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From New England to the Low Countries

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From New England to the Low Countries FROM NEW ENGLAND TO THE LOW COUNTRIES A COMPARATIVE TRANSLATION ANALYSIS OF SUBSTANDARD LANGUAGE IN EUGENE O’NEILL’S DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS AND ARNE SIERENS’ HET BEGEREN ONDER DE OLMEN Word count: 26,191 Eline Denolf Student number: 01410454 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Désirée Schyns Co-supervisor: Prof. Dr. Christel Stalpaert A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literature: English Academic year: 2017 - 2018 ii Acknowledgements In the first place, I would like to thank professor Ilija Čašule for his engaging lectures, which aroused my initial interest in literary translation. A special gratitude goes out to my supervisor, professor Désirée Schyns, for her enthusiastic support, critical eye, her spontaneous proposal of sources of information and to help me get back on track when I could no longer see the wood for the trees. I am grateful to my co-supervisor, professor Christel Stalpaert, for sharing her knowledge on and contacts in the Flemish theatre scene. Then, I would like to express my profound appreciation and thanks to Klaas Tindemans for devoting his free time to me during the holidays, for the pleasant and interesting conversation, his compelling anecdotes, and for commending me his unique documentation materials. Many thanks to Inge, for her feedback and evaluations on Dutch-Flemish linguistic differences. I owe deep gratitude to my family for their love and encouragement, and to my parents in particular, for giving me the wonderful opportunities to study abroad. And finally, to my dear Adrian, for his everlasting patience and unwavering belief in me. iii Table of contents Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... iii Table of contents ......................................................................................................................................... iv I. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 6 PART 1 The difficulties of drama translation .......................................................................................... 9 1.1. Theatre semiotics: the difference between theatre and drama ............................................ 10 1.1.1. Semiotics of theatre and drama: the relationship between text and performance ... 10 1.1.2. Translation of theatre and drama: serving different needs .......................................... 11 1.2. The theatre-specific context ..................................................................................................... 12 1.2.1. Transcultural theatre: compatibility, equivalence and cultural capital ....................... 13 1.2.2. The theatrical system in translation: a collaborative act .............................................. 14 1.3. Code-choice and linguistic variation in the theatre ............................................................... 15 1.3.1. Substandard varieties on stage ......................................................................................... 15 1.3.2. Substandard varieties in translation ................................................................................ 16 Part 2 Eugene O’Neill and the American Vernacular: Desire under the elms ........................................ 19 2.1. Experimentation on the American stage ................................................................................ 20 2.1.1. The American stage in the early twentieth century ...................................................... 20 2.1.2. O'Neill: overturning the conventions ............................................................................. 22 2.2. Code-choice in Desire under the elms .......................................................................................... 24 2.2.1. Plot, setting and themes ................................................................................................... 25 2.2.2. A literary model: Huckleberry Finn .................................................................................... 27 2.2.3. Markers of the specific code ............................................................................................ 28 2.3. Reception: effects of the code in Desire .................................................................................. 32 PART 3 To the Low Countries: Het begeren onder de olmen ..................................................................... 35 3.1. Linguistic variation in Flanders and the Netherlands ........................................................... 36 3.2. Het Zuidelijk Toneel: the choice for Arne Sierens as a translator...................................... 38 3.3. Constructing a ‘regional language’ ........................................................................................... 39 3.3.1. A translation strategy ........................................................................................................ 39 3.3.2. Literary models: Stijn Streuvels and Hugo Claus .......................................................... 39 3.4. Desire and Het begeren: a comparative analysis of transformations ....................................... 41 3.4.1. Markers of the specific code ............................................................................................ 41 3.4.2. Culture-specific references ............................................................................................... 45 3.5. The mise en scène: a textual comparison between the page and the stage ....................... 47 3.6. Reception: effects of the code in Het begeren .......................................................................... 50 iv 3.7. Discussion of translation strategies: the balance between domestication and foreignisation .......................................................................................................................................... 51 II. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 55 III. Bibliography .................................................................................................................................... 58 Primary sources ...................................................................................................................................... 58 Secondary sources .................................................................................................................................. 58 APPENDIX A: List of phonological, grammatical and lexical features in Desire............................. 64 a) Phonology ....................................................................................................................................... 64 b) Grammar ......................................................................................................................................... 66 c) Lexicon ............................................................................................................................................ 67 APPENDIX B: List of phonological, grammatical and lexical features in Het begeren ..................... 69 a) Phonology ....................................................................................................................................... 69 b) Grammar ......................................................................................................................................... 69 c) Lexicon ............................................................................................................................................ 71 v I. Introduction “A real translation is transparent; it does not cover the original, does not block its light, but allows the pure language, as though reinforced by its own medium, to shine upon the original all the more fully. […] It is the task of the translator to release in his own language that pure language which is under the spell of another, to liberate the language imprisoned in a work in his re-creation of that work.” (Walter Benjamin, 1923, 260-1) The essential aspiration of the literary translator is to make a written work of art from a source culture accessible to a target culture, while recognising and remaining true to the work’s semantic and formal implications. This mediation may have various objectives, but generally serves to nurture or enrich the latter culture. Stated like this, literary translation may appear as a highly ambitious and challenging operation, so it should not come as a surprise that several scholars have argued for its impossibility. However, as translation has continually been practised since the Romans, let us assume it is not necessary to abandon the discipline altogether; it is mainly a matter of finding creative solutions to some particular sites of indeterminacy, which will be identified as ‘translation strategies’. For the dramatic genre, which is central to the present study, the discipline may become somewhat more complicated. The medium is charged with a performative aspect, which means that, besides being read, the text is meant to be conveyed orally, and thus transcends the audience of remote, delayed readers to that of immediate, present onlookers. This inevitably bears far- reaching consequences for the adopted translation strategies. One specific
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