What’s in a name? Translating names in Roald Dahl’s children’s fiction into Dutch and French Master thesis Taalwetenschappen: Vertalen Eva van Gerven 5740967 Supervisor: Dr. Eric Metz Second reader: Dr. Otto Zwartjes 30 June 2016 “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.” - C.S. Lewis 2 Contents Prologue 4 Chapter 1. Introduction 5 Chapter 2. A theory of names 7 2.1 What is a name? 7 2.2 A theoretical framework of personal names in translation 10 Chapter 3. A quantitative analysis of the translation of fictional names in Roald Dahl’s works 14 3.1. Determining the method 14 3.2. Categorization problems 16 3.3 Translatorial strategies for the separate books 22 3.4 Translatorial strategies for all works combined 25 3.5 Preliminary observations 26 Chapter 4: A qualitative analysis of the translations of fictional names in Roald Dahl’s works 28 4.1 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 29 4.2 The BFG 35 4.3 The Witches 42 4.4 Matilda 46 Chapter 5. The translators’ strategies 53 Chapter 6. Conclusion 54 References 59 Appendix 60 3 Prologue For as long as I can remember, I have loved reading fiction. I have spent countless hours with a book in my hand, utterly oblivious to everything happening around me and completely submerged in all kinds of fictional worlds. My parents stimulated my penchant for reading from a very early age onwards, taking me to the library at least once a week and giving me books on any occasion where gifts were in order. They undoubtedly did this partly for their own benefit; no matter where we were, if they gave me a book I was out of their hair. It was not until later in life that I realized how big of a role reading had played in my love for language. There are few things that give me more pleasure than reading a beautiful phrase, an eloquent metaphor or an originally phrased sentence; I have books to thank for that. It is no wonder that, while studying languages at the University of Amsterdam, I found myself being pulled back time and time again to those works of fiction that had played such a vital role in my childhood. Whenever an assignment or paper required the analysis of a work of fiction, I always found myself choosing one of the books I enjoyed reading as a child as my subject. Re-reading some of my all-time favourites, I was amazed at how funny, delightful and captivating these stories still were in my twenties, in some cases nearly two decades after I had first read them. Being able to rediscover some of these text in their original language allowed me to see them in an entirely different way, and enabled me to fully understand how much they helped shape me into the person that I am today. I was therefore not surprised to find myself more than a little interested in the art of translation. After all, I would never have been able to enjoy these children’s books without it. The decision to take a master’s degree in translation studies was, therefore, not a difficult one, and one that I have never regretted. With my master’s thesis, I wanted to go back to the stories of my childhood once again. I wanted to see if I could find a way to take a peek into the brain of the person who translated some of the books that I loved so much, by one of my absolute favourite authors of all time: Roald Dahl. His sense of humour, wordplay and unique characters delighted me like no other author’s creations. From the point of view of a translator, I became curious to see how much of a role the translator of his most popular works, Huberte Vriesendorp, played in these joys from my childhood. 4 Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1 Aim of the study In addition to the wordplay, puns and jokes that Roald Dahl is so famous for, the names he gives to his characters contribute greatly to the way in which the reader experiences his stories. More often than not, the names say something about a character, giving the reader little hints toward the nature of the person they are about to encounter in the story. With this thesis, my aim is to investigate how these often-expressive names are translated into Dutch and French. I have chosen to analyze four major works of children’s fiction by Roald Dahl: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, The Witches and Matilda. These books have been immensely popular since they were first published, and were translated into countless languages; not only are they some of the most widely read works in the canon of English children’s fiction, their Dutch and French translations have become part of the literary canon of their respective target cultures as well. Each of these books has been adapted into films, and the fact that a new film adaptation of The BFG was released in July 2016 proves that the popularity of the works of Roald Dahl shows no signs of waning. It is not a stretch to assume that an author known for his talent for storytelling would choose his characters’ naMes carefully and deliberately. This thesis will explore the descriptive nature of the names in these four major works. My aim is to analyze how the translators handle these names in their respective target texts. Undoubtedly, their translation will require a measure of creativity on the part of the translator; I am fascinated to discover the solutions they have found to these translation problems on the textual level. To what extent do they keep the descriptive nature the names may have into account? How is this reflected in the translation? All of the Dutch translations were carried out by the same person, Huberte Vriesendorp, so it will be interesting to find out whether her general approach towards children’s fiction can be deduced from the analysis. Upon first glance, she seems to apply the same strategy consistently when it comes to the translation of first names, leading to a consistent target culture canon of first names and surnames. Reading the French translations of the same four source texts, it seems that the overall translation strategy of the characters’ names in the target texts lacks the same consistency. In the French translation of Matilda especially, names seem to be translated with an entirely different approach to that of the other three source texts. While this inconsistency could be due to a possible difference in the nature of the names, which may warrant a different approach to the translation, I think that the fact that the French translations were carried out not by one, but rather four different translators has led to this disparity. I think that the names in the four source texts are descriptive in equal measure, and that the differences in their translations between the Dutch and French target text and the separate French texts respectively is due to the difference in the general approaches taken by the translators. The aim of this study is to investigate this hypothesis. 5 1.2 Method In order to analyze the Dutch and French translations of names in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, The Witches and Matilda, I will first set up a theoretical framework in order to establish what a name is, and how this theory of names can be employed for the translation of names in children’s fiction. Subsequently, I will divide my analysis of the translated names in the Dutch and French target texts into a quantitative and a qualitative part. In the quantitative analysis, I will use B.J. Epstein’s distinction between seven different translatorial strategies. For each of the Dutch and French target texts, I will deterMine the translatorial strategy used for each of the target text names, analyzing first names and surnames separately. Comparing the results of this quantitative analysis, I will draw some preliminary conclusions. In the qualitative analysis, I will look at each of the Dutch and French target text equivalents of the source text names, and try to interpret these translations in order to determine the translators’ approach. I will establish whether or not the names are descriptive in nature, and determine the extent to which this possible descriptive nature is reflected in the Dutch and French translations respectively. On the basis of the analysis, I will attempt to determine the global approaches taken by each translator, and either prove or disprove the hypothesis formulated above. 6 Chapter 2. A theory of names 2.1 What is a name? If the aim of this thesis is to study the role that names play in fiction, and in children’s fiction in particular, it is necessary to establish what exactly a name entails. When can something be called a name, and how does it insinuate meaning? 2.1.1 The grammar of names In grammar, ‘name’ as a category encompasses much more than only given names and surnames of persons. It is necessary to specify that when speaking of analyzing the translation of names in Roald Dahl’s works, I am really talking about personal names. Personal names belong to the grammatical category of the noun, and when it comes to syntax, they primarily function as noun phrases in a sentence.