Literary Style and Its Transfer in Translation: Bohumil Hrabal in English
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.mut.325376Keywords:
authorial style, literary translation, Jiří Levý, semiotic model, Bohumil Hrabal in English translationsAbstract
The paper discusses the topic of authorial style and its transfer in translation against the backdrop of Levý’s concepts of function and style while arguing that Levý’s thinking about these concepts was strongly influenced by Czech structuralism, anticipated later developments in translation studies, and links up with current research. The topic is narrowed down to two research areas: (1) the transfer of orality stylised in narrative texts as realised by two translators, discussed in terms of Levý’s notion of the translator’s decision making and Mukařovský’s and Lefever’s concepts of the apperception frame and acculturation respectively, as well as related notions developed in contemporary translation studies; (2) contextualisation of the texts selected for analysis. The empirical part draws on a model of translation-related semiotic text analysis developed in previous studies. Underlying the model is the idea that for translation purposes, an approach is needed that is capable of providing a comprehensive account of a wide spectrum of factors on the one hand and a way of singling out relevant aspects of a phenomenon of interest on the other. The data that is analysed is two texts by the prominent Czech author Bohumil Hrabal (1914-1997), Postřižiny (1970) and Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále (1971), and their translations into English, Cutting It Short, translated by James Naughton, and I Served the King of England, translated by Paul Wilson.
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