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The Contemporary Mexican Crónica in Translation

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The Contemporary Mexican Crónica in Translation A Study of Elena Poniatowska's Amanecer en el Zócalo: The Contemporary Mexican Crónica in Translation Susan Leah Cruess Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the PhD degree in Modern Languages and Literatures Spanish, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies University of Ottawa © Susan Leah Cruess, Ottawa, Canada, 2011. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................................ v Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................... vi Dedication ..................................................................................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................ 1 The Context of the Source Text: The Elections ............................................................................... 12 The Following Crisis: ..................................................................................................................................... 14 Why the Crónica? ............................................................................................................................................ 16 CHAPTER ONE .............................................................................................................................................................. 18 Situating Amanecer en el Zócalo in the Mexican Literary Polysystem ......................................... 18 The Contemporary Crónica ....................................................................................................................... 21 Elena Poniatowska as a Cronista............................................................................................................ 29 How Amanecer en el Zócalo Complies Specifically with the Definition of the Crónica ................................................................................................................................................................................... 49 The Theories of Systems in Culture and Literature ..................................................................... 68 What do “Innovatory” and “Conservatory” Mean in the Context of Mexican Literature? .......................................................................................................................................................... 88 CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................................................................ 99 Examining the Latin American Political Crónica in Translation: A case study of three crónicas in comparison to Amanecer en el Zócalo ................................................................................... 99 The Translator’s “Authority to Intervene”: How Authors’ and Translators’ Roles Overlap in Amanecer en el Zócalo and La noche de Tlatelolco: ............................................ 105 Prefaces: ............................................................................................................................................................ 114 Footnotes and Other Expansions ........................................................................................................ 121 Massacre in Mexico ...................................................................................................................................... 121 Nothing, Nobody and Born to Die in Medellín ................................................................................ 122 CHAPTER THREE ..................................................................................................................................................... 127 A Brief Overview of Select Contemporary Translation Theories and Their Application to the Translation of Amanecer en el Zócalo ................................................................................................. 127 Contemporary Translation Studies: An overview of the 60s and 70s ............................ 128 Target-Oriented Translation Studies ............................................................................................... 142 The Target Text’s “Type” and the Source Text’s “After-life” ................................................ 145 Text Type and Reception ......................................................................................................................... 148 CHAPTER FOUR........................................................................................................................................................ 168 An Application of Antoine Berman’s “Trials of the Foreign” to the Translation of Amanecer en el Zócalo .......................................................................................................................................... 168 1. Rationalization ......................................................................................................................................... 169 2. Clarification ............................................................................................................................................... 172 3. Expansion .................................................................................................................................................... 173 4. Ennoblement ............................................................................................................................................. 176 5. Qualitative Impoverishment ............................................................................................................ 181 6. Quantitative Impoverishment ......................................................................................................... 182 7. The destruction of rhythms .............................................................................................................. 184 8. The destruction of underlying networks of signification................................................. 185 9. The destruction of linguistic patternings .................................................................................. 188 10. The destruction of vernacular networks or their exoticization ................................ 189 11. The destruction of expressions and idioms .......................................................................... 198 12. The effacement of the superimposition of languages ...................................................... 203 CHAPTER FIVE .......................................................................................................................................................... 206 Specific Lexical, Discursive and Contextual Challenges of the Translation of Amanecer en el Zócalo ....................................................................................................................................................................... 206 Amanecer en el Zócalo (México: Planeta, 2007) pp. 77-80. ................................................ 216 Translation Draft ......................................................................................................................................... 220 Translation Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 224 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................................................... 255 Conclusions Drawn ..................................................................................................................................... 263 Appendix #1: Chronological List of Poniatowska’s major works ................................................ 269 Appendix #2 – Translation Excerpt Final Draft ..................................................................................... 272 Appendix #3: Glossary of Acronyms ............................................................................................................ 277 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................................................... 282 v ABSTRACT This dissertation addresses the challenges of translating the Contemporary Mexican crónica from Spanish into English. The crónica, being a type of nonfiction literature and possessing unique features particularly with regards to its ability to be read like a novel, presents distinctive challenges in translation. This dissertation looks closely at the particularities of translating Elena Poniatowska‘s Amanecer en el Zócalo (Mexico: Planeta, 2007), a crónica based on the 2006 federal election in Mexico and the subsequent civil resistance movement inspired by the outcome. This dissertation addresses questions surrounding the translation of the crónica: What challenges are unique in translating this genre and why? Why are there so few crónicas translated into English? What decisions can the translator make in order to resolve these
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