AGATHA CHRISTIE’S THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES: A CASE STUDY IN DUTCH AND GERMAN TRANSLATION CULTURES USING CORPUS LINGUISTIC TOOLS by MARJOLIJN STORM A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham June 2012 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract Rooted in the field of Descriptive Translation Studies, the thesis combines such different areas as (corpus) linguistics, literary, cultural, media and socio-historical studies of the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. Five translations (three German and two Dutch) of Agatha Christie’s first detective novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles are analysed. Using the theories by Itamar Even-Zohar (Polysystem Theory) and Gideon Toury (Translation Norms), the different approaches translators have taken to the text are examined and their translation decisions explained by looking at the status and position translations from English, detective stories as such, and the writer Agatha Christie had in the country and at the time these translations were published. Acknowledgements This work would not exist but for a bunch of extraordinary people. I would like to thank: My parents for being the best parents I have Dr. Simone Schroth for always being there in situations of crisis Dr. Joanne Sayner for her confidence in me Dr. Oliver Plaschka for his continuous encouragement Prof. Dr. Bill Dodd and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Teubert for their supervision Dr. Ralf Tolle and Prof. Dr. Peter Paul Schnierer for their support the DAAD for granting me a scholarship. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Part A. Theoretical and Historical Framework 1. Translation Theory 4 1.1. Descriptive Translation Studies and the Manipulation School 5 1.2. Polysystem Theory 6 1.3. Equivalence, Translation Norms, Laws and Universals 9 1.3.1. Equivalence and Norms 9 1.3.2. Laws and Universals 14 1.4. Corpus Linguistics and Translation 22 1.5. Methodology 28 2. Histories of Detective Fiction 30 2.1. Detective Fiction in Britain – the ‘Golden Age’ 31 2.2. Detective Fiction in Germany 33 2.2.1. The ‘Golden Age’ and Before 35 2.2.2. 1933-1945 36 2.2.3. The Postwar Period 45 2.2.4. Other Media 49 2.3. Detective Fiction in the Netherlands 53 2.3.1. 1890-1940 54 2.3.2. The Postwar Period 63 2.3.3. Other Media 68 2.4. Conclusion 71 3. Translation History of Agatha Christie’s Works 78 3.1. Publication in Britain 78 3.2. Publication in Germany 79 3.3. Publication in the Netherlands 88 4. Detective Story Structures 94 4.1. ‘Golden Age’ Detective Story Structures 96 4.2. Structures in Agatha Christie’s Detective Fiction 101 4.3. Detective Story Structures to be Examined in this Study 106 Part B. Translation Analysis 5. Introduction to the Texts 107 5.1. Lambert and van Gorp’s Model 107 5.2. A.d.Z.’s De geheimzinnige zaak van Styles (1927) 115 5.3. A. van Iddekinge-van Thiel’s De zaak Styles (1966) 116 5.4. Anna Drawe’s Das geheimnisvolle Verbrechen in Styles (1929) 116 5.5. Dorothea Gotfurt’s Das fehlende Glied in der Kette (1959) 117 5.6. Nina Schindler’s Das fehlende Glied in der Kette (1999) 119 5.7. Conclusion 120 6. Macrostructural Analysis 121 6.1. Setting 121 6.1.1. Geographical Setting 121 6.1.2. Historical Setting 128 6.2. Characters 133 6.2.1. The Upper Class 134 6.2.2. The Culprits 139 6.2.3. The Outcasts 143 6.2.4. The Detectives 151 6.3. Plot 162 6.3.1. Poirot and Hastings: the Holmes-Watson Principle 162 6.3.2. Plot Development: Characters and their Function 167 6.3.3. Plot Development: Clues and Deductions, Questions and Answers 174 6.3.4. Guidance and Evidence: Illustrations and Other Inserts 176 7. Microstructural Analysis 183 7.1. Proverbs, Proverbial Expressions and Allusions 183 7.1.1. Similes 186 7.1.2. Allusions to Literature and History 188 7.1.3. Others 195 7.1.4. Overview and Conclusion 197 7.2. Language Levels 200 7.2.1. Dialect and Sociolect 200 7.2.2. Native and Foreign 213 8. Translation Practice 232 8.1. A.d.Z. 232 8.2. A. van Iddekinge-van Thiel 233 8.3. Anna Drawe 234 8.4. Dorothea Gotfurt 237 8.5. Nina Schindler 239 Part C. Synthesis 9. Combinations and Deductions 241 9.1. Translating the Genre – Defining the Genre 241 9.2. Fields and Polysystems – Translations in their Context 244 9.3. Norms, Laws and Findings 257 9.4. Translation and Culture – Translating Cultures 264 Appendices 1. Chronology of Translations 276 2. German Translations 306 3. Dutch Translations 311 4. Cover Illustrations 316 5. Important Facts and Clues 318 6. Questions and Answers 319 7. Proverbs, Proverbial Expressions and Allusions 321 Bibliography 332 1 Introduction It has often been stated that only the Bible and works by William Shakespeare are more popular than Agatha Christie’s books,1 and according to the Index Translationum, she is also the most translated author of all time.2 However, given the popularity if not the predominance of her fiction worldwide, it is surprising that more scholarly work has not been produced on translations of her works. This study, an analysis of three German and two Dutch3 translations of her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles,4 sets out to rectify this situation. In addition, Christie’s detective fiction is also an ideal case study due to her status as the ‘Queen of Crime’ and the fact that her detective novels serve as a role model for what is now known as ‘Golden Age’ detective fiction. Her first novel was chosen since it marks the beginning of her career and it introduces one of her most famous creations, Hercule Poirot. Translations of detective fiction are commonly categorised as ‘lowbrow’ fiction, an important factor, since in translation analysis practice ‘highbrow’ and ‘lowbrow’ genres are often treated differently. For example, in my research I have found studies on translations of Joyce, Dickens and Charlotte Brontë,5 studies of one particular ‘highbrow’ author, whereas ‘lowbrow’ texts very often seem to serve merely as sources for examples of certain phenomena.6 However, translations of ‘highbrow’ literature represent a minority of translated fiction. In order to discover common translation techniques, translations of books mainly 1 Cf. for example Harold Bloom. “Introduction.” Agatha Christie. Ed. Harold Bloom Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2002. 1. 2 Guinness Book of Records. Online: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/1/most-translated- author [accessed 20/04/2012]. 3 Towards the end of the thesis I actually discovered a third Dutch translation from the 1930s which however could not be taken into consideration at this late stage.. 4 The novel will in the following be referred to as Styles. 5 Gardt, Andreas. James Joyce auf Deutsch: Möglichkeiten der literarischen Übersetzung. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang, 1989. Czennia, Bärbel. Figurenrede als Übersetzungsproblem – Untersucht am Romanwerk von Charles Dickens und ausgewählten deutschen Übersetzungen. Frankfurt/Main, Berlin: Peter Lang, 1992. Hohn, Stefanie. Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre in deutscher Übersetzung – Geschichte eines kulturellen Transfers. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1998. 6 For example Leppihalme, Ritva. Culture Bumps. An Empirical Approach to the Translation of Allusions. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1997; or Strakšienė, Margarita. “Analysis of Idiom Translation Strategies from English into Lithuanian.” Studies about Languages No. 14, 2009. 2 written by authors perceived as ‘lowbrow’, need to be considered. One could even say that translations of ‘lowbrow’ texts reveal more about the translation process than translations of texts which are seen as highbrow in the target culture: translations of ‘lowbrow’ texts are market-oriented translations, produced quickly and cheaply since translators translate them primarily for financial reasons, which results in translation decisions being made quickly. As there is no ‘interference’ of secondary literature, these translations reveal the zeitgeist more than (re)translations of classics with a certain scholarly intention and/or background. ‘Lowbrow’ translations are representative of the translation market and of the average consumer. It is therefore important to look more closely at these everyday translations through the ages in order to be able to create a more comprehensive picture of translation practices in different countries at different times. With regard to the chronology of this study, archival research was first carried out and a list of all Dutch and German translators, publishers and translations of Agatha Christie’s detective fiction compiled. This list also provided valuable information for Chapter 3. The translations of Styles were bought, scanned or typed, corrected, formatted and aligned for the use of ParaConc and WordSmith. At the same time, the theoretical background, both in terms of translation and genre theory, was researched and delineated. Once the texts were formatted, the analysis of the translations was carried out both manually and using corpus linguistic tools. The theoretical approach chosen was, as will be explained in the following chapter, a descriptive and a socio-cultural one. This thesis consists of three parts, A, B and C, of which Part A presents the theoretical and historical framework to Part B, the analysis of the translations.