In my posting of today's date, the 10th November, 2010, about my recent first-time translation from French into English of a lesser-known, obscure literary work by Jules Verne,i've reverted to fulfilling the original mission of this blog, which is to discuss contemporary Translation Studies and especially literary translation.
It's a relief for me to be posting a translation-related article to the blog after an absence of several months.
The reason i've been away from this blog for those few months, since earlier in 2010, is that I have been busy applying for academic jobs in such areas as TEFL, TESOL, French and Translation Studies - not that there is currently a great deal on offer internationally, at present. Still, hardly a week goes by without there being at least one or two advertised academic posts in my above-mentioned specializations, mainly in French, and occasionally in Translation Studies and in TEFL/TESOL.
It's a difficult time to be a newly-minted PhD graduate seeking an academic post, at least in my own areas of the Humanities, viz. Linguistics, TEFL, French and Translation Studies. So the last few months since my graduation have been a busy and challenging period, but making academic job applications and being interviewed (if short-listed) is all valuable experience.
At the end of the day, though, bread has to be put on the table. Therefore - and as so many people in Ireland and elsewhere are painfully aware (given our current recession) - being 'between jobs' is not much fun!
However, i've been determinedly ploughing away with academic job applications, and i'm happy to report that there may finally be a glimmer of very hopeful, promising light on the horizon... Meaning that in the next couple of months, I will most likely be making postings to this blog, not from a computer in Dublin, but rather, from a quite distant part of the globe, and one which is exotic and exciting.
At least the wheels are in motion. I've been praying and working hard to get a post-PhD break within an educational career, and my prayers may finally have been answered.
Watch this space ...
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
An undiscovered side to Jules Verne: translating one of his lesser-known novellas
I N T R O D U C T I O N
A few months ago, I produced a first translation, from French into English,of a text by Jules Verne, entitled 'Jédédias Jamet, or the Tale of an Inheritance', consisting of three chapters of an unfinished novella or novel written by Jules Verne, most probably while he was still only in his late teens or early twenties. It is a text which he apparently intended to expand into a complete novel, but which he subsequently abandoned, before, of course, going on to much greater things in the literary world. The fact that Verne originally intended this work to become a complete novel, is attested to by the rough draft outline which he produced of the projected entire story, a summary which I also rendered into English. This foray into professional literary translation was accomplished at the behest of the North American Jules Verne Society, which is currently engaged in translating into English, for the first time, many of the hitherto lesser known works of the great 19th century writer, Jules Verne, whom I have, of course, spoken about in previous postings to this Translation Studies/literary blog.
These chapters were written, it seems, during a period when the young Jules Verne was, at his father’s behest, studying law in Paris with a view to eventually inheriting the family law practice in Nantes. However, the true ambitions of Jules Verne lay not in the legal, but rather the literary domain. Verne’s less than willing immersion in the legal world as a young man, probably explains one of the principal themes, and the mocking tone, of this short text which deals with questions of succession and inheritance, and offers a satirical portrait of the legal profession and of its sometimes greedy clients.
The central character, M. Jédédias Jamet, is a pillar of the small community within which he resides, viz. the town of Chinon in the Touraine region of France. Though he is a good father, husband, juror and member of the National Guard, he is depicted with supreme irony by Verne as an inept individual who lives in blissful ignorance of his own incompetence. For instance, his wildly erroneous predictions and instructions lead to the destruction by fire of several farms; the drowning of an unfortunate dog; the failure of numerous harvests; the killing of many hunters and the loss of much livestock.
Notwithstanding his gargantuan ineptness, he is revered by the locals; thus, the general populace equally becomes a target of Verne’s ridicule. Thus, after allowing a wretched canine to drown – yet cannily turning the error to his own advantage – does Jamet become ‘the oracle of the locality’, using his ‘rightfully acquired fame’ to dispense ‘excellent advice’.
Jamet is obsessed with neatness. He jealously guards, and preserves in mint condition, the coat he has inherited from his late father. Anything else that he might have acquired from the paternal estate has been cruelly denied him by the greed of others. Jamet thus appears as a rather pathetic figure, unjustly treated by fate. All he has inherited, at least from his father, is this coat, his ‘minimum legal entitlement’, a ‘mediocre legacy’.
On the other hand, Jamet considers that this is ‘the coat to which he owe[s] his happiness’ , in that he feels it helped him to win the heart of his spouse, Perpetua Tertullien. However, Verne, again satirising human greed, hints strongly that Perpetua’s family, in reality, consented to the marriage thanks to her suitor having become rich as a result of an inheritance from a cousin.
Jamet’s mathematical exactness in relation to his coat seems reminiscent of the obsessive-compulsive precision of that subsequent and much more famous Vernian automaton, Phileas Fogg, in Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Thus does Jamet ‘attire … himself in his coat, in accordance with the rules of applied geometry of the thumb and index finger’ and, with a flick of his fingers, he rids the garment of ‘those microcosmic specks which he alone could discern’.
The heavily guarded coat is likened to a virginal daughter whose chasteness is jealously guarded by a vigilant mother (‘a dread-afflicted mother [who] keeps her daughter captive under her wing’). Nobody must place a ‘defiling hand’ on the ‘spotless’ garment. Jamet constantly fears for ‘the virginal lustre of his vestments’, and lives ‘in dread of any base or obscene fondling of the sole object of his thoughts’. This, as we shall see, is one of several sexual subtexts and uses of sexualised language, permeating the story.
The tale begins as Jamet receives a mysterious note advising him of the death of an uncle of his wife, viz. M. Opime Romauld Tertullien. This is a most unusual ‘death notice’ in that it is apparently written by the deceased himself, and fails to give the sender’s address, or the location of the bizarrely-named Church of Saint Collette the Hip Swayer, in which the memorial service is to take place. Following this cryptic communication, the narrator pauses to describe Jamet’s life and to offer flashbacks to significant previous events in his life, before recounting the consequences of the ‘mysterious parchment’ received by Jamet.
The notice causes Jamet to rush to the home of his solicitor in a state of feverish anticipation of a possible large inheritance, tempered by his fear that other relatives and claimants may deprive him of his hypothetical bequest. Jamet’s long and frenzied monologue to his solicitor (who listens to him while freezing in the cold water of his morning bath) strongly satirises mercenary natures; the greed, perhaps, of some of the potential heirs whom Verne probably encountered in his legal work. Perpetua, too, sheds brief crocodile tears for her late uncle but is much more concerned with inheriting the wealth of this successful businessman.
It seems, from Verne’s draft, that the remainder of this unfinished work would have recounted the tale of Jamet’s fruitless international journey in pursuit of the supposed inheritance. The journey would have been strewn with increasing mystery, obstacles and frustrations, and the story in its entirety would, it seems, have been as bizarre as its first three chapters.
There are, in fact, three inheritances referred to in this Tale of an Inheritance. Apart from the potential inheritance from Perpetua’s late uncle, there is the much cared-for coat which Jamet has acquired from his father, and there is also the inheritance which contributed to Jamet’s winning the approval of Perpetua’s family, viz. Jamet had become ‘wealthy as a result of an inheritance from one of his cousins, an intrepid aviator who had dropped himself from a height of three thousand metres’.
This short text is peppered with references of a legal, historical, religious and mythological nature. Footnotes have been provided seeking to explain these allusions, thus fulfilling the didactic duty of the translator. Legal references in this story include allusions to particular kinds of bailiffs, to succession law, to court orders for the seizure of debtors’ possessions, and to secured and unsecured loans. Religious and Biblical references include those alluding to Saint Colette, the Seven Deadly Sins, the story of Joseph in the Old Testament’s Book of Genesis, the priest Urbain Grandier, the character Holopherne in the Old Testament’s Book of Judith, and the Old Testament story of the Ten Plagues of Egypt. Mythological references are abundant, so that Verne grandiosely links characters and events in his text to such figures as Horace, Augustus, Plato and Diogenes, and to the walls of Carthage and the siege of Troy. Historical and literary references are to such persons as Henri II of Navarre, César Vichard de Saint-Réal and the writers Berquin and Molière.
There thus seems to be quite a hotch-potch of varied allusions which combine to give this ironic text a mock ‘learned’ air.
As the names which Verne chooses for his characters in other, later works, sometimes appear to hint, however obliquely, at personal traits (e.g. Fogg, Passepartout, Fix, Nemo, Conseil or Captain Speedy), I have used a footnote to speculate on what might be the significance of the name Jédédias Jamet (footnote number 1).
Finally – and as alluded to earlier in this Introduction – there are some bizarre scatological, and specifically sexual, allusions scattered throughout these chapters. For instance, Verne hints that Jamet’s marriage is now sexless, but that there was a time when Perpetua ‘would vouch for the fact that [Jamet] was never rushed under any circumstances’. Butcher detects a similar sexual undertone in Verne’s description of Phileas Fogg, in Around the World in Eighty Days, as someone who was ‘never in a hurry’, which is described by Butcher as a ‘blatant sexual reference’ (Verne, 1873/1995: 219). And as we have noted earlier, Jamet’s coat is likened to a daughter whose chastity is fiercely protected by a vigilant parent.
There are two references to excretion. Jamet’s son, Francis, is forced by his father to emerge from the bathroom ‘in an appalling state; luckily, his long childhood smock concealed, with due propriety, the offensive disarray of a certain activity, rudely interrupted!’. Jamet’s son is suffering from indigestion, while the family cat suffers from constipation. Then there is Jamet’s solicitor, Monsieur Honoré Rabutin, who, while taking a bath, was amusing himself by ‘making little cowpats.’
In sum, this is, in many ways, a bizarre, surreal text, which seems, superficially at least, to bear little resemblance to the themes of Verne’s later works. It may indeed have been intended as little more than a ‘canular estudiantin’, or student hoax, as J.D. has suggested.
On closer inspection, however, it can be seen that Jédédias Jamet, or the Tale of an Inheritance, would, if completed, have dealt with the quintessential Vernian trope of a long journey of exploration and discovery through different countries, undertaken by the central character in the company of a trusted valet. Furthermore, even these early chapters already contain themes which seem to ‘haunt’ Verne’s later, celebrated works: Jamet’s obsessive-compulsive, unhurried behaviour and his preoccupation with mathematical exactness seem to make him an early model for Phileas Fogg, though Fogg would hardly have shown the type of over-excitement manifested by Jamet when he receives news of his wife’s uncle’s death. In addition, the type of sexual and scatological undertones apparent in Jédédias Jamet have also been identified by Butcher (ibid) in such other Verne novels as Around the World in Eighty Days (op. cit.).
This unfinished Verne work is deserving of scholarly attention, as it offers some insight into the mind of the early writer that was Jules Verne while probably still in his late teens.
A few months ago, I produced a first translation, from French into English,of a text by Jules Verne, entitled 'Jédédias Jamet, or the Tale of an Inheritance', consisting of three chapters of an unfinished novella or novel written by Jules Verne, most probably while he was still only in his late teens or early twenties. It is a text which he apparently intended to expand into a complete novel, but which he subsequently abandoned, before, of course, going on to much greater things in the literary world. The fact that Verne originally intended this work to become a complete novel, is attested to by the rough draft outline which he produced of the projected entire story, a summary which I also rendered into English. This foray into professional literary translation was accomplished at the behest of the North American Jules Verne Society, which is currently engaged in translating into English, for the first time, many of the hitherto lesser known works of the great 19th century writer, Jules Verne, whom I have, of course, spoken about in previous postings to this Translation Studies/literary blog.
These chapters were written, it seems, during a period when the young Jules Verne was, at his father’s behest, studying law in Paris with a view to eventually inheriting the family law practice in Nantes. However, the true ambitions of Jules Verne lay not in the legal, but rather the literary domain. Verne’s less than willing immersion in the legal world as a young man, probably explains one of the principal themes, and the mocking tone, of this short text which deals with questions of succession and inheritance, and offers a satirical portrait of the legal profession and of its sometimes greedy clients.
The central character, M. Jédédias Jamet, is a pillar of the small community within which he resides, viz. the town of Chinon in the Touraine region of France. Though he is a good father, husband, juror and member of the National Guard, he is depicted with supreme irony by Verne as an inept individual who lives in blissful ignorance of his own incompetence. For instance, his wildly erroneous predictions and instructions lead to the destruction by fire of several farms; the drowning of an unfortunate dog; the failure of numerous harvests; the killing of many hunters and the loss of much livestock.
Notwithstanding his gargantuan ineptness, he is revered by the locals; thus, the general populace equally becomes a target of Verne’s ridicule. Thus, after allowing a wretched canine to drown – yet cannily turning the error to his own advantage – does Jamet become ‘the oracle of the locality’, using his ‘rightfully acquired fame’ to dispense ‘excellent advice’.
Jamet is obsessed with neatness. He jealously guards, and preserves in mint condition, the coat he has inherited from his late father. Anything else that he might have acquired from the paternal estate has been cruelly denied him by the greed of others. Jamet thus appears as a rather pathetic figure, unjustly treated by fate. All he has inherited, at least from his father, is this coat, his ‘minimum legal entitlement’, a ‘mediocre legacy’.
On the other hand, Jamet considers that this is ‘the coat to which he owe[s] his happiness’ , in that he feels it helped him to win the heart of his spouse, Perpetua Tertullien. However, Verne, again satirising human greed, hints strongly that Perpetua’s family, in reality, consented to the marriage thanks to her suitor having become rich as a result of an inheritance from a cousin.
Jamet’s mathematical exactness in relation to his coat seems reminiscent of the obsessive-compulsive precision of that subsequent and much more famous Vernian automaton, Phileas Fogg, in Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Thus does Jamet ‘attire … himself in his coat, in accordance with the rules of applied geometry of the thumb and index finger’ and, with a flick of his fingers, he rids the garment of ‘those microcosmic specks which he alone could discern’.
The heavily guarded coat is likened to a virginal daughter whose chasteness is jealously guarded by a vigilant mother (‘a dread-afflicted mother [who] keeps her daughter captive under her wing’). Nobody must place a ‘defiling hand’ on the ‘spotless’ garment. Jamet constantly fears for ‘the virginal lustre of his vestments’, and lives ‘in dread of any base or obscene fondling of the sole object of his thoughts’. This, as we shall see, is one of several sexual subtexts and uses of sexualised language, permeating the story.
The tale begins as Jamet receives a mysterious note advising him of the death of an uncle of his wife, viz. M. Opime Romauld Tertullien. This is a most unusual ‘death notice’ in that it is apparently written by the deceased himself, and fails to give the sender’s address, or the location of the bizarrely-named Church of Saint Collette the Hip Swayer, in which the memorial service is to take place. Following this cryptic communication, the narrator pauses to describe Jamet’s life and to offer flashbacks to significant previous events in his life, before recounting the consequences of the ‘mysterious parchment’ received by Jamet.
The notice causes Jamet to rush to the home of his solicitor in a state of feverish anticipation of a possible large inheritance, tempered by his fear that other relatives and claimants may deprive him of his hypothetical bequest. Jamet’s long and frenzied monologue to his solicitor (who listens to him while freezing in the cold water of his morning bath) strongly satirises mercenary natures; the greed, perhaps, of some of the potential heirs whom Verne probably encountered in his legal work. Perpetua, too, sheds brief crocodile tears for her late uncle but is much more concerned with inheriting the wealth of this successful businessman.
It seems, from Verne’s draft, that the remainder of this unfinished work would have recounted the tale of Jamet’s fruitless international journey in pursuit of the supposed inheritance. The journey would have been strewn with increasing mystery, obstacles and frustrations, and the story in its entirety would, it seems, have been as bizarre as its first three chapters.
There are, in fact, three inheritances referred to in this Tale of an Inheritance. Apart from the potential inheritance from Perpetua’s late uncle, there is the much cared-for coat which Jamet has acquired from his father, and there is also the inheritance which contributed to Jamet’s winning the approval of Perpetua’s family, viz. Jamet had become ‘wealthy as a result of an inheritance from one of his cousins, an intrepid aviator who had dropped himself from a height of three thousand metres’.
This short text is peppered with references of a legal, historical, religious and mythological nature. Footnotes have been provided seeking to explain these allusions, thus fulfilling the didactic duty of the translator. Legal references in this story include allusions to particular kinds of bailiffs, to succession law, to court orders for the seizure of debtors’ possessions, and to secured and unsecured loans. Religious and Biblical references include those alluding to Saint Colette, the Seven Deadly Sins, the story of Joseph in the Old Testament’s Book of Genesis, the priest Urbain Grandier, the character Holopherne in the Old Testament’s Book of Judith, and the Old Testament story of the Ten Plagues of Egypt. Mythological references are abundant, so that Verne grandiosely links characters and events in his text to such figures as Horace, Augustus, Plato and Diogenes, and to the walls of Carthage and the siege of Troy. Historical and literary references are to such persons as Henri II of Navarre, César Vichard de Saint-Réal and the writers Berquin and Molière.
There thus seems to be quite a hotch-potch of varied allusions which combine to give this ironic text a mock ‘learned’ air.
As the names which Verne chooses for his characters in other, later works, sometimes appear to hint, however obliquely, at personal traits (e.g. Fogg, Passepartout, Fix, Nemo, Conseil or Captain Speedy), I have used a footnote to speculate on what might be the significance of the name Jédédias Jamet (footnote number 1).
Finally – and as alluded to earlier in this Introduction – there are some bizarre scatological, and specifically sexual, allusions scattered throughout these chapters. For instance, Verne hints that Jamet’s marriage is now sexless, but that there was a time when Perpetua ‘would vouch for the fact that [Jamet] was never rushed under any circumstances’. Butcher detects a similar sexual undertone in Verne’s description of Phileas Fogg, in Around the World in Eighty Days, as someone who was ‘never in a hurry’, which is described by Butcher as a ‘blatant sexual reference’ (Verne, 1873/1995: 219). And as we have noted earlier, Jamet’s coat is likened to a daughter whose chastity is fiercely protected by a vigilant parent.
There are two references to excretion. Jamet’s son, Francis, is forced by his father to emerge from the bathroom ‘in an appalling state; luckily, his long childhood smock concealed, with due propriety, the offensive disarray of a certain activity, rudely interrupted!’. Jamet’s son is suffering from indigestion, while the family cat suffers from constipation. Then there is Jamet’s solicitor, Monsieur Honoré Rabutin, who, while taking a bath, was amusing himself by ‘making little cowpats.’
In sum, this is, in many ways, a bizarre, surreal text, which seems, superficially at least, to bear little resemblance to the themes of Verne’s later works. It may indeed have been intended as little more than a ‘canular estudiantin’, or student hoax, as J.D. has suggested.
On closer inspection, however, it can be seen that Jédédias Jamet, or the Tale of an Inheritance, would, if completed, have dealt with the quintessential Vernian trope of a long journey of exploration and discovery through different countries, undertaken by the central character in the company of a trusted valet. Furthermore, even these early chapters already contain themes which seem to ‘haunt’ Verne’s later, celebrated works: Jamet’s obsessive-compulsive, unhurried behaviour and his preoccupation with mathematical exactness seem to make him an early model for Phileas Fogg, though Fogg would hardly have shown the type of over-excitement manifested by Jamet when he receives news of his wife’s uncle’s death. In addition, the type of sexual and scatological undertones apparent in Jédédias Jamet have also been identified by Butcher (ibid) in such other Verne novels as Around the World in Eighty Days (op. cit.).
This unfinished Verne work is deserving of scholarly attention, as it offers some insight into the mind of the early writer that was Jules Verne while probably still in his late teens.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Obituary and profile and links to my former town of Carrick-on-Suir.
Hello again to all out there in blogland. It's been a while since I posted an entry to this blog. On this occasion, I want to briefly take a sidestep from my usual writings about Translation Studies-related matters, in order to bring to your attention a very professional blog about my native town of Carrick-on-Suir in Co. Tipperary, in the south-east of Ireland, situated midway between Waterford and Clonmel. The blog has been created by webmaster and Carrick native, Mr Robert Glascott, and it tells you a lot about my town, all it has to offer, photos, links, and of course, profiles of all its many clubs, and individual people, including my late father, Frank O'Driscoll. I set out hereunder a copy of my late father's profile on this site, as he was a wonderful man and brilliant father who inspired me in so many ways, including in my choice of a local government career and my later choice of a literary, academic career.
I also have posted my own profile from the site.
Please take a few minutes to have a look at the overall site, its photos, audio links, etc.
Carrick is a multi-talented, diverse community.
So here goes with the website link and the profile of my late, beloved father Frank O'Driscoll who we lost in 1994, and who is always with us in spirit, looking after my brothers and I as is my late mother, Nora..
Carrick on Suir Official Website
Home Carrick People People of Note
Frank O Driscoll - Town Clerk, Philanthropist, Linguist, Writer (J.F. O'Driscoll)
Frank (John Francis) O' Driscoll was born on 6th April, 1927, in William Street, Carrick-on-Suir. He was the eldest of the four children of Edward O'Driscoll, barber, and of his wife Alice (née Reck), dressmaker.
Frank excelled at school, especially in English and Latin, and following his Leaving Certificate in the mid-1940s, at a time when few people did the Leaving, he started work as a Clerical Officer in South Tipperary County Council, Clonmel, in about 1945. This was the beginning of a lifelong career in local government, spanning over 47 years. He was appointed Town Clerk of Carrick, his native town, in April 1971, where he served until his retirement in April, 1992.
His achievements as Town Clerk were many, and he was highly dedicated to the service and betterment of his native town. His time as Town Clerk saw the construction of much new local authority and private housing, including co-operative housing schemes, such as Clairin and Lissadell among many others; the provision of a new library and of the Sean Kelly Centre, new water supply facilities and remedial works to local authority housing in the town. He also brought the Town Twinning to Carrick (French town of Trégunc in Brittany) and made many visits to our French twin town over the years, as well as hosting many French visitors in his home at Woodland Heights.
Frank was also a very cultured man; he had a huge collection of rare, inherited books, including the works of such classic writers as Dickens, Shakespeare and many others, and was an avid reader, and lover of the English language and its literature.
He was also a gifted writer, who contributed many appreciations of notable Carrick deceased persons over the years to his local papers, and who also wrote the 'Carrick Notes' for many years. If Frank had not gone into local government, he would have made a gifted academic of English, or indeed a diplomat.
He studied French and Piano from his late forties onwards, on both a self-taught and class basis, and was highly dedicated to the study of these subjects.
He was a prominent and gifted member of the local Drama Society and Musical Society, and of the local Friary Choir, for many years. He was also a member of a local poetry group, and of the Lions Club and Social and Literary Club. Snooker was one of his great hobbies in the latter club. He was a sincere, kind, sociable, well-loved and cultivated gentleman.
After retiring from the local government service in 1992, he became Arts Officer with South Tipperary County Council, an ideal outlet for a man of his cultural and artistic leanings.
Tragically, his life was cut short at age 67 by his sudden death in May, 1994, just five months after the death from cancer of his beloved wife, Nora (née Slattery), formerly of Coolacussane, Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, Cork and London. Nora had been a State Registered Nurse and State Certified Midwife in London, Cashel and Carrick-on-Suir.
Frank and Nora were the loving and devoted parents of Kieran (Dublin), Neil (Kilkenny) and John (Carrick-on-Suir), by whom they will always be very sadly missed, though these sons are grateful and privileged for the years they had with Frank and Nora as their parents.
Frank's sister Mary (England) died in 2006, and his brother Henry (England) died in 2010. He is survived by his one remaining brother, Colm (Southampton, England). Frank's mother Alice actually outlived him, and died at age 96 in 1999.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dilis.
Dr. Kieran O Driscoll - Academic Scholar, Lecturer and Author
Dr. Kieran O'Driscoll, originally from William Street and Woodland Heights, Carrick-on-Suir, and now living in Dublin, is a mature graduate (aged 47) in French Studies, French and English literature and translation, Spanish, Translation Studies, Public Administration and International Marketing Communications, and a former local government official.
He is educated to doctoral level and has recently completed PhD research in French-English literary translation, graduating in 2010 with his doctorate from Dublin City University. He has also taught extensively, and has worked within the local authority service for over seventeen years, with extensive experience of customer service in such Departments of South Tipperary County Council, Clonmel, as Motor Taxation, Personnel, Rates, Registration of Electors, Housing, Accounts, Higher Education Grants and Freedom of Information. He has won a number of academic awards for scholarly achievements in French, Spanish, Marketing, and Translation Studies, in both Waterford IT and Dublin City University. Kieran's father Frank O'Driscoll RIP had also worked in local government for many years, and was Town Clerk in Carrick for over 21 years; Frank's profile is also on this site. Kieran's brother John, lives in Woodland Heights, Carrick, and his brother Neil, in Kilkenny.
When living in Carrick, Kieran was organist with the St Mollerans' Parish Choir from 1986 to 1996, and was also involved over the years with drama and musicals locally, with Meals on Wheels and church reading.
Kieran lived in Carrick up to the age of 41 (in 2004), whis was when he moved to Dublin to pursue his postgraduate studies of French translation as a mature student. He liked Dublin so much that he decided to sell his home in William Street in Carrick, in which he had lived with and cared for his beloved grandmother Lal for many years up to her death in 1999 at age 96. Kieran loves Dublin, but Carrick 'will always be part of me'.
When in Carrick, Kieran was educated in the Green School and the Monastery, and later in Waterford IT and the Institute of Public Administration, Dublin, by Distance Education.
Kieran took Special Leave without Pay from the local authority service, in 1998, to study languages and business, later resigning from the service to gain experience of teaching and academic research.
Kieran holds a First Class Honours Masters degree in Translation Studies (French and English) from Dublin City University (DCU), First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts degree (French, Spanish and Marketing) from Waterford Institute of Technology and Distinction in National Diploma in Business Studies (Languages and Marketing), W.I.T and he also holds PhD in literary translation, French to English, of the works of Jules Verne, the French science-fiction and adventure writer of the 1800s, a PhD awarded by DCU. Kieran has done much published professional literary translation (French to English) for the North American Jules Verne Society (NAJVS), and for European book fairs. He has given many lectures on his research and his conference papers and seminars are as follows:
Papers in conference proceedings
2007 ‘Around the World in Eighty Changes: Translating Jules Verne, 1873-2004’ Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the North American Jules Verne Society, 2007, Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, 7th-10th June, 2007.
2008 ‘Translating Jules Verne, and Forging the Verne Translator’s Identity: A Diachronic Study of Complex Emergence of the Text, and Interacting Causes of Translation’ International Conference on Forging Identities: Past into Present Identity Construction through language, culture and literature from the 18th to the 21st century in Ireland and Europe, Dublin City University, February 15th-16th, 2008.
2008 ‘A diachronic study of translations into English of Jules Verne’s Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-vingts Jours 1873-2004: multiple causation, non-linear dynamics of translation, and contesting the Retranslation Hypothesis through norm theory, Bourdieusian sociological perspectives and post-structural interpretation’. Translation in Second Language Teaching and Learning: International Translation Studies Conference, N.U.I. Maynooth and UCD, held at NUI Maynooth, 27th-29th March, 2008.
2008 ‘Retranslation causality – the example of Jules Verne as rendered into English’. Postgraduate Conference in Translation and Textual Studies, Dublin City University and Herriott-Watt University, Edinburgh, held at DCU, 5th-6th June, 2009.
2008 ‘Reinterpreting, renarrating, reframing Jules Verne’. Postgraduate Conference in Translation and Interpreting Studies, University of Manchester, 30th June-1st July, 2009.
2008 ‘Retranslating, renarrating, reframing, reinterpreting Jules Verne: examining retranslations of Around the World in 80 Days (1873) from 1873 to 2004 – reviewing multiple causation of retranslation decisions, with an emphasis on the efficient cause of translatorial agency and the formal cause of linguistic, literary and translational norms’. 2008 CETRA Doctoral Summer School in Literary Translation and Interpreting Studies, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, 18-30th August, 2008.
2008 ‘Reading literature in translation – pitfalls and possibilities: the example of Jules Verne’. 1st Postgraduate Conference on Comparative Literature, Dublin City University, 1st November, 2008.
2009 ‘Taking the child reader on an extraordinary journey into the world of Verne literature: studying translational adapted versions of Verne in English’. Eaton Science-Fiction Foundation Conference on Verne. University of Riverside, California, 28th-30th April, 2009.
Research seminars
2007 ‘Around the world in eighty changes: Translating Jules Verne 1873-2004’. Research seminar for postgraduate students and lecturers of the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS), held at Dublin City University, 8th March, 2007.
2008 ‘Around the world in eighty changes II: Translational sequels: Translating Jules Verne’s Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-Vingts Jours (1873) 1873-2004: Exploring multiple causation, complex emergence, and reading a gay subtext into the source novel’. Research seminar for postgraduate students and lecturers of the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS), held at Dublin City University, 28th February, 2008.
2008 ‘A journey to the centre of the extraordinary world of Jules Verne: Introducing classic literature to groups of readers with specific needs and expectations; studying adapted and abridged translations of Verne in English’. Research seminar for postgraduate students and lecturers of the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS), Dublin City University, 23rd October, 2008.
Reviews
Kieran is currently reviewing the edited collection Translation and Censorship (2009) for the journal Translation Ireland. Review accepted for publication by peer reviewers.
Kieran is also currently reviewing two further monographs (reviews commissioned) on translation studies-related topics, for future submission to journals.
External Guest Lectures
2009 ‘Translation as a bridge to the Other literary text’. Annual General Meeting of the Irish Translators and Interpreters Association. Irish Writers’ Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin 1, 26th May, 2009.
2009 ‘The Afternoon of a Faun: reading Mallarmé in his original French, prior to the act of poetic translation.’ International Translation Day, celebratory evening, Irish Translators and Interpreters Association, Irish Writers’ Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin 1, 30th September, 2009.
Further information:
Kieran is a qualified teacher of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) having achieved distinction in TEFL 60-hour certificate.
He has fluent French and Spanish. He holds a TEFL teaching qualification, and a Certificate of ‘Perfectionnement’ level in all aspects of French from IMEF, (Institute Montpéllierain d’Etudes Françaises), Montpellier, France. His M.A. and PhD qualify him to also lecture in Irish Institutes of Technology and within universities. He has taught French, Spanish, English and Translation Studies in several schools and colleges in Waterford and Dublin and would love at some stage to teach in France, as this is a country he loves.
He has published the following material, including a forthcoming book:
Books authored
Monograph recently accepted by Peter Lang and Co., scholarly publishers, London, based on my doctoral thesis, a book provisionally entitled Retranslation through the centuries: the example of Jules Verne. Due to be published later in 2010.
Chapters in books
‘Translating Founding Mick’ – essay for Royal Irish Academy’s 2008 republication of Jules Verne’s novel The extraordinary adventures of Foundling Mick, original title P’tit Bonhomme (1893)
‘Putting White to Rights: reinstating the reputation of the Victorian Verne translator, Stephen W. White’ IN Verne, J. 1873 The Tour of the World in Eighty Days. 1873/1874/2010. Choptank Press, MS, USA. This book’s contents may be viewed at http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-tour-of-the-world-in-eighty-days/7821661.
‘Introduction to republication of The Tour of the World in Eighty Days’ IN The Tour of the World in Eighty Days. 1873/1874/2010.. Co-authored with Dr Norman Wolcott. Choptank Press, St Michael’s, MD 21663, USA.
Articles in refereed journals
‘When less becomes more: studying an abridged, adapted translation from French into English of Jules Verne’s Around the world in eighty days (1873), revised for younger readers by John Webber in 1966’ IN Verniana, the online journal of Verne Studies, 2:1, 2010, at http://www.verniana.org/.
Articles in published conference proceedings
2009 ‘Around the world in eighty gays: retranslating Jules Verne from a queer perspective’. IN Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. De Crom, D. (ed.).
And finally ...
Kieran would love to hear from anybody interested in communicating about Carrick, Verne, Translation, French or any topic under the sun! He has a blog on Translation Studies at http://www.fromlocaltolingo.blogspot.com/ where you can leave a message, or you can e-mail him at kieran.odriscoll3@mail.dcu.ie and he also has a Facebook presence.
End of Frank O'Driscoll's and Kieran O'Driscoll's profile on www.carrickonsuir.info
I also have posted my own profile from the site.
Please take a few minutes to have a look at the overall site, its photos, audio links, etc.
Carrick is a multi-talented, diverse community.
So here goes with the website link and the profile of my late, beloved father Frank O'Driscoll who we lost in 1994, and who is always with us in spirit, looking after my brothers and I as is my late mother, Nora..
Carrick on Suir Official Website
Home Carrick People People of Note
Frank O Driscoll - Town Clerk, Philanthropist, Linguist, Writer (J.F. O'Driscoll)
Frank (John Francis) O' Driscoll was born on 6th April, 1927, in William Street, Carrick-on-Suir. He was the eldest of the four children of Edward O'Driscoll, barber, and of his wife Alice (née Reck), dressmaker.
Frank excelled at school, especially in English and Latin, and following his Leaving Certificate in the mid-1940s, at a time when few people did the Leaving, he started work as a Clerical Officer in South Tipperary County Council, Clonmel, in about 1945. This was the beginning of a lifelong career in local government, spanning over 47 years. He was appointed Town Clerk of Carrick, his native town, in April 1971, where he served until his retirement in April, 1992.
His achievements as Town Clerk were many, and he was highly dedicated to the service and betterment of his native town. His time as Town Clerk saw the construction of much new local authority and private housing, including co-operative housing schemes, such as Clairin and Lissadell among many others; the provision of a new library and of the Sean Kelly Centre, new water supply facilities and remedial works to local authority housing in the town. He also brought the Town Twinning to Carrick (French town of Trégunc in Brittany) and made many visits to our French twin town over the years, as well as hosting many French visitors in his home at Woodland Heights.
Frank was also a very cultured man; he had a huge collection of rare, inherited books, including the works of such classic writers as Dickens, Shakespeare and many others, and was an avid reader, and lover of the English language and its literature.
He was also a gifted writer, who contributed many appreciations of notable Carrick deceased persons over the years to his local papers, and who also wrote the 'Carrick Notes' for many years. If Frank had not gone into local government, he would have made a gifted academic of English, or indeed a diplomat.
He studied French and Piano from his late forties onwards, on both a self-taught and class basis, and was highly dedicated to the study of these subjects.
He was a prominent and gifted member of the local Drama Society and Musical Society, and of the local Friary Choir, for many years. He was also a member of a local poetry group, and of the Lions Club and Social and Literary Club. Snooker was one of his great hobbies in the latter club. He was a sincere, kind, sociable, well-loved and cultivated gentleman.
After retiring from the local government service in 1992, he became Arts Officer with South Tipperary County Council, an ideal outlet for a man of his cultural and artistic leanings.
Tragically, his life was cut short at age 67 by his sudden death in May, 1994, just five months after the death from cancer of his beloved wife, Nora (née Slattery), formerly of Coolacussane, Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, Cork and London. Nora had been a State Registered Nurse and State Certified Midwife in London, Cashel and Carrick-on-Suir.
Frank and Nora were the loving and devoted parents of Kieran (Dublin), Neil (Kilkenny) and John (Carrick-on-Suir), by whom they will always be very sadly missed, though these sons are grateful and privileged for the years they had with Frank and Nora as their parents.
Frank's sister Mary (England) died in 2006, and his brother Henry (England) died in 2010. He is survived by his one remaining brother, Colm (Southampton, England). Frank's mother Alice actually outlived him, and died at age 96 in 1999.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dilis.
Dr. Kieran O Driscoll - Academic Scholar, Lecturer and Author
Profile:
Dr. Kieran O'Driscoll, originally from William Street and Woodland Heights, Carrick-on-Suir, and now living in Dublin, is a mature graduate (aged 47) in French Studies, French and English literature and translation, Spanish, Translation Studies, Public Administration and International Marketing Communications, and a former local government official.
He is educated to doctoral level and has recently completed PhD research in French-English literary translation, graduating in 2010 with his doctorate from Dublin City University. He has also taught extensively, and has worked within the local authority service for over seventeen years, with extensive experience of customer service in such Departments of South Tipperary County Council, Clonmel, as Motor Taxation, Personnel, Rates, Registration of Electors, Housing, Accounts, Higher Education Grants and Freedom of Information. He has won a number of academic awards for scholarly achievements in French, Spanish, Marketing, and Translation Studies, in both Waterford IT and Dublin City University. Kieran's father Frank O'Driscoll RIP had also worked in local government for many years, and was Town Clerk in Carrick for over 21 years; Frank's profile is also on this site. Kieran's brother John, lives in Woodland Heights, Carrick, and his brother Neil, in Kilkenny.
When living in Carrick, Kieran was organist with the St Mollerans' Parish Choir from 1986 to 1996, and was also involved over the years with drama and musicals locally, with Meals on Wheels and church reading.
Kieran lived in Carrick up to the age of 41 (in 2004), whis was when he moved to Dublin to pursue his postgraduate studies of French translation as a mature student. He liked Dublin so much that he decided to sell his home in William Street in Carrick, in which he had lived with and cared for his beloved grandmother Lal for many years up to her death in 1999 at age 96. Kieran loves Dublin, but Carrick 'will always be part of me'.
When in Carrick, Kieran was educated in the Green School and the Monastery, and later in Waterford IT and the Institute of Public Administration, Dublin, by Distance Education.
Kieran took Special Leave without Pay from the local authority service, in 1998, to study languages and business, later resigning from the service to gain experience of teaching and academic research.
Kieran holds a First Class Honours Masters degree in Translation Studies (French and English) from Dublin City University (DCU), First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts degree (French, Spanish and Marketing) from Waterford Institute of Technology and Distinction in National Diploma in Business Studies (Languages and Marketing), W.I.T and he also holds PhD in literary translation, French to English, of the works of Jules Verne, the French science-fiction and adventure writer of the 1800s, a PhD awarded by DCU. Kieran has done much published professional literary translation (French to English) for the North American Jules Verne Society (NAJVS), and for European book fairs. He has given many lectures on his research and his conference papers and seminars are as follows:
Papers in conference proceedings
2007 ‘Around the World in Eighty Changes: Translating Jules Verne, 1873-2004’ Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the North American Jules Verne Society, 2007, Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, 7th-10th June, 2007.
2008 ‘Translating Jules Verne, and Forging the Verne Translator’s Identity: A Diachronic Study of Complex Emergence of the Text, and Interacting Causes of Translation’ International Conference on Forging Identities: Past into Present Identity Construction through language, culture and literature from the 18th to the 21st century in Ireland and Europe, Dublin City University, February 15th-16th, 2008.
2008 ‘A diachronic study of translations into English of Jules Verne’s Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-vingts Jours 1873-2004: multiple causation, non-linear dynamics of translation, and contesting the Retranslation Hypothesis through norm theory, Bourdieusian sociological perspectives and post-structural interpretation’. Translation in Second Language Teaching and Learning: International Translation Studies Conference, N.U.I. Maynooth and UCD, held at NUI Maynooth, 27th-29th March, 2008.
2008 ‘Retranslation causality – the example of Jules Verne as rendered into English’. Postgraduate Conference in Translation and Textual Studies, Dublin City University and Herriott-Watt University, Edinburgh, held at DCU, 5th-6th June, 2009.
2008 ‘Reinterpreting, renarrating, reframing Jules Verne’. Postgraduate Conference in Translation and Interpreting Studies, University of Manchester, 30th June-1st July, 2009.
2008 ‘Retranslating, renarrating, reframing, reinterpreting Jules Verne: examining retranslations of Around the World in 80 Days (1873) from 1873 to 2004 – reviewing multiple causation of retranslation decisions, with an emphasis on the efficient cause of translatorial agency and the formal cause of linguistic, literary and translational norms’. 2008 CETRA Doctoral Summer School in Literary Translation and Interpreting Studies, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, 18-30th August, 2008.
2008 ‘Reading literature in translation – pitfalls and possibilities: the example of Jules Verne’. 1st Postgraduate Conference on Comparative Literature, Dublin City University, 1st November, 2008.
2009 ‘Taking the child reader on an extraordinary journey into the world of Verne literature: studying translational adapted versions of Verne in English’. Eaton Science-Fiction Foundation Conference on Verne. University of Riverside, California, 28th-30th April, 2009.
Research seminars
2007 ‘Around the world in eighty changes: Translating Jules Verne 1873-2004’. Research seminar for postgraduate students and lecturers of the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS), held at Dublin City University, 8th March, 2007.
2008 ‘Around the world in eighty changes II: Translational sequels: Translating Jules Verne’s Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-Vingts Jours (1873) 1873-2004: Exploring multiple causation, complex emergence, and reading a gay subtext into the source novel’. Research seminar for postgraduate students and lecturers of the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS), held at Dublin City University, 28th February, 2008.
2008 ‘A journey to the centre of the extraordinary world of Jules Verne: Introducing classic literature to groups of readers with specific needs and expectations; studying adapted and abridged translations of Verne in English’. Research seminar for postgraduate students and lecturers of the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS), Dublin City University, 23rd October, 2008.
Reviews
Kieran is currently reviewing the edited collection Translation and Censorship (2009) for the journal Translation Ireland. Review accepted for publication by peer reviewers.
Kieran is also currently reviewing two further monographs (reviews commissioned) on translation studies-related topics, for future submission to journals.
External Guest Lectures
2009 ‘Translation as a bridge to the Other literary text’. Annual General Meeting of the Irish Translators and Interpreters Association. Irish Writers’ Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin 1, 26th May, 2009.
2009 ‘The Afternoon of a Faun: reading Mallarmé in his original French, prior to the act of poetic translation.’ International Translation Day, celebratory evening, Irish Translators and Interpreters Association, Irish Writers’ Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin 1, 30th September, 2009.
Further information:
Kieran is a qualified teacher of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) having achieved distinction in TEFL 60-hour certificate.
He has fluent French and Spanish. He holds a TEFL teaching qualification, and a Certificate of ‘Perfectionnement’ level in all aspects of French from IMEF, (Institute Montpéllierain d’Etudes Françaises), Montpellier, France. His M.A. and PhD qualify him to also lecture in Irish Institutes of Technology and within universities. He has taught French, Spanish, English and Translation Studies in several schools and colleges in Waterford and Dublin and would love at some stage to teach in France, as this is a country he loves.
He has published the following material, including a forthcoming book:
Books authored
Monograph recently accepted by Peter Lang and Co., scholarly publishers, London, based on my doctoral thesis, a book provisionally entitled Retranslation through the centuries: the example of Jules Verne. Due to be published later in 2010.
Chapters in books
‘Translating Founding Mick’ – essay for Royal Irish Academy’s 2008 republication of Jules Verne’s novel The extraordinary adventures of Foundling Mick, original title P’tit Bonhomme (1893)
‘Putting White to Rights: reinstating the reputation of the Victorian Verne translator, Stephen W. White’ IN Verne, J. 1873 The Tour of the World in Eighty Days. 1873/1874/2010. Choptank Press, MS, USA. This book’s contents may be viewed at http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-tour-of-the-world-in-eighty-days/7821661.
‘Introduction to republication of The Tour of the World in Eighty Days’ IN The Tour of the World in Eighty Days. 1873/1874/2010.. Co-authored with Dr Norman Wolcott. Choptank Press, St Michael’s, MD 21663, USA.
Articles in refereed journals
‘When less becomes more: studying an abridged, adapted translation from French into English of Jules Verne’s Around the world in eighty days (1873), revised for younger readers by John Webber in 1966’ IN Verniana, the online journal of Verne Studies, 2:1, 2010, at http://www.verniana.org/.
Articles in published conference proceedings
2009 ‘Around the world in eighty gays: retranslating Jules Verne from a queer perspective’. IN Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities. Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008. De Crom, D. (ed.).
And finally ...
Kieran would love to hear from anybody interested in communicating about Carrick, Verne, Translation, French or any topic under the sun! He has a blog on Translation Studies at http://www.fromlocaltolingo.blogspot.com/ where you can leave a message, or you can e-mail him at kieran.odriscoll3@mail.dcu.ie and he also has a Facebook presence.
End of Frank O'Driscoll's and Kieran O'Driscoll's profile on www.carrickonsuir.info
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Further observations on descriptive-explanatory aspects of the Harry Potter translations into French.
In the last posting, I began to describe some of the ways in which the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling had been imaginatively translated into French. I mainly spoke about the ways in which the often humorous and 'double-meaning' names of characters and artefacts in the original English novels had been Gallicized for a French readership. I promised to return to the topic of Rowling's translation treatment by the French writer for children, and translator, Jean-François Ménard, in a future posting. On this occasion, I want to look at some varied aspects of Ménard's use of French target language in his Potter renderings. I will describe the sort of French language he uses, and try to suggest possible causes and effects of the translational language chosen.
Use of the Passé Simple (Passé Historique) in the French rendering of Harry Potter
The translator employs the Passé Simple throughout the corpus of TTs, this being the traditionally employed past tense for narrative description. The Passé Simple is primarily associated with a high literary style and with adult novels. An examination of some contemporary, non-translational French literature for younger readers reveals that the Passé Simple is not often used in these comparable corpora, having been largely superseded by the Passé Composé. This is true, for example, of the writings for children and adolescents produced by the Franco-Algerian author Azouz Begag. In addition, Begag uses a much less formal register than is evident in the Ménard translations – he writes in a colloquial style which frequently descends into taboo language. However, Begag’s text world is the working class, immigrant French suburbs, so his style of writing is perhaps intended to convey the dialect of young Algerian immigrants, just as the Dublin novelist Roddy Doyle seeks to convey the Dublin working class informal, colloquial and sometimes taboo uses of language.
There is extensive normalisation, leading to usage of a standard register of French, in Ménard’s TTs. Such stylistic flattening may be partly due to universals of translation behaviour, but, in the case of these two comparable corpora, Ménard’s and Begag’s works, the stylistic differences may be largely accounted for by the differing social worlds represented. Because the fictional world of J.K. Rowling conveys notions of the preservation of ancient magical traditions, her novels appear steeped in antiquity and combine an archaic orientation with a contemporary setting. Thus, the Passé Simple, being associated with an older, elevated literary style, is suited to the atmosphere of the Potter novels. It helps to secure equivalent effect, in communicating an arcane world, which Rowling conveys through her use of a formal register of language, high in literary values.
One can see that the Potter translations are situated in a higher linguistic register than Begag’s non-translational French, thus conveying the middle-class, well-educated world of Harry Potter and many of his readers, in contrast to the working-class environment of Begag’s works. Begag’s norm-subverting language helps establish affiliation with the marginalized youth readers he addresses, and realistically conveys their world. I suggest that the primary, intended target readership of a literary work influences the textual-linguistic norms followed, especially in the case of translations and adaptations of literary works for children.
One thing I do need to say about the Passé Simple or, as it is sometimes called, the Passé Historique, is that it is not at all as restricted in usage as traditional French teachers many decades ago in secondary school might have had as believe. I have realised for several years now, from copious reading of French literature from various different eras and genres, that the Passé Simple is regularly used, right up to the present day in 21st century French novels, including some popular and youth fiction. Some earlier 20th century French writers such as Marguerite Duras and Albert Camus did, at times, try to make more use of the Passé Composé in order to play with and interrogate perspective. But the use of the Past Historic is pretty much ubiquitous in French writing of the past and present. But I digress ...
Comparative Analysis of Non-Translational Text
I carried out a comparative analysis of Ménard’s non-translational French, by reading two of his original children’s novels, Dehors La Sorcière and La Sorcière Mange-Tout. There are close similarities in textual-linguistic norms between his Potter TTs and his original texts. The most striking resemblances include his consistent use of the Passé Simple; a formal register; a consequent avoidance of colloquial French or dialects; a preference for standardised usage; idiomatic language, leading to greater nominalisation and, finally, more abstract expression. These common features can, perhaps, be explained by such normative and idiosyncratic factors as Ménard’s personal style of writing, which happens to accord with conventional approaches in French literature; the value attached to the pedagogic function of youth literature, which conditions correct, formal usage, and the lack of interest in French sociolinguistic variety on the part of some sectors of the French literary/academic establishment. Furthermore, Ménard’s original works – in common with Rowling’s works – describe, and address, a middle-class world, so that standardised language becomes the norm.
The Continuing Invasion of the French Language by the English language? A 'good' or a 'bad' thing? Or neutral?
A further notable textual-linguistic feature of Ménard’s non-translational French is his occasional use of English-language names for characters, as well as his fondness for interjecting English expressions, placing them in the mouths of characters who are learning English and who proceed to give the French translations of such phrases. Thus, Ménard has created such characters as Destroy Kid (a juvenile graffiti artist), Miss Tidy (a witch with a mania for cleaning) and Ittitôl (a phonetic play on ‘eat it all’, this being the name of a sorceress with a passion for eating.) These Anglicisms, when considered in tandem with the use of similar items in the Potter TTs, may reveal a normative fondness for importation of Anglophone terms rather than a grudging acceptance of them. However, the Potter TTs contain more Anglicisms, given that they are based on English STs.
Textual-Linguistic Norms – An Examination of Individual Textemes in Selected Extracts from the Corpus – the Operation of Textual-Linguistic Norms
Having studied the entire parallel corpus, it was decided to subject Chapter Four of the second Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets) to detailed analysis. This chapter is entitled At Flourish and Blotts (Chez Fleury et Bott). A minute comparison of ST and replacing TT items was carried out. Following Toury’s recommendations, a similar analysis was carried out on further sections of the corpus for comparison, replicability and validity of findings, in other words, to verify whether similar findings would be gleaned.
The findings confirmed a number of major translational trends: these are now outlined.
There is a constant drive towards the use of idiomatic French, as I mentioned in the previous posting. This indicates that the underlying, primary textual-linguistic norm is a TL-oriented one – the translator’s concern is to render the TT as acceptable (in Toury's understanding of the term 'acceptability') as possible, through transposition and modulation, an idiomatic style of expression being a normative value within mainstream French children’s literature. In addition, the TT manifests greater use of nominalisation, formality of register and abstraction, thus confirming the norm of literary acceptability and pointing to contrastive stylistic between English and French, whereby the latter uses a greater number of noun forms than the former. There is also much evidence of the ‘universals’ or ‘laws’ of translation, including explicitation, standardization and normalization.
Let us now examine the major translation shifts, together with postulated normative reasons for these choices. I have decided that the most convenient way of presenting the findings is to cite each pair of replaced and replacing segments, with my comments, in order of occurrence within the text. The following is a selection of some of the main shifts.
Finally, though I am drawing attention to these shifts, we must keep in mind what a language can, must, does and cannot say, based on the possibilities of that language. Many translation shifts are clearly not cultural but linguistic in nature; they reflect the causal influence of the causa materialis on a translator's shifts, that is, the translator, like a sculptor, is constrained by the materials she must work with; here, the materials are the contrasting stylistic and grammatical building blocks of the English and French languages.
Examples of Coupled Pairs of Replaced (ST-English) and Replacing (TT-French) Segments.
· Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from life in Privet Drive is rendered as La vie au «Terrier» n’avait rien à voir avec celle que Harry avait connue à Privet Drive. Globally, this coupled pair of segments reveals free translation yet preservation of complete meaning, as evident throughout the entire corpus. As regards individual findings, it can first of all be noted that the ST name of the Weasley family residence, the ‘Burrow’, is given a literal, faithful rendering in TL French as ‘le «Terrier»’. The name of the residential area in which Harry Potter lived with his cruel relatives at the beginning of the first novel, is transferred into the TL as the clearly British location ‘Privet Drive’. Such details manifest an ST orientation. Did Rowling choose the name 'Privet Drive' to sound like 'deprive' and 'deprivation', thus emphasizing how badly Harry was treated when living in that estate? There is an instance of modulation in the shift from 'as different as possible 'rom' to 'n’avait rien à voir avec…,' this being an example of frequent modulation in this corpus to a more idiomatic style of French linguistic expression. The concealed norm detectable in this and other instances of modulation is a preference for a style of writing which is idiomatic and thus acceptable within the TC. In addition, there is interpretation and explicitation in the shift from life in Privet Drive to celle que Harry avait connue à Privet Drive. It is hypothesized that the translator is, perhaps unconsciously, adhering to what I feel is a universal impulse of translation activity, towards the addition of explanatory information, even where it is not strictly necessary. However, the French language also shows here that it has different cohesive possibilities due to its being a grammatical gender language (i.e. in the use of ‘celle’ to refer back to ‘la vie’.)
· The Dursleys liked everything to be neat and tidy: the Weasleys’ house burst with the strange and unexpected – Les Dursley tenaient à ce que tout soit propre et en ordre, alors que la maison des Weasley baignait dans l’étrange et l’imprévisible. Modulation is evident in the shift from ‘liked’ to ‘tenaient à ce que’ – this involves a desire for interpretation as an idiosyncratic choice, and for greater stylistic normality in the TL. Transposition is employed in the shift from ‘neat and ordered’ to ‘propre et en ordre’ because of the French linguistic preference for nominalisation. The use of a colon in the ST is replaced by the conjunction ‘alors que’ in the TT, again to comply with normal, idiomatic French usage, as French shows more explicit use of subordinating conjunctions and explicit causal connectors. There is modulation in the change of metaphor from ‘the house burst with…’ to ‘baignait dans’, and in the change of SL adjective ‘unexpected’ to TL adjective ‘imprévisible’, these alterations appearing to reflect the translator’s idiosyncratic choice of synonyms which work well.
…the ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes: la goule qui habitait le grenier se mettait à hurler et à jouer avec les tuyaux de plomb. The shift from ‘in the attic’ to ‘qui habitait le grenier’ shows use of explicitation to remove ambiguity, as an idiosyncratic choice. The expansion from ‘howled and dropped pipes’ to ‘se mettait à hurler et à jouer avec les tuyaux de plomb’ manifests the use of modulation, transposition and interpretation as a stylistic preference.
Inferences from the foregoing analysis
It can be concluded that Ménard’s translations are, for the most part, meticulously accurate. They represent a close translation of their STs, and are faithful to the positivist, discernible truth of the ST messages, although individual readers will deconstruct the texts differently. These faithful translations nevertheless succeed in achieving idiomaticity, because they use such multiple translation shifts as synonymy, syntactic modification, transposition, modulation and creative changes of language use and character names, in order to produce a non-imitative rendering of Rowling's originals. The translator chooses mainly a sense-for-sense approach, to translate the spirit rather than the exact letter, as opposed to a more literal, imitative, word-for-word strategy. The French renderings are therefore acceptable as idiomatic literary texts.
It can be inferred from such translation strategies that an important textual-linguistic norm is a strong preference to conform to the normal, accepted forms of expression in the French language, as opposed to offering the target readership of preteens and adolescents a foreignizing, possibly alienating style of (word-for-word, unnatural, foreignizing) form of the French language. This norm would, I suspect, be the translator’s personal preference as he is a writer of children’s fiction (his non-translational French has been discussed earlier.) It would also have been strongly enforced by translation commissioners to ensure acceptability.
On the other hand, these translations cannot be simply categorized as completely acceptable, but must rather be regarded as being a hybrid of acceptability and adequacy, given that there is significant loyalty to the STs in preserving the full details of their plots, settings and cultural artefacts as well as the essentially British names of their main protagonists. This adherence to SC norms was, I had thought, perhaps enforced by the owners of ST copyright, as names of major characters and artefacts – such as the game of Quidditch – are seen as important global brand names. Or so I wrongly conjectured, until I realised that in other languages, Quidditch is changed to neologisms in the relevant target languages. The hybrid nature of the TTs supports Toury’s contention that most translations are situated somewhere on a continuum between the polar opposites of adequacy and acceptability. And translation decisions may follow patterns within individual target texts, and across texts, but they are never uniformly patterned; instead, translation decisions within the same single translated book are complex and unpredictable, and tend towards entropy in the sense of 'system leakage towards disorder'. I am not using the terms 'entropy', 'leakage' or 'disorder' in any negative or critical sense, but rather, in a descriptivist sense. Language leaks, or so linguists propose; similarly, translated language seems to leak.
Various ‘agents’ and multiple causes of translation outcomes undoubtedly exerted influence on the French Potter translator’s decision-making. The ST author and original copyright holders doubtless required the preservation of many proper names, with international marketing considerations in mind. On the other hand, it was TT publishers who no doubt insisted on an idiomatic translation and on the Gallicization of minor proper names to ensure TT acceptability/readability/popularity. The translator’s training would have also influenced him to strive for idiomatic TL use, and to opt for such procedures as explicitation and simplification, wherever necessary. The translator’s cognitive processes and translational ‘reflexes’ may sometimes have automatically or subconsciously guided him towards using such procedures. For instance, the translation theorist Malmkjaer has suggested that translators tend to explicate perhaps because the translator views her or his role as one of ensuring maximal clarity and understanding as an inter-lingual mediator. And other theorists have more recently suggested a neurological/cognitive basis for such translation 'universals' as standardization and simplification. I will return to these points in future postings, as they are among several exciting new translation theories appearing in the major Translation Studies journals in recent years, theories which merit further discussion and application to corpora such as those of Rowling, Verne and their translators.
Many choices made by Ménard in the direction of synonymy and lexical expansion would have been exercised as idiosyncratic decisions, as part of the translator's unique individual verbal identity or style, and as his means of self-inscription on the target text, to show his own resourcefulness and creativity as a literary translator, and not merely a scribe or amanuensis. In my doctoral thesis, I referred to this translatorial self-inscription as translatorial idiolect or translational diction. Such idiolect is regularly in evidence across all of the target texts I have studied. Expectations of TT readers and critics would also have had a normatively influential role – both would expect a readable, idiomatic translation, faithful to the original’s messages and impact. Such idiomatic expression could be regarded as a mainstream, primary and quasi-obligatory norm in French TTs, and in the contemporary translated texts of many other cultures. Andrew Chesterman, my external examiner for the PhD last year and a prominent translation scholar, has suggested differing templates of norms, and of the most standard, commonplace norms of translation, in an article for which I will post the reference to this blog shortly. Complete, semantically loyal/accurate/faithful, but non-imitative, idiomatic translation, may be among the most commonly expected and implemented norms of translation nowadays, across languages and cultures. Chesterman goes into much more detail on such norms.
These findings allow predictions to be made as to how other contemporary youth fiction is likely to be currently rendered into French. Based on the merit and success of Ménard’s translations of Rowling, other Anglophone youth fiction is likely to be translated using comparable strategies. Thus, such translations will probably be loyal to the truth of their STs, yet idiomatic in TL expression, thus maintaining the delicate balance between ‘adequacy’ and ‘acceptability’. In fact, my research of the French translations of contemporary children’s novels by Lemony Snicket, Philip Pullman, and of popular writers and older writers for children rendered into French (e.g. Twain, Alcott), appears to confirm that similar translation norms (to the Potter TTs) apply.
I will discuss some of the broad conclusions which this examination of the Potter renderings into French suggests, in a future posting later this month.
Use of the Passé Simple (Passé Historique) in the French rendering of Harry Potter
The translator employs the Passé Simple throughout the corpus of TTs, this being the traditionally employed past tense for narrative description. The Passé Simple is primarily associated with a high literary style and with adult novels. An examination of some contemporary, non-translational French literature for younger readers reveals that the Passé Simple is not often used in these comparable corpora, having been largely superseded by the Passé Composé. This is true, for example, of the writings for children and adolescents produced by the Franco-Algerian author Azouz Begag. In addition, Begag uses a much less formal register than is evident in the Ménard translations – he writes in a colloquial style which frequently descends into taboo language. However, Begag’s text world is the working class, immigrant French suburbs, so his style of writing is perhaps intended to convey the dialect of young Algerian immigrants, just as the Dublin novelist Roddy Doyle seeks to convey the Dublin working class informal, colloquial and sometimes taboo uses of language.
There is extensive normalisation, leading to usage of a standard register of French, in Ménard’s TTs. Such stylistic flattening may be partly due to universals of translation behaviour, but, in the case of these two comparable corpora, Ménard’s and Begag’s works, the stylistic differences may be largely accounted for by the differing social worlds represented. Because the fictional world of J.K. Rowling conveys notions of the preservation of ancient magical traditions, her novels appear steeped in antiquity and combine an archaic orientation with a contemporary setting. Thus, the Passé Simple, being associated with an older, elevated literary style, is suited to the atmosphere of the Potter novels. It helps to secure equivalent effect, in communicating an arcane world, which Rowling conveys through her use of a formal register of language, high in literary values.
One can see that the Potter translations are situated in a higher linguistic register than Begag’s non-translational French, thus conveying the middle-class, well-educated world of Harry Potter and many of his readers, in contrast to the working-class environment of Begag’s works. Begag’s norm-subverting language helps establish affiliation with the marginalized youth readers he addresses, and realistically conveys their world. I suggest that the primary, intended target readership of a literary work influences the textual-linguistic norms followed, especially in the case of translations and adaptations of literary works for children.
One thing I do need to say about the Passé Simple or, as it is sometimes called, the Passé Historique, is that it is not at all as restricted in usage as traditional French teachers many decades ago in secondary school might have had as believe. I have realised for several years now, from copious reading of French literature from various different eras and genres, that the Passé Simple is regularly used, right up to the present day in 21st century French novels, including some popular and youth fiction. Some earlier 20th century French writers such as Marguerite Duras and Albert Camus did, at times, try to make more use of the Passé Composé in order to play with and interrogate perspective. But the use of the Past Historic is pretty much ubiquitous in French writing of the past and present. But I digress ...
Comparative Analysis of Non-Translational Text
I carried out a comparative analysis of Ménard’s non-translational French, by reading two of his original children’s novels, Dehors La Sorcière and La Sorcière Mange-Tout. There are close similarities in textual-linguistic norms between his Potter TTs and his original texts. The most striking resemblances include his consistent use of the Passé Simple; a formal register; a consequent avoidance of colloquial French or dialects; a preference for standardised usage; idiomatic language, leading to greater nominalisation and, finally, more abstract expression. These common features can, perhaps, be explained by such normative and idiosyncratic factors as Ménard’s personal style of writing, which happens to accord with conventional approaches in French literature; the value attached to the pedagogic function of youth literature, which conditions correct, formal usage, and the lack of interest in French sociolinguistic variety on the part of some sectors of the French literary/academic establishment. Furthermore, Ménard’s original works – in common with Rowling’s works – describe, and address, a middle-class world, so that standardised language becomes the norm.
The Continuing Invasion of the French Language by the English language? A 'good' or a 'bad' thing? Or neutral?
A further notable textual-linguistic feature of Ménard’s non-translational French is his occasional use of English-language names for characters, as well as his fondness for interjecting English expressions, placing them in the mouths of characters who are learning English and who proceed to give the French translations of such phrases. Thus, Ménard has created such characters as Destroy Kid (a juvenile graffiti artist), Miss Tidy (a witch with a mania for cleaning) and Ittitôl (a phonetic play on ‘eat it all’, this being the name of a sorceress with a passion for eating.) These Anglicisms, when considered in tandem with the use of similar items in the Potter TTs, may reveal a normative fondness for importation of Anglophone terms rather than a grudging acceptance of them. However, the Potter TTs contain more Anglicisms, given that they are based on English STs.
Textual-Linguistic Norms – An Examination of Individual Textemes in Selected Extracts from the Corpus – the Operation of Textual-Linguistic Norms
Having studied the entire parallel corpus, it was decided to subject Chapter Four of the second Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets) to detailed analysis. This chapter is entitled At Flourish and Blotts (Chez Fleury et Bott). A minute comparison of ST and replacing TT items was carried out. Following Toury’s recommendations, a similar analysis was carried out on further sections of the corpus for comparison, replicability and validity of findings, in other words, to verify whether similar findings would be gleaned.
The findings confirmed a number of major translational trends: these are now outlined.
There is a constant drive towards the use of idiomatic French, as I mentioned in the previous posting. This indicates that the underlying, primary textual-linguistic norm is a TL-oriented one – the translator’s concern is to render the TT as acceptable (in Toury's understanding of the term 'acceptability') as possible, through transposition and modulation, an idiomatic style of expression being a normative value within mainstream French children’s literature. In addition, the TT manifests greater use of nominalisation, formality of register and abstraction, thus confirming the norm of literary acceptability and pointing to contrastive stylistic between English and French, whereby the latter uses a greater number of noun forms than the former. There is also much evidence of the ‘universals’ or ‘laws’ of translation, including explicitation, standardization and normalization.
Let us now examine the major translation shifts, together with postulated normative reasons for these choices. I have decided that the most convenient way of presenting the findings is to cite each pair of replaced and replacing segments, with my comments, in order of occurrence within the text. The following is a selection of some of the main shifts.
Finally, though I am drawing attention to these shifts, we must keep in mind what a language can, must, does and cannot say, based on the possibilities of that language. Many translation shifts are clearly not cultural but linguistic in nature; they reflect the causal influence of the causa materialis on a translator's shifts, that is, the translator, like a sculptor, is constrained by the materials she must work with; here, the materials are the contrasting stylistic and grammatical building blocks of the English and French languages.
Examples of Coupled Pairs of Replaced (ST-English) and Replacing (TT-French) Segments.
· Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from life in Privet Drive is rendered as La vie au «Terrier» n’avait rien à voir avec celle que Harry avait connue à Privet Drive. Globally, this coupled pair of segments reveals free translation yet preservation of complete meaning, as evident throughout the entire corpus. As regards individual findings, it can first of all be noted that the ST name of the Weasley family residence, the ‘Burrow’, is given a literal, faithful rendering in TL French as ‘le «Terrier»’. The name of the residential area in which Harry Potter lived with his cruel relatives at the beginning of the first novel, is transferred into the TL as the clearly British location ‘Privet Drive’. Such details manifest an ST orientation. Did Rowling choose the name 'Privet Drive' to sound like 'deprive' and 'deprivation', thus emphasizing how badly Harry was treated when living in that estate? There is an instance of modulation in the shift from 'as different as possible 'rom' to 'n’avait rien à voir avec…,' this being an example of frequent modulation in this corpus to a more idiomatic style of French linguistic expression. The concealed norm detectable in this and other instances of modulation is a preference for a style of writing which is idiomatic and thus acceptable within the TC. In addition, there is interpretation and explicitation in the shift from life in Privet Drive to celle que Harry avait connue à Privet Drive. It is hypothesized that the translator is, perhaps unconsciously, adhering to what I feel is a universal impulse of translation activity, towards the addition of explanatory information, even where it is not strictly necessary. However, the French language also shows here that it has different cohesive possibilities due to its being a grammatical gender language (i.e. in the use of ‘celle’ to refer back to ‘la vie’.)
· The Dursleys liked everything to be neat and tidy: the Weasleys’ house burst with the strange and unexpected – Les Dursley tenaient à ce que tout soit propre et en ordre, alors que la maison des Weasley baignait dans l’étrange et l’imprévisible. Modulation is evident in the shift from ‘liked’ to ‘tenaient à ce que’ – this involves a desire for interpretation as an idiosyncratic choice, and for greater stylistic normality in the TL. Transposition is employed in the shift from ‘neat and ordered’ to ‘propre et en ordre’ because of the French linguistic preference for nominalisation. The use of a colon in the ST is replaced by the conjunction ‘alors que’ in the TT, again to comply with normal, idiomatic French usage, as French shows more explicit use of subordinating conjunctions and explicit causal connectors. There is modulation in the change of metaphor from ‘the house burst with…’ to ‘baignait dans’, and in the change of SL adjective ‘unexpected’ to TL adjective ‘imprévisible’, these alterations appearing to reflect the translator’s idiosyncratic choice of synonyms which work well.
…the ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes: la goule qui habitait le grenier se mettait à hurler et à jouer avec les tuyaux de plomb. The shift from ‘in the attic’ to ‘qui habitait le grenier’ shows use of explicitation to remove ambiguity, as an idiosyncratic choice. The expansion from ‘howled and dropped pipes’ to ‘se mettait à hurler et à jouer avec les tuyaux de plomb’ manifests the use of modulation, transposition and interpretation as a stylistic preference.
Inferences from the foregoing analysis
It can be concluded that Ménard’s translations are, for the most part, meticulously accurate. They represent a close translation of their STs, and are faithful to the positivist, discernible truth of the ST messages, although individual readers will deconstruct the texts differently. These faithful translations nevertheless succeed in achieving idiomaticity, because they use such multiple translation shifts as synonymy, syntactic modification, transposition, modulation and creative changes of language use and character names, in order to produce a non-imitative rendering of Rowling's originals. The translator chooses mainly a sense-for-sense approach, to translate the spirit rather than the exact letter, as opposed to a more literal, imitative, word-for-word strategy. The French renderings are therefore acceptable as idiomatic literary texts.
It can be inferred from such translation strategies that an important textual-linguistic norm is a strong preference to conform to the normal, accepted forms of expression in the French language, as opposed to offering the target readership of preteens and adolescents a foreignizing, possibly alienating style of (word-for-word, unnatural, foreignizing) form of the French language. This norm would, I suspect, be the translator’s personal preference as he is a writer of children’s fiction (his non-translational French has been discussed earlier.) It would also have been strongly enforced by translation commissioners to ensure acceptability.
On the other hand, these translations cannot be simply categorized as completely acceptable, but must rather be regarded as being a hybrid of acceptability and adequacy, given that there is significant loyalty to the STs in preserving the full details of their plots, settings and cultural artefacts as well as the essentially British names of their main protagonists. This adherence to SC norms was, I had thought, perhaps enforced by the owners of ST copyright, as names of major characters and artefacts – such as the game of Quidditch – are seen as important global brand names. Or so I wrongly conjectured, until I realised that in other languages, Quidditch is changed to neologisms in the relevant target languages. The hybrid nature of the TTs supports Toury’s contention that most translations are situated somewhere on a continuum between the polar opposites of adequacy and acceptability. And translation decisions may follow patterns within individual target texts, and across texts, but they are never uniformly patterned; instead, translation decisions within the same single translated book are complex and unpredictable, and tend towards entropy in the sense of 'system leakage towards disorder'. I am not using the terms 'entropy', 'leakage' or 'disorder' in any negative or critical sense, but rather, in a descriptivist sense. Language leaks, or so linguists propose; similarly, translated language seems to leak.
Various ‘agents’ and multiple causes of translation outcomes undoubtedly exerted influence on the French Potter translator’s decision-making. The ST author and original copyright holders doubtless required the preservation of many proper names, with international marketing considerations in mind. On the other hand, it was TT publishers who no doubt insisted on an idiomatic translation and on the Gallicization of minor proper names to ensure TT acceptability/readability/popularity. The translator’s training would have also influenced him to strive for idiomatic TL use, and to opt for such procedures as explicitation and simplification, wherever necessary. The translator’s cognitive processes and translational ‘reflexes’ may sometimes have automatically or subconsciously guided him towards using such procedures. For instance, the translation theorist Malmkjaer has suggested that translators tend to explicate perhaps because the translator views her or his role as one of ensuring maximal clarity and understanding as an inter-lingual mediator. And other theorists have more recently suggested a neurological/cognitive basis for such translation 'universals' as standardization and simplification. I will return to these points in future postings, as they are among several exciting new translation theories appearing in the major Translation Studies journals in recent years, theories which merit further discussion and application to corpora such as those of Rowling, Verne and their translators.
Many choices made by Ménard in the direction of synonymy and lexical expansion would have been exercised as idiosyncratic decisions, as part of the translator's unique individual verbal identity or style, and as his means of self-inscription on the target text, to show his own resourcefulness and creativity as a literary translator, and not merely a scribe or amanuensis. In my doctoral thesis, I referred to this translatorial self-inscription as translatorial idiolect or translational diction. Such idiolect is regularly in evidence across all of the target texts I have studied. Expectations of TT readers and critics would also have had a normatively influential role – both would expect a readable, idiomatic translation, faithful to the original’s messages and impact. Such idiomatic expression could be regarded as a mainstream, primary and quasi-obligatory norm in French TTs, and in the contemporary translated texts of many other cultures. Andrew Chesterman, my external examiner for the PhD last year and a prominent translation scholar, has suggested differing templates of norms, and of the most standard, commonplace norms of translation, in an article for which I will post the reference to this blog shortly. Complete, semantically loyal/accurate/faithful, but non-imitative, idiomatic translation, may be among the most commonly expected and implemented norms of translation nowadays, across languages and cultures. Chesterman goes into much more detail on such norms.
These findings allow predictions to be made as to how other contemporary youth fiction is likely to be currently rendered into French. Based on the merit and success of Ménard’s translations of Rowling, other Anglophone youth fiction is likely to be translated using comparable strategies. Thus, such translations will probably be loyal to the truth of their STs, yet idiomatic in TL expression, thus maintaining the delicate balance between ‘adequacy’ and ‘acceptability’. In fact, my research of the French translations of contemporary children’s novels by Lemony Snicket, Philip Pullman, and of popular writers and older writers for children rendered into French (e.g. Twain, Alcott), appears to confirm that similar translation norms (to the Potter TTs) apply.
I will discuss some of the broad conclusions which this examination of the Potter renderings into French suggests, in a future posting later this month.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Translating 'Harry Potter' into French.
In this posting, I want to begin to talk about how the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling have been translated into French by the translator Jean-François Ménard, who is also a writer of original children's literature of his own, in French. In the same way as i've spoken, in earlier postings to this blog, about the translations of various aspects of Jules Verne' novels from French into English, I want to talk about the Harry Potter renderings into French from the viewpoint of Descriptive-Explanatory Translation Studies (DTS) and especially norms of translation as one of the underlying causes of translation decisions and outcomes.
Gideon Toury is the 'father' of Descriptive-Explanatory Translation Studies and of norm theory in translation; when I wrote my MA dissertation on the translation of Rowling into French, one of my main sources was Toury's seminal monograph Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond (1995). Other translation scholars who have written extensively on topics of multiple causation of translation outcomes include Siobhan Brownlie, Andrew Chesterman and Anthony Pym. Victor Longa has written about complexity science as applied to translation, while Lawrence Venuti has written about the concepts of foreignization and domestication in describing translation types; the former concept has similarities with Toury's notion of adequacy or source text-orientedness, the latter concept being somewhat akin to Toury's acceptability or target-orientedness, e.g. idiomaticity of target language, use of target culture familiar references, and so on.
What were the norms of translation which were apparently followed by the French translator of Rowling's bestselling novels? And why were such norms followed? Who and what were the different multiple influences on the final form which Harry Potter took in his Francophone reincarnation? These are the sort of questions for which I try to suggest explanations in this and in future postings.
I should mention at the outset that the norms of translation of Anglophone children’s literature into French appear to have shifted over the last number of decades. In the 1950s, Enid Blyton’s children's novels, such as the stories from such series as the Famous Five and the Secret Seven were translated, sometimes anonymously, into French (i.e. the publishers didn't bother to give the translator's name) and all characters and place names were given French equivalents. These translations were thus totally target culture (TC)-oriented.
On the other hand, Rowling’s novels show, through their French translations, that a hybrid orientation is now the norm, as some character names and place names have been kept in their original English forms, while others have been creatively rendered into French by clever, witty choices on the translator's part.
Blyton’s novels are perhaps considered to be of less literary merit than Rowling’s. The Blyton novels may seem less original, being more repetitive and, in a sense, ‘mass-produced’. I therefore suggest that Blyton’s novels had lower status, and were, and indeed probably still are, perceived as being less canonical than Rowling’s within the polysystem of French-language literature for younger readers. For this reason, it was probably uncontroversial to completely domesticate Blyton's novels when translating them into French, disguising their British origins and, indeed, concealing the fact that they were translations. But Rowling's novels are global bestsellers, cultural sensations; therefore, as French readers would have been hugely aware of all things Potter-related through publicity and films, the translator may have had less freedom to alter ST details in his rendering.
Though major characters such as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley and his family thus do not have their names altered by the French translator, some of the other characters' names as coined by Rowling have been inventively rendered in French by Gallic-sounding equivalents which show the translator's creative, personal imprint. It is a notable feature of Rowling’s novels that the names of many characters are chosen for comic effect, and help to communicate essential personality traits. Thus, the character Madam Hooch becomes Madame Bibine – the term ‘hooch’ in English refers to an alcoholic drink, whereas ‘bibine’ in French signifies weak beer or dishwater. Professor Sprout is rendered as ‘le professeur Chourave’, the latter French term referring to a type of cabbage – this character is a teacher of horticulture. Mad-Eye Moody becomes Fol Oeil Maugrey, the latter word recalling the French verb ‘maugréer’, meaning to grumble. Moaning Myrtle is translated as Mimi Geignarde, the latter word perfectly conveying the notion of whingeing or whining, while the name Mimi is typically French. Professor Snape, a name suggesting a snappy, irritable character, becomes ‘Rogue’ in translation, this being a French adjective conveying the notion of a person being haughty or arrogant, qualities which describe this character appropriately. The school caretaker, Filch ( a word meaning to pilfer or take surreptitiously, thus conveying the slyness of the character), becomes Rusard, a name recalling the French word ‘rusé’, meaning sly or cunning. Furthermore, the suffix ‘-ard’ is derogatory. Adalbert Waffling becomes Adalbert Lasornette – the lexical item ‘sornettes’ communicates the notion of balderdash, thus being an apt equivalent to the source text (ST) surname’s connotations. Bartemius Crouch becomes Bartemius Croupton – in French, the term ‘être à crouptons’ signifies the idea of crouching. Emeric Switch is suitably rendered as Emeric Changé. Miranda Goshawk is rendered as Miranda Fauconnette, the latter word conveying the idea of a young, perhaps also female, falcon or hawk. The French suffix ‘-ette’ is, of course, sometimes perceived negatively as a deprecatory appendage indicating female gender. Quentin Trimble, the author of a textbook on the Dark Arts, whose surname comically suggests fear, becomes Quentin Jentremble, a cleverly chosen equivalent. The caretaker’s cat, Mrs Norris, who is portrayed as sharing her owner’s unsympathetic persona, becomes ‘Miss Teigne’, the latter lexical item communicating the concept of a shrew or vixen, with the term ‘Miss’ being, perhaps, a fashionable Anglicism in French.
The wizarding exams known as OWLs (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) are cleverly translated by the term BUSE (Brevet Universel de Sorcellerie Elementaire). This translation is oriented towards TC norms, given that the lexical item ‘brevet’ refers to educational certificates. The ST pun on the acronym ‘owl’ is matched, in that the French word ‘buse’ signifies a buzzard. Similarly, the ST item NEWTs (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests), the Leaving Certificate of wizards, is rendered as ASPIC (Accumulation de Sorcellerie Particulièrement Intensive et Contraignante), with the French word ‘aspic’referring to an asp, and, humorously, to a type of meat jelly. These two translations, while unable to precisely reproduce the ST items ‘owl’ or ‘newt’, are nevertheless competent attempts at achieving equivalent effect. The French translator is here being individually creative and self-inscribing, in choosing alternative humorous French 'jeux de mots', just as the various translators of Jules Verne's wordplays chose their own English equivalent puns, as discussed in a previous posting to this blog.
The wizarding newspaper known as the ‘Daily Prophet’ is altered to ‘La Gazette des sorciers’, the word ‘gazette’ having literary or humorous connotations in French and thus constituting a TC-oriented translation, and a sort of neutralization which cancels out the slightly more humorous title of the original. The Sorting Hat, an artefact used to choose which of the four houses of the school of wizardry each new pupil will be assigned to, becomes ‘le Choixpeau Magique’, a pun which cleverly conveys the notions of ‘chapeau’ and ‘choix’. This example involves the substitution of a source text non-wordplay by a target text wordplay, which is one of the procedures for translating wordplay which have been documented by the translation scholar Dirk Delabastita. This target wordplay also compensates, perhaps, for the 'loss' of other ST wordplays and of other ST humorous effects. Compensation is an important strategy within the translator's armoury of approaches.
The ST neologism ‘Muggles’, which refers to non-magical humans, is creatively rendered by a TT neologism ‘Moldus’, with 'molle' humorously having the sense of 'soft', to try to convey equivalent effect to the notion of 'mug' in the original. Yet the name of the wizarding game of ‘Quidditch’ (a neologism which has now found its way into the Collins English Dictionary) is unaltered, perhaps because of copyright constraints. It is reported that a video game version of Quidditch is about to be marketed, so that this label no doubt represents a valuable international brand name which it was advisable to preserve cross-culturally.
There is a hybrid but principally TL orientation evident in the rendering of the shop name ‘Quality Quidditch Supplies’ as ‘Magasin d’accessoires de Quidditch’ – while the title of the game Quidditch itself is transferred, the rest of this title is toward the TL in normative orientation, being in French and also having only the first word ‘Magasin’ capitalised (apart from Quidditch). This capitalisation of the first word only is the norm in French organisational titles. The alliteration in the ST shop title is not reproduced in the TL, partly because of material differences between English and French and also perhaps because of conflicting choices here facing the translator, between achieving semantic accuracy and achieving equivalent poetic effect; accuracy was prioritized. This is also another example of neutralization and standardization.
‘Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop’ becomes ‘Pirouette et Badin, le magasin de farces et attrapes pour sorciers’. This translation clearly seeks out Gallic equivalents for ST connotations. The notion of ‘gambolling’ is rendered by the TL item ‘pirouette’, with similarly playful connotations. The ST pun on the name ‘Japes’ is skilfully matched by the TT item ‘Badin’, which refers to ‘un farceur’. There is modulation to TL idiomatic usage in the rendering of ‘Dr Filibuster’s Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks’ as ‘Pétards mouillés du Dr Flibuste. Explosion garantie sans chaleur’, which also preserves the humour of the original.
As regards domesticating translations of certain place names, the village of Hogsmeade is rendered as Pré-au-Lard, a neologism which creates somewhat equivalent effect by reproducing the notion of a meadow and of bacon or the fat of a pig. The School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hogwarts, is rendered by the neologism ‘Poudlard’ which suggests the idea of a hog’s lice, a translation which parallels the unpleasantness of the ST image, while simultaneously Gallicizing it for heightened acceptability, losing the sonorous, British original name. As regards the four houses which the school comprises, Gryffindor is rendered as Gryffondor, which conveys the image of the claws of the lion who is the symbol on the coat-of-arms; Hufflepuff beomes Poufsouffle, which secures equivalence in suggesting the notion of a puff or breath; Ravenclaw is adapted to Serdaigle, which suggests the claw of an eagle, this change of bird having undoubtedly been made for phonetic reasons, while Slytherin becomes Serpentard, conveying the notion of a snake slithering, with the negative connotations intended by the original author for this name, carried into the TT, but in accordance with French morphology. On the other hand, major place names such as London, Scotland and England are not disguised, but are accorded their established translations.
The rendering of proper names in this corpus thus demonstrates the hybridity of adequacy and acceptability characterising this translation. The more important ST names – those of central characters – have been preserved, thus orienting the TTs towards SL and SC (source culture) norms. Yet in many other cases, the translator has been at pains to devise a TL equivalent neologism, and this tendency illustrates a leaning towards target cultural norms.
There thus appear to be contradictory or opposing norms in operation in the translation of proper names, given that some are transferred directly, even where they would create pronunciation difficulties for the French reader or problems in understanding the allusions, while others are skilfully Gallicized. This is why it is felt that copyright specifications and JK Rowling's own preferences may have dictated or at least influenced the preservation of certain significant proper names in translation. Further, the global reach and celebrity of the Harry Potter stories and characters is such that even readers in non-English-speaking communities such as Francophone regions are familiar with the character names and locations, in English, used by Rowling, and are thus aware that what they read in, say, French, is a translation, and they therefore may expect that the source language principal names will be left intact. Therefore, French readers may have been seen as less tolerant or credulous of a complete French makeover for Harry Potter's world; that world had to remain essentially British.
However, the use of language throughout this corpus conforms to TL norms, in that every effort is made to ensure that idiomatic, acceptable French is used.
In future postings, I will talk about other aspects of the Potter renderings into French. I've also been doing some research on how other contemporary children's literature such as the Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket) have been translated into French, and how other contemporary popular fiction, by US writers such as John Grogan (Marley et moi - mon histoire d'amour avec le pire chien du monde) and thriller-writer John Grisham have been translated into French, and I will speak more about these translations in future postings.
Suffice it to say, for now, that the French renderings of Snicket, Grogan, Grisham and of Philip Pullman (the Sally Lockhart series) seem to show similar translation strategies to those observed in the Harry Potter translations. Thus, there is a general use of idiomatic French, producing, therefore, domesticating translations, and complete and accurate renderings are also the norm. Most ST proper names, of characters and Anglophone place names, are transferred without change into French, and there is some evidence of SL interference which can detract from the idiomaticity of the French TL usage; this points to the hybrid nature of these translations, which are mainly domesticating but partly foreignizing, mainly Target Language-oriented but partly Source Language-oriented. In the French renderings of novels by John Grisham, the translator strives to use equivalent French legal terms in order to translate the American legal terms used by Grisham, so this is a domesticating, acceptable, target culture-oriented approach. On the other hand, the French translator transfers, intact, the names of the US characters, place names, and institutional (including judicial bodies) names of Grisham's original, so that there is a hybrid of source culture and target culture orientation in the Grisham French renderings. There are probably similar multiple influences on this hybridity of translation strategy as were postulated for the Rowling renderings, viz. the French readers' awareness of the US setting of the originals, thus, their expectation of 'honesty' in the translation. Loyalty to the US setting entails the transfer of proper names, intact, to the French renderings.
These observations point to the complexity and unpredictability of translation, its multiple causation, and to the nature of translational language as being a sort of Third Code, in which the translator has, as translation theorist Andrew Chesterman has described it, 'reduced linguistic control' and is in a state of what his fellow translation scholar Siobhan Brownlie calls 'disorientation'. I will discuss these concepts from Translation Theory - viz. adequacy, acceptability, foreignization, domestication, Third Code, reduced linguistic control and disorientation - in greater detail in future articles.
I would be interested in hearing from readers about their thoughts on how contemporary popular English-language literature has been translated into other languages. What are people's opinions of the quality of such translations, and how do they describe and explain the translators' strategies?
Gideon Toury is the 'father' of Descriptive-Explanatory Translation Studies and of norm theory in translation; when I wrote my MA dissertation on the translation of Rowling into French, one of my main sources was Toury's seminal monograph Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond (1995). Other translation scholars who have written extensively on topics of multiple causation of translation outcomes include Siobhan Brownlie, Andrew Chesterman and Anthony Pym. Victor Longa has written about complexity science as applied to translation, while Lawrence Venuti has written about the concepts of foreignization and domestication in describing translation types; the former concept has similarities with Toury's notion of adequacy or source text-orientedness, the latter concept being somewhat akin to Toury's acceptability or target-orientedness, e.g. idiomaticity of target language, use of target culture familiar references, and so on.
What were the norms of translation which were apparently followed by the French translator of Rowling's bestselling novels? And why were such norms followed? Who and what were the different multiple influences on the final form which Harry Potter took in his Francophone reincarnation? These are the sort of questions for which I try to suggest explanations in this and in future postings.
I should mention at the outset that the norms of translation of Anglophone children’s literature into French appear to have shifted over the last number of decades. In the 1950s, Enid Blyton’s children's novels, such as the stories from such series as the Famous Five and the Secret Seven were translated, sometimes anonymously, into French (i.e. the publishers didn't bother to give the translator's name) and all characters and place names were given French equivalents. These translations were thus totally target culture (TC)-oriented.
On the other hand, Rowling’s novels show, through their French translations, that a hybrid orientation is now the norm, as some character names and place names have been kept in their original English forms, while others have been creatively rendered into French by clever, witty choices on the translator's part.
Blyton’s novels are perhaps considered to be of less literary merit than Rowling’s. The Blyton novels may seem less original, being more repetitive and, in a sense, ‘mass-produced’. I therefore suggest that Blyton’s novels had lower status, and were, and indeed probably still are, perceived as being less canonical than Rowling’s within the polysystem of French-language literature for younger readers. For this reason, it was probably uncontroversial to completely domesticate Blyton's novels when translating them into French, disguising their British origins and, indeed, concealing the fact that they were translations. But Rowling's novels are global bestsellers, cultural sensations; therefore, as French readers would have been hugely aware of all things Potter-related through publicity and films, the translator may have had less freedom to alter ST details in his rendering.
Though major characters such as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley and his family thus do not have their names altered by the French translator, some of the other characters' names as coined by Rowling have been inventively rendered in French by Gallic-sounding equivalents which show the translator's creative, personal imprint. It is a notable feature of Rowling’s novels that the names of many characters are chosen for comic effect, and help to communicate essential personality traits. Thus, the character Madam Hooch becomes Madame Bibine – the term ‘hooch’ in English refers to an alcoholic drink, whereas ‘bibine’ in French signifies weak beer or dishwater. Professor Sprout is rendered as ‘le professeur Chourave’, the latter French term referring to a type of cabbage – this character is a teacher of horticulture. Mad-Eye Moody becomes Fol Oeil Maugrey, the latter word recalling the French verb ‘maugréer’, meaning to grumble. Moaning Myrtle is translated as Mimi Geignarde, the latter word perfectly conveying the notion of whingeing or whining, while the name Mimi is typically French. Professor Snape, a name suggesting a snappy, irritable character, becomes ‘Rogue’ in translation, this being a French adjective conveying the notion of a person being haughty or arrogant, qualities which describe this character appropriately. The school caretaker, Filch ( a word meaning to pilfer or take surreptitiously, thus conveying the slyness of the character), becomes Rusard, a name recalling the French word ‘rusé’, meaning sly or cunning. Furthermore, the suffix ‘-ard’ is derogatory. Adalbert Waffling becomes Adalbert Lasornette – the lexical item ‘sornettes’ communicates the notion of balderdash, thus being an apt equivalent to the source text (ST) surname’s connotations. Bartemius Crouch becomes Bartemius Croupton – in French, the term ‘être à crouptons’ signifies the idea of crouching. Emeric Switch is suitably rendered as Emeric Changé. Miranda Goshawk is rendered as Miranda Fauconnette, the latter word conveying the idea of a young, perhaps also female, falcon or hawk. The French suffix ‘-ette’ is, of course, sometimes perceived negatively as a deprecatory appendage indicating female gender. Quentin Trimble, the author of a textbook on the Dark Arts, whose surname comically suggests fear, becomes Quentin Jentremble, a cleverly chosen equivalent. The caretaker’s cat, Mrs Norris, who is portrayed as sharing her owner’s unsympathetic persona, becomes ‘Miss Teigne’, the latter lexical item communicating the concept of a shrew or vixen, with the term ‘Miss’ being, perhaps, a fashionable Anglicism in French.
The wizarding exams known as OWLs (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) are cleverly translated by the term BUSE (Brevet Universel de Sorcellerie Elementaire). This translation is oriented towards TC norms, given that the lexical item ‘brevet’ refers to educational certificates. The ST pun on the acronym ‘owl’ is matched, in that the French word ‘buse’ signifies a buzzard. Similarly, the ST item NEWTs (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests), the Leaving Certificate of wizards, is rendered as ASPIC (Accumulation de Sorcellerie Particulièrement Intensive et Contraignante), with the French word ‘aspic’referring to an asp, and, humorously, to a type of meat jelly. These two translations, while unable to precisely reproduce the ST items ‘owl’ or ‘newt’, are nevertheless competent attempts at achieving equivalent effect. The French translator is here being individually creative and self-inscribing, in choosing alternative humorous French 'jeux de mots', just as the various translators of Jules Verne's wordplays chose their own English equivalent puns, as discussed in a previous posting to this blog.
The wizarding newspaper known as the ‘Daily Prophet’ is altered to ‘La Gazette des sorciers’, the word ‘gazette’ having literary or humorous connotations in French and thus constituting a TC-oriented translation, and a sort of neutralization which cancels out the slightly more humorous title of the original. The Sorting Hat, an artefact used to choose which of the four houses of the school of wizardry each new pupil will be assigned to, becomes ‘le Choixpeau Magique’, a pun which cleverly conveys the notions of ‘chapeau’ and ‘choix’. This example involves the substitution of a source text non-wordplay by a target text wordplay, which is one of the procedures for translating wordplay which have been documented by the translation scholar Dirk Delabastita. This target wordplay also compensates, perhaps, for the 'loss' of other ST wordplays and of other ST humorous effects. Compensation is an important strategy within the translator's armoury of approaches.
The ST neologism ‘Muggles’, which refers to non-magical humans, is creatively rendered by a TT neologism ‘Moldus’, with 'molle' humorously having the sense of 'soft', to try to convey equivalent effect to the notion of 'mug' in the original. Yet the name of the wizarding game of ‘Quidditch’ (a neologism which has now found its way into the Collins English Dictionary) is unaltered, perhaps because of copyright constraints. It is reported that a video game version of Quidditch is about to be marketed, so that this label no doubt represents a valuable international brand name which it was advisable to preserve cross-culturally.
There is a hybrid but principally TL orientation evident in the rendering of the shop name ‘Quality Quidditch Supplies’ as ‘Magasin d’accessoires de Quidditch’ – while the title of the game Quidditch itself is transferred, the rest of this title is toward the TL in normative orientation, being in French and also having only the first word ‘Magasin’ capitalised (apart from Quidditch). This capitalisation of the first word only is the norm in French organisational titles. The alliteration in the ST shop title is not reproduced in the TL, partly because of material differences between English and French and also perhaps because of conflicting choices here facing the translator, between achieving semantic accuracy and achieving equivalent poetic effect; accuracy was prioritized. This is also another example of neutralization and standardization.
‘Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop’ becomes ‘Pirouette et Badin, le magasin de farces et attrapes pour sorciers’. This translation clearly seeks out Gallic equivalents for ST connotations. The notion of ‘gambolling’ is rendered by the TL item ‘pirouette’, with similarly playful connotations. The ST pun on the name ‘Japes’ is skilfully matched by the TT item ‘Badin’, which refers to ‘un farceur’. There is modulation to TL idiomatic usage in the rendering of ‘Dr Filibuster’s Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks’ as ‘Pétards mouillés du Dr Flibuste. Explosion garantie sans chaleur’, which also preserves the humour of the original.
As regards domesticating translations of certain place names, the village of Hogsmeade is rendered as Pré-au-Lard, a neologism which creates somewhat equivalent effect by reproducing the notion of a meadow and of bacon or the fat of a pig. The School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hogwarts, is rendered by the neologism ‘Poudlard’ which suggests the idea of a hog’s lice, a translation which parallels the unpleasantness of the ST image, while simultaneously Gallicizing it for heightened acceptability, losing the sonorous, British original name. As regards the four houses which the school comprises, Gryffindor is rendered as Gryffondor, which conveys the image of the claws of the lion who is the symbol on the coat-of-arms; Hufflepuff beomes Poufsouffle, which secures equivalence in suggesting the notion of a puff or breath; Ravenclaw is adapted to Serdaigle, which suggests the claw of an eagle, this change of bird having undoubtedly been made for phonetic reasons, while Slytherin becomes Serpentard, conveying the notion of a snake slithering, with the negative connotations intended by the original author for this name, carried into the TT, but in accordance with French morphology. On the other hand, major place names such as London, Scotland and England are not disguised, but are accorded their established translations.
The rendering of proper names in this corpus thus demonstrates the hybridity of adequacy and acceptability characterising this translation. The more important ST names – those of central characters – have been preserved, thus orienting the TTs towards SL and SC (source culture) norms. Yet in many other cases, the translator has been at pains to devise a TL equivalent neologism, and this tendency illustrates a leaning towards target cultural norms.
There thus appear to be contradictory or opposing norms in operation in the translation of proper names, given that some are transferred directly, even where they would create pronunciation difficulties for the French reader or problems in understanding the allusions, while others are skilfully Gallicized. This is why it is felt that copyright specifications and JK Rowling's own preferences may have dictated or at least influenced the preservation of certain significant proper names in translation. Further, the global reach and celebrity of the Harry Potter stories and characters is such that even readers in non-English-speaking communities such as Francophone regions are familiar with the character names and locations, in English, used by Rowling, and are thus aware that what they read in, say, French, is a translation, and they therefore may expect that the source language principal names will be left intact. Therefore, French readers may have been seen as less tolerant or credulous of a complete French makeover for Harry Potter's world; that world had to remain essentially British.
However, the use of language throughout this corpus conforms to TL norms, in that every effort is made to ensure that idiomatic, acceptable French is used.
In future postings, I will talk about other aspects of the Potter renderings into French. I've also been doing some research on how other contemporary children's literature such as the Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket) have been translated into French, and how other contemporary popular fiction, by US writers such as John Grogan (Marley et moi - mon histoire d'amour avec le pire chien du monde) and thriller-writer John Grisham have been translated into French, and I will speak more about these translations in future postings.
Suffice it to say, for now, that the French renderings of Snicket, Grogan, Grisham and of Philip Pullman (the Sally Lockhart series) seem to show similar translation strategies to those observed in the Harry Potter translations. Thus, there is a general use of idiomatic French, producing, therefore, domesticating translations, and complete and accurate renderings are also the norm. Most ST proper names, of characters and Anglophone place names, are transferred without change into French, and there is some evidence of SL interference which can detract from the idiomaticity of the French TL usage; this points to the hybrid nature of these translations, which are mainly domesticating but partly foreignizing, mainly Target Language-oriented but partly Source Language-oriented. In the French renderings of novels by John Grisham, the translator strives to use equivalent French legal terms in order to translate the American legal terms used by Grisham, so this is a domesticating, acceptable, target culture-oriented approach. On the other hand, the French translator transfers, intact, the names of the US characters, place names, and institutional (including judicial bodies) names of Grisham's original, so that there is a hybrid of source culture and target culture orientation in the Grisham French renderings. There are probably similar multiple influences on this hybridity of translation strategy as were postulated for the Rowling renderings, viz. the French readers' awareness of the US setting of the originals, thus, their expectation of 'honesty' in the translation. Loyalty to the US setting entails the transfer of proper names, intact, to the French renderings.
These observations point to the complexity and unpredictability of translation, its multiple causation, and to the nature of translational language as being a sort of Third Code, in which the translator has, as translation theorist Andrew Chesterman has described it, 'reduced linguistic control' and is in a state of what his fellow translation scholar Siobhan Brownlie calls 'disorientation'. I will discuss these concepts from Translation Theory - viz. adequacy, acceptability, foreignization, domestication, Third Code, reduced linguistic control and disorientation - in greater detail in future articles.
I would be interested in hearing from readers about their thoughts on how contemporary popular English-language literature has been translated into other languages. What are people's opinions of the quality of such translations, and how do they describe and explain the translators' strategies?
Friday, May 7, 2010
Formulating a statement of personal teaching philosophy
The following is a draft statement of my personal teaching philosophy, a document which applicants for academic posts are often asked to provide, or at the very least, to speak about at interview. I drafted this statement in the recent past.
I would appreciate if readers of this blog could give me some feedback on this statement, and perhaps share their own philosophies of teaching and lecturing:
For me, it has always been important, when teaching, to convey my enthusiasm for my subjects to students of all levels and in all various aspects of French language, literature, translation and culture. I seek at all times to convey my knowledge and learning to my students, in order to transmit the fruits of my study, research and writings, to new learners. This is akin to the manner in which St Benedict metaphorically passed on a torch of intellectual ardour when he founded the first Benedictine monastery many centuries ago.
I seek to be well-prepared for the courses and lectures/classes/workshops/seminars that I deliver, and to transmit my own passion and intellectual curiosity for all aspects of French and English language and literature to my students.
I especially seek to view each student as a unique human being in a Christian ethos of respect and sincerity, and to encourage the students themselves to respect each other, and to treat each other in a collegial and supportive manner. As an Irish Roman Catholic, I have been educated in Christian values of love and community action. It is vital to encourage camaraderie and co-operation among students throughout their learning careers, as opposed to individual competitiveness, thus fostering warmth, and ensuring that hostility is avoided.
I believe that my teaching role is thus to inculcate personal values of Christian friendship and support to my students, through my personal example and expression of values, and giving of advice, in class. This group co-operation will serve my students well throughout their future personal and professional lives, in treating family, friends and professional colleagues well and in being able to work as part of a friendly team, to achieve common goals. In my teaching, I have thus set group projects, e.g. students work together in pairs or in groups of sometimes up to four or five people, on collaborative research and writing on various aspects of French culture, e.g. when I taught French for the Tourism Industry, groups of students completed projects on individually chosen aspects of French tourist and cultural attractions. I generally used to meet each group once a week to discuss progress, give advice and answer queries and concerns, and suggest useful sources of information, online or in hard copy form (books, French magazines, etc.), and to monitor group progress. When these Tourism students were doing French orals, I had them sit their oral examination in pairs, which had prepared together and which made the oral situation less nerve-wracking for students with less advanced language skills. I found that my students enjoyed working with each other and that it stimulated their learning and made study and assignments more engaging and less intimidating.
The spirit of learning and scholarship is inherently collegial and group and community-based. Scholars do not operate in a vacuum; instead, we grow and share knowledge through contributing the findings of our individual research in our writings and conference addresses, and in our teaching. The aim of teachers and scholars should be to encourage the learning and research of others. Thus, students should, as much as possible, work together on common projects in and outside class.
As a French lecturer and teacher, my goal is to develop courses in all aspects of French Studies, based partly on my own research interests and discoveries, in tandem with the overall requirements and course content of the schools in which I work. Thus, for example, when teaching French literary translation practice and theory, I use lots of practical examples of how different writers have had their texts rendered between French and English. This includes sharing my findings of how writers such as Verne have been variously translated over many years, or how J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels have been rendered into French. When teaching literature, I include French and English novels, poems and short stories from different eras which have personally inspired me. Using contemporary material like Rowling, and evergreen literature such as that of Jules Verne, from my own postgraduate research, has made the learning process more relevant to the students’ own readings outside college, thus helping them engage more enthusiastically with their course work
This means that undergraduate students are directly involved with the sort of material that I am researching as a post-doctoral level lecturer, and are thus benefiting from and contributing to faculty-level research. This is a very community-centred, university-wide mission sharing.
But in addition to passing on my own knowledge and findings to my students, I believe it is equally vital to foster their own individual creativity and facilitate their own personal journeys of discovery of ideas, thus helping them to feel the joy of learning, reading, writing, discovering newness and sharing their own ideas and opinions in class. This sharing by students of their findings and ideas should take place in an atmosphere of respect and encouragement within the classroom.
Thus, my role as a teacher is not just to transmit existing knowledge and the ideas of other scholars, but equally, to stimulate creativity and intellectual curiosity in each individual student. For instance, students should be encouraged to share their own thoughts and interpretations of a literary text. If translating, say, a French poem, students should be encouraged to develop their own individual use of translational, poetic language, and thus inscribe their translations with their own creative stamp of personal style and interpretations.
Similarly, when writing essays of all kinds, students should be helped to combine rigorous research with their own commentary, for discussion and feedback from fellow students and from myself as a teacher. When learning about other cultures and communities, e.g. different Francophone communities across the world, including, say, post-colonial Francophone communities of immigrants, students should be helped to respect and appreciate difference and diversity in cultural, social and religious practices, but also to share their own cultural values. Respect for a different cultural group does not imply that we always agree with certain practices or values, and this is where individual ideas and class discussion, conducted with an overriding concern for respect of others, can prove very stimulating. For instance, individual students may feel, from their study of Francophone culture and literature, that certain practices such as circumcision are inhumane, or they may have individual views on integration of French immigrants within mainstream French society, on respect for cultural otherness within the host culture, on individuals’ rights to choose their unique cultural identity, or on the value of having a hybrid identity which belongs to more than one culture, as is often the case for second- and third-generation Algerian immigrants living in France, who may have less strong attachments to their parents’ North African traditions, language, cultural practices such as dress, religion, etc. As a lecturer, I strive to study literature such as that written by culturally hybrid writers living in France, and thus help students to empathically understand the situation of these writers. But I then encourage the students to express their own reactions and opinions. Literary texts thus become an open space of interpretation, a launching pad for all sorts of thematic development and reactions. I have found that students of mine feel more engaged with their learning when they have a space to express their own ideas.
Therefore, as a teacher, I consider that I have as much to learn from my students as they from me. I also learn from the fact that my students will come from diverse cultural backgrounds, and this diversity must also inform my teaching approaches to different individuals and groups of learners. The more I teach, the more I can learn about best teaching practice. The teacher is equally a lifelong learner.
I especially enjoy working with smaller groups of learners where there can be individual attention to students and enjoyable interaction. I like to use a variety of approaches and pedagogical practices and materials, and this is especially useful in teaching language, where students have to be nurtured in the four key skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening to/understanding a foreign language. I thus favour the use of varied materials such as online learning, computer-assisted language learning, videos, recordings, diverse reading materials and also giving more advanced French language learners the opportunity to select personally-preferred aspects of Francophone culture for individual study.
Finally, as a teacher, I have a pastoral role in assisting students with personal and academic challenges. This includes being able to refer students to the appropriate sources of support e.g. college counselling, learning support, funding, and so on. It also includes being able to personally assist students in many cases, e.g. learning support. My teaching in the past has included giving additional, individualized attention and academic support to students with learning disabilities.
My Catholicism includes an ecumenical spirit of respect for, and interest in, other world religions and cultures. This ecumenical mindset, in its broadest sense, is something I would wish to inculcate in my students.
I would appreciate if readers of this blog could give me some feedback on this statement, and perhaps share their own philosophies of teaching and lecturing:
For me, it has always been important, when teaching, to convey my enthusiasm for my subjects to students of all levels and in all various aspects of French language, literature, translation and culture. I seek at all times to convey my knowledge and learning to my students, in order to transmit the fruits of my study, research and writings, to new learners. This is akin to the manner in which St Benedict metaphorically passed on a torch of intellectual ardour when he founded the first Benedictine monastery many centuries ago.
I seek to be well-prepared for the courses and lectures/classes/workshops/seminars that I deliver, and to transmit my own passion and intellectual curiosity for all aspects of French and English language and literature to my students.
I especially seek to view each student as a unique human being in a Christian ethos of respect and sincerity, and to encourage the students themselves to respect each other, and to treat each other in a collegial and supportive manner. As an Irish Roman Catholic, I have been educated in Christian values of love and community action. It is vital to encourage camaraderie and co-operation among students throughout their learning careers, as opposed to individual competitiveness, thus fostering warmth, and ensuring that hostility is avoided.
I believe that my teaching role is thus to inculcate personal values of Christian friendship and support to my students, through my personal example and expression of values, and giving of advice, in class. This group co-operation will serve my students well throughout their future personal and professional lives, in treating family, friends and professional colleagues well and in being able to work as part of a friendly team, to achieve common goals. In my teaching, I have thus set group projects, e.g. students work together in pairs or in groups of sometimes up to four or five people, on collaborative research and writing on various aspects of French culture, e.g. when I taught French for the Tourism Industry, groups of students completed projects on individually chosen aspects of French tourist and cultural attractions. I generally used to meet each group once a week to discuss progress, give advice and answer queries and concerns, and suggest useful sources of information, online or in hard copy form (books, French magazines, etc.), and to monitor group progress. When these Tourism students were doing French orals, I had them sit their oral examination in pairs, which had prepared together and which made the oral situation less nerve-wracking for students with less advanced language skills. I found that my students enjoyed working with each other and that it stimulated their learning and made study and assignments more engaging and less intimidating.
The spirit of learning and scholarship is inherently collegial and group and community-based. Scholars do not operate in a vacuum; instead, we grow and share knowledge through contributing the findings of our individual research in our writings and conference addresses, and in our teaching. The aim of teachers and scholars should be to encourage the learning and research of others. Thus, students should, as much as possible, work together on common projects in and outside class.
As a French lecturer and teacher, my goal is to develop courses in all aspects of French Studies, based partly on my own research interests and discoveries, in tandem with the overall requirements and course content of the schools in which I work. Thus, for example, when teaching French literary translation practice and theory, I use lots of practical examples of how different writers have had their texts rendered between French and English. This includes sharing my findings of how writers such as Verne have been variously translated over many years, or how J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels have been rendered into French. When teaching literature, I include French and English novels, poems and short stories from different eras which have personally inspired me. Using contemporary material like Rowling, and evergreen literature such as that of Jules Verne, from my own postgraduate research, has made the learning process more relevant to the students’ own readings outside college, thus helping them engage more enthusiastically with their course work
This means that undergraduate students are directly involved with the sort of material that I am researching as a post-doctoral level lecturer, and are thus benefiting from and contributing to faculty-level research. This is a very community-centred, university-wide mission sharing.
But in addition to passing on my own knowledge and findings to my students, I believe it is equally vital to foster their own individual creativity and facilitate their own personal journeys of discovery of ideas, thus helping them to feel the joy of learning, reading, writing, discovering newness and sharing their own ideas and opinions in class. This sharing by students of their findings and ideas should take place in an atmosphere of respect and encouragement within the classroom.
Thus, my role as a teacher is not just to transmit existing knowledge and the ideas of other scholars, but equally, to stimulate creativity and intellectual curiosity in each individual student. For instance, students should be encouraged to share their own thoughts and interpretations of a literary text. If translating, say, a French poem, students should be encouraged to develop their own individual use of translational, poetic language, and thus inscribe their translations with their own creative stamp of personal style and interpretations.
Similarly, when writing essays of all kinds, students should be helped to combine rigorous research with their own commentary, for discussion and feedback from fellow students and from myself as a teacher. When learning about other cultures and communities, e.g. different Francophone communities across the world, including, say, post-colonial Francophone communities of immigrants, students should be helped to respect and appreciate difference and diversity in cultural, social and religious practices, but also to share their own cultural values. Respect for a different cultural group does not imply that we always agree with certain practices or values, and this is where individual ideas and class discussion, conducted with an overriding concern for respect of others, can prove very stimulating. For instance, individual students may feel, from their study of Francophone culture and literature, that certain practices such as circumcision are inhumane, or they may have individual views on integration of French immigrants within mainstream French society, on respect for cultural otherness within the host culture, on individuals’ rights to choose their unique cultural identity, or on the value of having a hybrid identity which belongs to more than one culture, as is often the case for second- and third-generation Algerian immigrants living in France, who may have less strong attachments to their parents’ North African traditions, language, cultural practices such as dress, religion, etc. As a lecturer, I strive to study literature such as that written by culturally hybrid writers living in France, and thus help students to empathically understand the situation of these writers. But I then encourage the students to express their own reactions and opinions. Literary texts thus become an open space of interpretation, a launching pad for all sorts of thematic development and reactions. I have found that students of mine feel more engaged with their learning when they have a space to express their own ideas.
Therefore, as a teacher, I consider that I have as much to learn from my students as they from me. I also learn from the fact that my students will come from diverse cultural backgrounds, and this diversity must also inform my teaching approaches to different individuals and groups of learners. The more I teach, the more I can learn about best teaching practice. The teacher is equally a lifelong learner.
I especially enjoy working with smaller groups of learners where there can be individual attention to students and enjoyable interaction. I like to use a variety of approaches and pedagogical practices and materials, and this is especially useful in teaching language, where students have to be nurtured in the four key skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening to/understanding a foreign language. I thus favour the use of varied materials such as online learning, computer-assisted language learning, videos, recordings, diverse reading materials and also giving more advanced French language learners the opportunity to select personally-preferred aspects of Francophone culture for individual study.
Finally, as a teacher, I have a pastoral role in assisting students with personal and academic challenges. This includes being able to refer students to the appropriate sources of support e.g. college counselling, learning support, funding, and so on. It also includes being able to personally assist students in many cases, e.g. learning support. My teaching in the past has included giving additional, individualized attention and academic support to students with learning disabilities.
My Catholicism includes an ecumenical spirit of respect for, and interest in, other world religions and cultures. This ecumenical mindset, in its broadest sense, is something I would wish to inculcate in my students.
Academic Job Interview
Earlier this afternoon, I had a long-awaited telephone interview for a post of French lecturer with a University abroad. Earlier attempts to communicate through Skype had, unfortunately, proved unsuccessful, so a telephone discussion was arranged instead.
It seemed to go well. There were five people on the interview board, all lecturers in French, whose profiles I had studied on the University website. The interview was conducted in both languages, French and English, alternately. The telephone line was occasionally unreliable, but for the most part, we could hear each other fairly clearly.
The questions were, in some cases, the standard ones which you would expect to be asked at most interviews for an academic post, for instance, I had the opportunity to describe in detail the type of research conducted up to now, at MA and PhD levels, and to elaborate on future research plans in the areas of French Studies and, particularly, Translation Studies. This part of the discussion was carried out through the medium of French. They also asked me to speak in English about my teaching philosophy and techniques, the type of courses I had taught in the past, and in what ways I brought original approaches to my teaching. Luckily, I had, in the recent past, prepared a Statement of Teaching Philosophy for an application to a US university so I had thoughts prepared on that philosophy, which I will now post to this blog and ask for your feedback on.
I also had the chance to talk about the type of teaching that I could conduct if successful in this application, e.g. the areas I could contribute to, including French for Business, French for Tourism, Translation Studies, Francophone North African literature, postcolonial theory and postcolonial translation theory.
I was asked how would I rank, in order of importance, the three principal academic duties of research, teaching and administration. I feel that, for a new lecturer starting out on an academic career following the completion of his or her doctorate, strong attention must be paid to meeting the teaching needs of the University and its students, preparing courses, marking, giving feedback and so on. Having said that, there should also be a sufficient block of time allocated each week to research, in order to continue to boost the researcher's profile as well as contributing to the research profile of the University, but research should not be allowed to take strong priority over, and to the detriment of, the lecturer's responsibilities to her students as a teacher, mentor and examiner. Administrative duties should probably take up the least of the lecturer's time at this beginning stage of an academic career, though obviously there are important but restricted administrative responsibilities which are directly connected to one's teaching, e.g. keeping records of marks, writing reports on exam outcomes and on individual students, taking part in exam board and course board meetings. This question was answered through English.
I was also asked, in French, about my extra-curricular activities outside of academia, so I mentioned and described in detail my interests in reading, films, and musical interests.
These were the principal topics discussed throughout the interview. Though I consider that it went well, and that I had done a fair bit of preparation for it, I must say that, if I had a choice, I think that a face-to-face interview is probably more comfortable than a phone conversation. But it is good to be stretched beyond one's comfort zones. What have other readers experienced at job interviews, and what thoughts do you have on answers to the above types of typical interview questions for academic posts?
It seemed to go well. There were five people on the interview board, all lecturers in French, whose profiles I had studied on the University website. The interview was conducted in both languages, French and English, alternately. The telephone line was occasionally unreliable, but for the most part, we could hear each other fairly clearly.
The questions were, in some cases, the standard ones which you would expect to be asked at most interviews for an academic post, for instance, I had the opportunity to describe in detail the type of research conducted up to now, at MA and PhD levels, and to elaborate on future research plans in the areas of French Studies and, particularly, Translation Studies. This part of the discussion was carried out through the medium of French. They also asked me to speak in English about my teaching philosophy and techniques, the type of courses I had taught in the past, and in what ways I brought original approaches to my teaching. Luckily, I had, in the recent past, prepared a Statement of Teaching Philosophy for an application to a US university so I had thoughts prepared on that philosophy, which I will now post to this blog and ask for your feedback on.
I also had the chance to talk about the type of teaching that I could conduct if successful in this application, e.g. the areas I could contribute to, including French for Business, French for Tourism, Translation Studies, Francophone North African literature, postcolonial theory and postcolonial translation theory.
I was asked how would I rank, in order of importance, the three principal academic duties of research, teaching and administration. I feel that, for a new lecturer starting out on an academic career following the completion of his or her doctorate, strong attention must be paid to meeting the teaching needs of the University and its students, preparing courses, marking, giving feedback and so on. Having said that, there should also be a sufficient block of time allocated each week to research, in order to continue to boost the researcher's profile as well as contributing to the research profile of the University, but research should not be allowed to take strong priority over, and to the detriment of, the lecturer's responsibilities to her students as a teacher, mentor and examiner. Administrative duties should probably take up the least of the lecturer's time at this beginning stage of an academic career, though obviously there are important but restricted administrative responsibilities which are directly connected to one's teaching, e.g. keeping records of marks, writing reports on exam outcomes and on individual students, taking part in exam board and course board meetings. This question was answered through English.
I was also asked, in French, about my extra-curricular activities outside of academia, so I mentioned and described in detail my interests in reading, films, and musical interests.
These were the principal topics discussed throughout the interview. Though I consider that it went well, and that I had done a fair bit of preparation for it, I must say that, if I had a choice, I think that a face-to-face interview is probably more comfortable than a phone conversation. But it is good to be stretched beyond one's comfort zones. What have other readers experienced at job interviews, and what thoughts do you have on answers to the above types of typical interview questions for academic posts?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The joys of video-conferencing in the search for a language job
I am about to be introduced to the joys of Skype video-conferencing, as I have been shortlisted for an interview for the post of French lecturer in a University situated in a galaxy far, far away, and so, they are kindly allowing me to save on inordinate travel expenses by interviewing me either by phone or video-link. I think that the latter method of communication would be preferable, as it is in my view better to try to replicate as closely as possible the conditions of an actual face-to-face job interview. In short, it's nice to see the people you are speaking with, to be able to read body language, including facial expressions, and for them to see you. A colleague of mine here in DCU is going to help me get set up for SKYPE.
Being shortlisted, and getting the experience of another academic interview, is encouraging in the current difficult climate for job-seekers in all professions. It's interesting to read up on other universities worldwide, and look at their courses, student and faculty profiles, research profiles, and so on.
One thing that is also encouraging is that there seems to be at least a couple of academic jobs in my areas (French and Translation Studies) advertised each week on the http://www.jobs.ac.uk/ website. I feel that it is essential to try to apply for any post in academia that might possible be relevant. The application process tends to be detailed but informative. Applying for university posts - whether or not one is ultimately successful - is an important learning curve for new graduates. And I feel that the more effort and persistence one shows with job applications, the greater the likelihood of eventual job offers. Persistence pays off.
As a poster here in DCU reminds us: 'Consider the postage stamp. Its usefulness consists in its ability to stick to one thing until it gets there.'
Being shortlisted, and getting the experience of another academic interview, is encouraging in the current difficult climate for job-seekers in all professions. It's interesting to read up on other universities worldwide, and look at their courses, student and faculty profiles, research profiles, and so on.
One thing that is also encouraging is that there seems to be at least a couple of academic jobs in my areas (French and Translation Studies) advertised each week on the http://www.jobs.ac.uk/ website. I feel that it is essential to try to apply for any post in academia that might possible be relevant. The application process tends to be detailed but informative. Applying for university posts - whether or not one is ultimately successful - is an important learning curve for new graduates. And I feel that the more effort and persistence one shows with job applications, the greater the likelihood of eventual job offers. Persistence pays off.
As a poster here in DCU reminds us: 'Consider the postage stamp. Its usefulness consists in its ability to stick to one thing until it gets there.'
Monday, April 19, 2010
Competition Result: competition number 2.
And so, Kirk has done it again! Within a few minutes of the second competition being posted to this blog, earlier this afternoon, our last winner, Countdown champion Kirk Bevins, 23 year old maths teacher from York, immediately and correctly spotted the ten anagrams and emailed me the answers, which are as follows:
- TRANSLATE
- RENDERING
- EMBELLISH
- EXPLICATE
- NORMATIVE
- CAUSATION
- CAUSALITY
- INTERPRET
- MODIFYING
- REDUCTION (but, as Kirk pointed out, an alternative answer would be INTRODUCTION, but he opted for REDUCTION given that I was looking for a Translation Theory term, and he got it right, though I would have accepted INTRODUCTION also). But how might I propose a link between 'introduction' and Translation?
Congratulations, Kirk. Can he make it a hat trick when I post the next anagram competition in a few week's time? Another copy of Around the World in Eighty Days shall be winging its way to York this week, except this time - gasp - it's a translation by Jacqueline Rogers. I'm sure Kirk can't wait. Tell you what - next time I shall try to vary the competition format, as i've previously promised on this blog, i.e. I will include literary quiz questions and numbers games.
Competition number 2!
Today's posting deals with the second of my anagram competitions for readers of this blog. The last competition dealt with words connected to the writings of Jules Verne, and you may remember that the winner was Mr Kirk Bevins of York, U.K. This new competition is open to anybody to enter, but it may be of particular interest to fellow Translation Studies scholars, as you shall see...
Please unscramble the following jumbled words, to come up with ten words which are all terms in Translation Studies. No clues are provided this time round, as i'm deliberately seeking to up the ante. The prize for the first set of completely correct answers e-mailed to me at the address in the next paragraph, will be the 1994 revised translation of Around the World in Eighty Days by Jacqueline Rogers.
Solutions, with your name and postal address, should be e-mailed to me at kieran.odriscoll3@mail.dcu.ie before the closing date of 12 noon on Monday, 3rd May, 2010.
Please unscramble the following jumbled words, to come up with ten words which are all terms in Translation Studies. No clues are provided this time round, as i'm deliberately seeking to up the ante. The prize for the first set of completely correct answers e-mailed to me at the address in the next paragraph, will be the 1994 revised translation of Around the World in Eighty Days by Jacqueline Rogers.
Solutions, with your name and postal address, should be e-mailed to me at kieran.odriscoll3@mail.dcu.ie before the closing date of 12 noon on Monday, 3rd May, 2010.
- A R T E S A T L N
- E N I E R N D R G
- H E M I E L B S L
- L A X E E C I P T
- V A N I R E T O M
- T A U S A C N O I
- C I S A U T L A Y
- P E N T I E R R T
- G O Y M I D F I N
- D U R E C T I O N
I look forward to receiving the entries and to announcing the winner in a couple of weeks time. So come on, Translation scholars: can you get there before Kirk Bevins?!!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Book Review - French folk tales - Henri Pourrat
Because part of the mission of this blog is to speak about literature in other languages, which has been translated and/or is often itself a translation from another language and/or medium, I want to use this posting to talk about a French writer who has very recently been making an impact on me. You know how much I love children's literature, especially in French. SO here's an article I've put together about a writer called Henri Pourrat who has collected many regional, traditional tales throughout France, and published them over many years during the twentieth- century. I'm not yet sure if Pourrat's tales have been translated into English, but I think it would be a welcome initiative.
Les fous et les sages (Le Tresor des contes) (French Edition)
A collection of folk tales with a difference!
I still have many more of the wonderful collected folk-tales of the French writer Henri Pourrat to enjoy over the coming months and years, and this prospect is, of course, for me, an enormous treat, given that I have always really enjoyed reading all sorts of tales (’contes’) in both English and, especially, French, over many years but especially nowadays since I began studying and researching French literature and reading translated and adapted literature in earnest over the last twelve years.
Thus have I greatly enjoyed, in both English (translation) and in French, the classic, often adapted and varied in numerous versions, stories of Hans Christian Andersen (translated from Danish, which I don’t unfortunately read, into French and English etc), the Grimm Brothers, Wilhelm and Jacob, (in French and English renderings), the ’Contes du chat perché’ (Contes rouges, bleus, etc.) by Marcel Aymé, and collections of ’contes’ from Greek and Roman mythology in French, together with anthologies of such stories from many other traditions. These include the collected traditional, regional folklore tales of such French regions as the Languedoc, Picardie, Auvergne, Paris and of the Middle Ages in France. I can recommend the Dublin-based médiathèque of the Alliance Français, at 1, Kildare Street, Dublin 2, for access to a veritable cavern of such treasures of children’s and popular, traditional French and Francophone literature which, of course, appeals to all age groups. The wonderful tropes and images to be found in the works of contemporary fantasy writers such as J.K. Rowling, are echoed, back into the mists of time, by the witches, wizards and mythical creatures of the most traditional, simplest tales. An ideal way to relax at night is to dip into one or several of these delightful contes and to literally be transported from your armchair to an escape to a parallel world intertwined with our own.
But to talk specifically about Pourrat; this writer undertook a project in the twentieth century which is reminiscent of that of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the Germany of a century earlier. Pourrat collected French regional tales from the countryside, villages, forests and high mountains of many French rural communities, listening to the born storytellers who, perhaps like Ireland’s Kitty the Hare, had a special gift for telling a story to a group of enthralled listeners, using special local, intimate, colloquial language and traditional oral storytelling narrative techniques to capture and retain the rapt attention of her (not exclusively young, by any means) listeners. When reading Pourrat, one is constantly aware of the colloquial, oral, aural language experience and of the immediacy of the intimate storytelling moment.
Pourrat published his Treasury of Tales between 1948 and 1962, and the tales have often, as in the book being reviewed here, been selected according to different themes by other anthologists and published as shorter thematic collections. For instance, Pourrat’s collection of Christmas-related tales describes the magical adventures of country people, farmers, tailors, shopkeepers, princesses, fairy godmothers, local curés etc., on Christmas Eve. The tales all seem strongly anchored, then, in specific rural locales in deepest ’provinces’ all over France. Yet they often combine their local flavour and local, idiosyncratic, often archaic rural dialect and lexis with clear influences of universal themes equally present in Grimm, Perrault and also in world myths.
Local characters thus, in Pourrat’s world, have their kind deeds rewarded at Christmas through unexpected meetings with Joseph, Mary and the Infant Jesus, and with the Angels who heralded his birth, and with the shepherds and indeed the farmyard animals present in the stable to breathe on the newborn Christ to keep him warm. (Remember, on Christmas Eve, all animals can use human speech to communicate in memory of those Nativity animals and can thus help humans).
An example of Pourrat’s informants making universal tales specific to their own lived, local experience, is the tale of a childless couple of bakers who have their wish for a son or daughter finally granted through the sudden appearance of a sort of little ’bonhomme’ who forms himself from the scrappings of ingredients of his parents’ baking recipes. Tom Thumb, Thumbelina and the Little Gingerbread Man, of course, instantly come to mind. And just like those other miniscule creatures, Pourrat’s discovered infinitesimally small child becomes a great source of fun and adventure, helping his parents achieve wealth and happiness, and surviving a series of dangerous adventures, in which he variously finds himself swallowed several times by the same wolf, by a cow, a fox, and so on.
A couple who long to be wealthy are offered three wishes by a fairy godmother, but their hapless wishes bring nothing more than a long string of pudding which then attaches itself to the wife’s nose. In the end, they realise that fun and happiness arre more desirable in life than material wealth. The ’moralité’ of the worldwide ’conte’ is, therefore, often a feature of Pourrat’s collected tales. These specific examples are from a collection of Pourrat’s ’Christmas’-themed tales. However, the overall themes of the intensely local, and uses of local, intimate language, apply to all of Pourrat’s contes.
What I most love about Pourrat’s short stories are the very qualities he states that he has sought to infuse them with. These qualities include the following. The language use is non-standard and oral, so that the reader can truly ’hear’ the fireside storyteller engage her listeners; the vocabulary is often little-known as it refers to very specific local plants, flowers, creatures, foods, giving us the authentic ’terroir’ in which the tale unfolds. The oral storyteller is transferred to the page by Pourrat, yes; but the raconteurs whose tales are documented so lovingly and painstakingly by Pourrat do not lose their authentic ’voices’ in the (inter-semiotic, intra-lingual) ’translation’ from an oral to a written medium. Rather, Pourrat’s writerly mission - superbly accomplished - has been to bring local speech and characters alive, and to convey and preserve the local dialects of the regions and the idiolects of the individual speakers.
If, for example, you as an Irish reader enjoyed the tales of Kitty the Hare or Sile de Valera, among many others, and if you read French, I urge to you to try out Pourrat’s stories. Where Grimm and Perrault versions are often presented to us in a standardized form of language, Pourrat’s tales are steeped in place and people, making the local community universal, in much the same way that the contemporary Carrick-on-Suir poet Michael Coady brings his (and my) small provincial native town to life, making our particular place universal. Pourrat and Coady celebrate the wonderful local characters, local tales and perhaps urban myths, local traditions, local events and things and most of all, local dialect and idiolects. This is the people’s spontaneously produced oral poetry, as Coady has noted of some of his work (e.g. in which he sees colourful, traditional local nicknames as passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, uncle to nephew, etc. as an example of such poetry and local character and humour).
For Coady, and Pourrat, the magic is not merely in the events recounted, but also in the homeliness and tradition of small places, the village, the small town, its nearby rivers and mountains which regulate daily life over centuries, the forest and the countryside and their local legends, those unique small communities which are the ’universe’ of their small and closely-bound groups of citizens.
Post-Scriptum:
One fact I omitted to mention in my previous posting: Kirk Bevins, our first competition winner, spotted all five anagrams correctly in a fraction of a second without needing the clues I provided! This is the type of feat regularly accomplised by him at the end of many Countdown episodes, in which the players are shown a nine-letter scrambled word and have to buzz in with the correct answer before their opponent spots it, so both are given a maximum of thirty seconds to unravel the conundrum.
Most of the top players like Kirk usually spot the conundrum almost immediately (and there are no clues to help them). Sometimes they buzz in with the answer before the thirty-second clock has even been started! Kirk is, of course, one of those contestants who could spot such conundrums within micro-seconds, as he did with this blog's competition.
The advantage for other entrants to this blog's tests is that you don't have such a rigorous time limit. So you will have plenty of time, if you don't see a word immediately, to play around with the letters. So it's not a question of speed in this blog's case, whereas speed is part of the thrill of playing and watching Countdown.
On the other hand, even this blog requires entrants to get their answers in by e-mail before anybody else, so do work quickly enough!
Most of the top players like Kirk usually spot the conundrum almost immediately (and there are no clues to help them). Sometimes they buzz in with the answer before the thirty-second clock has even been started! Kirk is, of course, one of those contestants who could spot such conundrums within micro-seconds, as he did with this blog's competition.
The advantage for other entrants to this blog's tests is that you don't have such a rigorous time limit. So you will have plenty of time, if you don't see a word immediately, to play around with the letters. So it's not a question of speed in this blog's case, whereas speed is part of the thrill of playing and watching Countdown.
On the other hand, even this blog requires entrants to get their answers in by e-mail before anybody else, so do work quickly enough!
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