UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI CATANIA FACOLTÀ DI LINGUE E LETTERATURE STRANIERE Dottorato di Ricerca in Studi Inglesi e Anglo-Americani __________________________CicloXXIV_________________________ Valeria Monello A Foreignising or a Domesticating Approach in Translating Dialects? Andrea Camilleri’s detective novels in English and The Simpsons in Italian ________________________ TESI DI DOTTORATO ____________________ COORDINATORE: TUTOR: Chiar. ma Prof. ssa M. V. D'Amico Chiar. mo Prof. Iain Halliday ______________________________ ANNO ACCADEMICO 2011-2012 ______________________________ Contents Abstract................................................................................................4 1 Translation Studies: a general frame..............................................7 1.1 Antiquity..........................................................................................8 1.2 From the Middle Ages onwards......................................................9 1.3 The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.......................................12 1.4 Romanticism..................................................................................13 1.5 Universalism vs Relativism...........................................................15 1.6 A Science of Translation................................................................18 1.7 Polysystems Theory.......................................................................21 1.8 A change........................................................................................23 1.9 The translator's constraints............................................................24 1.10 Translation as an act of creative rewriting..................................27 1.11 The importance of the visibility of the translator........................30 1.12 The redefinition of faithfulness and equivalence........................32 1.13 Works cited..................................................................................35 2 Camilleri in English.......................................................................42 2.1 Andrea Camilleri’s late success.....................................................43 2.2 Camilleri’s language......................................................................45 2.3 Catarella........................................................................................61 1 2.4 Marked vs Unmarked Use of Language........................................64 2.5 Translating problems.....................................................................68 2.6 Mimetic function...........................................................................76 2.7 Cultural function...........................................................................78 2.8 Northern paths...............................................................................81 2.9 Where does Sicilian dialect lead?..................................................83 2.10 The core of the research..............................................................84 2.11 Dialect for a change in register....................................................87 2.12 A Brooklynite Catarella?.............................................................95 2.13 Dialect as a cultural label............................................................98 2.14 Translation of idiomatic expressions.........................................104 2.15 Displaced compensation............................................................112 2.16 Keeping the puns and wordplay................................................115 2.17 Works cited................................................................................122 3. Audiovisual Translation..............................................................129 3.1 Subtitling.....................................................................................133 3.2 Dubbing.......................................................................................136 3.3 Italian dubbing.............................................................................139 3.4 Tendencies in Italian dubbing......................................................140 3.5 Works cited..................................................................................146 4. The Simpsons................................................................................149 4.1 The Simpsons' worldwide success...............................................150 2 4.2 Realism in the form of a cartoon.................................................151 4.3 Springfield as omnitopia and microcosm....................................152 4.4 The Simpsons: Postmodern art....................................................153 4.5 The Simpsons' ingredients...........................................................165 4.6 Characters and idiolects..............................................................169 4.7 An American family abroad........................................................178 4.8 A Scottish enchanter speaking Neapolitan..................................184 4.9 A case study: The Simpsons in Italian.........................................191 4.10 Analysis of the episodes............................................................201 4.11 Wordplays..................................................................................203 4.12 Cultural references....................................................................214 4.13 Dialects......................................................................................223 4.14 Stereotypes on Italy and Italian-Americans..............................232 4.15 Extreme locative adaptations....................................................238 4.16 Conclusions...............................................................................241 4.17 Works cited................................................................................254 Bibliography.....................................................................................266 3 Abstract This doctoral thesis titled A Foreignising or a Domesticating Approach in Translating dialects? Andrea Camilleri’s detective novels in English and The Simpsons in Italian is divided into four parts: 1) an introductory chapter dealing with the most noteworthy translation theories developed in the Western World over the centuries, with a special focus on Translation Studies; 2) a second part analysing two detective novels by Andrea Camilleri, in particular those passages that, because of the high concentration of diatopic, diastratic and diaphatic varieties and the combined use of standard and dialect in the same segment of the text, represent a serious challenge to the translator. This analysis (whose aim is to detect the functions of these linguistic variations) and the skopos the translator wants to maintain in the target text, will be followed by comparisons between the original excerpts and their respective English translations. Stephen Sartarelli is the sole translator of Camilleri’s detective novels for the Anglophone world. The existence of this kind of monopoly renders impossible the comparison between different English translations of the same work, so this section will focus on the evolution of Sartarelli’s 4 translation strategies over the years he has been working. The basis of my research consists of two detective novels by Andrea Camilleri, one of the first to be translated into English (The Voice of the Violin, first published in Italian in 1997 and in English translation in 2003) and one of the latest (The Wings of the Sphinx, first published in Italian in 2006 and in English translation in 2009). By comparing them to their respective translations, I will be able to say which aspects of the original texts Sartarelli has opted to maintain (precisely which kind of fidelity he has opted for) and whether he has adopted a “foreignising approach” to preserving the linguistic and cultural peculiarities of the way in which Camilleri uses Sicilian dialect and if over the years, Sartarelli's translating method has changed. Indeed, I consider the “foreignising approach” the best and perhaps the only way to deal with such culturally- connotated texts. For instance, one of the funniest characters in Camilleri’s novels is the semi-illiterate Agatino Catarella whose idiolect merges Sicilian dialect and Italian, a strange mix that linguists define as “popular Italian”; 3) A third chapter, specular to the first, which focuses on Screen Translation (dubbing and subtitling), and on the most interesting contributions to the field with a particular focus on Italian dubbing. Both case studies will be exemplified by the contrastive analysis of those excerpts that may represent a challenge to the translator; 5 4) In the fourth and last part by contrast, the problem of translating culture is treated from a different point of view: the source language (English), the medium conveying the message (the dubbing process imposes various constraints such lip and paralinguistic synchronization) and the translation approach change. The case study analysed in this part of the thesis is represented by some episodes of The Simpsons, an animated American television serial that is broadcast in many countries. The cartoon is ideal for this purpose, since it is extremely humorous and its humour is based on elements of the cultural context and on the exploitation of linguistic varieties. The Simpsons’ Italian dubbing is in fact one of the best examples of the “domesticating method”, or rewriting of the dialects, sociolects