Confronting the retranslation hypothesis : Flaubert and Sand in the British literary system
The phenomenon of retranslation (the repeated translation of a given work into a given target language) is widespread in practice, and yet its motivations remain relatively underexplored. One very prevalent justification for this repetitive act is encapsulated in the work of Antoine Berman who claims that an initial translation is necessarily 'aveugle et heÌsitante' (1990: 5), while retranslation alone can ensure 'la Â" reÌveÌlation Â" drÌune oeuvre eÌtrangeÌre dans son eÌtre propre aÌ la culture reÌceptrice' (1995: 57). This dynamic from deficient initial translation to accomplished retranslation has been consolidated into the Retranslation Hypothesis, namely that 'later translations tend to be closer to the source text' (Chesterman, 2004: 8, my emphasis). In order to investigate the validity of the hypothesis, this thesis undertakes a case study of the British retranslations of Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Sand's La Mare au diable. A methodology is proposed which allows the key notion of closeness to be measured on both a linguistic and a cultural axis. Given Flaubert's famous insistence on 'le mot juste', Madame Bovary serves as a basis for an examination of linguistic closeness which is guided
Deane, Sharon Louise
retranslation ; translation ; Flaubert ; Gustave ; 1821-1880 ; Sand ; George ; 1804-1876 ; systemic ; funcational grammar ; narrativity ; history
Confronting the retranslation hypothesis : Flaubert and Sand in the British literary system. The phenomenon of retranslation (the repeated translation of a given work into a given target language) is widespread in practice, and yet its motivations remain relatively underexplored. One very prevalent justification for this repetitive act is encapsulated in the work of Antoine Berman who claims that an initial translation is necessarily 'aveugle et heÌsitante' (1990: 5), while retranslation alone can ensure 'la Â" reÌveÌlation Â" drÌune oeuvre eÌtrangeÌre dans son eÌtre propre aÌ la culture reÌceptrice' (1995: 57). This dynamic from deficient initial translation to accomplished retranslation has been consolidated into the Retranslation Hypothesis, namely that 'later translations tend to be closer to the source text' (Chesterman, 2004: 8, my emphasis). In order to investigate the validity of the hypothesis, this thesis undertakes a case study of the British retranslations of Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Sand's La Mare au diable. A methodology is proposed which allows the key notion of closeness to be measured on both a linguistic and a cultural axis. Given Flaubert's famous insistence on 'le mot juste', Madame Bovary serves as a basis for an examination of linguistic closeness which is guided
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