Cultural and Textual Properties in the Translation and Interpretation of Allusions

TURUN YLIOPISTON JULKAISUJA ANNALES UNIVERSITATIS TURKUENSIS SARJA - SER. B OSA - TOM. 330 HUMANIORA Cultural and textual properties in the translation and interpretation of allusions An analysis of allusions in Dorothy L. Sayers’ detective novels translated into Finnish in the 1940s and the 1980s Minna Ruokonen TURUN YLIOPISTO UNIVERSITY OF TURKU Turku 2010 School of Languages and Translation Studies Department of English, Translation and Interpreting Track University of Turku, Finland Supervisors Professor Jorma Tommola Department of English, Translation and Interpreting Track University of Turku, Finland Professor Ritva Leppihalme Department of English University of Helsinki, Finland Reviewers Professor Riitta Jääskeläinen Department of English Language and Translation University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland Acting Professor Outi Paloposki Department of English Translation University of Helsinki, Finland Opponent Professor Riitta Jääskeläinen Department of English Language and Translation University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland ISBN 978-951-29-4435-4 (PRINT) ISBN 978-951-29-4436-1 (PDF) ISSN 0082-6987 Painosalama Oy – Turku, Finland 2010 “- - But, ‘however entrancing it is to wander unchecked through a garden of bright images, are we not enticing your mind from another subject of almost equal importance?’ - -” “- - [I]f you can quote Kai Lung, we should certainly get on together.” Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison (1930), Chapter 4 Acknowledgements When I first started planning a dissertation on the translation of allusions, I envi- sioned a straightforward analysis of how translators’ treatment of allusions had changed over time. Together with my supervisors, we optimistically estimated that the work could be completed within a few years. However, as I familiarised myself with previous research and began to work on the material, I gradually saw that I could do more: develop a new method for studying allusions that would fill a gap in previous research and then test this method in a way that would contribute to the history of literary translation in Finland. This more ambitious aim has taken seven years to realise, and the journey could not have been completed without feedback and support from senior research- ers. First of all, I want to thank my supervisors, Professor Emeritus Jorma Tom- mola of the University of Turku and Professor Emerita Ritva Leppihalme of the University of Helsinki. Professor Emeritus Tommola was always willing to read the different versions of this dissertation, and his down-to-earth comments were of great significance in shaping the work and in retaining my focus. Professor Emerita Leppihalme’s research first inspired me to study the translation of allusions, and her insightful comments on the first version of the complete manuscript were invaluable. I am also grateful to the appointed reviewers of the manuscript, Professor Riitta Jääskeläinen of the University of Eastern Finland, and Acting Professor Outi Paloposki of the University of Helsinki (currently of the University of Turku). Their comments offered significant pointers about streamlining the structure and explicating as needed. While writing the dissertation, I was fortunate to participate in seminars and courses organised by Langnet, a Finnish doctoral programme in language studies, which were a stimulating experience. I particularly recall a seminar where I discussed my work with Professor Christiane Nord, who kindly provided me with a copy of her article on the translation of quotations (1990). The present study was mainly carried out while I was employed as assistant at the Department of English Translation Studies at the University of Turku, where I worked in close association with colleagues from other departments of translation. Together, we have gone through various kinds of major reforms, but the atmosphere has always remained co-operative and supportive. Since the structural changes in 2010, I have been a member of the new Department of English; thanks to my new colleagues, planning the new curriculum and realis- ing the integration have been a rewarding experience, and I look forward to our further cooperation. Special thanks go to Annika Eräpuro, Hilkka Pekkanen and Kristiina Rikman, those three translators of the Sayers novels whom I was able to contact. All kindly agreed to be interviewed about their work in the 1980s, and their remi- niscences were a welcome supplement to the rest of the documental evidence. The language of the manuscript was quickly and expertly revised by Jacqueline Välimäki, former Lecturer in English Translation Studies. Any remaining errors are my responsibility. Finally, I wish to express my warmest gratitude and affection to my family, who have always encouraged me to read and study, and to my fiancé, who has borne the side-effects of research with admirable patience. Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................4 Contents ........................................................................................................................6 Abbreviations and formatting ................................................................................11 English abstract .........................................................................................................12 Suomenkielinen tiivistelmä ....................................................................................15 1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................21 2 Theoretical background, methods and material ............................................26 2.1 Allusions as foreign discourse .....................................................................27 2.1.1 Defining allusion .................................................................................30 2.1.2 Interpretation process: a dialogue with limits ................................34 2.1.3 Translating allusions: strategies, causes and correlations ..............37 2.2 Case study: allusions in Sayers’ novels and their Finnish translations ..42 2.2.1 Identifying ST allusions and delimiting the scope of the study ....43 2.2.2 Sayers as an alluder .............................................................................46 2.2.3 Whodunits vs. Sayers’ novels ............................................................48 2.2.4 Overview of studying the target contexts.........................................53 3 Cultural and textual properties of allusions ...................................................57 3.1 Cultural foreignness and familiarity............................................................58 3.2 Textual properties of allusions .....................................................................66 3.2.1 Markedness of style and form ..........................................................67 3.2.2 Coherence of cotextual meaning ........................................................78 3.3 Methodological implications .......................................................................86 4 Allusions and the reader: interpretive possibilities .....................................89 4.1 Interpretive possibilities ................................................................................90 4.1.1 Possibility for an allusive interpretation ...........................................94 4.1.2 Possibility for a pseudo-allusive interpretation ...............................98 4.1.3 Possibility for a non-allusive interpretation ..................................106 4.1.4 Risk of a culture bump .....................................................................110 4.2 Differences between interpretive possibilities ........................................116 4.2.1 Readers’ effort ....................................................................................117 4.2.2 Functional shifts ................................................................................119 4.2.2.1 A checklist of functions ........................................................120 4.2.2.2 Analysing functional shifts: vari-directional vs. unidirectional allusions ...................................................122 4.3 Methodological implications .....................................................................128 5 Allusions in translation: strategies and correlations ..................................132 5.1 Describing translated allusions .................................................................132 5.1.1 Nord’s procedures for translating quotations ..............................134 5.1.2 Leppihalme’s strategies for translating allusions .........................135 5.1.3 Gambier’s strategies for translating allusions .............................138 5.1.4 Formulating the revised classification and applying it in practice ..140 5.1.5 Summary of the revised classification ............................................155 5.2 Finalised method for analysing translated allusions ..............................157 5.3 Possible correlations ....................................................................................161 5.3.1 Translation strategies and the properties of ST allusions.............161 5.3.2 Interpretive possibilities, translation strategies and the properties of ST allusions ...........................................................164 6 Contextualising the translations ....................................................................168 6.1 Studying the

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