How Translators Negotiate the Foreign in Travel and Tourism. An
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Homeward Bound: How Translators Negotiate the Foreign in Travel and Tourism. An English-Russian Case Study. Submitted by Maria Selezneva to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Modern Languages In October 2018 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. 1 Abstract My research addresses intercultural communication in the field of travel and the industry of tourism and the challenges faced by translators between cultures. In my thesis I explore selected texts about foreign travel in English and in Russian and their Russian and English translations (respectively) in order to show the importance of differentiating between the ways in which translators, travellers and tourists represent and contrast foreign and domestic elements. In Chapters One and Two, I explore target-oriented and source-oriented translations. My analysis suggests that target-oriented translation can be creatively combined with source-oriented translation, both on a semantic level, by translators of travel texts and on a narrative level, by those travellers who write accounts of their experiences. Thus translators of travel literature create a holistic image of a foreign culture using analogies familiar to readers of the target language. My comparisons of English-language The Lonely Planet and Rough Guides travel guides to China, Finland and Russia with their Russian translations suggest that texts targeted at different audiences can be significantly divergent in terms of content. Translators take different approaches not only in their use of target-oriented and source-oriented translations, but also in the degree of creativity and adaptation/localization which they employ. My analysis of articles from British Cereal magazine and their Russian translations, which I study in Chapter Three of my thesis, shows that creativity may be a legitimate aspect of translation strategy, or an attempt by publishers to alter the original text radically in order to make it more appealing to the target audience. In Chapter Four, I focus my analysis of online texts for tourists on Condé Nast Traveller magazine and the Booking.Com website (both English and Russian versions) in order to establish why localization experts replace translators. My thesis concludes that the role of the translator in the travel industry encompasses a spectrum of linguistic and extra-linguistic tasks based on connections between foreign and domestic values, including strategies of localization and adaptation. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to express gratitude to many people who made an invaluable contribution to this work and I would like to say that without each of you this thesis would not eventually happen. I am sincerely grateful to Dr Muireann Maguire, who was my supervisor and who was supporting me and devoting a lot of her time and knowledge into my work. A special appreciation should be given to Dr Eliana Maestri’s contribution in the form of thorough and prompt recommendations on my final and most challenging times of writing this research. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Richard Mansell who shared with me his knowledge and experience in translation. I must say thank you to the staff of the University of Exeter and the College of Humanities who assisted me with various help, support and encouragement within these four years of my study. Numerous thanks to Anastasia Golovina, Anna Khaova, Katherine Rakitskaya and Dan Richardson for finding time to answer to my questions and provide me with essential material for my research. My sincere gratitude goes to my father, Andrei Seleznev, who made me believe in my ability to make this research. Thank you, Diana Galeeva for inspiring me to write this work and being a truly supportive and very sympathetic friend all these years. I would like to thank my mother, Elena Selezneva for her love and care I felt even at the distance and who always had time to come to England and support me when I mostly needed it. My deepest appreciation goes to my husband, John Pardy, who had to make great sacrifices taking care of me during the times of hard work, despair and struggles. I devote this thesis to four of you who came with me through the long time of ups and downs while I was writing this research. 3 Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................2 List of figures.........................................................................................................5 Introduction...........................................................................................................6 Chapter 1 The translator in the field of travellers and tourism...........................31 1.1 Traveller and tourist...................................................................................32 1.1.1 Travellers and tourists: before the journey..........................................38 1.1.2 Travellers and tourists: during the journey..........................................41 1.1.3 Travellers and tourists: after the journey.............................................44 1.2 The concepts of traveller and translator....................................................45 1.3 Analysis of texts in the travel field and the tourist industry........................48 1.4 Are bloggers tourists or travellers?............................................................55 1.5 New classification of texts in the field of travel and tourism......................58 1.6 Conclusion................................................................................................60 Chapter 2 Translation of travel guides................................................................62 2.1 Travel guides.............................................................................................62 2.2 Source-oriented vs target-oriented translation..........................................63 2.2.1 Nida’s approach...................................................................................66 2.2.2 Nord’s approach..................................................................................71 2.2.3 Nord’s functionalist approach..............................................................73 2.2.4 House’s approach................................................................................75 2.2.5 Application of Nida’s theory to the translation of The Rough Guide to Moscow.........................................................................................................77 2.2.6 Application of Nord’s theory to the translation of the Lonely Planet Finland travel guide.......................................................................................84 2.2.7 Nord’s functions in the translation of the Lonely Planet Finland travel guide.............................................................................................................86 2.2.8 Application of House’s theory to the original text and translation of the Lonely Planet China travel guide..................................................................92 Source text and target text comparison and statement of quality................95 2.3 Ideological basis of the travel guide........................................................109 2.4 Conclusion...............................................................................................111 Chapter 3 Translation of independent magazines............................................115 3.1 Magazines in the field of travel and tourism............................................117 3.1.1 Cereal Magazine in Russian..............................................................119 3.2 Creativity in translation............................................................................119 3.2.1 Analysis of Kussmaul’s types of creativity.........................................121 3.2.2 Komissarov’s adaptive transcoding...................................................130 3.3 Adaptation or transcreation?...................................................................133 3.3.1 Torresi’s promotional translation.......................................................137 3.4 Conclusion...............................................................................................142 Chapter 4 Translation and Localization............................................................146 4.1 Localization..............................................................................................148 4.2 Website localization.................................................................................151 4.2.1 Booking.Com.....................................................................................151 4.2.2 Localization of travel guides from Booking.Com...............................163 4.3 Localization of Online Condé Nast Traveller magazine..........................168 4.3.1 Texts about Hong Kong.....................................................................171 4.3.2 Texts about Vilnius............................................................................172 4.3.3 Texts about the city of Fez................................................................173