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Translation and Analysis of the Gothic Story the Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

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Translation and Analysis of the Gothic Story the Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature Translation and Analysis of the Gothic Story The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde Bachelor Thesis Brno 2020 Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. Jakub Dvořák Abstract This bachelor’s thesis deals with the matter of translation and comparison of two translations of the same source text. It aims to point out how differences in these two translations, separated by fifty years, can affect one’s reading experience. This paper is divided into three parts. The analytical part introduces basic principles of translation to the reader, presents the role of humor in translation, and treats the subject of lexical equivalence. It also briefly brings up the genre of gothic stories, the story of The Canterville Ghost and Oscar Wilde as the author. The second part contains a translation corpus, where the original text is presented, along with two versions of translation. Translation 2 was written by Jiří Zdeněk Novák in 1957, and translation 1 was created by the author of this paper. Finally, in the practical part, the corpus is analyzed with emphasis on interesting or problematic aspects of the translation. The analysis is supported by the author’s comments and justifications of chosen translation approaches. Anotace Tato práce se zabývá překladem a porovnáním dvou verzí překladu stejného zdrojového textu. Poukazuje na to, jak rozdílnost obou překladů, které vznikly s odstupem 50 let, může ovlivnit čtenářův zážitek. Je rozdělená do tří částí. Analytická část předkládá a rozebírá základní aspekty překladatelské práce, přibližuje roli humoru v překladu a dotýká se podstaty teorie lexikální ekvivalence. Stručně se zabývá také žánrem díla a osobou Oscara Wildea. Druhá část obsahuje překladatelský korpus s původním textem a dvěma verzemi překladu. Verzi 2 napsal v roce 1957 Jiří Zdeněk Novák a překlad 1 vytvořil autor této práce. Ve třetí části autor předkládá analýzu výše zmíněného korpusu s důrazem na zajímavé či problematické jevy, které během práce na překladu vyvstaly. Analýza je doplněna o autorovi poznámky k těmto jevům a zdůvodnění jeho postupů při práci. Key words Translation, translation analysis, translation of gothic stories, gothic stories, Oscar Wilde, corpus, The Canterville Ghost, translation theory, translator, translator’s role, linguistics, the characteristics of a good translation, the translator’s competences Klíčová slova Překlad, analýza překladu, překlad hororů, hororové příběhy, Oscar Wilde, korpus, Cantervillské strašidlo, překladatelská teorie, překladatel, role překladatele, lingvistika, rysy kvalitního překladu, překladatelské kompetence Declaration I hereby declare that I worked on my thesis independently and that I used only the sources listed in the bibliography. Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů. Brno, 30th March 2020 Jakub Dvořák Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. Martin Němec, PhD., for the guidance, advice and encouragement he has provided throughout my research. A special thank goes out to my family, girlfriend and friends for always being there for me. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 6 1 ANALYTICAL PART ...................................................................................... 7 1.1 ABOUT TRANSLATION ............................................................................. 7 1.1.1 THE DEFINITION OF TRANSLATION ........................................................................ 7 1.1.2 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD TRANSLATION ............................................... 8 1.1.3 THE TRANSLATOR’S COMPETENCES .................................................................... 10 1.2 THE GENRE OF THE CANTERVILLE GHOST AND TRNSLATING HUMOR ...... 12 1.2.1 THE GENRE OF THE CANTERVILLE GHOST ........................................................... 12 1.2.2 TRANSLATING HUMOR ........................................................................................ 13 1.3 THE THEORY OF LEXICAL EQUIVALENCE ................................................. 16 1.3.1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................... 16 1.3.2 ABSOLUTE EQUIVALENTS..................................................................................... 17 1.3.3 PARTIAL EQUIVALENTS ........................................................................................ 18 1.3.4 ZERO EQUIVALENTS ............................................................................................. 24 2 TRANSLATION CORPUS ........................................................................ 25 3 PRACTICAL PART .................................................................................. 84 3.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 84 3.2 THE ANALYSIS ....................................................................................... 85 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 94 LIST OF REFERENCES .................................................................................... 95 INTRODUCTION New translations are created every day. Translators devote their lives to making as many pieces of literature enjoyable to people all across the globe. A translator is an author’s mouthpiece in their respective culture and spreads his or her ideas. All these facts amaze me, and I wanted to get an insight into the issue of translation. It is quite common for famous books or stories to be republished after a certain period, whatever the reason may be. In some cases, their translations are also “updated”, and I was interested in finding out how much different two translations of the same original could be. This paper aims to answer whether a sixty-year-old translation is still relevant to today’s reader. My intention was not to disgrace J. Z. Novák’s work. There is no doubt he was a remarkable author and translator. This thesis celebrates translators, their efforts and discusses key aspects of their work. Ever since I was a child, I have been interested in studying foreign languages. The fact that people all over the world have different mother tongues was beyond my understanding, and I wanted to speak as many languages as possible. I simply wanted to understand and to be understood. Consequently, it comes as no surprise for people who know me that my thesis deals with the matter of language and communication. The first part defines translation, presents the characteristics of a well-made translation and the translator’s competences. This was important to me as I believe that the matter of translation is quite often overlooked or unnoticed, and people do not give translators enough credit, because they simply don’t realize what it takes to be any good at translating. My goal is to raise awareness of their work and point out how translators shape the world around us all. This section also briefly introduces Oscar Wilde and the specific genre of The Canterville Ghost, which explains why it is such an eye-catching story. Last but not least, it introduces the theory of lexical equivalence, which was the backbone of my research. The second part presents the language corpus and my translation, which is compared to J. Z. Novák’s work. Intriguing and problematic sections of the text are marked and later analyzed in the final part of the thesis. Given the length of the story (about 20 pages), I decided to include the whole story and my complete 6 translation. I believe this decision is justifiable, as it makes the reading experience more complex and enjoyable. The two translations are analyzed in the third part of this thesis. I believe that this paper might be inspirational for other people who would like to find out more about translating. It could help people who think about getting into translation. It can also be a useful tool for publishers, as it gives them an insight into the process of creating an updated translation. 1 ANALYTICAL PART 1.1 ABOUT TRANSLATION This section of the theoretical part defines and introduces translation to the reader. It presents the characteristics of a good translation, deals with important decisions translators need to make and breaks down the translator’s competences. 1.1.1 THE DEFINITION OF TRANSLATION Translation can be defined in many ways. The most trivial one says that translation is nothing more than finding the right equivalent of source language in target language. However, this view of translation is very much simplified, and the matter of translation goes deeper than that. Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way the author intended the text (Newmark 5). The fundamental principle of translation is taking a message in source language (SL) and transferring it into transfer language (TL). The message is crucial, as translator’s job is not only to present a text in a different language. He needs to be capable of preserving the author’s ideas and intentions. The translator needs to bear in mind the
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