Around the World in Eighty Changes

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DCU Online Research Access Service Around the World in Eighty Changes A diachronic study of the multiple causality of six complete translations (1873-2004), from French to English, of Jules Verne’s novel Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-Vingts Jours (1873) By Kieran O’Driscoll B.A. in Applied Languages with International Marketing Communications M.A. in Translation Studies A thesis submitted to The School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS) Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Of Dublin City University For the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Supervisor: Prof. Michael Cronin School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS) Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Dublin City University July 2009 DECLARATION I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy, is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: Candidate I.D. number: 54156581 Date: July 2009 i For the ‘Nuclear Family’: Neil, John, Alice and Aiden, and dedicated lovingly to the memory of Nora, Frank and Lal O’Driscoll, much-loved mother, father and grandmother, always in my thoughts and never forgotten. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank, first and foremost, my supervisor, Professor Michael Cronin, for his excellent management of this entire research project, from conception to completion, and especially for the intellectual quality of his tuition. Michael generously shared with me, at all times, his vast knowledge of all matters related, not alone to Translation Theory per se, but also to many other historical, literary and cultural issues which had an important bearing on the arguments presented in this necessarily multi-disciplinary thesis. His breadth and depth of knowledge enabled me to base this thesis on a diverse range of ideas from the Translation Studies and Cultural Studies literature. It was Michael Cronin who initially suggested to me that Jules Verne had been under-researched from a translation history viewpoint, and who then agreed to accept me as a PhD student. But quite apart from the intellectual quality of his supervision, Michael was, at all times, a perfect gentleman, thoroughly encouraging, kind, gentle and diplomatic in his constructive criticism. Throughout the most challenging periods of this research, when energy and enthusiasm occasionally became difficult to sustain, Michael Cronin was unwaveringly kind, patient and flexible. He also gave me the opportunity to write an article, based on my research, for the Royal Irish Academy, in 2008. For all of his kindness and support I am eternally grateful. Thanks are also due to other members of staff in SALIS, who generously and unstintingly provided me with all types of advice and assistance with a multitude of personal and administrative matters, in particular Mr Jean-Philippe Imbert, Professor Jenny Williams, Ms Ruth Bracken, Dr Maggie Gibbon and Dr Brigitte Le Juez. In particular, I am grateful for all research funding received, and for the opportunity to deliver some research seminars in SALIS and to contribute to the teaching of some aspects of literary translation. I am also very grateful to translation scholars from other universities who gave me the benefit of their advice, both in the initial stages of commenting on my research proposal, and also later in the research process, advising me on other theoretical and methodological issues arising throughout the PhD preparation, viz. Professor Susan Bassnett of Warwick University; Professor Andrew Chesterman of the University of Helskini; Professor Theo Hermans of the University of London and Professor Reine Meylaerts of the Catholic University of Leuven. Not alone have I been hugely assisted by Translation Studies scholars, but I have also received invaluable advice from members of the Verne scholarly community. Within the North American Jules Verne Society (NAJVS), I must record my particular gratitude to Verne literary scholars and translators, Professor Frederick Paul Walter, Professor Walter James Miller, Professor Arthur Evans, Professor Peter Schulman and Professor Terry Harpold. The NAJVS member who has been of most help to me has been Dr Norman Wolcott, who provided me with much information on the Victorian translators of the works of Jules Verne. I am also very grateful to Professor Brian Taves of the Library of Congress, another prominent member of the NAJVS, who has provided me with valuable sources of information on certain Verne translators. Brian Taves, Jean-Michel Margot and other members of the NAJVS, have also given me the wonderful opportunity to translate, from French into English, some of Verne’s lesser-known and hitherto untranslated (in the Anglophone world) novels and novellas, for publication in 2010. Professor Laurence Sudret of the Société Jules iii Verne in France provided much-appreciated insight into the connections between Verne and Charles Dickens, and in particular, into Verne’s ‘Irish’ and ‘Dickensian’ novel, P’tit Bonhomme (Foundling Mick). The staff of the Musée Jules Verne, Nantes, helped me greatly. Thanks are due to the staff of the British Library for allowing me access to rare editions of Verne translations and adaptations from the past one hundred and thirty years. Similarly, I am grateful to the staff of the Dublin City University library for their excellent facilities and training, especially Ms Julie Allen, Ms Siobhan Dunne and Mr Paraic Elliott. The staff of the James Joyce Library, UCD, were most helpful in facilitating access to rare editions of Verne translations held in their collections. I am grateful to Mr Brian Page, Editor of the British Mensa Magazine, for kindly publishing various appeals which I made for information on Verne translators and adapters. Thanks are consequently due to the various people who kindly responded to these requests, viz. Professor Des Burton of the University of Bangor, South Wales, and Dr Nye Collier of Southampton, who generously shared with me much information on, and their personal recollections of, Verne translator Dr Robert Baldick. It was also Dr Nye Collier who put me into fruitful contact with his former Oxford student, and fellow Baldick student, Verne translator Michael Glencross, a man whose insights were most informative and revealing in depicting one unique portrait of translational agency, This brings me on to the wealth of information on their translation approaches, given to me by the two most recent translators of Around the World in Eighty Days featured in my corpus of retranslations, viz. Dr William Butcher of Hong Kong and the aforementioned Dr Michael Glencross, France. I am very grateful to both translators for their time and generosity in responding to my many queries. Their information added immeasurably to the quality of my insights into the translation causality of their renderings of Verne, and into their other passions in life. Ms Marcella Edwards and Ms Maria Teresa Boffo of Penguin Publishers in London, and Mr Robert Mullin of The Wee Web, a website dedicated to old editions of Ladybird Books classics, were all generous in their information and advice. Dr Dries de Crom and Professor Dirk Delabastita of the 2008 CETRA doctoral summer school on literary translation, at the Catholic University of Leuven, were also enormously helpful with advice on presenting and publishing my research. Indeed, there is not sufficient space to list all of the individuals who have helped me along the way, in so many different ways. I am also grateful to all of my friends in the Humanities postgrad room, for their friendship, support and advice. In particular, it was a wonderful experience to be involved with my fellow SALIS postgraduate students in the organization of the 2008 Translation and Textual Studies Postgraduate Conference here at DCU. I appreciate the friendship and support of those people in DCU and in the wider Dublin area who have helped me through all the rough patches along the doctoral and life journey, especially one of my closest friends, José Garrido, for all of his I.T. technical support, not to mention his emotional sustenance. Paraic Elliott, my equally close friend from the DCU library, was a rock of support, as was Mikel Seifu, my DCU Campus Residences housemate, fellow doctoral student and wonderful friend. Last but certainly not least, thanks to my much-loved family for everything: John, Alice, Aiden and Neil. This thesis is for you, and would not have been possible without your loving encouragement and practical help. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract....................................................................................................................... xi Abbreviations.............................................................................................................xii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION – BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY.......................... 1 1. Introduction: multiple causation in translation theory ......................................... 1 1.1 Research questions ............................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Structure of introductory chapter ........................................................................

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