Abstracts
Abstract
This article presents an overview of the literary controversy surrounding the publication of E. M. Forster’s so-called homosexual novel, Maurice, in 1971 and its subsequent publication in Spanish. Some critics published revisionist works in which his other novels were presented in the light of the revelations about Forster’s own homosexuality whereas others claimed that the novel shares some of the author’s major preoccupations as well as the literary themes and techniques present in all his narrative. Then we proceed to review some key concepts in Translation Studies necessary to carry out a comparative study of the text and the Spanish version: communicative translation, translators as cultural mediators, translation competence, factory translation. The study of the two texts covers three major areas: text level (including an analysis of grammatical features, lexicon, narrative style, conversational English), cultural level (studying key cultural concepts in the novel) and literary level (covering some of Forster’s key literary features, the notion of muddle, the anticipatory technique). We then proceed to study all these aspects at play in chapter 25, regarded as the turning point in the novel and as a key chapter both at discursive and literary levels. In the final section, we discuss the inadequacy of the choices made by the translators and the way in which they fail to offer the Spanish readership an adequate version both as regards the text per se and as part of Forster’s literary production, and we claim that it shares some of the characteristics of what Milton has called “factory translation.”
Keywords:
- literary translation,
- literary controversy,
- culture,
- factory translation,
- muddle
Résumé
Le présent article propose un panorama de la polémique littéraire suscitée par la publication, en 1971, du roman de E. M. Forster, Maurice, qualifié de roman homosexuel, ainsi que celle provoquée par sa traduction espagnole. Quelques critiques littéraires publièrent des travaux révisionnistes, dans lesquels les oeuvres antérieures de l’auteur étaient analysées d’après la nouvelle perspective offerte par l’homosexualité de Forster. D’autres affirmaient que Maurice partageait certains des principaux centres d’intérêt de l’auteur, en plus des thématiques et des techniques littéraires présentes dans toute son oeuvre narrative. Nous nous proposons donc d’analyser quelques concepts clés de la traductologie, que nous considérons fondamentaux pour entreprendre une étude comparative du texte original et de sa version espagnole : traduction communicative, traducteurs et médiateurs culturels, compétence en traduction, « traduction industrielle ». L’étude de ces deux textes recouvre trois aspects principaux : le plan du texte (qui inclut l’analyse des faits grammaticaux, le lexique, le style narratif, l’anglais conversationnel), le plan culturel (qui analyse les concepts culturels clés dans le roman) et le plan littéraire (recouvrant quelques-unes des caractéristiques littéraires de l’oeuvre de Forster, la notion de « désorientation », la technique de l’anticipation). Tous ces aspects sont analysés dans le chapitre 25, considéré non seulement comme le point tournant du roman mais aussi comme un texte essentiel tant du point de vue discursif que littéraire. Dans la dernière partie de notre travail, nous revisitons les choix inadéquats faits par les traducteurs ainsi que les raisons pour lesquelles les lecteurs espagnols n’ont pas accès à une version juste, tant sur le plan du texte en lui-même qu’en tant que fragment de l’oeuvre littéraire de Forster. Enfin, nous affirmons qu’il partage certaines des caractéristiques de ce que Milton a nommé « traduction industrielle ».
Mots-clés:
- traduction littéraire,
- controverse littéraire,
- culture,
- traduction industrielle,
- désorientation
Appendices
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