“En cada linaje el deterioro ejerce su dominio.” An examination and evaluation of the domesticating versus foreignisation translation strategy as proposed by Lawrence Venuti in light of the English language translation of ‘La ciudad y los perros’ by Mario Vargas Llosa. Nicola Patricia Horgan B. A. Masters Degree Thesis June 1997 Dublin City University School o f Applied Language & Intercultural Studies I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme o f study leading to the award o f Masters Degree is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work o f others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work Signed ID No < ? i? 7 0 £ 7 Z (Candidate) Table Of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction The Never - ending Story 1 1.1 Doctor’s orders - The prescriptive age 3 1.2 Rethinking Translation / rebuilding the onion 15 1.3 Lawrence Venuti’s translation Strategy 25 1.4 Headings of investigation 26 Chapter 2 Who is Mario Vargas Llosa? 30 2.1 Biographical Note 30 2.2 Mario Vargas Llosa’s Theory of the Novel 39 2.3 La ciudad y los perros - Structure, Style, Technique 45 2.4 The Time of the Hero - Structure, Style, Technique 51 2.5 Translation and Translator - Dual invisibility 55 Chapter 3 Analysis o f the texts 3.1 Domesticating versus foreigmsing translation strategy 59 3.2 Treatment o f narrator in a domesticated translation 62 3.3 Treatment o f archaic references, jargon and umdiomatic constructions 71 3.4 Treatment o f deictic lexemes in a domesticated translation 77 3.5 Treatment o f rhythm, sound and syntax in a domesticated translation 81 3.6 Treatment o f extrinsic cultural textual factors 85 3.7 Physical representations in a domesticated translation 90 Chapter 4 Conclusions 93 Appendix < Chronology o f publication covers i-v Select biography of Mario Vargas Llosa vi-ix Bibliography I-IV Abstract. ‘En cada linaje el deterioro ejerce su dominio ’ Masters Degree Thesis Nicola Patricia Horgan. This thesis is an examination of the field of translation theory through practical application The aim o f the thesis is to provide a detailed and accurate account o f the history o f and effectiveness o f the translation strategy proposed by Lawrence Venuti - namely Fluent versus Resistant translation strategy The translation strategy w ill be exemplified by an examination o f a published translation o f ‘La ciudad y los perros’ by Mario Vargas Llosa translated by Lysander Kemp, and a comparison with my own translation Both o f the texts w ill be examined under the headings detailed in Venuti’s proposed translation strategy The thesis consists o f four mam chapters, the first being an examination o f the various translation theories preceding Venuti’s proposed translation strategy, tracing the development of translation theory as a practical science across various schools o f thought through time, culminating in a detailed exposition o f Venuti’s proposed translation strategy and thus the headings of investigation o f the thesis Chapter two deals with the author and his narrative style - tracing the extra textual factors that led to the publication and translation of the novel m question Chapter three is a detailed examination of the published translation under the headings o f investigation suggested in Venuti’s foreigmsing versus domesticating translation strategy- outlined and explained in Chapter 1 followed by an examination and commentary on my own translation under the same headings In conclusion this thesis aims to assess the effectiveness and applicability o f Venuti’s proposed translation strategy and the effect this method o f translation exercises over the author and translator The natural result of any investigation is that the investigators either discover the object of their search or deny that it is discoverable or persist in their search Those who believe they have discovered it are ‘Dogmatists ’ Other Academics treat it as inapprehensible, the Sceptics keep on searching hence it seems reasonable to hold that the mam types of philosophy are three - the dogmatic, the academic, and the sceptic Of the other schools it will best become others to speak our task at present is to describe in outline the sceptic methodology, first stipulating that of none of our future statements do we positively affirm that the fact is exactly as we state it Rather, we simply record each fact, like a chronicler, as it appears to us at the moment Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, c ad2000 Introduction. The never ending story1. Triumph of theory. Over the last thirty years, the theory o f translation has become both a major discipline and a battle ground o f theories and theorists. In such relatively short period o f time , the basic act o f cross-cultural communication has become ; “What may very probably be the most complex type o f event yet produced in the f 2 evolution o f the cosmos. ” Since the turn o f the century, the debate on the nature o f language has caused increasing problems for translation theory. The nature o f language debate has been inundated with theories, models and diagrams, each claiming to offer either a solution to, or treatise on the impossibility o f translation. This thesis aims to do neither. It is not an attempt to divine the utopian translation theory, nor does it purport to add yet another theory or cry o f desperation to the never ending story that has plagued translation theory in the last four decades. This thesis is an attempt to quantify and qualify a single theory o f translation through practical application. The choice o f theory was not an easy task. As we appear to be rapidly approaching an age where a translation theory is proposed for each and every translation undertaken, it was necessary to choose a strategy which was literary text specific yet not hindered by multiple exceptions to its own rules. Therefore, the theory I chose which was given precedence over others by the Literary leanings and translation experience o f its author, Lawrence Venuti. The theory under examination is Venuti’s development o f Schleiermacher’s domesticating versus foreignising translation theory; ‘There are only two (methods o f translating). Either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him: or leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him ’3 Schleiermacher, 1813. 1 Larbaud, V., ‘Seguramente la enumeración de todos los téoricos de la traducción sería el cuento de nunca acabar’. (Sp. Orig). Sous / ’invocation de Saint Jérome, Gallimard, 1946. Trans, in Vega, M. A (ed)., Textos Clásicos de Teoría de la Traducción, Cathedra, 1994. 2 Richards, I. A., Toward a Theory of translating, in Wright, A., Studies in Chinese Thought, University of Chicago Press, 1953. 3 Schleiermacher, F., in Contemporary Translation Theories, Gentzler, E., Routledge, 1993. 1 Venuti adapted Schleiermacher’s approach to identify guidelines for a fluent or resistant translation strategy The basic premise o f the strategy is the decision to make the translation reflect the primacy of the author or the primacy of the target audience The second premise o f the strategy is to highlight the effect such a translation choice exercises over the author and the text The choice of text under which to examine the applicability of Venuti’s translation strategy was an altogether more straightforward task To simplify the levels o f comparison, the English language translation by Lysander Kemp o f Mario Vargas Llosa’s ‘La ciudady los perros ’^was chosen The uncomplicated nature o f the choice is inherent in the fact that only one English language translation o f the Spanish text was ever published, in spite o f the fame o f the author, and possibly due to the fame of the translator at the time of publication of the translation The headings by which Venuti identified a particular translation strategy w ill be examined m relation to the published translation I f a domesticating translation strategy becomes apparent in Kemp’s translation, a foreigmsing translation w ill be offered in comparison, and the effectiveness o f each strategy w ill be examined 4 Spanish language version referred to throughout will be 1987-1995 Seix Barral, ong 1962 2 Chapter 1. 1.1 D octor’s orders - The prescriptive age Contemporary translation theory, like current Literary theory, has been significantly influenced by structuralism and attempts to present translation theory as a science The 1950’ s, 1960’s and 1970’s saw the development o f translation schools in Geneva, Mons, Paris-Estit, Isti, Brussels, Gemersheim etc As more translation studies schools opened their doors, national patterns m translation theory begin to emerge The Soviet school o f translation based its strategies on Marxist theory, placing translation theory at the mercy o f the class struggle What emerged was an aseptic, highly theoretical system, reducing translation theory to sterile equations of equivalence, interchanging letters for numbers The Federal Republic o f Germany emerged as a centre o f investigation o f theory from the viewpoint o f text-type analysis and the function o f discourse The results were a systématisation o f the theory o f translation, reducing the practice to the search for ‘inter-textual coherence’, and leading to the concept o f a ‘faithful’ translation In basic terms, the level o f accuracy or ‘faithfulness’ was judged by the translator’s interpretation and recreation o f the ‘Skopos’5 o f the original