Charlotte Isabelle Aline Bosseaux Translation and Narration: A Corpus-Based Study of French Translations of two Novels by Virginia Woolf Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of London Comparative Literature University College London 2004 1 UMI Number: U602628 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 complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U602628 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract Narratology does not usually distinguish between original and translated fiction and narratological models do not pay any attention to the translator as a discursive subject, Since the 1990’s, the visibility of translators in translated narrative texts has been increasingly discussed and researchers like Schiavi (1996) and Hermans (1996) introduced the concept of the translator’s voice, which attempts to recognise the ‘other’ voice in translation, i.e. the presence of the translator. Corpus-based studies have also focused on recurrent features of translated language (see, for example, Baker 1993, Kenny 2001; Laviosa 1997; Olohan and Baker 2000), and corpus techniques and tools are being employed to identify the translators’ ‘style’ in their translations (Baker 2000). The present thesis seeks to explore the nature of the translator’s discursive presence by investigating certain narratological aspects of the relation between originals and translations. Until recently comparative analysis between originals and their translations have mainly relied on manual examinations; the present study will demonstrate that corpus-based translation studies and its tools can greatly facilitate and sharpen the process of comparison. My work uses a parallel corpus composed of two English novels and their French translations: Virginia Woolfs To The Ughthouse (1927) and its three translations ( Promenade au Phare, 1929, translated by Michel Lanoire; Voyage au Phare, 1993, by Magali Merle; Vers le Phare, 1996, by Fran 9oise Pellan), and The Waves (1931), and its two translations (Les Vagues, 1937, translated by Marguerite Yourcenar and Les Vagues, 1993- translated by Cecile Wajsbrot). The relevant texts have been scanned and put in machine-readable form and I study them using corpus-analysis tools and techniques (WordSmith Tools, Multiconcord). My investigation is particularly concerned with the potential problems involved in the translation of linguistic features that constitute the notion of point of view, i.e. deixis, modality, transitivity and free indirect discourse, and seeks to determine whether and how the translator’s choices affect the transfer of narratological structures. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Theo Hermans for his constant support and invaluable advice during these three years. I would also like to thank Dr Jeremy Munday and Professor Mona Baker for reading individual chapters and giving me critical advice. Thanks also to Dr Maria Filippakopoulou and Sophie Collombat for their feedback and encouragements. Finally, I would also like to thank my parents and Joseph who have been supporting me for many years; without you I would not have been able to write and finish this thesis. 3 Table of contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. 3 Table of contents ..................................................................................................................... 4 Abbreviations ...........................................................................................................................9 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 10 1. Narratology and Translation ............................................................................................ 11 2. Virginia Woolf ................................................................................................................. 13 2.1. Virginia Woolfs To The Lighthouse ......................................................................15 2.1.1. Free indirect discourse ............................................................................... 15 2.1.2. The French translations of To The Lighthouse ..............................................18 2.2. Virginia Woolfs The Waves................................................................................ 21 2.2.1. Interior monologues ...................................................................................22 2.2.2. The French translations of The Waves........................................................ 22 3. Scope and Structure ......................................................................................................... 29 Chapter One: Narratology and Translation ........................................................................ 32 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 32 2. Point of View in Narrative Fiction .................................................................................. 32 2.1. Point of View in Translation ..............................................................................34 2.2. The Translator’s Presence in Translated Text .................................................... 36 2.3. Baker’s Concept of ‘Style’ ..................................................................................41 3. Towards a ‘Repertory of Features’ to Study Originals and Translations ...........................44 3.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................44 3.2. Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Model ............................................................... 44 3.3. Van Leuven-Zwart’s Model ............................................................................... 47 4. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 50 Chapter Two: The Different Categories of Point of View ...................................................51 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 51 2. Deixis or Spatio-Temporal Point of View ........................................................................52 2.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................52 2.2. Deixis: a Structural Approach ............................................................................53 4 2.3. Different Types or Categories of Deixis ............................................................ 53 2.4. Deixis in Narratives ...........................................................................................57 2.5. Deixis in The Waves.............................................................................................59 2.6. Conclusion .........................................................................................................62 3. An Interpersonal Approach to Point of View: Modality .................................................63 3.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 63 3.2. Modality: a Definition ........................................................................................63 3.3. An Interpersonal Approach to Point of View .................................................... 66 3.3.1. A modal grammar of point of view: Simpson (1993) ...................................67 3.3.2. Category A narratives ................................................................................. 68 3.4. Modality in The Waves........................................................................................ 70 3.5. Conclusion .........................................................................................................74 4. Transitivity ..................................................................................................................... 75 4.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 75 4.2. The Transitivity Model ...................................................................................... 75 4.2.1. Material processes ...................................................................................... 76 4.2.2. Mental processes: processes of sensing .......................................................78 4.2.3. Relational processes: processes of being ......................................................78 4.3. Transitivity and Voice: Standard and Ergative Analyses .................................... 79