Cinema As Translation
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https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Anna Fochi Translation as Theory and Practice A Multilingual Approach to Translation Challenges and Tensions Degree: Doctor of Philosophy University of Glasgow Faculty of Arts, School of Modern Languages, Italian/Hispanic Studies Submission date: December 2006 Copyright © Anna Fochi, 2007. ProQuest Number: 10390572 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10390572 Published by ProQuest LLO (2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLO. ProQuest LLO. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.Q. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract Translation always implies establishing a contact between cultures, and thus it inevitably leads to an ‘experience of the other’, with the possibility of developing a range of different types of ‘encounters’. Therefore, translation is no neutral act of communication, having important consequences on the delicate dialogue between cultures, especially in the case of unbalanced contacts between a ‘strong’ and a ‘weak’ culture, which also justifies the central role that translation has always played for countries like those in Latin America. To study translation from a cross-cultural perspective first of all implies to acknowledge its role in society, and to stop regarding it only as a specialized and ‘detached’ field. It is a stimulating position for translation studies, which inevitably leads to a more open approach, extending the discourse about translation, and translation criticism in particular, outside their traditional borders. This confirms the opinion that it is too limiting to conceive the study of translation only on an ‘interlinguistic’level, tliinking that similar processes of text transfer can be activated in both ‘interlinguistic’ and ‘intersemiotic’ translation, and thus this research aims to prove that it is possible for translation criticism to combine a cross-cultuial perspective with a more comprehensive approach to translation, inclusive of interlinguistic and intersemiotic forms. In other words, the hope is to show how the tensions and dynamics created by the transposition of a written text, a novel, into a foreign language and culture can be better detected and understood by applying a fundamentally similar approach to the study of more than one transformational form of the same source text (ST), including therefore both written and filmic target texts (TTs). Trying to put such a hypothesis to the proof, and verifying if and how it is relevant to translation criticism, the reseai'ch identifies two almost contemporary, yet very different Latin American novels (Antonio Skarmeta’s Ardiente paciencia, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Cronica de una muerte anunciadd) as case studies, and focuses on their encounters with our Western culture, tlirough both their interlinguistic and intersemiotic translations. This way the study deals with different semiotic languages, which means therefore that it is particularly important to identify an adequate tool for analysis, and from this point of view a promising support has been found in Peèter Torop’s table for “Translatability of Culture”. Although mainly developed for interlinguistic translation, the table proves to be applicable also to intersemiotic translation, and in both case studies it actually contributes to highlight tensions and dynamics which are more or less overtly present in both written and cinematic TTs. If in the first case study, the analysis reveals a clear process of ‘deterritorialization’ and assimilation in the long ‘journey from the margins’, the second case study, instead, offers interesting examples of culturally aware and committed translators. There are relevant implications for translation criticism, as it stops being an aloof and academic arena, only aiming at detecting and scientifically describing translation 2 methods and norms. The research shows that the identification of a translation method almost inevitably leads the observer to reflect on the way the translator’s choices influence the readers’ perception of the ST within the framework of the receiving culture, and the ultimate focus of translation criticism becomes the practical consequences of translation on the ‘meeting’ of two different cultures. Table of contents Translation as theory • Chapter 1 : Interlinguistic Translation o Part 1 : The state of the art ■ 1.1.1a: The boom of translation studies ■ 1.1.1b: Antithesis and translation studies ■ 1.1.2a: The issue of translatability ■ 1.1.2b: Autonomy and equivalence in translation ■ 1.1.2c: Towards the linking of theory and practice " 1.1.2d: The risks of domestication ■ 1.1.2e: Translation as communication between cultures ■ 1.1.3: Translation criticism o Part 2: Awakened in translation ■ 1.2.1a: Translation and Latin America “ 1.2. lb: The displacement of exile " 1.2.1c: Language and culture identity ■ 1.2.2a: A complex neighbourhood: Latin America and the U.S. ■ 1.2.2b: The making of a commercially successful image • Chapter 2: Cinema as translation o 2.1a: Film/literature studies o 2.1b: Film and translation o 2.2a: Film and novel: two different semiotic systems o 2.2b: The issue of originality in film transposition o 2.2c: Fidelity in film transposition o 2.2d: Film and literature: possibilities of a dialogue o 2.3: Towards a cross-cultural approach to film transposition Translation as practice Skdrmeta’s ‘Ardiente Paciencia’ • Chapter 3 : From the Andes to the Apennines - A iournev from the margins: part L the written text o 3.1a: A promising case study o 3.1b: A text based on metaphors o 3.1c: Pablo Neruda as a fictional character o 3.Id: Skâmieta and the writers of the Boom o 3.2: Torop ’ s table for ‘ translatability of cultur e ’ o 3.3a: The English translation o 3.3b: The parameter of languages: grammar' categories o 3.3c: The pai'ameter of language : conversational etiquette o 3.3d: The social and geographic space o 3.3e: The parameter of language: realia o 3.3f: The parameter of text o 3.3g: Translation strategies in Katherine Silver’s TT o 3.4a: The Italian translation: a different title o 3.4b: The pai'ameter of language: syntax o 3.4c: The parameter of language: conversational etiquette, realia, idioms o 3.4d: The parameter of socio-political manipulation: taboos o 3.4e: The expressive aura of the character o 3.4f: In search of a method • Chapter 4: A iournev from the margins: nail 2. the cinematic text. o 4.1a: Skarmeta’s film transposition, Ardientepaciencia (1983) o 4,1b: A methodological digression o 4.1c: Examples of relazioni traduttive in Skarmeta’s transposition o 4. Id: The role of visual and auditory metaphors o 4.2a: Radford’s and Troisi’s transposition, 11 postino (1995) o 4.2b: A commercial success o 4.2c: Pablo Neruda and poetry in IIpostino o 4.2d: Cinema of loss and mourning o 4.3 : A bitter conclusion for a ling journey from the margins Marquez^s ‘Cronica de una muerte anunciada’ * Chapter 5: The committed translator - part 1 : the written text o 5.1a; Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the Latin American novel o 5.1b: ‘Cronica de una muerte anunciada’: a hybrid o 5.1c: ‘Cronica de una muerte anunciada’: evocative echoes in a title o 5.Id: ‘Cronica de una muerte anunciada’ and fate o 5. le: ‘Cronica de una muerte anunciada’: the tragic hero o 5.If: ‘Cronica de una muerte anunciada’: time and memory o 5.2a: Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s perspective on translation o 5.2b: Gregory Rabassa and translation o 5.3a: Rabassa’s translation: the title o 5.3b: The parameter of language: graimnar and syntax o 5.3c: The parameter of language: cultural terms or realia o 5.3d: The parameter of language: vocative names and tags o 5.3e: The parameter of space: social space and geographic space o 5.3f: The parameter of text: narrator and narration, or the topographic chi'onotope o 5.4: The Italian translation • Chapter 6: The committed translator - part 2: the cinematic text o 6.1a: Francesco Rosi, cinema as challenge o 6.1b: Francesco Rosi on film transposition o 6.1c: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the film transposition of his works o 6.2: The film and the opinions of the critics o 6.3a: The film and the overt rendering of a culture o 6.3b: The parameter of space o 6.3c: The parameter o f text o 6.3d: The parameter of text: the interweaving of narratives styles o 6.3e: The parameter of text: textual and autointertextual repetitions o 6.4: A mixed result Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 1 - Interlinguistic Translation Part 1 - The State of the Art 1.1.