PARTICULARITIES OF TRANSLATION OF A CHAPTER FROM KAZUO ISHIGURO´S "AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD" Vrdoljak, Ana Master's thesis / Diplomski rad 2020 Degree Grantor / Ustanova koja je dodijelila akademski / stručni stupanj: University of Split, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split / Sveučilište u Splitu, Filozofski fakultet Permanent link / Trajna poveznica: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:172:552279 Rights / Prava: In copyright Download date / Datum preuzimanja: 2021-10-02 Repository / Repozitorij: Repository of Faculty of humanities and social sciences Sveučilište u Splitu Filozofski fakultet Odsjek za engleski jezik i književnost Ana Vrdoljak PARTICULARITIES OF TRANSLATION OF A CHAPTER FROM KAZUO ISHIGURO’S “AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD” Diplomski rad Split, 2020. University of Split Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of English Language and Literature PARTICULARITIES OF TRANSLATION OF A CHAPTER FROM KAZUO ISHIGURO’S “AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD” Graduation Thesis Student: Supervisor: Ana Vrdoljak Danijela Šegedin Borovina, PhD, Asst. Prof. Split, 2020 Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Theoretical part .................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1. Translation .................................................................................................................................... 3 2.2. Literary translation ....................................................................................................................... 4 2.2.1. Literary translation as a part of a larger system ..................................................................... 6 2.3. Translation procedures ................................................................................................................. 8 2.4. Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World ...................................................................... 11 2.4.1. Author .................................................................................................................................. 11 2.4.2. Novel ................................................................................................................................... 12 3. Practical part – translation and analysis of a chapter from An Artist of the Floating World ............. 14 3.1. Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 14 3.2. Translation .................................................................................................................................. 15 3.2.1. Source text ........................................................................................................................... 15 3.2.2. Target text ............................................................................................................................ 68 3.3. Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 117 3.3.1. Idiomatic expressions ........................................................................................................ 117 3.3.2. Culture-specific words....................................................................................................... 135 3.3.3. Loan words ........................................................................................................................ 138 3.3.4. Intertextuality .................................................................................................................... 140 4. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 141 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 143 Online sources ..................................................................................................................................... 144 Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 145 Sažetak ................................................................................................................................................ 146 List of tables Table 1 Translation choices for idiomatic expressions ....................................................................... 117 Table 2 Translation choices for culture-specific words....................................................................... 136 Table 3 Translation choices for loan words ........................................................................................ 138 Table 4 Translation choices for intertextuality .................................................................................... 140 1. Introduction The practice of translation is probably as old as speech itself. From ancient times, people have tried to communicate with those from different cultures, and this practice continued as people started writing (Munday, 2016). Literary translation is no exception. Literary works have been translated in order to share new ideas with people from a different culture, to introduce new literary devices (for example, metaphors, motifs, rhymes) and styles into the target language or to practice a foreign language (Lefevere, 1992). At first, the translators of literary works were writers or scholars who spoke a foreign language, but as the field of translation has been established, there is now university education for translation and courses and seminars dedicated to literary translation in particular. Several theorists of translation, such as Nord (2005) and Newmark (2008), have tried to provide instructions to help translators of literary texts decide on which procedures to use and which parts to focus on the most. However, there is a lot of variation in literary texts, styles, and literary devices can vastly differ from one text to another. Furthermore, the meaning of such texts largely depends on the context and even language itself constantly changes, with new phrases and expressions being added all the time, especially in the age of globalisation when many different cultures often come in contact. All these factors make it impossible to provide a sort of a formula for literary translation that would work for every literary text there is. Nonetheless, the guidelines provided by various theorists can help translators in choosing the right strategies in their work. This thesis aims to provide a translation of a chapter from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel An Artist of the Floating World and analysis of categories that are of particular interest, namely idiomatic expressions, culture-specific words, loan words and intertextuality. The thesis consists of two main parts – theoretical and practical. In the theoretical part, the term “translation” will be discussed, followed by the guidelines for literary translation. Furthermore, the relationship between translation and culture will be explored, as well as the translation procedures described by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995). The theoretical part will be followed by a practical part consisting of methodology, translation and the analysis of the four abovementioned categories. Reasons for choosing those four categories will be explained in the methodology section, as well as the connection between the theory of literary translation and the practice of literary translation. Furthermore, an English source text of the chapter from An Artist of the 1 Floating World will be provided, followed by the translation in Croatian. In the analysis, 95 examples divided according to the abovementioned categories will be discussed, and the translator’s choices will be explained. 2 2. Theoretical part In the theoretical part, the concept of translation will be explained along with some issues that arise from the widely accepted definitions of translation. Furthermore, guidelines for literary translation by notable theorists of translation will be provided, namely by Even-Zohar (1990), Lefevere (1992), Newmark (2008), Nord (2005), Reiss and Vermeer (2015), and Venuti (1995). This chapter will also discuss the role of literary translation in the publishing industry and culture in general. Lastly, seven main procedures used in translation will be named and explained. 2.1. Translation In order to talk about translation, it is first necessary to explain what this term entails. Munday (2016) emphasizes that the term translation has three different meanings. Firstly it can refer to a field of study. Secondly, it can be used when referring to the process of translating and finally, it can also refer to a product that is a result of the process of translation. When discussing the process of translation, it is important to note that it starts with a source text that is written in the source language and results in a target text that is written in the target language (Munday, 2016). However, this is only the simplified definition of the process that does not account for all situations, such as the source text being written in several languages or versions of the source text being on-line and prone to constant modifications. This