Gideon Toury’s laws of translation? 133
- Question 6. In what sense does a translator narrate? 188
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Conclusion
- Question 7. What exactly is the translator’s visibility, and how can it be achieved? 220
- References 247
- Index 265
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Questions for equivalence theories
- Question 1. What is semantic equivalence, and what might it become if we thought about it more carefully? 10
- Question 2. What is dynamic in Nida’s dynamic equivalence? 41
- Question 3. What is the deverbalized sens in the théorie du sens ? 67
-
Part II. Questions for Descriptive Translation Studies
- Question 4. How are norms formed? 94
- Question 5. What is the legal status of Gideon Toury’s laws of translation? 133
- Question 6. In what sense does a translator narrate? 188
-
Conclusion
- Question 7. What exactly is the translator’s visibility, and how can it be achieved? 220
- References 247
- Index 265
