Multilingual Routes in Translation (New Frontiers in Translation Studies) 9789811904394, 9789811904400, 9811904391

Table of contents :
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction: On Cultural Variables
1 Variable Relational Dynamics and Socio-Historical Values
2 Contributions to the Volume
References
Transferring Relational Dynamics
Approaching the Consumer in Russian-English Tourism Promotion
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
2.1 Research into the Language of Tourism
2.2 Intercultural Communication
3 Data and Methods
4 Presentation and Analysis of the Empirical Data
4.1 Power Distance
4.2 Cosmopolitanism
5 Translation as a Field of Identity Construction
6 Conclusion
References
Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin on the Coronavirus Outbreak
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
3 Methodology
4 Presentation of the Empirical Data
4.1 Interpersonal Distance in Addressing an Audience: Impersonal Structures
4.2 Performatives and Hierarchies
4.3 Conceptualizing the Pandemic: The WAR Metaphor
5 Discussion of the Results
References
Shaping the Detective in Murder on the Orient Express
1 Introduction
2 Presentation of Literature Review and Methodology
3 Presentation of the Empirical Data
3.1 Poirot’s Identity in English
3.2 Poirot’s Identity in the Greek and Russian Versions
3.3 Names vs. Roles, Nationality and Body Size
4 Different Values Attributed to Discourse Practices
Appendix: Judging formality and interpersonal distance in translation
Questionnaire
References
Constructing Relational Dynamics in Translating Fiction
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
2.1 Interpersonal Distance
2.2 Speech Act Performance and In/Directness
3 Methodological Considerations
4 Presentation of the Empirical Data, the analyst’s View
4.1 Requesting, Suggesting
4.2 Protesting
4.3 Evaluative Expressions and Exaggerating
5 Respondents’ View
6 Discussion of the Results
Appendix: Questionnaires
Questionnaire 1
Questionnaire 2
References
Transferring Aggression and Offensiveness
The Madness Narrative in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review and Presentation of Methodology
3 Presentation of the Empirical Data
3.1 Allusions to Mental Illness and Psychiatric Terminology
3.2 Offensiveness
3.3 Interpersonal Distance
4 The Questionnaire
5 Discussion
6 Conclusion
AppendixQuestionnaire: Attitudes towards madness in translation
References
Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights
1 Introduction
2 Presentation of the Empirical Data
2.1 Level of Impoliteness
2.2 A Lay Person’s Perspective
3 Discussion of the Results
Appendix: A Lay Person’s Perspective into the Level of Offensiveness in Extracts of the Novel
Questionnaire
References
Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review and Methodology
3 Presentation of the Empirical Data
4 Discussion of the Results
5 Conclusion
Appendix 1: Levels of Identity Formation Across TTa and TTb
Questionnaire
Appendix 2: Counterexamples
References
Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
3 Methodology
4 Presentation of Empirical Data
5 Discussion
6 Conclusion
7 Appendix. Questionnaire: The Birthday Party on the Greek stage
References
In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
3 Methodology
4 Presentation of Empirical Data
5 Discussion of the Results
6 Conclusion
Appendix. Preferred levels of offensiveness
QUESTIONNAIRE
References
Transferring Socio-Cultural Values
Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review and Methodology
3 Presentation of Empirical Data
4 Results and Discussion
5 Conclusion
Appendix. Questionnaire: Destiny awareness in Greek versions of Macbeth
References
Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
3 Methodological Considerations
4 Presentation of the Empirical Data
4.1 Proper Names
4.2 Wordplaying
4.3 Rhythm and Aural Texture
5 Target Reader Reception
6 Discussion
7 Conclusion
Appendix. Questionnaire answered by Chinese respondents of 20–21 years old, from the Department of Modern Greek Philology, School of European Languages, Tianjin Foreign Studies University, China. (ENGLISH VERSION OF THE CHINESE QUESTIONNAIRE ADDRESSING THE CHINESE RESPONDENTS)
Questionnaire
References
Sociocultural Awareness Through Dubbing Disney Film Songs
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review and Methodology
3 Presentation of Empirical Data
3.1 Religious Awareness
3.2 Gender Representations
4 Discussion of the Results
References
Gender in Translation: The Handmaid’s Tale in Greek
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
3 Methodology
4 Presentation of Empirical Data
5 Discussion of the Results
Appendix: Representation of Female Figures
QUESTIONNAIRE
References
Revolution and Oppression in Russian/Greek Versions of Animal Farm
1 Introduction
2 Literature Review and Methodology
3 Presentation of the Data
3.1 Higher Awareness of the Us-Them Distinction
3.2 Pessimistic Expectations About the Future
3.3 Implications of Hard Work and Exhaustion
3.4 Solidarity and Directness
4 The Respondents’ View
5 Discussion
Appendix
Questionnaire
References
Ideological Perspectives in Translated Museum Discourses
1 Introduction
2 Museum Discourse, Ideology and Translation
3 Literature Review
4 Methodology
5 Presentation and Analysis of the Empirical Data
5.1 The ‘Bunker 42’ Museum of Cold War
5.2 The Museum of Occupation of Latvia
6 Discussion of the Results
References
Name Index
Subject Index

Citation preview

New Frontiers in Translation Studies

Maria Sidiropoulou Tatiana Borisova   Editors

Multilingual Routes in Translation

New Frontiers in Translation Studies Series Editor Defeng Li Center for Studies of Translation, Interpreting and Cognition, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China

Translation Studies as a discipline has witnessed the fastest growth in the last 40 years. With translation becoming increasingly more important in today’s glocalized world, some have even observed a general translational turn in humanities in recent years. The New Frontiers in Translation Studies aims to capture the newest developments in translation studies, with a focus on: • Translation Studies research methodology, an area of growing interest amongst translation students and teachers; • Data-based empirical translation studies, a strong point of growth for the discipline because of the scientific nature of the quantitative and/or qualitative methods adopted in the investigations; and • Asian translation thoughts and theories, to complement the current Eurocentric translation studies. Submission and Peer Review: The editor welcomes book proposals from experienced scholars as well as young aspiring researchers. Please send a short description of 500 words to the editor Prof. Defeng Li at [email protected] and Springer Senior Publishing Editor Rebecca Zhu: [email protected]. All proposals will undergo peer review to permit an initial evaluation. If accepted, the final manuscript will be peer reviewed internally by the series editor as well as externally (single blind) by Springer ahead of acceptance and publication.

More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/11894

Maria Sidiropoulou · Tatiana Borisova Editors

Multilingual Routes in Translation

Editors Maria Sidiropoulou Department of English Language and Literature National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Athens, Greece

Tatiana Borisova Department of Russian Language and Literature and Slavic Studies National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Athens, Greece

ISSN 2197-8689 ISSN 2197-8697 (electronic) New Frontiers in Translation Studies ISBN 978-981-19-0439-4 ISBN 978-981-19-0440-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

To our local and international colleagues

Foreword

If there is an aphorism about translation that still holds true, this must be that “the art of translation lies less in knowing the other language than in knowing your own” (The saying is attributed to the American composer and author Ned Rorem, although it is difficult to trace its origin in detail). Those of us who love languages, both our own and other ones, are endlessly fascinated by translation’s potential to reveal aspects of linguistic systems and language use that are overlooked or simply lie hidden in our common perception of what Greek, English, Russian or Chinese is. Translation, both as a process and a final product—sometimes inadvertently, but most often not— brings to earth well-buried treasures that have been overlaid by what is conventional and well-trodden in everyday speaking and writing; hence, its affinity with poetry and the literary process. It is for this reason, first of all, that the edited volume ‘Multilingual Routes in Translation’ offers a much useful resource to those who are interested in the four languages studied in it, namely Greek, English, Russian and Chinese, over and above its contribution to the study of the translated texts and the process of translation. To single out the most obvious case, Zhan’s paper on the translation of wordplay and other devices of humour from Greek into Mandarin Chinese is probably the first published paper bringing together the two modern languages after several decades of burgeoning interest in their interaction. Equally important is the emphasis of the volume on the crossings of Greek and Russian in both literary and non-literary texts, which underlines the longstanding interaction between the two languages in a multiplicity of contexts. In the case of English and Greek, for which there already is ample bibliography, the originality of the volume lies in the careful unravelling of the idiosyncrasies identified in a broad range of text types when comparing the two languages and their related cultures, as well as in the remarkable papers bringing together English and Greek with Russian in a combination that has little been studied before.

vii

viii

Foreword

However, it is the explicit focus of the book on pragmatic aspects of linguistic interaction that makes it stand above any previous attempts at the comparison of the languages in question, either in contrastive and comparative linguistics or in translation studies. Linguistics has largely been responsible for the neglect of nonpropositional aspects of meaning in its modern historical trajectory. It is indicative that at the beginning of the previous century Sapir would unequivocally state that “ideation reigns supreme in language” (1921: 38–39), thus precluding any systematic study of interactional and evaluative aspects of language. There is an enormous gap separating his pronouncement that “[t]he emotional aspect of our psychic life is but meagerly expressed in the build of language” (op.cit. 217) from the conclusion of a linguist at the beginning of the twenty-first century that “the linguistic expression of emotions and opinions is one of the most fundamental human traits” (Taboada 2016: 326). It is to this “referentialist” view of language, to use Wilce’s (2009) term, that the search for strict linguistic correspondences and the unproductive quest for equivalence in translation must be attributed and it is a major contribution of the volume at hand that takes upon itself this shift of emphasis towards questions of interactional or relational dynamics, politeness and its corresponding notion of impoliteness, identity formation through language and socio-historical and ideological parameters of use. In this shift, linguistic theory and methodologies encounter the premises of the well-established by now cultural turn in translation studies in a move that accentuates the potential for interaction between these two disciplines. This is certainly not an accidental turn of emphasis but follows a conscious decision on the part of the editors, deriving from their thorough knowledge of the related fields in the humanities and their prominent research contribution to them. It also stems from the state-of-the-art approach followed in all contributions to the book, written by either established researchers or by promising young students and researchers of translation. This co-ordination of effort accounts for a collected volume that is bound to be a point of reference for future studies in the language combinations concerned and an invaluable guide to “knowing our own language better”. ‘Multilingual Routes in Translation’ is a working proof that we need more studies of translation, exploring more languages and language combinations, including Greek and other less well-known languages, as well as more text types and genres, persistently raising the same and different questions than before from an always renewed perspective. To this effect, obviously, we need more translations between languages in the broadest range of text possible, in agreement with Kate Briggs’ (2017) exhortation in her recent brilliant book on translation: Do translations! This is the invitation I want to make, relaying and rephrasing—deliberately countering—the advice I once received. Yes, yes and absolutely. Do translations, for the simple reason that we need them. We need translations, urgently: it is through translation that we are able to reach the literatures written in the languages we don’t or can’t read, from the places where we don’t or can’t live, offering us the chance of understanding as well as the necessary and instructive experience of failing to understand them, of being confused and challenged by them. We receive these books newly made by the hands of translators, and the small contacts that those hands make, between translator and writer, reader and translator, language and language, culture and culture, experience and experience are, as

Foreword

ix

Edith Grossman puts it, as vital to our continued reading and writing, to the vitality of our languages, our cultures and experiences as the books themselves.

December 2021

Dionysis Goutsos Department of Philology National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Athens, Greece

References Briggs, K. 2017. This Little Art. London: Fitzcarraldo Editions. Sapir, E. 1921. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. Taboada, M. 2016. Sentiment analysis: An overview from linguistics. Annual Review of Linguistics 2, 325–347. Wilce, J. M. 2009. Language and Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Acknowledgements

The volume owes a lot to the impetus of its authors and to their potential to value their cross-cultural linguistic insight and deftly associate it with theoretical issues in translation studies, pragmatics and cultural studies. Cooperation has been most fruitful during the preparation of the volume and the editors would like to thank them for this. Both editors and authors would like to thank the numerous respondents for answering questionnaires (in English, Greek, Russian or Mandarin Chinese) with attentiveness and diligence, for the purposes of the project. A special thanks goes to Prof. D. Goutsos, Department of Philology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), for his encouraging presence, for contributing his discourse analytic perspective to the project and for writing the preface to this volume. The project owes a lot to Senior Lecturer Sofia Malamatidou, University of Birmingham, UK, for sharing perspectives and for contributing to the project in many different ways. Many thanks to the Head of the Department of Russian Language and Literature and Slavic Studies, NKUA, Associate Prof. Olga Alexandropoulou, for her supporting attitude throughout and for making every effort to facilitate the outcome of cooperation. The editors are indebted to the Series Editor of New Frontiers in Translation Studies, Prof. Li, Defeng and to the coordinating team of Springer publications, Ms. Saranya Kalidoss and Ms. Rebecca Zhu, for sharing and caring. Their contribution has been most helpful.

xi

Contents

Introduction: On Cultural Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maria Sidiropoulou and Tatiana Borisova

1

Transferring Relational Dynamics Approaching the Consumer in Russian-English Tourism Promotion . . . . Elina Melikidou and Sofia Malamatidou Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin on the Coronavirus Outbreak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elena Alafuzova

13

29

Shaping the Detective in Murder on the Orient Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charikleia Smyrli

43

Constructing Relational Dynamics in Translating Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Svitlana Volchenko

57

Transferring Aggression and Offensiveness The Madness Narrative in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Konstantina Kyriakou Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sofia-Konstantina Zacharia

75 95

Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Marina-Sofia Vlachou Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Athina Sarafi In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Constantinos Dimitrakakis

xiii

xiv

Contents

Transferring Socio-Cultural Values Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Athanasios Vasileiadis Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Zhan Zhang Sociocultural Awareness Through Dubbing Disney Film Songs . . . . . . . . . 203 Konstantinos Karantzis Gender in Translation: The Handmaid’s Tale in Greek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Aspasia Koutsoumpogera Revolution and Oppression in Russian/Greek Versions of Animal Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Aikaterini Gavra Ideological Perspectives in Translated Museum Discourses . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Eleftherios Antoniou Name Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Abbreviations

NKUA ST TT

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Source Text Target Text

xv

List of Figures

Introduction: On Cultural Variables Fig. 1

Translational language combinations tackled in the volume . . . . . . .

3

Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin on the Coronavirus Outbreak Fig. 1

Strategies employed in transferring impersonal constructions with a modal item in interpreting/translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33

Shaping the Detective in Murder on the Orient Express Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3

Respondent confirmation that the interpersonal distance between interlocutors in exchange 1 is shorter in Russian . . . . . . . . Levels of identity in the Greek and Russian TT representations of Poirot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Assessing humorous gloss of exchanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50 50 50

Constructing Relational Dynamics in Translating Fiction Fig. 1

Power distance continuum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

65

The Madness Narrative in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher Fig. 1 Fig. 2

Degrees of impoliteness in 3 Greek target versions (the researcher’s view) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Degrees of impoliteness in 3 Greek target versions (the respondents’ view) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

86 87

Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist Fig. 1

Participant answers to the questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

119

xvii

xviii

Fig. 2

List of Figures

Which version the participants considered more interpersonal or hedonistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

120

In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage Fig. 1

Intensity of shock effect in Greek target versions of Attempts on Her Life assessed by translation postgraduates and theatre practitioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

158

Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6

Non-/emergence of destiny-related terms in ST and TTs . . . . . . . . . Percentages of the overall occurrences of destiny terms in ST and TTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Findings: Do you believe in the notion of destiny? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Findings: Coincidence vs. fate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Findings: It is concluded, Banquo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Findings: Rebellion’s head rise never till the wood of Birnam rise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

176 176 177 177 178 178

Revolution and Oppression in Russian/Greek Versions of Animal Farm Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3

Results of the question Which translation is more powerful in shaping oppression and revolution? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Results of the question Which target version paints a higher threat awareness? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Results of the question Which translation is more optimistic about the future of the revolution? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

235 236 237

List of Tables

Introduction: On Cultural Variables Table 1

Language combinations and translated genres used as data . . . . . .

7

Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin on the Coronavirus Outbreak Table 1

Word count and duration of the data set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

32

The Madness Narrative in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher Table 1

Feature manipulation in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

85

Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights Table 1

Individual answers on the degree of impoliteness in the Greek versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

105

Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist Table 1

Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) levels of self-representation . . . . . . .

115

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage Table 1

Features of the three Greek versions of Pinter’s The Birthday Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

141

xix

xx

List of Tables

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese Table 1 Table 2

Translation of proper names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Translation of slogans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

194 195

Ideological Perspectives in Translated Museum Discourses Table 1

Data types (ST: source text, TT: target text) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

244

Introduction: On Cultural Variables Maria Sidiropoulou and Tatiana Borisova

1 Variable Relational Dynamics and Socio-Historical Values An important theme in translation practice is the implementation of cultural variables in target versions of texts (Hatim and Mason 1990; Baker 1992/2011; Goutsos 2001; Munday 2001; Dimitroulia and Goutsos 2017; House 2018). Translation practitioners rely on their linguistic insight to make a translation decision, especially if they are not linguists/pragmaticists. Linguistic insight is a trustworthy resource for grounding one’s decision-making, but linguistic pragmatics (Tipton and Desilla 2019) offers another layer of awareness, which may adequately supplement translation insight. This is how discourse make-up preferences may be realized cross-culturally and even intra-culturally, in cases of retranslation (Baker 2014). Variation may pertain to particular pragmatic phenomena which are implemented differently cross-culturally (Hatim and Mason 1990; Baker 1992/2011; Sidiropoulou 2012, 2017, 2021, Kecskes 2013; Borisova 2017) or certain inferences which follow from expressions and may pertain to ideological positions (Galzada-Pérez 2003) or socio-cultural values which are prevalent in target societies or communities of practice (Wenger 1989; Holliday 1999). Alternatively, they may pertain to the constructionist intention of mediators (Baker 2006). This sounds like a reasonable argument, which everybody would agree with, but in practice, the internalized rules we have M. Sidiropoulou (B) Department of English Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] T. Borisova Department of Russian Language and Literature and Slavic Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_1

1

2

M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova

acquired in the process of socialization in our native environment are so strongly entrenched in our consciousness that they often prevail when communicating in another language. The volume highlights the potential of translation to display a varying implementation of pragmatic phenomena cross-culturally, in a tangible way, by utilizing the linguistic insight of professional translators in real-life contexts, who have been aware (even subconsciously) of what intercultural variation may entail. The volume intends to highlight some pragmatic variables which affect target versions of fictional and non-fictional discourses, in a multilingual context. It starts with the variable ‘interpersonal dynamics’ in im/politeness theory (Brown and Levinson 1978/1987; Eelen 2001; Watts 2003; Locher and Watts 2005, 2008; Haugh 2007; Spencer-Oatey 2007; Mills 2011; Mills and Kádár 2011; Terkourafi 2015; van der Bom and Grainger 2015; Culpeper and Terkourafi 2017; Haugh and Kádár 2017; Kádár 2017 online; Sifianou and Blitvich 2017, to name only a few) between interlocutors (e.g. target text producer and addressee). The volume then considers im/politeness issues and how they may be transferred cross-culturally, as manifested through translation and ends up with socio-historical narratives and identities which may shift in translation practice. The volume suggests that the layer of pragmatic meaning is highly important in translation practice and may improve understanding of what goes on in translation, in training programmes. The volume also highlights the significance of translation data for studying pragmatics; the translators’ expertise and linguistic insight are highly eloquent in pinpointing pragmatic variation cross-culturally. Translation practice is another arena [different from monolingual research] where variation in pragmatic and cultural meaning can be aptly identified and explored. The volume answers a number of questions which pertain to the relational dynamics between characters, in fictional texts, or to the relational dynamics between speaker and audience, in non-fictional texts. The questions are: • What may a few pragmatic phenomena be which may vary cross-culturally and may be manifested through translation. • How interpersonal distance is modified across cultures, if at all. • Is aggression transferred intact? If not, how does translation expertise manage im/politeness across versions? • What other aspects of culture may be adjusted in translation? What is the nature of shifts and how can they be categorized? The material comes in three parts and involves a number of language combinations. A strong point of this volume is that, as scholars are usually confined to the binary English vs. local mother tongue, the papers in this volume involve a third language with occasionally trilingual respondents engaged in the selection of experimental data, and an instance of a language combination which does not involve English in the working languages, namely, Greek-Chinese. We believe that broadening the language combinations, in translation research, broadens perception of what intercultural variation may entail in translation practice and advances

Introduction: On Cultural Variables

3

Fig. 1 Translational language combinations tackled in the volume

English

Chinese

Greek

Russian

understanding of the specifics of intercultural transfer. Figure 1 shows the translational language combinations in the volume, like English-Greek, Russian-English, English-Greek-Russian, Greek-Chinese. The volume tackles intercultural variation in data from various genres: in discourses where the expectation is for the speaker to be polite (e.g. in non-fictional texts like tourism, political and museum discourses), and others (e.g. in fictional texts) where the expectation may be for the fictional character to be both polite and/or impolite. The volume also studies intercultural variation in two translation modalities, translation and interpreting, thus tackling another relatively under-researched perspective (in terms of manifestations of intercultural variation). Part I explores the pragmatic phenomenon of interpersonal distance/proximity between Russian host and English-speaking tourist, it then moves to power distance between a political leader and the relational dynamics with the audience, through an English translated and interpreted version of discourse on the corona virus outbreak. The third study in Part I examines the relational dynamics between fictional characters of a best-selling English novel which was translated into Greek and Russian. The fourth study also explores how interpersonal distance in everyday reality is constructed in the Greek and Russian version of another English novel. Part II rather focuses on how aggression and offensiveness manifest themselves in translated fiction into Greek, in novel and theatre (on page and on stage). Part III examines how socio-political values may be reshaped in Greek-Chinese and English-Russian-Greek fictional and non-fictional texts, reshaping the discursive representation of childness, patriotism, gender, destiny, revolution, religious awareness, etc.

4

M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova

2 Contributions to the Volume Part I examines two Russian-English non-fictional parallel data sets and another two fictional English texts translated into Greek and Russian. Elina Melikidou and Sofia Malamatidou examine English translations of Russian tourism texts to explore interaction between Russian host and Englishspeaking tourist consumers, focusing on ways of approaching the consumer. The English version avoids the use of impersonal constructions, interpersonal distance and higher formality by widely using personal pronouns, active verbs and closeness rather than distance. The Russian version favours a more indirect approach in the communication with the tourist, highlighting the significance of the variable across Russian-English. Elena Alafuzova analyses the translated and interpreted English versions of four speeches by President Putin on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, examining interpersonal proximity/distance between speaker and audience, building trust in the power of the state and the image of the President. Interpreting displays a higher negotiating intention than the translated version, where power distance is high. Interpreting also shapes a positive public image of the President and the authority he represents. Charikleia Smyrli attempts to explore variation in the way a Greek and a Russian target version of Agatha Christie’s novel Murder on the Orient Express shapes the detective, Hercules Poirot, through the way he interacts with the people around him. The detective appears more polite, elegant and gentle, in Greek, while in Russian he is more humorous, comprehensive and simple. The study suggests that translation practice is a rich resource for studying identity construction in fiction, raising awareness of the translators’ potential to interfere with identity construction. Svitlana Volchenco tackles how the relational dynamics are constructed between fictional characters by examining rendition of speech act performance, in the Russian and Greek target versions of the English novel, The Shell Seekers by R. Pilcher. Power distance in speech act performance is highest in Russian and lowest in Greek, with the English source version assuming a position in-between on the high/low power distance continuum. Part II deals with English-Greek fictional, parallel data examining how another aspect of relational dynamics, aggression or offensiveness, translates into Greek. Konstantina Kyriakou explores three Greek translations of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher. Offensiveness is the pragmatic phenomenon which the author chooses to explore in order to navigate through attitudes towards madness. The chapter shows that impoliteness of the first-person narrator towards the mentally ill protagonist, decreases in the latest translation, as a result of the disability movement which has probably sensitized society. Findings suggest that translators have been (and need to be) aware of societal tensions and of the implications they allow in target contexts. Sophia Zacharia examines rendition of hatred and revenge emerging from Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s unfulfilled love, in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, and

Introduction: On Cultural Variables

5

the level of impoliteness the two target versions employ, on a par with a theatrical adaptation of the novel. Aggression heightens in the recent target translation of the novel, but the theatrical adaptation is low on aggressiveness, probably because of the theatrical interpretation of the performance. Impoliteness, thus, is a significant tool for shaping characters’ identities in translated fiction and seems to creatively interact with pragmatic parameters like gender and social class. Marina-Sofia Vlachou examines offensiveness in the discursive representation of Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde’s novel, in two Greek translations of it. Findings show that translators intuitively draw on a different level of an identity formation model, diversifying the social reality Dorian Gray’s character emerges from. The first target version rather highlights the interpersonal level of Dorian’s identity, with the second version highlighting the individual level of Dorian’s identity. The study advances understanding of the translators’ activating aspects of culture and identity formation to improve audience reception. Athina Sarafi examines three translations of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party (1957) for the Greek stage. The question arises as to how the three Greek versions may transfer the threatening feeling of the comedy of menace, into a language which favours positive politeness in interaction (Sifianou 1992). Translators adjust aggression and interpersonal dynamics as pragmatic variables which can discursively shape the violence in the subtext of Pinter’s plays. Constantinos Dimitrakakis explores rendition into Greek of the play Attempts on her Life by Martin Crimp, which belongs to the in-yer-face theatre genre. The question arises how the direct, raw and offensive language, which has a shock impact on the audience, may be reconstructed in order to appeal to the target audience. Findings show that the latest translation with the more aggressive language seems to be more operative in Greek. The significance of the study lies in that it explores the workings of a pragmatic phenomenon (like impoliteness) in a relatively novel theatre genre, across English-Greek. Part III expands the focus on the relational dynamics through translation to tackle socio-historical aspects of culture which are also modified in multilingual contexts (Greek, Chinese, English, Russian). Athanasios Vasileiadis examines how the notion of destiny travels through Greek versions of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, on the Greek stage (Van Dijk 1997). Findings indicate that the two target versions which the author examines elaborate on the notion of fate; the target versions are less optimistic as to whether people can determine their own future and assign high significance to the notion of destiny. Translation seems to be an arena where ideological meaning can channel its course through, into a target society. The next two chapters of Part III address young audiences. Age is one of the pragmatic variables which may affect discourse make-up. Zhang Zhan examines how childness and humour may be created in the target version of Eugene Trivizas’ children’s story H τελευταία μαύρη γάτα (The Last Black Cat) in Mandarin Chinese. She explores effectiveness of translation strategies used for transferring proper names, wordplay and soundplay, in a story which uses these devices to resist the irrationality of social discrimination and the beast in humankind.

6

M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova

Results suggest an overall preference for localized rendering over a faithful representation of semantic meanings, in the transfer of meaning between a language pair which does not involve English, as the norm is in translation studies. Konstantinos Karantzis deals with songs in Disney animation films, dubbed into Greek, and the importance of the messages they convey to young audiences. He identifies translation shifts in the way socio-cultural awareness is raised through songs, namely, introducing children to issues related to religion, race and gender equality narratives, matching those circulating in the target environment. The next two chapters of Part III deal with the representation of female identities (Simon 1996; von Flotow 1997; Butler 1990/2006) in audiovisual translation (Pavesi 2014). Aspasia Koutsoumpogera explores the representation of women in two Greek translations of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. The data show that gender identities are shaped differently in the two Greek target versions: the latter translation empowers female identities—among other things—whereas the former favours religious narratives where the position of women is rather suppressed. The next two contributions of Part III relate to exercising political power (Fairclough 1995; Wodak 2013) through translation. Aikaterini Gavra examines portrayal of two central themes in George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, namely, ‘oppression’ and ‘revolution’. The study examines Old Major’s speech in the Russian and Greek target versions of it. Findings show that oppression and revolution are more vividly shaped in the Russian target version with enforced implications of hard work and exhaustion. A reason for this is assumed to be the Russian translator’s awareness of the relevance the ST has had to the target environment, namely that the novel was a critique of a Russian regime. Eleftherios Antoniou analyses non-fiction translation derived from two museum webpages, namely, the webpage of The ‘Bunker 42’ Museum of Cold War in Moscow and of The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. The data show that translators favoured intended historical narratives through the target versions (Valdeón 2007), which are aligned with the ideological transition of the societies which the institutions emerged in: the English translations seem to be rather ‘westernized’ versions of slavo-centric Russian discourses (Table 1). Τhe study shows that translation studies have a lot to offer to the study of pragmatics, and vice versa, and that pragmatics can significantly advance understanding of strategies used in interlingual transfer (Locher and Sidiropoulou 2021).

Introduction: On Cultural Variables Table 1 Language combinations and translated genres used as data

7

8

M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova

References Baker, Mona. 1992/2011. In other words. London: Routledge. Baker, Mona. 2006. Translation and conflict: A narrative account. London: Routledge. Baker, Mona. 2014. Translation as re-narration. In Translation: A multidisciplinary approach, ed. Juliane House, 158–177. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Borisova, Tatiana. 2017. Correlation of features of source and target language in fiction translation (Based on Church Slavonic Hymnography). In Shestak O., (ed.) Language and Culture: Cross-cultural Anthropology, 11–17. Rostov: SFU, in Russian [Bopicova T.C. O cootnoxenii xapaktepictik pepedawego i ppinimawego zyka ppi pepevode xydoectvennogo tekcta (na matepiale cepkovnoclavncko gimnogpafii]. Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson. 1978/1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Butler, Judith. 1990/2006. Gender trouble—Feminism and the subversion of identity. London: Routledge. Culpeper, Jonathan, and Marina Terkourafi. 2017. Pragmatic approaches to (im)politeness. In The Palgrave handbook of linguistic (im)politeness, ed. Jonathan Culpeper, Michael Haugh and Dániel Z. Kádár, 11–39. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Dimitroulia, Titika, and Dionysis Goutsos. 2017. Introduction. Special issue, Corpora and Literary Translation, InTRALinea Online Translation Journal. Eelen, Gino. 2001. A critique of politeness theory. London: Routledge. Fairclough, Norman. 1995. Critical discourse analysis the critical study of language. London: Longman. Galzada-Pérez, María. 2003. Introduction. In Apropos of ideology, ed. María Galzada-Pérez, 1–22. Manchester: St. Jerome. Goutsos, Dionysis. 2001. The Discourse of Translation. An anthology of modern translation theories, in Greek [Γούτσος, Διονύσης, 2001. Ο Λόγος της Μετάφρασης. Ανθολόγιο Σύγχρονων Μεταφραστικών Θεωριών. Αθήνα: Ελληνικά Γράμματα]. Hatim, Basil, and Ian Mason. 1990. Discourse and the translator. London: Longman. Haugh, Michael. 2007. The discursive challenge to politeness research: An interactional alternative. Journal of Politeness Research 3 (2): 295–317. Haugh, Michael, and Dániel. Z. Kádár. 2017. Intercultural (im)politeness. In The Palgrave handbook of linguistic (im)politeness, ed. Jonathan Culpeper, Michael Haugh, and Dániel. Z. Kádár, 601– 632. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Holliday, Adrian. 1999. Small cultures. Applied Linguistics 20: 237–267. House, Juliane. 2018. Translation—The basics. London: Routledge. Kecskes, Istvan. 2013. Intercultural pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Locher, Miriam, and Maria Sidiropoulou. 2021. Introducing the special issue on the pragmatics of translation. In Pragmatics of translation, ed. Miriam Locher and Maria Sidiropoulou. Special issue, Journal of Pragmatics 178: 121–126. Locher, Miriam, and Richard J. Watts. 2008. Relational work and impoliteness: Negotiating norms of linguistic behaviour. In Impoliteness in language—Studies on its interplay with power in theory and practice, ed. Derek Bousfield and Miriam Locher, 78–99. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Locher, Miriam A., and Richard J. Watts. 2005. Politeness theory and relational work. Journal of Politeness Research 1 (1): 9–33. Mills, Sara. 2011. Discursive approaches to politeness and impoliteness. In Discursive approaches to politeness, ed. Linguistic Research Group, 19–56. Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter. Mills, Sara, and Dániel. Kádár. 2011. Politeness and culture. In Politeness in East Asia, ed. Dániel. Kádár and Sara Mills, 21–44. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Munday, Jeremy. 2001. Introducing translation studies. London: Routledge. Pavesi, Maria. 2014. The Pavia corpus of film dialogue: A means to several ends. In The languages of dubbing, ed. Maria Pavesi, Maicol Fermentelli, and Elisa Ghia, 29–52. Bern: Peter Lang.

Introduction: On Cultural Variables

9

Sidiropoulou, Maria. 2012. Translating identities on stage and screen. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. Sidiropoulou, Maria. 2017. Politeness shifts in English-Greek political science discourse: Translation as a language change situation. Journal of Politeness Research 13 (2): 313–343. Sidiropoulou, Maria. 2021. Understanding im/politeness through translation, English vs. Greek. Cham: Springer. Sifianou, Maria. 1992. Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece—A cross cultural perspective. Oxford: Clarendon. Sifianou, Maria, and Pilar Garcés-Conejos. Blitvich. 2017. (Im)politeness and cultural variation. In The Palgrave handbook of linguistic (im)politeness, ed. Jonathan Culpeper, Michael Haugh, and Dániel. Z. Kádár, 571–599. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Simon, Sherry. 1996. Gender in translation—Cultural identity and the politics of transmission. London: Routledge. Spencer-Oatey, Helen. 2007. Theories of identity and the analysis of face. Journal of Pragmatics 39: 639–656. Terkourafi, Marina. 2015. Introduction: Bridging theory and practice in im/politeness research. In Interdisciplinary perspectives on im/politeness, ed. Marina Terkourafi, vii–xii. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Tipton, Rebecca, and Luisa Desilla, eds. 2019. Handbook on translation and pragmatics. London: Routledge. Valdeón, Roberto A. 2007. Ideological independence or negative mediation: BBC Mundo and CNN en Español’s (translated) reporting of Madrid’s terrorist attacks. In Translating and interpreting conflict, ed. Myriam Salama-Carr, 99–118. Amsterdam and New York: Brill Rodopi. Van Dijk, Teun A. 1997. Discourse as interaction in society. In Discourse as social interaction, ed. Teun A. van Dijk. London: Sage. van der Bom, Isabelle, and Karen Grainger. 2015. Journal of politeness research: Introduction. Journal of Politeness Research: Language, Behaviour, Culture 11 (2): 165–178. Wenger, Etienne. 1989. Communities of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wodak, Ruth, ed. 2013. Critical discourse analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. von Flotow, Luise. 1997. Translation and gender: Translating in the “era of feminism”. Manchester: StJerome. Watts, Richard J. 2003. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Electronic Sources Kádár, Dániel Z. 2017. Politeness in Pragmatics. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. http://linguistics.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore9780199384655-e-218. Accessed 20 October 2021.

Transferring Relational Dynamics

Approaching the Consumer in Russian-English Tourism Promotion Elina Melikidou and Sofia Malamatidou

Abstract The study explores the Russian source and the English target version of the official tourism website Russia Travel regarding cultural dimensions and cosmopolitan orientations and reveals aspects of cultural identity, preferred ways of self-representation and ways of approaching the consumer. Texts are taken from the Nature, Health, and Food section of the website and source and target texts are compared for identifying translation shifts that reflect changes in power distance, risk-taking, and openness to the Other’s culture. Findings indicate that, compared to Russian, English texts place more emphasis on active tourism, where the visitor is in charge of the trip and engages fully with the destination in a search for authentic experiences and encounters with the Other. This study highlights the central role that translation plays as a means for (self-)reflection and (self-)transformation in tourism discourse. Keywords Tourism translation · Identity construction · Power distance · Critical cosmopolitanism · Russian/English

1 Introduction Tourism is one of the most influential industries all over the world and has become a key element in international development. Dorofeeva and Dorofeev (2015, cited by Novozhilova et al. 2018: 1) suggest that “despite a series of economic crises and a complex military and political situation, tourism continues to demonstrate the unofficial status of the world phenomenon”. Indeed, according to the World Trade E. Melikidou (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Athanasiou Aparti Street, 14122 Athens, Greece S. Malamatidou University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_2

13

14

E. Melikidou and S. Malamatidou

Organization, tourism is the world’s third largest export, and responsible for 7% of the global exports (at least until 2019). Although the tourism industry has been hit hard by the recent pandemic, it is still one of the biggest industries worldwide— in 2020, tourism’s direct contribution to the global GDP was approximately 4.7 trillion US dollars, despite having halved compared to 2019 (OFCOM 2021). To be successful, tourism promotion relies on communication across languages and as approaches to communication vary among communities of practice, examining intercultural variation in same-genre practices is important if we want to gain a better understanding of what constitutes a successful promotion campaign. The significant role that mass tourism plays in modern societies has been approached from many different perspectives within Tourism and Leisure studies, such as its economic (Mak 2003) and environmental impact (Holden 2016), and the emergence of alternative tourism and its societal implications (McGehee 2002) to name a few. However, what tends to be completely silenced in such studies is the role of intercultural communication in destination promotion. Similarly, within translation studies, tourism texts are rarely approached from the perspective of intercultural transfer. The result is a noticeable gap in our understanding of how successful tourism promotion can be achieved across languages and cultures. This study aims to address this gap by exploring how tourism discourse attracts readers who belong to different linguistic groups, and therefore view the world differently and have different communicative preferences. Successful tourism promotion will be able to turn readers into visitors, who in turn become the consumers of the tourism product. However, for this to be achieved cross-culturally, the message needs to be rewritten through the process of translation in a way that reflects the communicative preferences of the target reader. In other words, translation is what allows destination promoters to approach the international consumer. Specifically, the present study examines whether the official tourism website for Russia, Russian Travel, addresses English-speaking readers and potential visitors differently compared to native Russian ones. The focus is on linguistic items associated with the cultural dimension of power distance (Hofstede et al. 2010) and cosmopolitan orientations of risk-taking and openness (Swain 2009) and how these are negotiated in translation through shifts between the Russian source and the English target text. Power distance and cosmopolitanism have been selected as theoretical frameworks to analyze how specific linguistic choices, often related to implicit meaning and manifested as potential shifts between the source and target text, are employed by translators to address readers from a different cultural background. Therefore, what we aim to examine in this study is whether and to what extent tourism promotion can be “personalized toward customer” (Hofstede et al. 2010: 421).

Approaching the Consumer in Russian-English Tourism Promotion

15

2 Literature Review 2.1 Research into the Language of Tourism Considering the size of the tourism industry, it is no overstatement that people are constantly exposed to tourism discourse, which directly influences social life, the world economy and international relations. More than ever before, people are putting more emphasis on leisure, as a result of the improvement of the living standard in many parts of the world (Woodside 2007). People are “increasingly actively seeking ways to relax and eliminate stress” (ibid.: 73) which in turn makes tourism an evergrowing global practice. New technologies, and particularly the advent of the Internet, have helped in that direction allowing tourism texts to disseminate even more widely and reach out to more audiences than ever before. This increase in tourism activities has naturally resulted in an increase in research on all aspects of tourism, not least tourism discourse. This is manifested by the number of recent studies focusing on its properties and analysing these from several different linguistic perspectives (see for example Jaworski and Pritchard 2005; Hallett and Kaplan-Weinger 2010). These studies approach tourism language as specialized with its own linguistic properties. The idea of tourism discourse as a genre in its own right is not, however, a widely accepted one. A lot of recent research (Edwards and Curado 2003; Fusari 2009; Gotti 2006) focuses on whether the language of tourism can be rightfully considered as a type of specialized discourse, similar to medical or legal language. A typical argument put forward against the existence of a specialized tourism discourse is that tourism texts can be easily understood by the general public, unlike medical or legal ones. However, the seemingly accessible language can act as specialized, in the same way as specialists (in this case destination promoters) might address a non-specialist audience (in this case potential visitors). It can be argued, therefore, that tourism discourse relies on a number of specific linguistic features to achieve its aims. Such features, although not necessarily distinct from those used in everyday language, are typically used with a different frequency and serve a specific aim when employed in tourism texts. Despite the importance of studies mentioned above, these tend to be limited to monolingual production and rarely touch upon the shifts that might occur during translation. In other words, they do not focus on how the linguistic features that might characterize tourism discourse are treated in translation. And despite the increase in the number of studies focusing on tourism translation, with very few exceptions (see for example Kefala 2021), they focus mainly on how translators address specific challenges pertinent in those texts (e.g. translating culture-specific items) and/or the overall quality of the translation (e.g. translation errors and other infelicities). As a result, such studies remain limited to examining specific linguistic choices and fail to address translation phenomena from a wider intercultural communication perspective, which can offer valuable insight into the linguistic mechanisms that translated tourism texts rely on to communicate their message to a different culture.

16

E. Melikidou and S. Malamatidou

2.2 Intercultural Communication The present study aims to address the abovementioned shortcomings by examining how communication is achieved inter-culturally. More specifically, this study relies on the theoretical framework of cultural dimensions of communication (Hofstede et al. 2010), and particularly on the communicative dimension of power distance, and cosmopolitan orientations (Swain 2009), namely of risk-taking and openness.

2.2.1

Power Distance

It is generally accepted that cultural differences may present a barrier to communication or when acknowledged and addressed, build connections between people from different cultures, motivating them to understand each other. Hofstede has spent over 40 years examining the idea of cultural differences and defines culture as “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others” (Hofstede et al. 2010: 6). His work relies on the investigation of national work-related values based on statistical analysis to explain the observed differences between cultures (Soares et al. 2007). The original model identified four cultural dimensions: power distance (from high to low), individualismcollectivism, masculinity-femininity, and uncertainly avoidance (from high to low). Eventually, two more dimensions were added to the model, namely long-term versus short-term orientation and indulgence versus restrain (Hofstede et al. 2010). This study examines power distance, which is manifested by “the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally” (ibid.: 6). Members of cultures demonstrating high-power distance show respect to figures of authority, while members of cultures demonstrating low power distance question authority and want to participate in decisions that affect them. According to Hofstede’s model, Russia scores much higher in terms of power distance compared to main English-speaking countries (i.e. the UK, the USA and Australia); this is the dimension where the most profound differences are observed, since Russia is the third top-scoring country in terms of power distance, while the main English-speaking countries are in the bottom 15. According to Ahmed et al. (2008), who examined how website design can be affected by considerations of different cultural dimensions, power distance may influence the amount of detailed information, the hierarchical structure of the website (websites including information on authoritative figures), the emphasis on national or religious symbols, experts, certifications, prizes, officials logos, etc., the prominence of authoritative figures vs citizens or customers, and the focus on security and social roles. Not all of these aspects of website design can be manifested linguistically, while others might be expressed through a combination of textual and visual means. In this study, we focus on linguistic means only and examine whether the use

Approaching the Consumer in Russian-English Tourism Promotion

17

of language and subsequently shifts introduced during translation, can reveal power distance considerations. The concept of inequality, which is related to power distance, plays a central role in the host–visitor relationship. A host or destination promoter can be considered an authoritative figure and can be in an (un)equal relationship with the visitor. When addressing different linguistic groups, destination promoters might need to adjust the level of power distance to achieve successful destination promotion. This can be reflected in changes introduced in the target version during the process of translation. In other words, when accessing an official tourism website, such as Russia Travel, the consumer has certain cultural expectations regarding how information needs to be presented. Failure to respect these cultural and communicative preferences entails the risk of not achieving successful destination promotion and ultimately not turning the reader into a visitor. Although studies focusing on power distance and how its relevance to the tourism industry are available (Kang and Mastin 2008; Gao et al. 2018), research focusing specifically on the shifts in power distance during translation are very scarce. The most detailed one is conducted by Kefala (2021), who examined Greek-English tourism texts and identified that the Greek source text favours higher power distance compared to the English target text. She goes on to argue that this reflects a variation “in the construction of the other in the host/visitor relationship” between English and Greek and that this variation “reveals difficulties in recreating the roles of host and tourist, as the tourist seems underrepresented in the Greek version” (ibid.: 94). The present study aims to advance this line of research by offering examples from the Russian-English language pair, where, according to Hofstede’s model, a more marked difference in terms of power difference preferences is observed compared to Greek-English.

2.2.2

Critical Cosmopolitanism

Held (2010) defines cosmopolitanism as one of the socio-cultural dimensions able to “mediate between national traditions” and argues that it offers “the possibility of dialogue with the traditions and discourse of others with the aim of expanding the horizons of one’s own framework of meaning and prejudice” (2010: 110). Cosmopolitanism naturally focuses on plurality and allows the “embrace of human diversity that enriches life by incorporating knowledge and creativity from other cultures” (Robbins and Horta 2017: 191). Although ideas of cosmopolitanism have been circulating for many centuries, critical cosmopolitanism is “an emerging direction in social theory and reflects both an object of study and a distinctive methodological approach to the social world” (Delanty 2006: 25) and has become part of cosmopolitanism discourse as a result of the growing interest in the Other. According to Delanty (ibid.), critical cosmopolitanism is not simply about plurality, it does not reflect a version of the modern world where multiculturalism is simply the goal. Instead, critical cosmopolitanism identifies a tension between the global and the local, which could for example be expressed

18

E. Melikidou and S. Malamatidou

through communication between the two. Against this backdrop, he explains that “the cultural dimension of cosmopolitanism consists more in the creation and articulation of communicative models of world openness in which societies undergo transformation” (ibid.: 35). Delanty gives a lot of prominence to translation, identifying it as a key mechanism driving cosmopolitanism, while cosmopolitan sociology is defined as the “space of translations” (ibid.: 43). Specifically, he argues that in the modern era translation is more focused towards the idea that “every culture can translate itself and others” (ibid.: 45). Translating the inside/outside, local/global, self/other, particular/universal, past/present and core/periphery are all dynamics of translation that can address the problem of inclusion and exclusion, which is a central one in critical cosmopolitanism. While there is little space to explore and present the complexity of Delanty’s ideas here, what is important for the present study is the idea that translation can strategically contribute towards openness and offers the tools for the (self)reflection and critical (self)evaluation within a wider context of social transformation. Critical Cosmopolitan theory is also one of the central theories that try to identify social attitudes and values concerning tourism discourse and Delanty’s views are strongly echoed in Swain’s (2009) work on how cosmopolitanism is manifested in tourism discourse. She defines the critical cosmopolitan framework as “an object of study or a distinct methodological approach to make sense of social transformation and cultural translation across borders” (ibid.: 512) and explores “how cosmopolitanisms are actually experienced, embodied, situated, performed and imagined in tourism by consumers and the toured” (ibid.: 505). Importantly, based on work conducted by Szerzynski and Urry (2006) and Gunesch (2005), Swain (2009) identifies several orientations of cosmopolitan practice, namely mobility, consumption, curiosity, risk-taking, mapping, aesthetic reflection, openness to the Other’s culture, and semiotic skill to interpret. In this study, we focus only on risk-taking, which can be further defined as the willingness to take risks by encountering the Other, and openness to the Other’s culture, which also involves a willingness or ability to appreciate some elements of the language or culture of the Other. This theoretical framework provides a model for interpreting how countries, cultures and languages relate to themselves and others by developing unique global and local identities. Critical cosmopolitan theory manifests itself through the analysis of parallel (source vs target) material to examine how a destination is promoted to potential visitors and in particular how risk-taking and openness are manifested and negotiated linguistically. How a destination chooses to describe itself regarding these two orientations of cosmopolitanism and communicate that message to others is assumed in the present study to be particularly important. Therefore, we explore whether, how, and to what extent the international, i.e. English, version of the website enhances the cosmopolitan element of the promotional message through the prism of risktaking and openness. A specific destination is likely to be promoted differently to Self (domestic tourism) and Other (international tourism) based on the specific preferences regarding these two orientations of cosmopolitanism the audience has. For a successful approach, the message conveyed to a particular international audience

Approaching the Consumer in Russian-English Tourism Promotion

19

needs to be appealing, which can be achieved only when a destination positions itself in relation to others (Kefala and Sidiropoulou 2016: 195).

3 Data and Methods Data for this study are taken from the National tourism portal for Russia Russia Travel (https://eng.russia.travel/), created by the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, as it is one of the most representative and well-known tourism websites for the country. Being an official tourism website it can manifest how the country views itself and how it wants to be viewed by international visitors, as encoded in the way the country is promoted to different linguistic groups. The reason this particular country has been selected is that tourism, especially inbound tourism, is an area of recent growth for Russia (notably after the collapse of the Soviet Union) and the country has devoted significant efforts to attract international tourists in recent years. Tourism has become a major source of economic and cultural development in the country. The official tourism website for Russia is, therefore, an ideal vehicle for examining how countries with a developing tourism industry attract international visitors and also, importantly, how the East addresses the West. The website is a rich one, and consists of information about regions of Russia, routes, travel information, guides, and the latest cultural and tourism industry news for the country, focusing on the main issues concerning both Russian citizens and foreign visitors, thus bringing English-speaking visitors closer to Russia. Texts are originally written in Russian and then translated into 13 different languages including English, French, Italian, Chinese and Arabic, reflecting the main inbound tourism markets. Analysis in this study focuses on the Russian source texts and their English target texts. English is chosen among the many target languages available as it is a language with a very high number of both native and non-native speakers. International English, therefore, acts as a vehicle, to attract a large number of potential visitors—much larger when compared to any of the individual languages in which the website is translated. Texts are taken from three specific travel guides, namely Nature, Food, and Health Tourism because they represent relatively new types of tourism, and therefore more attention is likely to be paid to the design of these pages compared to more established forms of tourism such as beach holidays and urban tourism. Original texts are selected based on whether they promote new destinations, less familiar and unique aspects of the source culture, as well as their popularity among Russians. These elements allow for an investigation of how destination promoters approach international (i.e. English-speaking) visitors when presenting destinations and aspects of the Russian culture that are most likely unfamiliar to them. This is important, because existing stereotypes and clichés, which are typical of tourism discourse (Dann 2001), are less likely to be activated in such cases, therefore offering translators more freedom to

20

E. Melikidou and S. Malamatidou

adjust the target text accordingly. In total, the Russian source texts consist of 1,520 words, which correspond to 1,936 when translated into English. A qualitative analysis is conducted to identify whether and to what extent there are shifts in the cultural dimension of power distance and cosmopolitan orientation. Specifically, we searched the data set for differences between the source and the target texts and categorized them into shifts in terms of power distance, risk-taking, and openness to the Other’s culture. Although some linguistic features might be associated with some of these shifts (e.g. the use of personal pronouns for power distance), we did not limit ourselves to predefined lists of these but rather relied on a close examination of the texts to reveal any patterns or trends regarding specific linguistic features. The small size of our data set makes such a detailed close reading possible.

4 Presentation and Analysis of the Empirical Data 4.1 Power Distance Analysis of data reveals that overall shifts are manifested during the translation of the Russian text into English which reflect a different level of power distance between the destination promoter and the recipients of the text. Specifically, the Russian version of the website seems to favour impersonal structures while the English version relies more on personal ones. For example, the use of the personal pronoun you is more frequently employed in the English version compared to its Russian equivalent either in the form of the second person singular and plural pronoun (e.g. ty, vy) or encoded in the morphology of the verb since Russian is a partially pro-drop language. Reversely, Russian shows a preference towards impersonal constructions such as mono, nyno (it is possible/necessary) + infinitive or the passive voice. Extract 1 comes from the “Regions of Russia” section of the website and promotes the Krasnodar area, in the North Caucasus region. Krasnodar Krai is one of the most visited tourist regions in the Russian Federation. In the past decades, the Krasnodar region has become the summer capital of Russia and one of the most popular ski resorts. The ST seems to create a distance between the destination promoter and the potential visitors by addressing them indirectly using the impersonal construction mono pobyvat (it is possible to visit). This can be considered evidence of the high-power distance in Russian culture. The English TT, however, is much more informal, as manifested by the personal construction used and more specifically the pronoun you, and therefore reflects a lower power distance between the destination promoter and the visitor. The target text demonstrates directness, closeness and intimacy between host and visitor—it is as if the host is addressing a friend telling them what they can do. The visitor is also put centre stage and is an active participant in

Approaching the Consumer in Russian-English Tourism Promotion

21

the travelling experience. As a result, the power between the host and visitor appears to be much more equal compared to what is found in the Russian source text. ST1

TT1

Zimo zdec tak e mnogoldno, kak i letom, ved v Kpacnodapcki kpa cezatc tycqi lbitele gopnolynogo otdyxa. A ecli odnogo mop malo, to na polyoctpove Taman mono pobyvat cpazy na dvyx — Qepnom i Azovckom. (https://russia.travel/krasnodarskij/) BT. In winter is just as crowded here as it is in summer since thousands of ski lovers come to Krasnodar Krai. If one sea is not enough, then on the Taman Peninsula it is possible to visit two seas at once – the Black and the Azov [seas]. Krasnodar Krai is just as busy in winter as it is in summer because of the thousands of ski lovers who come here. If one sea is not enough for you, then you can visit the Taman Peninsula which touches two — the Black and Azov seas. (https://eng.russia.travel/places/9973/)

Many similar examples can be found in the data. One could argue, of course, that the shifts in the translated text are obligatory ones if we consider the structural differences of the two languages—after all, Russian has a much higher tolerance for such impersonal constructions. This is why it is important to also examine linguistic choices which can reflect power distance but are not so tightly linked to morphosyntax. Extract 2 comes from the “Health” section of the data and describes the benefits of the Aushiger thermal springs. Aushiger is famous for its unusually beautiful landscapes, as well as unique thermal springs, and is visited every year by thousands of domestic tourists. In this example, the ST uses a personal construction, voda…ozdopavlivaet (water heals), whereas the TT explicitly states that it is the visitor that will benefit from the healing properties of the water by adding the possessive pronoun your. Therefore, we could argue that the English text manifests a lower power distance compared to the Russian one. Although in this case, we do not have an impersonal construction turning into a personal one, we can see how the personal element is further highlighted in English. This creates a much closer relationship between the host and visitor, and the destination engages more actively with the target audience. ST2

TT2

ta voda leqit zabolevani opopno-dvigatelnogo appapata, nepvno cictemy, zabolevani cocydov, koi, elydoqnokixeqnogo tpakta i t.p., a take ppocto ozdopavlivaet. (https://eng. russia.travel/objects/302616/) ΒΤ. This water treats diseases of blood vessels, skin, gastrointestinal tract, etc., and also just heals. This water treats diseases of the musculoskeletal system, nervous system, vascular disease, skin, gastrointestinal tract, etc., and also just improves your health. (https://eng.russia.travel/objects/319420/).

Another important manifestation of power distance is the use of symbols of authority or national emblems. These are more commonly found in the Russian

22

E. Melikidou and S. Malamatidou

version of the website than in the English one. Based on this finding, it can be argued that the Russian culture is associated with higher power distance compared to the English one, as their use is associated with countries that score higher in terms of power distance. Extract 3 is from the Nature subset, advertising and describing the mountain Elbrus as an attractive and top tourist destination in Russia. The English version omits the dvyglavy (double-headed) item, along with the implication of authority and power deriving from it—the double-headed eagle is portrayed on the emblem of the Russian Federation. As state authority may not appeal to the nonRussian readership, the shift is another manifestation of the fact that the power distance in English is lower than that of the Russian text. ST3

TT3

Dvyglavy lbpyc — vycoqaxa vepxina Evpopy i cvoeobpazna vizitna kaptoqka Cevepnogo Kavkaza. (https://rus sia.travel/objects/315143/) BT. Double-headed Elbrus is the highest peak of Europe and in a way the name card of the North Caucasus. Elbrus is the highest peak in Europe and a one-of-a-kind landmark in the North Caucasus. (https://eng.russia.travel/objects/315143/)

4.2 Cosmopolitanism Analysis of the data set reveals that some shifts are observed regarding risk-taking and openness to the Other’s culture, mainly when Food Tourism is promoted. This does not come as a surprise if we consider that visitors often enjoy new foods and experience the Other by exploring their culinary traditions. Therefore, cosmopolitan orientation is embodied in the visitor’s desire for new tasting experiences. Extract 4, which will be extensively discussed here, focuses on food not only as a purpose of tourism but also as a means of cosmopolitan and cross-cultural understanding. Emphasis is placed on appreciating the Other and on how “connoisseurship of people, places and cultures may develop into intellectual and aesthetic orientations toward cultural and geographical difference” (Swain 2009: 510). ST4

Take Abpay-Dpco ppiglaxaet vcex elawix na yvlekatelnye gactponomiqeckie mactep-klaccy v gactponomiqecko xkole «Abpay-Dpco». Zdec kady goct cmoet poppobovat ceb v poli nactowego povapa. B xkole ppovoditc ppofeccionalna pepepodrotovka povapov i kypcy povyxeni kvalifikacii po paznym cpecialnoctm. Obyqenie ppoxodit pod pykovodctvom lyqxix mactepov kyxni. Talantlivye xef-povapa co vcego mipa deltc cvoimi cekpetami, pacckazyva ob aktyalnyx gactponomiqeckix tendencix i kyxnx napodov mipa. (https://russia.travel/objects/313022/) BT. Abrau-Durso also invites all who wish on a fascinating gastronomical master-class at the «Abrau-Durso» culinary school. Here, each guest can try

Approaching the Consumer in Russian-English Tourism Promotion

TT4

23

himself in a role of a real chief. At the school is conducted the professional retraining of chefs and advanced courses in different specialties. The training runs under the supervision of the best masters of cuisine. Talented chefs from all over the world share their secrets, telling about the current gastronomical trends and cuisines of the world’s nations. Abrau-Durso also invites all those who wish to experience the engrossing gastronomical workshops at the Abrau-Durso culinary school. Here, each guest can play the role of a real chef. The school carries out the professional retraining of chefs and advanced courses in different specialties. The training is carried out by the best chefs. Talented international chefs share their secrets and inform visitors about the current gastronomical trends and cuisines of people all over the world. (https://eng.russia.travel/objects/313022/)

We notice in this example how the visitor’s desire to discover the “unknown” Other and get to know a different culture through food is more marked in the English target text compared to the Russian source text. Specifically, while both versions rely on the idea of invitation, the Russian text extends the invitation to everyone who would like to attend (vcex elawix) this master class, while the English target texts address specifically those who want to experience it. The verb experience is added in the target text, which as a result reflects a more active approach to tourism, one that promotes adventure and risk-taking. This example illustrates how differences in cosmopolitan orientation can reflect differences in self-representation of identity (national vs international). Another example from the same extract helps to illustrate shifts in openness to the Other’s culture. The Russian source text describes how guests can try themselves (poppobovat ceb) in the role of a chef, whereas the English target text more explicitly states how guests can play that role. The choice of the verb play here is important. The visitor is invited to become a true part of traditional Russian cuisine by playing the role of the professional chef on a gastronomical stage. Visitor involvement is much higher in the case of English—visitors can truly immerse themselves in the Russian culture. This indicates that the English target text exhibits a more pronounced openness to the Other’s culture. The use of play also reflects the play perspective to tourism (Urry and Larsen 2011) which sees tourism as a game in which fun is a key concept. A final example from this extract which will be discussed here in relation to openness is the phrase xef-povapa co vcego mipa (chefs from all over the world) in the ST which has been translated as international chefs in the TT. Here, international is likely to be perceived as an inclusive term by potential English-speaking visitors, not least because some international chefs are likely to belong to the same cultural group as them. The use of this word also creates the impression that the destination connects nations and mediates between them to create a sense of comfort. On the other hand, the Russian source text highlights the difference between Self and the Other (Russia vs the rest of the world)—from all over the world does not create a sense of inclusivity and highlights an orientation of difference. National identity is distinguished in this case from a cosmopolitan identity.

24

E. Melikidou and S. Malamatidou

5 Translation as a Field of Identity Construction Although the examples discussed here are limited, they reveal significant differences in the relationship between destination promoter and consumer in the Russian and English version. The two communities of practice differ in the way visitors and tourism are conceptualized, communicated, and ultimately promoted. The domestic Russian visitor seems to rely more on the destination promoter for information and advice, approaching tourism in a more passive and impersonal manner. On the other hand, the international English-speaking visitor is expected to engage actively in the tourism experience and play a central role in it. Specifically, results from the exploration of the cultural dimension of power distance reveal that the Russian source text favours impersonal constructions and higher formality, whereas the English version favours personal pronouns, closeness and higher intimacy. This, together with a stronger emphasis on national symbols, reveals a higher power distance in Russian compared to English. During the process of translation, shifts are observed that allow the power distance to be adjusted from low to high, according to what can be assumed is the expectation of the target audience according to Hofstede et al.’s (2010) model. Furthermore, analysis of the cosmopolitan orientations of risking encounters with the Other and openness to the Other’s culture demonstrate that the source and target text are constructed differently. Specifically, the English target text involves shifts that reflect stronger risk-taking and openness compared to the Russian source text. As a descriptive and analytical mechanism, the critical cosmopolitanism theory allows subtle, yet important and meaningful, shifts to be captured and sheds light on how readers and potential visitors are approached following their cultural values which belong to different communities of practice than the source culture. Overall, this study reveals that cultural dimensions and cosmopolitan orientations merge to contribute to a single socio-cultural identity and offers clear evidence that translation plays an important role as a means for (self-)reflection and (self-) transformation in tourism discourse. The two versions examined here seem to favour a different destination promotion approach, as manifested through certain linguistic choices. The English version of Russia Travel captures and promotes a different type of tourism experience compared to the Russian version. It places more emphasis on active tourism, where the visitor is in charge of the trip and engages fully with the destination in a search for authentic experiences and encounters with the Other. This is not to say that the Russian version does not promote elements of this active type of tourism, but rather that it does so less noticeably. The cultural dynamics at play here do not exist as a binary (high vs. low, openness vs closeness, etc.) but as a continuum where individual societies and their textual productions can be placed anywhere along it. The significance of this study lies in the fact that it reveals the central role that translation plays in allowing texts to position themselves in this continuum, and ultimately in facilitating successful tourism communication and promotion. Finally,

Approaching the Consumer in Russian-English Tourism Promotion

25

this study offers tourism studies a better understanding not only of the important role of translation in destination promotion but also of the shifts in the promotional message required to successfully address the needs of the consumer.

6 Conclusion Findings can assist destination promoters and translators alike produce texts that achieve their aim more successfully, not only in terms of converting readers into visitors, but importantly facilitate cross-cultural communication, especially between the East and the West as is the case in this study. It is only by acquiring a critical and thorough understanding of how tourism communication and promotion are achieved across languages and cultures, that we can reflect on and challenge current practices and improve tourism communication in the future. The shifts that we observed during translation suggest that translators have the required understanding of the target culture and the communicative conventions associated with it as far as the cultural dimension of power distance and the cosmopolitan orientations of risk-taking and openness are concerned. This allows us to assume that translators must be members of the target culture, as this permits them to automatically have “access to [the] ‘out-of-awareness’ ‘informal’ level of culture”, and it is this knowledge that makes them “cross-cultural expert[s]” (Sulaiman and Wilson 2019: 213–214). However, not all translations of tourism texts are performed by members of the target culture. Many popular destinations, such as Thailand, Indonesia, or even Greece, often rely on members of the sourse culture for the translation of tourism material. It would be interesting to examine whether and to what extent shifts are also observed when these destinations are being promoted to an English-speaking audience.

References Ahmed, Tanveer, Haris Mouratidis, and David Preston. 2008. Website design guidelines: High power distance and high-context culture. International Journal of Cyber Society and Education 1 (1): 3–16. Dann, Graham. 2001. The self-admitted use of clichés in the language of tourism. Tourism, Culture & Communication 3: 1–14. Delanty, Gerard. 2006. The cosmopolitan imagination: Critical cosmopolitanism and social theory. The British Journal of Sociology 57 (1): 25–47. Edwards, Patricia, and Alejandro Curado. 2003. The promotion of tourism through key concepts and specific discourse. LSP & Professional Communication 3 (1): 26–42. Fusari, Sabrina. 2009. Multilingual tourist videos as specialized discourse: The case study of Val Gardena. In Quaderni del CeSLiC, occasional papers, ed. D.R. Miller, 4–26. Bologna: Centro di Studi Linguistico-Culturali.

26

E. Melikidou and S. Malamatidou

Gao, Baojun, Xiangge Li, Shan Liu, and Debin Fanga. 2018. How power distance affects online hotel ratings: The positive moderating roles of hotel chain and reviewers’ travel experience. Tourism Management 65: 176–186. Gotti, Maurizio. 2006. The language of tourism as specialized discourse. In Translating tourism: Linguistic/cultural representations, ed. O. Palusci and S. Francesconi, 261–274. Trento: Trento University Press. Hallett, Richard, and Judith Kaplan-Weinger. 2010. Tourism and cultural change. Official tourism websites: A discourse analysis perspective. Bristol: Channel View Publications. Held, David. 2010. Cosmopolitanism. Ideals and realities. Cambridge: Polity Press. Hofstede, Geert, Gert Jan Hofstede, and Michael Minkov. 2010. Cultures and organizations. New York: McGraw-Hill. Holden, Andrew. 2016. Environment and tourism. London and New York: Routledge. Jaworski, Adam, and Annette Pritchard, eds. 2005. Discourse, communication and tourism. Clevedon: Channel View Publications. Kang, Doo Syen, and Teresa Mastin. 2008. How cultural difference affects international tourism public relations websites: A comparative analysis using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Public Relations Review 34: 54–56. Kefala, Stavroula, and Maria Sidiropoulou. 2016. Shaping the glo/cal in Greek-English tourism advertising: A critical cosmopolitan perspective. Languages in Contrast 16 (2): 191–212. Kefala, Stavroula. 2021. The pragmatics of translated tourism advertising. In Locher Miriam A. and Maria Sidiropoulou (eds), special issue ‘Pragmatics of Translation’. Journal of Pragmatics 170: 88–100. Mak, James. 2003. Tourism and the economy. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press. McGehee, Nancy. 2002. Alternative tourism and social movements. Annals of Tourism Research 29 (1): 124–143. Novozhilova, Anna, Svetlana Korolkova, Yevgenia Shovgenina, and Alexander Shovgenin. 2018. Pragmatics of translating tourism discourse texts. Translation Studies Department, Volgograd State University, Volgograd, Russia. German and Romance Philology Department, Volgograd State University, Volgograd, Russia. SHS Web of Conferences 50, 1–6. Robbins, Bruce, and Paulo Lemos Horta, eds. 2017. Cosmopolitanisms. New York: New York University Press. Soares, Ana Maria, Minoo Farhangmehr, and Aviv Shoham. 2007. Hofstede’s dimensions of culture in international marketing studies. Journal of Business Research 60: 277–284. Sulaiman, Zain, and Rita Wilson. 2019. Translation and tourism: strategies for effective crosscultural promotion. Singapore: Springer. Swain, Byrne Margaret. 2009. The cosmopolitan hope of tourism: Critical action and worldmaking vistas. Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment 11 (4): 505–525. Szerszynski, Bronislaw, and John Urry. 2006. Visuality, mobility and the cosmopolitan: Inhabiting the world from afar. The British Journal of Sociology 57 (1): 113–131. Urry, John, and Jonas Larsen. 2011. The tourist gaze 3.0. London: SAGE Publications. Woodside, G. Arch, ed. 2007. Advances in culture, tourism and hospitality research. Oxford: JAI, Elsevier.

Electronic Sources Gunesch, Konrad. 2005. Cosmopolitanism as a transnational identity form in the time of globalization. Available from: http://www.iiqi.org/C4QI/httpdocs/qi2005/papers/gunesch.pdf. Last Accessed 10 September 2021.

Approaching the Consumer in Russian-English Tourism Promotion

27

OFCOM (2021) Total contribution of travel and tourism to gross domestic product (GDP) worldwide from 2006 to 2020. Statista. Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/233223/traveland-tourism--total-economic-contribution-worldwide/. Last Accessed 19 November 2021.

Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin on the Coronavirus Outbreak Elena Alafuzova

Abstract The paper attempts to show how meaning transfer may shape the image of a political leader. It analyses the translated and interpreted English versions of four speeches by President Putin on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak delivered at the beginning of the pandemic (March–June 2020). The study focuses on pragmatic phenomena like power distance between speaker and audience, building trust in the power of the state, the conceptualization of the pandemic, which shape the roles of society members and the image of the President. The analysis demonstrates that while the official written translations are close to the source speech in most respects, interpreting displays a higher negotiating intention. It shapes a positive public image of the President and the authority he represents, which the study claims to be emerging from an awareness of audience profile, the complexity of interpreting or both. Translating and interpreting on the political stage assume an interdisciplinary perception of cross-cultural and political awareness which permeates the communicative situation. Keywords Political speeches · Interpreting · Translation · Impersonality · Passive voice · Performatives · WAR metaphor · Pragmatics

1 Introduction Political discourse has attracted the attention of scholars who often took interdisciplinary approaches to the field. It merges ‘semiotics, linguistics, and philosophical concepts as well as literary, sociological, and political science analysis’ (Apter 2001: 11644). A central concern in transferring political discourse is reproducing power through discourse. Practices of exercising power have also attracted the attention of researchers like Fairclough (1995), Van Dijk (2008) and various frameworks have E. Alafuzova (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] Oulof Palme, 2-4, 15771 Athens, Greece Gastello, 37-165, Moscow 107014, Russia © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_3

29

30

E. Alafuzova

been used, e.g. content analysis (Franzosi 2018), corpus analysis (Kutter 2018), narrative analysis (De Fina 2018), rhetorical analysis (Posch 2018), genre analysis (Cap and Okulska 2013). Researchers have studied discourses of/about political leaders shaping their political identity (Kaniklidou 2012 on shaping Obama’s identity through translated news in the Greek press, Degani 2015 on values in Obama’s discourse, Skrempou 2020 in fiction, etc.) The interconnectedness of the modern world and the global flow of information produce ample evidence of how ideologies may permeate political discourses. Translation or interpreting poses an additional challenge to the mediator, because the transfer of ideology through discourse is never a straightforward practice. Interpreting is widely used in political contexts, e.g. in the United Nations, which provides translation services and interpreting services in its 6 official languages, or on TV. Despite the fact that TV interpreting is sometimes given a ‘marginal’ role in the study of language transfer (Pöchhacker 2011: 22), it is worth examining especially in the media, for “the impact of media interpreting and its accessibility, as well as the special challenges it typically holds for the interpreter” (ibid.). The study attempts to investigate how some of the interpreters’ techniques may affect aspects of the representation of a political leader, when the official translational services are more source-oriented and less keen on renegotiating the representation of the political leader. The pair of languages in this study is Russian-English. The next section tackles theoretical frameworks which the study uses to account for phenomena in the data. After the methodological considerations, the research presents and analyses data samples which display variation between the interpreted and translated English version of the Russian text. The discussion highlights the significance of findings, developing critical discourse awareness and pointing to the specifics of political discourse transfer.

2 Literature Review A number of theoretical frameworks may account for phenomena encountered in the analysis of discourses of political authorities and common people. Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough 1995/2010; Wodak and Meyer 2001; Van Dijk 2008; Fairclough and Fairclough 2012) may trace and theorize power relations registered in discourse. In Russia, political discourse has been researched from various perspectives. Most of the research is based on the discourse of the President of Russia. The presidential linguistic identity has attracted the attention of scholars in its discursive (Gavrilova 2002; Reshetarova and Trishchenko 2018), rhetorical (Parshina 2005), communicative (Ivanova 2009), ideological (Sedykh 2016) aspects, etc. Russian political discourse has also been under research within linguistic and translation/interpreting studies (Velikoredchanina and Smyslov 2018). Most of the studies analyze specific issues in transferring some aspects of political messages such as phraseological units (Egorova and Shirchkova 2018), colloquial lexical units (Ivolgina 2020), translation errors (Khorosheva and Bannikova 2020). Kremlin translation services are also

Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin …

31

under research and are claimed to be lacking competence due to source-text-driven violations of the English language of the final product (Mukhortov 2013).

3 Methodology As suggested, the study focuses on pragmatic aspects of meaning which are differentiated between the TV-interpreting version of the political discourse and the official written translation. The source and translated version were available in electronic format (audio-visual and written for the source text and written for the translated text), while the interpreted text was available only in audio-visual format and was transcribed for the purposes of the present study. The data were contrasted manually for identifying shifts. A criterion for shift selection and presentation was the frequency of shift occurrence. The interpreted version of the speeches showed high frequency in the use of the personal pronoun we, that considerably differed from the source text (ST hereafter). Analysis of the examples showed that one of the syntactic categories that was systematically shifting was impersonality, thus, it is the first phenomenon studied below. Another systematic shift was that the ST contained a considerable amount of explicit performative utterances (Sadok 2006), so it was identified as a distinctive feature of these speeches. The third phenomenon is the conceptualization of the state’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, through the conceptual metaphor of WAR, which is permeating both the ST and the interpreted/translated versions. The metaphorical analogy of WAR is acknowledged in this study as a prototypical situation (Ritchie 2003). The study analyses shifts in pragmatic phenomena that occur in the process of meaning transfer and accounts for these shifts in terms of socio-cultural theoretical frameworks. They are shifts which re-shape the representation of the political leader’s identity. The data comprise 4 speeches delivered by the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (March 25, April 2, May 11, June 23, 2020). The speeches were broadcasted on most Russian TV channels, including those which address foreign audiences. The study compares the speeches to their interpreted versions as well as to their official written translation.1 The ST is the speeches in Russian, whose transcripts along with the original videos are available at the Russian President’s official website. Three of the speeches (1st, 2nd, and 4th) appear with the title ‘Address to the nation’, while the 3rd one is part of a ‘Meeting on the sanitary and epidemiological situation’ held between Vladimir Putin and various authorities of the Russian Federation, addressing not only the participants of the meeting but all viewers of the videoconference, that is the whole nation. The total number of words in the ST is 11,774, while the total running time 1

See the Text section on the list of references for the link to the data.

32

E. Alafuzova

Table 1 Word count and duration of the data set Running time of audio–video material

ST (Russian)

TTa Interpreted (English)

TTb Translated (English)

1st speech (25/03/20)

17:36

1,717

2,031

2,099

2nd speech (02/04/20)

8:13

753

917

905

3rd speech (11/05/20)

41:12

4,097

4,449

4,994

4th speech (23/06/20)

51:06

5,207

5,638

6,491

Total

1:58:07

11,774

13,035

14,489

of the audio-visual material is 1:58:07. Despite the fact that these speeches were delivered orally, they minimally exhibit features of oral discourse such as repetitions and vocal pauses, moreover, their syntax and overall rhetorical structure is more complex (long well-structured sentences and pieces of discourse) than it is expected for oral discourse. In examining variation in the mode of discourse, Hatim and Mason (1990) refer to Gregory and Carroll’s (1978: 47) illustration of the extent of mode variation; this type of discourse may be non-spontaneous speaking of what is written, to be spoken as if not written. Likewise, Pöchhacker (2011: 23) suggests that speeches delivered by politicians on special occasions are “by definition, high-status originals whose content and wording […] are carefully chosen and crafted. Consequently, such speeches are likely to be delivered from a script”. The interpreted data (Target Text a, TTa hereafter) are available on the youtube channel of the video news agency Ruptly, which belongs to the RT TV network, funded by the Russian federal tax budget. The RT official website identifies the network as the first Russian 24/7 English-language news channel that “covers stories overlooked by the mainstream media, provides alternative perspectives on current affairs, and acquaints international audiences with a Russian viewpoint on major global events”.2 Given the sufficient Governmental economic support, the assumption is that the interpretations broadcast on RT/Ruptly channels align with the official position of the State. The total number of the words in the 4 interpreted speeches is around 13,035 (the first and the fourth speech are missing small parts, around 100 s all together, presumably due to some technical problems). The official written translations (Target Text b, TTb hereafter) appear in the English version of the Russian President’s official website. The total number of words in the four translated speeches is 14,489. Table 1 summarizes word count and duration of the data set.

2

https://www.rt.com/about-us/.

Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin …

33

4 Presentation of the Empirical Data The thematic content of the speeches includes introduction to the situation of the coronavirus outbreak, report on the measures and procedures taken or to be introduced, appeal to the nation to follow instructions, words of support and compassion, appraisal of the specialists, boosting confidence that difficulties will be overcome, etc. The following three sections present an analysis of shifts that can be explained from a pragmatic point of view and produce an effect manifesting socio-cultural adjustments.

4.1 Interpersonal Distance in Addressing an Audience: Impersonal Structures The ST data set displays sentences without an explicit actor. They can be of different types: impersonal sentences with a modal verb, passive sentences with no reference to an actor, sentences with inanimate subjects. Such constructions are mostly utilized to refer to what has been done or to what else needs to be done, as in example (1): ST1 TTa TTb

Hado poddepat cemi c detmi. BT. [It is] necessary to support families with children We will also support families with children. It is essential to support families with children.

TTb maintains the impersonal structure of the ST—nado/nyno (necessary /needed/essential), while TTa does not (see we support). Out of the 35 examples of this category, 28 instances (80%) display the shift in the interpreted version, while TTb displays only 14 instances (40%), with another 13 instances (37%) grammatically closer to the ST. All the strategies that were employed in interpreting/translation are presented in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 Strategies employed in transferring impersonal constructions with a modal item in interpreting/translation

34

E. Alafuzova

The pragmatic implication emanating from this shift, namely, the shift from the impersonal to the personal construction is that the involvement of the speaker appears higher and his power to manage the situation is intensified. As suggested, similar strategies are employed in transferring other types of impersonal constructions, which raise the level of formality, namely, passive constructions with inanimate subjects, as shown in the examples (2–3) below. ST2

TTa TTb

K pazvptyvani cictemy cvoevpemenno medicincko pomowi i ppofilaktiki podklqeny vce vozmonocti i pecypcy. BT. To deploy the system of timely medical assistance and prevention all the capacities and recourses are leveraged We’ve deployed the highly efficient system for preventive treatment and diagnosis. We have mobilised all the capabilities and resources for deploying a system of timely prevention and treatment.

Both TTa and TTb in (2) lower the level of formality with the active we constructions, which increase the involvement of the speaker and lower the authority he represents. The same holds for example (3). ST3

TTa TTb

Taka mepa potencialno paccqitana na poddepky qetypx millionov pabotnikov. BT. Such a measure potentially is estimated to support 4 million workers/employees We’ll be helping millions of people. This measure could potentially cover 4 million workers.

The shift in TTa lowers the level of formality emanating from the passive and impersonal Russian construction and mitigates the interpersonal distance between speaker and audience, in the process of interpreting. Discoursal politeness conventions seem to be the same in the translated text.

4.2 Performatives and Hierarchies The section examines the implementation of speech acts (Austin 1962), across the three versions, as a manifestation of in/formality in communicating with an audience. The analysis shows that performative verbs are used in the ST to explicitly highlight speech act performance. The present study takes into consideration only explicit performatives, that are introduced with a “formula that has a first person singular subject and an active verb in the simple present tense that makes explicit the illocutionary act that the speaker intends to accomplish in uttering the sentence” (Sadock 2006); more precisely, the performatives analysed are obpawac (I address, 6 instances), ppoxy (I ask, 17 instances), popyqa (I instruct, 9 instances)

Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin …

35

and ppedlaga (I suggest/propose, 26 instances). An explicit performative introduces the ST and TTb raising formality and confirming that the translation is close to the ST, while in TTa, the deep structure, as it is possibly perceived by the interpreter, is unveiled resulting in reshaping the political leader’s identity and highlighting his power and authority. In TTb, the speech act of addressing always appears with the verb ‘address’ (6 times); asking is introduced with the verb ‘ask’ in the overwhelming majority of the cases (15 out 17, in one case the verb ‘address’ is employed, and, in another, the performative verb changed into a polite expression ‘I would like X to do Y’); proposing is translated either with the verb ‘propose’ (11 cases) or with the verb ‘suggest’ (15 cases); assigning another authority different tasks and duties is realized through verb ‘instruct’ (8 cases) and in one case with the verb ‘want’. These findings show that the written translation tends to retain discourse features of the leader’s speeches transferring meaning in a neutral manner. In TTa, addressing is realized through the verb ‘address’ only twice, in the rest of the cases interpreting shifts into more emphatic uses, e.g. ‘I call (up)on’ (4 cases) that assume motivation rather than simply ‘addressing’. ‘Asking’ is also made more emphatic, intensifying the request by generating the implication that fulfillment is highly desirable (‘urge’—3 cases) or an obligation (‘call (up)on’—6 cases). Additionally, asking is interpreted explicitly as instructing (assignment of duties to various parties) that is realized either through verb ‘instruct’ (once) or with the construction ‘X is/should/need do Y’ where X is the party that is expected to perform some action Y (5 cases). That makes it obvious that the deep structure of the performatives with ‘ask’ is closer to ‘instructing’ (command) rather than to ‘asking’ (request for action). That is confirmed by the fact that the explicit performative ‘instruct’ is realized in interpreting with the same performatives as the ones with the ‘ask’ (I call on, X should/need/can, it’s up to X). In one case, performative ‘ask’ is absent, possibly due to the interpreter’s overload. The interpreted version avoids representing the political leader as asking anything, but rather as assigning tasks and obligations to members of society. Meaning transfer of this kind makes the authority of the political leader more explicit and implies a minimal possibility of refusal. A similar tendency is realized in interpreting the ST performative ppedlaga ‘I suggest/propose’. It is interpreted in terms of ‘suggestion’ only 3 times (out of 26). In the rest of the cases the interpreter assumes intention on the part of the speaker and can render it as actions that need or are likely to be fulfilled (we will/can do Y, we introduce Y/measures, X should/need/could be done, I have decided) rather than as a suggestion/proposal to fulfill them. The property of the act of ‘suggesting/proposing’ is that it can be refused, thus, by minimizing the use of performative verb ‘suggest’, the interpreter assigns more power to the political leader and makes it explicit that the suggestions of the President are not genuine ‘suggestions’, but rather the plans that need to be implemented and any opposite view is minimally expected. This contributes to creating an image of powerful and proactive leader who assumes authoritative hierarchies.

36

E. Alafuzova

4.3 Conceptualizing the Pandemic: The WAR Metaphor There is a global tendency for authorities and mass media to describe the pandemic in terms of the conceptual metaphor of WAR. President Putin’s speeches are no exception to this rule. Moreover, the conceptualization of WAR is generally operative in President Putin’s discourse, constituting an integral part of his identity. The pandemic speeches under research are permeated with the conceptualization of the pandemic as WAR. The analogy is that THE VIRUS IS ENEMY, from which one normally wants to fence oneself off and takes STRATEGIC ACTION. The geographical position of the Russian Federation is further perceived in terms of its military STRATEGIC POSITION. The measures taken serve to COMBAT or to FIGHT the virus, people who are involved in this combat are SOLDIERS that defend the rest of the population on the front line. The domain of VICTIMS is applied to those affected by the virus. The means for the combat are perceived as RESOURCES. Overall life at the time of the pandemic is described in terms of MARITAL LAW. Both interpreters and translators seem to be fully aware that the military profile constitutes a part of President Putin’s identity, hence, high rate of survival of the WAR conceptualization in both types of target versions. For instance, extract (4) uses the following metaphorical domains: ENEMY (cdepivat ~vpaga ~restrain an enemy, pponiknovenie vpaga: invasion of the enemy), STRATEGIC ACTIONS (otgopoditc, zablokipovat: fence off, block), STRATEGIC POSITION (pdom c gpanicami along our borders), VICTIMS (popannye: affected in medicine or defeated/hit in the military). However, there are polemic items more aware of the crises which are missing from TTa, namely, precautionary measures and insulate itself from this threat. Likewise, TTb item spilling over, in to stop it from spilling over into Russia, assumes randomness in the way the virus spreads, which shapes it as a more dangerous situation. ST4

TTa

Blagodap zapanee ppintym mepam nam v celom ydatc poka cdepivat i xipokoe, i ctpemitelnoe pacppoctpanenie bolezni. Ho my c vami dolny ponimat, qto Pocci – ppocto dae v cily cvoego geogpafiqeckogo poloeni – ne moet otgopoditc ot ygpozy. Pdom c naximi gpanicami naxodtc gocydapctva, ye cepzno popannye pidemie, i polnoct zablokipovat e pponiknovenie v naxy ctpany ob ektivno nevozmono. BT. Thanks to precautionary measures taken we have been on the whole able to repel wide and rapid spread of the disease. But we have to understand that Russia – simply due to its geographical position – cannot fence itself off the threat. There are other countries along our borders that have already been severely affected by the epidemics and it is objectively impossible to block its invasion into our country. Thanks to the measures that we applied we’ve been fending off the spread of the disease. But we need to understand that Russia due to its geographical position cannot isolate fully from the rest of the world. On our borders we

Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin …

TTb

37

have countries severely damaged by the coronavirus. We cannot block the speed of the disease due to objective reasons. By taking precautionary measures, we have been largely able to prevent the infection from rapidly spreading and limit the incidence rate. However, we have to understand that Russia cannot insulate itself from this threat, simply considering its geography. There are countries along our borders that have already been seriously affected by the epidemic, which means that in all objectivity it is impossible to stop it from spilling over into Russia.

In example (5), the TTb item mobilise, which is missing from TTa, more clearly connotes the war and crisis situation and the image of an alert state mechanism. ST5

TTa TTb

K pazvptyvani cictemy cvoevpemenno medicincko pomowi i ppofilaktiki podklqeny vce vozmonocti i pecypcy. BT. All the capabilities and recourses are leveraged to deploy the system of timely medical assistance and prevention. We’ve deployed the highly efficient system for preventive treatment and diagnosis. We have mobilised all the capabilities and resources for deploying a system of timely prevention and treatment.

In TTa, components of the WAR domain may be lost (RESOURCES), but this loss is occasionally compensated with the use of evaluative items like highly efficient, which create a positive and powerful image of the speaker and enforces trust in the State, that is, catering for the interpersonal relationship of the speaker with the audience. In the same vein, TTb, in (6), enforces the ‘conflict’ and ‘military advancement’ conceptualization through the item defense against the advancing epidemic, which is missing from the interpreted version. ST6

TTa TTb

Imenno oni [pepconal medicinckix yqpedeni] v bolnicax i infekcionnyx otdelenix, na vcex vpaqebnyx yqactkax depat obopony ot nactypawe pidemii. BT. That’s them [medical personnel] in the hospitals and infectious wards, at every medical station who hold the line of defense against the advancing epidemic. That’s the staff in infectious wards and every hospital, they are on the front line. They [medical personnel] are holding the line of defense against the advancing epidemic.

Τhe section first examined a leader’s interpersonal distance in addressing an audience, through the use of im/personal expressions (in the interpreted and translated versions) of President Putin’s discourse on the coronavirus outbreak. Findings showed that impersonal expressions and passives were favoured more in the translated version where the interpersonal distance between the speaker and readership

38

E. Alafuzova

was heightened. The oral character of the interpreted version was rather mitigating power distance. The section then examined performative speech acts in the four speech items. Findings showed that the translated version was keener on employing performative verbs close to the source text in marking speech acts (addressing, asking, suggesting/proposing, instructing), which also raise the level of formality in the translated version. By contrast, the interpreted version introduces a number of changes that reveal the deep structure of the performatives, implying a higher level of power, e.g. by avoiding representation of the political leader as asking or proposing something but rather as commanding, instructing or delegating duties. Last, the study distinguished between the interpreted and translated version in terms of how the conceptual metaphor of WAR was shaped in discourse. The translated version more consistently favoured the conceptualization of war and conflict when referring to the crisis of the pandemic. By contrast, the oral character of the interpreted version despite the high awareness of the interpreter of the importance of WAR conceptualizations on the identity of the speaker, inevitably tended to mitigate threat awareness.

5 Discussion of the Results The analysis showed that impersonal syntax shifts to we constructions, which are favoured in official discourse in Russian (Baker 2011: 113). In political discourse, use of we is claimed to express cooperation or unity (Degani 2015). The speaker is represented as a cooperative person, likable and being a part of the whole. Both interpreted and translated texts use the we construction, but the data showed that it is more frequent in interpreting. The written translation is more ST-driven, favouring formality and the power distance of the source text. Furthermore, explicit performative sentences were translated with the most semantically close equivalent, in interpreting undergo multiple changes. In interpreting, explicit performative sentences rarely coincide with the ST wording. More precisely, interpreters in these discourses do not present President Putin as asking the audience something but rather as recommending, commanding/instructing or assigning duties to various parties. Similarly, the performative formula I propose/suggest is rarely realized in the interpreted data, which would mitigate interpersonal distance. Additionally, certain speech acts are represented as already fulfilled/implemented (even though they may not be), which also contributes to a positive representation of the leader. Finally, the conceptualization of the fight with the pandemic triggered the WAR analogy which appeared in the four source speech events. Both translators and interpreters seem to recognize that the image of a leader-in-war shapes the political identity of the President. Naturally, interpreting may not maintain all the conceptual metaphors of the original scripted text, however, it is important to notice that, in

Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin …

39

some cases, researchers can detect interpreters’ intention to compensate for the loss of a metaphor with explicit expressions of success and high performance. The data show that interpreting and translation practices project different strategies in achieving an appropriate effect, e.g. in representing a political leader’s identity. While translation of a political speech found on the leader’s website is more STdriven, the oral character of interpreting favours a number of strategies which interfere with pragmatic meaning and adjust the representation of a political leader. One of the merits of this study is that it examines interpreting in juxtaposition to translating (the same discourse stretches), showing tangible instances of variation between the two modalities (interpreting and translation). A study like this in the field of interpreting/translation between Russian and English may be of particular importance, given the wide application of such practices and requests for highly qualified professional personnel. An open research problem which would improve the potential of the study is making use of methodologies employed in im/politeness and power distance studies, where research is conducted with respect to how discourses are received by intended audiences. It would be worth examining, for instance, how various English-speaking audiences will actually appreciate the strategies employed in this context or whether they would consider one of the versions somewhat awkward, provided that certain cultures may not favour high power distance in political discourses.

References Austin, J.L. 1962. How to do things with words. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Baker, M. 2011. In other words: A coursebook on translation (2nd ed). London and New York: Routledge. Cap, P., and U. Okulska. 2013. Analyzing genres in political communication: An introduction. In Analyzing genres in political communication, ed. P. Cap, 1–16. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. De Fina, A. 2018. Narrative analysis. In The Routlege handbook on language and politics, ed. R. Wodak and B. Forchtner. London: Routledge. Degani, M. 2015. Framing the rhetoric of a leader: An analysis of obama’s election campaign speeches. Houndsmill, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Fairclough, N. 1995/2010. Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. London: Routledge. Fairclough, I., and N. Fairclough. 2012. Political discourse analysis: A method for advanced students. London: Routledge. Franzosi, R. 2018. Content analysis. In The Routledge handbook on language and politics, ed. R. Wodak and B. Forchtner. London: Routledge. Gavrilova, M.V. 2002. Lingvisticheskii analiz politicheskogo teksta [Linguistic analysis of political discourse] // Politicheskii analiz: doklady empiricheskikh politicheskikh issledovanii SPbGU. — SPb: SPbGU, Vyp. 3. S. 88–108. Gregory, M., and S. Carroll. 1978. Language and situation: Language varieties and their social context. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Hatim, B., and I. Mason. 1990. Discourse and the translator. London: Longman. Ivanova, I.V. 2009. Janr interviu: formy bytovania i yazykovye osobennosti [The genre of interview: Forms of occurrence and linguistic characteristics]. PhD dissertation. Astrakhan State University.

40

E. Alafuzova

Ivolgina, A.I. 2020. Rendering colloquial lexical units from Russian into English in conference interpreting of political discourse. Vestnik MGLU. Gumanitarnye nauki. Vyp. 7 (836): 65–74. Kaniklidou, Th. 2012. English-Greek news creating narratives: A translation perspective. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Department of English Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Khorosheva, N.V., and A.D. Bannikova. 2020. The problem of translation error in the process of simultaneous interpretation of political speech. Nauchnyi Journal 2: 61–69. Kutter, A. 2018. Corpus analysis. In The Routledge handbook on language and politics, ed. R. Wodak and B. Forchtner, 169–186. London: Routledge. Mukhortov, D.S. 2013. Scrutinizing the lexical semantic component in translations of high-profile political speeches as in Vladimir Putin’s utterances, 2000–2012. Politicheskaya Linguistica 4 (46): 122–128. Parshina, O.N. 2005. Sttrategii i tactiki rechevogo povedeniia sovremennoi politicheskoi elity Rossii [Strategies and tactics of verbal behaviour of modern Russian political elite]. PhD dissertation. Saratov State University. Pöchhacker, F. 2011. Researching TV interpreting: Selected studies of US presidential material. The Interpreters’ Newsletter 16: 21–36. Posch, C. 2018. Rhetorical analysis. In The Routledge handbook on language and politics, ed. R. Wodak and B. Forchtner, 247–261. London: Routledge. Reshetarova, I.V., and T.A. Trishchenko. 2018. Peculiarities of translation of the public political speech (on the material of public speeches of V.V. Putin). Mirovaia literatura na perekrestke kultur i civilizacii 4 (24): 92–100. Ritchie, L.D. 2003. ARGUMENT IS WAR—Or is it a game of chess? Multiple meanings in the analysis of implicit metaphors. Metaphor and Symbol 18: 125–146. Parshina, O.N. 2004. Sttrategii i tactiki rechevogo povedeniia sovremennoi politicheskoi elity Rossii. Astrakhan: Isd-vo Astrakh. gos. tekhn.un-ta. Sadok, J. 2006. Speech Acts. In The Handbook of pragmatics, ed. L.R. Horn and G. Ward, 53–73. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell. Sedykh, A.P. 2016. On the problem of idiopolitical discourse of V.V. Putin. Politicheskaya Linguistika 1 (55): 31–41. Skrempou, Natalia. 2020. Constructing leadership through translating im/politeness. Im/politeness and Stage Translation, Special issue, Journal of Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 6 (1): 92–108. Van Dijk, T.A. 2008. Discourse and power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Velikoredchanina, L.A. and S.L. Smyslov. 2018. Transference of language means of current political discourse from Russian into English. Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo oblastnogo universiteta [Bulletin of Moscow Region State University, Series: Linguistics] 3: 175–183. Wodak, R., and M. Meyer. 2001. Methods of critical discourse analysis. London: Sage.

Electronic Sources Apter, D.E. 2001. Political Discourse. In International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences, 11644–11649. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B00804307670 40833?via%3Dihub. Last Accessed 15 January 2021. Egorova, O.A., and A.V. Shirchkova. 2018. Spetsifika perevoda frazeologizmov v politicheskom diskurse s russkogo iazyka na angliiskii (na materiale vystuplenii V.V. Putina) [Specifics of phrasemes translation in political discourse from Russian into English (on the materials of public speeches of V.V. Putin)]. Nauchnoe obozrenie. Available at https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/spe tsifika-perevoda-frazeologizmov-v-politicheskom-diskurse-s-russkogo-yazyka-na-angliyskiyna-materiale-vystupleniy-v-v-putina/viewer. Last Accessed 15 January 2021.

Interpreted vs. Translated Political Talk: President Putin …

Texts 1st speech (25 March 2020): English translation - http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/63061 Interpreting in English - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frjmIoakU2c Russian transcript - http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/63061 2nd speech (2 April 2020): English translation - http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/63133 Interpreting in English - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIl20nmykiQ Russian transcript - http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/63133 3rd speech (11 May 2020): English translation - http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/63340 Interpreting in English - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N51FXHmIsw Russian transcript - http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/63340 4th speech (23 June 2020): English translation - http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/63548 Interpreting in English - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL4P9VGaU6A Russian transcript - http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/63548

41

Shaping the Detective in Murder on the Orient Express Charikleia Smyrli

Abstract The study attempts to explore variation in the way a Greek and a Russian target version of Agatha Christie’s novel Murder on the Orient Express shapes the detective, Hercules Poirot. The data derived from the two last chapters of the novel, where the tension escalates before the detective unveils the truth. The study uses identity theory (Schwartz et al., in Handbook of Identity Theory and Research. Springer, New York, 2011) to highlight aspects of the detective’s identity as manifested in the two translations. Most of the findings are confirmed by a questionnaire addressing seven trilingual respondents, aged 22–40. The study shows how Greek and Russian translators are renegotiating Poirot’s figure: the detective appears more polite, elegant and gentle, in Greek, while in Russian he is more humorous, comprehensive and simple. The study suggests that translation practice is a rich resource for studying identity construction in fiction, raising awareness of the translators’ potential to interfere with identities. Keywords Pragmatics · Translation studies · Greek · Russian · English · Characteristics · Translation techniques

1 Introduction Tymoczko (2003) suggests that certain aspects of a target version are motivated and determined by the translator’s cultural and ideological affiliations. The study shows that the translators’ cultural and ideological affiliations may highlight different aspects of a character’s identity in crime fiction, thus coming up with different versions of the character’s identity, which readers of target versions can be very much aware of. A central question is how translators transfer “[t]he post-heroic detective and his more intuitive style of operation” which—in Rowland’s words— functions “as a kind of post-colonial focus in the novel” with parodic overtones (Rowland 2001: 62). Βernthal (2016: 2) suggests that Christie’s novels “can be read C. Smyrli (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_4

43

44

C. Smyrli

as spaces in which presumptions about human identity are exposed, undermined and renegotiated” and the question arises how characters could be renegotiated through translation, where translators’ expertise adds another layer of renegotiation to catch the attention of target audiences. Poirot is “Christie’s less than heroic detective” (Priestman 2003: 2) in her “golden age” interwar production; his focus is primarily domestic and his thinking rational with a thirst for precision, for instance, why the spills on the mantelpiece were rearranged. In Murder on the Orient Express, he creates the impression of “a ridiculous dandy to many of the other passengers. However, Poirot uses that appearance of ridiculousness to overhear and solicit information critical to the case” (LitCharts online). At the end, Poirot not only reveals who the murderer is but also tries to hide the story from the police. This interaction between fiction, criminality and law is what makes Hercules Poirot unique. Rowland (2001) suggests that Poirot’s investigations almost always combine the justice of God with the justice of the social law in an unproblematic manner. Murder on the Orient Express represents an exception in which the demonizing of the victim, as outside the human community, an “animal”, means that Poirot can allow cosmic justice to be in the hands of the killers (Rowland 2001: 139). The study examines how the figure of the detective may have been transferred into other languages (e.g. Greek and Russian), namely, what aspects of his identity are compromised or heightened in a target language. The significance of the study lies in that it shows how translated literature may reshape character identity in order to appeal to target audiences.

2 Presentation of Literature Review and Methodology The study juxtaposes a Greek and a Russian translation of the novel (by C. Kapsalis 2015, A.C. Petychov 2020, respectively) to Christie’s source version (1934) to trace how translation expertise has potentially renegotiated Poirot’s “feminized” identity and whether the aspects of his rationality and thirst for precision survive in the target versions. The study takes a constructivist approach to identity formation. Vignoles, Schwartz and Luyckx (2011) identify three layers of identity, namely the individual, the relational and the collective. The individual-level concerns a person’s self-definition, the relational level refers to how a person’s relation with others is shaped in discourse (Gee 1999), and the collective level refers to the social groups people associate themselves with. Vignoles et al. (2011) describe the three levels as follows: Existing approaches to identity typically focus on one or more of three different “levels” at which identity may be defined: individual, relational, and collective (Sedikides and Brewer, 2001). The distinction among individual, relational, and collective identities can be understood in part as a distinction among different forms of identity content, […] Individual or personal identity refers to aspects of self-definition at the level of the individual person. […] Relational identity refers to one’s roles vis-àvis other people, encompassing identity

Shaping the Detective …

45

contents such as child, spouse, parent, co-worker, supervisor, customer, etc. […] Collective identity refers to people’s identification with the groups and social categories to which they belong, the meanings that they give to these social groups and categories, and the feelings, beliefs, and attitudes that result from identifying with them. (Vignoles et al. 2011: 3)

The study will consider which levels of identity construction may have been modified during transfer into Greek or Russian and what the significance of the findings may be. It focuses on the last two chapters of the novel Murder on the Orient Express, because this is when the tension escalates and we can see aspects of the character of the brilliant detective, more clearly. As he tries to reveal who the murderer is, i.e. when he actually reveals his true potential as a detective, it is more likely that translators have attempted to construct his identity in meaningful ways. Naturalistic data are first juxtaposed, for potential shifts to be traced between the two target versions and be accounted for, for the significance they carry at the levels of identity. Then the study takes an experiential perspective and addresses a questionnaire to 10 respondents to examine how bilingual readers (Russian/Greek) would judge the pragmatic value of some options across versions. The questionnaire appears in the appendix.

3 Presentation of the Empirical Data The empirical (naturalistic) data come from Agatha Christie’s novel Murder on the Orient Express and its translations into Greek (2018) and Russian (2020).

3.1 Poirot’s Identity in English Hercules Poirot (a mock-heroic name in the combination of macho item “Hercules” and “Poirot”—buffoon [Rowland 2001]) is the famous Belgian detective who foregrounds the theme of Englishness vs. foreignness in the novel: we can see that Englishness and ethnicity is immediately brought to the fore in the novels. […] Not only is he not English, he is most determinedly foreign. An affront to English masculinity in his neatness, fussiness, demands for fine food and central heating, Poirot is frequently to be found reflecting negatively on English habits and sentimentality. (Rowland 2001: 63)

He is always well-groomed and well-dressed, and a comical persona with a brilliant mind. He encourages people not to take him seriously, he is polite, impartial, punctual, rational and self-confident in that he can succeed in finding the truth. Everybody likes him, even the murderers. Out of three different levels at which identity may be defined, the individual, relational and collective (Sedikides and Brewer 2001), his rationality and self-confidence seem to address the individual level of his identity. His politeness, impartiality rather address the relational level of identity definition;

46

C. Smyrli

the fact that he encourages people not to take him seriously rather relates to the collective level of identity definition.

3.2 Poirot’s Identity in the Greek and Russian Versions Poirot’s identity construction bears some distinctive features in the Greek and Russian versions. In terms of the discourse identity construction framework, Bamberget al. (2011) highlight the importance of social norms in shaping identities: they suggest that there is a tendency to see individual and institutional identities as highly constrained by societal norms and traditions. They also suggest that interpretive repertoires are defined as “patterned, commonsensical ways that members of communities of practice use to characterize and evaluate actions and events” (2011: 182). The data show that in the Greek version Poirot appears more professional, polite and distanced from other characters than in the Russian version. In the Russian version there are signs which show a more sensitive aspect of his character, as if the Russian translator is heightening his relational proximity to the collective. In ex. 1, Gretta Ohlson, a suspect, cries in order to hide her guilt, thinking that Poirot will not understand that she is one of the murderers. Poirot tries to calm her down and uses politeness items like plural pronouns σας παρακαλώ (please) which sound rather formal in the situation, while in Russian, ny, ny (well – well) suggests that Poirot is more concerned about the lady’s distress and does his best to comfort her. The trilingual responders of the questionnaire agree that, in the Russian version, Poirot seems to favour more interpersonal proximity vs. the Greek version where he looks more distant and polite. ST1: GR:

RU:

Now do not distress yourself, Mademoiselle. Do not distress yourself.’Poirot patted her on the shoulder (2015: 252). Σας παρακαλώ, μην συγχύζεστε ματμαζέλ. Μη συγχύζεστε. Ο Πουαρό τη χτύπησε ελαφρά στον ώμο (2018: 270). BT. Please do not distress, Mademoiselle. Do not distress. Poirot patted her slightly on the shoulder. Hy, ny, ne ctoit tak pacctpaivatc, madmyazel. He ctoit. – Cywik poxlopal ee po pleqy (2020: 290). BT. Well, well, it doesn’t worth to be so upset, mademoiselle. It is not worth it. The detective patted her on the shoulder.

Τhe figures present a numerical representation of the findings. As mentioned, one of the most admirable characteristics about Poirot is his politeness. In the Greek version, Poirot also uses hedges, a negative politeness device, when he is to express an opinion. In ST2_GR he uses the hedge επιτρέψτε μου (allow me), while in Russian no to tolko mo mnenie (but this is only my opinion) implies that he has made a suggestion, for which he expresses a direct reservation. The Greek version is again more distant and polite.

Shaping the Detective …

ST2: GR:

RU:

47

In my opinion, and this is only an opinion, … (2015: 265). Κατά την άποψη μου, και εδώ επιτρέψτε μου να πω ότι απλά μια άποψη διατυπώνω … (2018: 282). BT. In my opinion, and here allow me to say that I just express an opinion. Po moemy mneni – no to tolko moe mnenie,… (2020: 306). BT. In my opinion - but this is only my opinion…

Likewise, TT3_GR item [α]ν έχετε την ευγενή καλοσύνη (If you are kind enough) is highly formal in Greek and too sophisticated. It is as if the Greek version reproduces the stereotype of (negative) politeness which Greek scholars attribute to the English people (Sifianou 1992). In Russian,  bydy vam vecma blagodapen (I will be extremely grateful to you) is formal as well, a temporal dialect that Russians tended to use back in the past. Here, both Greek and Russian target texts emphasize Poirot’s formality. ST3: GR:

RU:

If you will be so good, M. Hardman, assemble everyone here (2015: 256). Αν έχετε την ευγενή καλοσύνη, κύριε Χάρντμαν, ζητήστε από όλους να έρθουν εδώ (2018: 273). BT. If you are kind enough, Mr Hardman, ask everyone to come here.  bydy vam vecma blagodapen, mece Xapdman, ecli vy ppiglacite vcex ppiti cda (2020: 295). BT. I will be forever grateful to you, Mr. Hardman, if you invite everyone to come here.

In ex. 4, ΤΤ item θα μπορέσουμε να κρίνουμε (we will be able to judge) suggests a more demanding rational process of identifying the culprit, highlighting Poirot’s power of inference making and rationality, which is not implied in the Russian version. Oριστικά (definitively), in Greek, marks love for precision and specificity, which the language favours (Sidiropoulou 2019), but it also marks Poirot’s expertise in managing criminal contexts. Highlighting expertise rather refers to the personal level of identity formation. ST4: GR:

RU:

Once we know, we can settle once for all where the guilt lies (2015: 252). Από εκείνο το σημείο και μετά θα μπορέσουμε να κρίνουμε οριστικά ποιος είναι ο ένοχος (2018: 269). BT. From that point onwards, we can finally judge who is the guilty one. I tolko yznav vc, my cmoem oppedelit vinovnyx (2020: 290). BT And only when we know everything we will be able to identify who are the guilty ones.

In example 5, TT_GR item Απλώς μάντεψα ορισμένα πράγματα (I just guessed certain things) highlights a modest and professional approach to inference making, when the Russian Ppocto dogadalc (I just guessed) is a close translation. I would assume that selecting certain things as premises for drawing conclusions about the crime requires professional expertise, on the part of Poirot, and relates to the personal level of identity.

48

ST5: GR:

RU:

C. Smyrli

‘How did you get wise to all this, that’s what I want to know?’ –I just guessed (2015: 254) Αυτό που προσπαθώ να καταλάβω είναι πως καταφέρατε εσείς να τα ανακαλύψετε όλα αυτά … –Απλώς μάντεψα ορισμένα πράγματα (2018: 272). BT. What I am trying to understand is how you manage to discover all this …/ - I just guessed certain things. Kak tolko vy obo vcm yznali, xotel by  znat? -Ppocto dogadalc (2020: 293). BT. How did you find out all this, I would like to know? –I just guessed.

As mentioned, the Greek version seems to favour signs of specificity, which gives the identity of the detective an almost ‘scientific’ gloss, for his love of accuracy and precision. In examples 6, the Greek translator highlights Poirot’s need for accurate inference making manifested through συγκεκριμένη κλινάμαξα (a particular coach [2018: 275]), a feature preferred in Greek to suggest precision) in argumentation. There are quite a few occurrences of this: συγκεκριμένη γλώσσα (particular language (2018: 274), συγκεκριμένη ερμηνεία (particular interpretation 2018: 278), συγκεκριμένη λύση (particular solution 2018: 278). In English, Bernthal (2016: 88) suggested “the ‘quaint dandified little’ Poirot is first described as having ‘an almost incredible’ neatness: ‘a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound’ (Styles 23)”. In example 6, particular seems to portray his incredible neatness and love for precision. ST6:

GR:

RU:

We are therefore forced to the conclusion that the murderer is to be found among the occupants of one particular coach - the Stamboul - Calais coach (2015: 258). Επομένως, υποχρεωτικά οδηγούμαστε στο συμπέρασμα ότι ο δολοφόνος βρίσκεται ανάμεσα στους επιβάτες μιας συγκεκριμένης κλινάμαξας … εκείνης που εκτελούσε το δρομολόγιο Κωσταντινούπολη - Καλέ (2018: 275). BT. Therefore, we are forced to the conclusion that the murderer is among the passengers of one particular coach… the one on the route Konstantinople - Calais. Potomy my vynydeny ppiti k zaklqeni, qto ybica ckpyvaetc cpedi paccaipov odnogo – edinctvennogo vagona – vagona Ctambyl -Kale (2020: 297). BT. Therefore, we are forced to conclude that the killer is hiding among the passengers of one and only wagon – Istanbul-Cale.

Moreover, Poirot makes use of high tenor vocabulary in Greek, suggesting an educated professional: items like TT6 item κλινάμαξα (TT6 coach-wagon, 2018: 275), προτίθεμαι (intend to [formal]), TT7 χρέη δημίου (execution task, 2018: 283). In Russian, Poirot uses much more simple vocabulary such as vagon,  ppedctavl, ppivecti v icpolnenie (wagon, will present, to execute themselves, 2020: 307).

Shaping the Detective …

49

Here the assumption is that he considers himself equal with the other participants, and in that sense, he relates to the collective more prominently. It is as if he is not necessarily a specialized professional but is smart enough to figure out the truth. Poirot’s simple language in the Russian version tallies with the awareness that he is a foreigner, a Belgian detective in England: it would be difficult for a foreign person to use such a high tenor as in the Greek text. It is as if the Greek version constructs his “otherness” through high tenor. ST7: GR:

RU:

“I see” he said, that I shall have to give my second solution. But do not abandon this one too abruptly. You may agree with it later (2015: 261). “Απ’ό,τι βλέπω”, είπε, “θα υποχρεωθώ να παρουσιάσω τη δεύτερη λύση. Όμως, μη βιάζεστε τόσο να εγκαταλείψετε τη συγκεκριμένη ερμηνεία. Ενδεχομένως να συμφωνήσετε με αυτή αργότερα” (2018: 278). BT. I see, he said, that I will be obliged to present the second solution. But, do not rush to abandon this particular interpretation. Possibly you will agree with it later. “Biy, - ckazal on, - qto mne ppidetc izloit i vtopy vozmony pazgadky. Ho ppoxy vac, ne topopitec otkazyvatc polnoct ot to. Bozmono, qto poze vy c ne coglacitec” (2020: 301). BT. “I see, - he said, - that I will have to give the second possible solution. But please, do not hurry to give up completely on this. It is possible that later you will agree with it”.

In conclusion, Poirot seems to be more of an elegant and sophisticated professional in the Greek version, as if the Greek version is elaborating on the individual level of his identity, whereas in Russian a smart guy from the group, who comes up with brilliant findings and eventually the solution to the crime! In the Russian version, that is, his relation to the collective level of identity is more prominent. Figure 2 shows a graphic representation of how the two target versions shape the representation of Poirot’s identity. The approach is rather qualitative, and the understanding is that the Greek version seems to heighten the individual aspect of Poirot’s identity, whereas the Russian version elaborates on the collective level. The assumption is that a quantitative approach would have identified the extent to which certain levels of Poirot’s identity are shifting during transfer into another language and culture, interculturally (or intraculturally). The next section tackles another feature of the Russian target version and analyses its function and pragmatic meaning.

3.3 Names vs. Roles, Nationality and Body Size A fairly frequent device in the Russian version is emphasizing the role rather than the name of Poirot. In example 8, the Russian translator comes up with his role as a detective (cywik [detective]) instead of using his name to refer to him. In what

50

C. Smyrli

Fig. 1 Respondent confirmation that the interpersonal distance between interlocutors in exchange 1 is shorter in Russian Fig. 2 Levels of identity in the Greek and Russian TT representations of Poirot

Fig. 3 Assessing humorous gloss of exchanges

Shaping the Detective …

51

follows the Russian translator refers to his nationality and body size. The question arises as to what is the pragmatic effect of these choices on audiences, in examples 8–9. ST8: GR:

RU:

Poirot said quietly: –That was in the Armstrong case, was it not? (2015: 250). –Μιλάμε για την υπόθεση Άρμστρονγκ, έτσι δεν είναι; Είπε ο Πουαρώ ήρεμα (2018: 268). BT. We are talking about the Armstrong case, isn’t it? –Poirot said calmly. – to bylo po dely Apmctpongov, tak? Hegpomko cppocil cywik (2020: 288) BT. This was about the Armstrong case, right?. Calmly asked the detective

In example 9, the Russian version also avoids Poirot’s name to favour his national origin (the Belgian) and body size (the little Belgian). ST9: GR:

RU:

He paused, then, as Poirot did not speak, he made an apologetic little bow…(2015: 253). Ακολούθησε μια παύση και, καθώς ο Πουαρώ δεν μίλησε ο Μάστερμαν έκανε μια μικρή, απολογητική υπόκλιση … (2018: 271). BT. There was a pause and as Poirot did not speak, Masterman did an apologetic little bow… Kamepdinep pomolqal i, yvidev, qto malenki belgiec ne cobipaetc niqego govopit … (2020: 292). BT. The camerdiner paused as he saw that the little Belgian was not going to say anything …

The answer to the question about the pragmatic effect of these shifts comes from the trilingual respondents who answered the questionnaire: all responders suggested that malenki belgiec (the little Belgian) creates a humorous effect. The item little Belgian helps the audience visualize Poirot’s comic figure. The assumption is that the comic effect is produced by the conflictive frames of small body size vs. high success. In English, Bernthal (2016: 89) suggests that “[b]eing small and prim and not very credible, he encourages people not to take him seriously, hence the humorous intention in Russian, which follows the original”. By “being strategically un-English, he also “invite[s] ridicule” by appearing to be like a woman—sentimental, prim and with a domestic mind” (ibid.). Poirot seems to be more of an elegant and sophisticated professional in the Greek version, with no references to his nationality and body size (which may have signalled “otherness”), whereas in Russian a smart humorous foreigner who comes up with brilliant findings and eventually the solution to the crime. In Greek “otherness” may be implied by his too polite behaviour (Greek is a positively polite language, Sifianou 1992) and the larger than expected interpersonal distance he assumes from his interlocutors, make him appear the odd one out. In addition, referring to the

52

C. Smyrli

nationality of a character (in the Russian version) or commenting on his body size is also relating the character to the collective level of identity.

4 Different Values Attributed to Discourse Practices The study focused on how the figure of Agatha Cristie’s famous detective, Hercules Poirot, is represented in the Greek and Russian target versions of the novel Murder on the Orient Express. Findings show that there is a difference in the way the various levels of identity may be reshaped and expanded in the target versions. As mentioned, one finding is that the Greek and Russian versions of the novel shape the representation of Poirot by highlighting a different level of his identity chart. Another finding is that the humorous aspect of his identity, which is rather prominent in the English version, is pursued in Russian in ways which may not be humorous in Greek. This is rather expected because there seem to be diverse views on what humour is and how it may influence audience reception. Tsakona (2013: 30) highlights the significance of sociocultural parameters in understanding humour practices, suggesting that different sociocultural environments assign different values to humour practices: Cultural, sociological, sociolinguistic, and anthropological approaches show that people living in different sociocultural environments and historical eras have different practices related to humour and assign different values to them (see, among others, Palmer 1994; Bremmer and Roodenburg 1997; Billig 2005b; Kuipers 2006; Attardo 2010; Tsakona and Popa 2011; and references therein). It could, therefore, be suggested that two main parameters influence audience reception: speakers’ diverse views on what humour is, why it is used, how, when, etc., and the sociocultural context of its circulation.

Translation is an arena where various constructions of an identity may be spotted depending on culturally preferred patterns of representation or on patterns of identity which would be appreciated in certain communities of practice. An elegant and sophisticated professional and a simple smart humorous guy, may be renditions of the same ST character who comes up with brilliant findings and the solution to the crime. An open research problem is why the individual aspect of Poirot’s identity is heightened in Greek, relative to Russian, whereas the Russian version favours the collective aspect of the character’s identity. Are these preferences influenced by geopolitical variables which affect discourse construction? English-Greek non/fiction translation, for instance, may enforce collectiveness in a Greek target version. Would the heightened collective concern of the Russian translator be motivated by a cultural parameter, which may be worth exploring?

Shaping the Detective …

53

Appendix: Judging formality and interpersonal distance in translation Questionnaire a.

Please say in which version (Russian or Greek) the detective sounds more formal or distanced from the other participants. Damy i gocpoda, pozvolte  bydy govopit po anglicki, tak kak polaga, qto vce v to ili ino ctepeni ponimat tot zyk. My cobpalic zdec, qtoby pazobpatc v obctotelctvax cmepti Cml dvapda Petqetta, kotopogo ew nazyvali Kacette. U togo ppectypleni ect dve vozmonye pazgadki. ppedctavl vam obe … BT. Ladies and gentlemen, let me speak in English, because I believe that everyone understands this language to one degree or another. We are gathered here to understand the circumstances of the death of Samuel Edward Retchett, who was also called Casette. There are two possible clues to this crime. I will introduce you both … Κυρίες και κύριοι θα μιλήσω στα αγγλικά καθώς νομίζω πως όλοι σας κάπως μπορείτε να καταλάβετε τη συγκεκριμένη γλώσσα. Βρισκόμαστε εδώ προκειμένου να διερευνήσουμε το θάνατο του Σάμιουελ Έντουαρντ Ράτσετ … γνωστού και ως Κασέττι. Δυο είναι οι πιθανές λύσεις στο έγκλημα αυτό. Προτίθεμαι να σας παρουσιάσω και τις δύο. BT. Ladies and gentlemen, I will speak in English as I think all of you can somehow understand this language. We are here to investigate the death of Samuel Edward Ratchett … also known as Cassetti. There are two possible solutions to this crime. I intend to present you both.

b.

This is a scene after a dialogue between the detective and a suspect. Which version seems more humorous? Kamepdinep pomolqal i, yvidev, qto malenki belgiec ne cobipaetc niqego govopit … BT. Masterman paused as he saw that the little Belgian was not going to speak… Ακολούθησε μια παύση και καθώς ο Πουαρώ δεν μίλησε o Μάστερμαν έκανε μια μικρή απολογητική υπόκλιση. BT. There was a pause and as Poirot did not speak, Masterman did an apologetic little bow…

c.

Which characterization seems more humorous? Θύμιζε κλαταρισμένο μπαλόνι. BT: He looked like a pricked ballon.

54

C. Smyrli

On byl poxo na lopnyvxi vozdyxny xap, iz kotopogo vyxel vec vozdyx. BT. He looked like a pricked ballon from which all the air came out. d.

Poirot tries to comfort a crying woman. Where does he sound more distant? Σας παρακαλώ μη συγχύζεστε ματμαζέλ. Μη συγχύζεστε. BT. Please do not distress, Mademoiselle. Do not distress. Poirot patted her slightly on the shoulder. Hy-ny, ne ctoit tak pacctpaivatc, madmyazel. He ctoit. BT. Well, well, it doesn’t worth to be so upset, Mademoiselle. It ‘s not worth it. The detective patted her on the shoulder. Thank you!

References Bamberg, Michael, Anna De Fina, and Deborah Schiffrin. 2011. Discourse and identity construction. In Handbook of identity theory and research, ed. Seth J. Schwartz, Koen Luyckx, and Vivian L. Vignoles, 177–199. New York: Springer. Bernthal, James Carl David. 2016. Queering Agatha Christie - Revisiting the golden age of Detective Fiction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Μacmillan. Gee, James Paul. 1999. An introduction to discourse analysis. Theory and method. London, UK: Routledge. Priestman, Martin. 2003. Introduction: Crime fiction and detective fiction. In The Cambridge companion to crime fiction, ed. Martin Priestman, 1–6. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rowland, Susan. 2001. From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell—British women writers in detective and crime fiction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Μacmillan. Schwartz, Seth J., Koen Luyckx, and Vivian L. Vignoles, eds. 2011. Handbook of identity theory and research. New York: Springer. Sedikides, Constantine, and Marilynn B. Brewer, eds. 2001. Individual self, relational self, collective self . New York: Psychology Press. Sidiropoulou, Maria. 2019. Vagueness-specificity in English-Greek scientific translation. In The Routledge handbook of translation and pragmatics, ed. Rebecca Tipton and Louisa Desilla, 266–278. London: Routledge. Sifianou, Maria. 1992. Politeness phenomena in England and Greece—A cross cultural perspective. Oxford: Clarendon. Tsakona, Villy. 2013. Okras and the metapragmantic stereotypes of humor: Towards an expansion of the GTVH. Ιn Developments of linguistic humour theory, ed. Marta Dynel, 25–48. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Tymoczko, Maria. 2003. Ideology and the position of the translator. In what sense is a translator ‘in between’? In Apropos of ideology, ed. Maria Galzada-Pérez. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing. Vignoles, V.L., S.J. Schwartz, and K. Luyckx. 2011. Introduction: Toward an integrative view of identity. In Handbook of identity theory and research, ed. Seth J. Schwartz, Koen Luyckx, and Vivian L. Vignoles, 1–27. New York: Springer.

Shaping the Detective …

55

Electronic Sources Hercule Poirot, Character Analysis, Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/murder-on-the-orient-express/characters/hercule-poirot (Accessed July 18, 2021).

Texts Christie, Agatha. 2015. Murder on the Orient Express. London: Harper Collins. Agatha Christie. 2018. Έγκλημα στο Οριάν Εξπρές. Mετφρ. Κ. Καψάλης. Αθήνα: υχογιός. Agata Kpicti. 2020. Ubictvo v “Boctoqnom kcppecce” (A.C Petychov) Mockva: Izdatelctvo kcmo.

Constructing Relational Dynamics in Translating Fiction Svitlana Volchenko

Abstract The paper tackles cross-cultural pragmatics through translation, namely, how the relational dynamics between fictional characters are constructed through rendition of speech acts, in the Russian and Greek target versions of an English novel, The Shell Seekers by R. Pilcher. The study uses naturalistic evidence (the Russian and Greek target versions of the novel) to trace relational shifts in speech act performance and highlight the appropriate relational dynamics between characters, across the parallel versions. It also uses experimental research methodology in that it elicited data, through questionnaires, from bilingual or trilingual respondents with respect to the appropriateness of the relational dynamics portrayal in a target version. Findings show that speech act performance, in the three data sets, manifests itself through variation in interpersonal distance (Brown and Levinson in Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987) between interlocutors or in the dimension of power distance (Hofstede et al. in Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. McGraw Hill, New York, 2005). Questionnaire respondents confirm that power distance is, rightfully, highest in Russian, in the communicative context of the novel, and lowest in Greek (manifesting itself through idiomatic expressions and lower tenor vocabulary allowing the characters to express opinions and feelings more freely). The significance of the study lies in that it shows translation to be a sensitive indicator of variation in the relational dynamics between characters, thus offering a novel arena for measuring pragmatic phenomena. Keywords Fiction · Interpersonal dynamics · Speech acts · Greek · Russian

1 Introduction The study examines cross-cultural variation in the rendition of speech acts in the source English novel, The Shell Seekers, and the Russian and Greek versions of it. The analysis contrasts speech act performance to trace shifts in the relational S. Volchenko (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_5

57

58

S. Volchenko

dynamics of requesting, protesting or using honorifics, in order to identify to what extent translation may register intercultural variation in the way certain pragmatic phenomena are implemented. The novel and its target versions are used as a mini data set of approximately 3,000 words, per version, for the purposes of the study, namely, for revealing aspects of the specifics of speech act performance in English, Russian and Greek. The Shell Seekers is a novel of high popularity, nominated by the British public in 2003 as one of the top 100 novels, at the BBC’s Big Read survey, aiming at finding the best-loved novel in Britain by way of viewer vote via the Web, SMS, and telephone. It is a realistic novel that revolves around the final months of Penelope Keeling’s life who is a “vital, bohemian” English woman, daughter of a famous painter and owner of his important work “The Shell Seekers”. The extract below—from the novel—gives a snapshot of her: Penelope looked vital as ever and marvelously distinguished. Tall and straight-backed, with her thick greying hair twisted up into a knot at the back of her head and her dark eyes bright with amusement, even the struggles with the trolley did nothing to detract from her dignity. She […] was dressed in her old blue cape, an officer ’s boat cloak that she had bought secondhand from an impoverished Naval widow at the end of the war and worn ever since, on all occasions from weddings to funerals. (Pilcher 1987: 54)

Pilcher explores Penelope’s relationships with her three children—tiresome Nancy, the cool-headed Olivia, the materialistic Noel (Pilcher 1987: 7) and other people who interact with her in some way. The high popularity of the novel made it a good candidate for providing evidence on the treatment of pragmatic phenomena cross-culturally in the languages the novel has been translated into. The book has become a hit in many countries. Popular target versions can point towards appropriate use of pragmatic phenomena (e.g. the interpersonal distance between interlocutors in communication, and others). This is done through shifts which translators introduce to improve the communicative force of target versions. The first question is whether certain speech acts are not performed similarly in the English, Russian and Greek versions of the novel, and if so, what is the appropriate relational dynamics which translators opt for in the target versions. Awareness of the relational dynamics across cultures (in the same situations deriving from the universe of the novel) advances understanding of the specifics of mediation. Another question is whether the suggested renditions meet the expectations of native speakers in a target language. The pragmatic phenomenon of interpersonal proximity/distance varies not only inter-culturally, but also intra-culturally, in various communicative situations. As the present study draws on parallel data from a particular novel, the situations are the same across target versions, so the focus will be on the relation of the relational dynamics between fictional addressees.

Constructing Relational Dynamics …

59

2 Literature Review The phenomenon of interpersonal distance has been widely discussed in pragmatics, e.g. in politeness theory and in terms of the concept of power distance in Hofstede et al. (2005) framework. Politeness is a complex social-cultural phenomenon (Meier 2010; Iliadi and Larina 2017) which constructs the interpersonal relationship between interlocutors. Verbal communication is not only a way of exchanging information but also a disclosure of interlocutors’ attitudes. Variation in the way politeness is enacted in different contexts is relevant to translating, because interpersonal distance is a cultural variable (Annin 2010). As mentioned, the study investigates how the phenomenon of interpersonal distance in the theory of politeness (Brown and Levinson 1987) and the cultural dimension of power distance in Hofstede et al. Culture Dimensions Theory (2005) are implemented in the English ST and in the Greek and Russian TTs, in the communicative situations of the novel. It is highly likely that cross-cultural variability influences speech act performance and contributes to more effective exploration of cultural variation, unveiling the specifics of successful communication.

2.1 Interpersonal Distance It is widely acknowledged that misunderstandings may arise in cross-cultural communication because of different standards of politeness across cultures and its complex socio-cultural manifestation in everyday activities (Iliadi and Larina 2017). Central to the Brown and Levinson (1987) theory is the notion of face, the “public self-image” that people want to claim for themselves (ibid.: 61). There is the desire to be unimpeded in one’s actions (negative face, which is related to interpersonal distance and non-imposition) and the desire to be approved (positive face) (Brown and Levinson 1987: 13). A politeness strategy may be avoiding face-threatening acts (in some cultures, a direct request may be face-threatening, in which case interlocutors use hedges to minimize the imposition or threat). Interactants choose strategies on the basis of three social factors: distance, relative power and rank of imposition. Interpersonal distance is relative to the social relationship between interlocutors. It reflects the level of familiarity and solidarity between them. On a par, Hofstede’s (2013) cultural relativism investigated intercultural diversity in social behaviour. They pointed out five dimensions which affect communication styles: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity and long-turn orientation (Hofstede et al. 2005). The study deals with the dimension of power distance because it is relevant to the relational dynamics between interlocutors. Power distance relates to unequal distribution of power among the members of society and affects how we may behave at different social settings. For instance, high power distance assumes interpersonal distancing, low power distance assumes interpersonal proximity. The cultures which were found

60

S. Volchenko

to value high power distance are the Chinese, Japanese and Russian cultures. Greek is also aware of power distance and one manifestation of this is the tu/vous distinction in its system, as the data show.

2.2 Speech Act Performance and In/Directness A cross-cultural pragmatics is an important subfield of pragmatics, which analyses and compares linguistic behaviour of individuals who originate from different cultural backgrounds, and which affects their linguistic behaviour and interaction with others. In particular, cross-cultural pragmatics may compare speech act realization to identify different linguistic norms operating across cultures. The study investigates speech acts through translation, as an alternative investigation arena, for highlighting pragmatic cross-cultural variation. Austin (1962) suggested that the analysis of speech acts is an important part of pragmatics, and a basic unit of communication. Estimating, rating, ordering, permitting, advising, promising, thanking, welcoming, replying, arguing, illustrating, assuming, etc. (ibid.) are all speech acts (illocutionary forces) which may be performed differently across cultures (and intra-culturally, but here we do not have retranslations to potentially trace intracultural variation in speech act performance). According to Searle (1969), Austin’s taxonomy lacks a governing principle of organization thus, he presented his own classification, which consists of five basic categories of speech acts: representatives or assertives (e.g. affirm, believe), directives (e. g. ask, insist, request), commissives (e.g. guarantee, promise, swear), expressives (e.g. apologize, congratulate, thank, welcome) and declarations (e.g. resign). The concept of speech act is defined as a complex of utterances through which people perform a particular function, e.g. that of thanking, requesting, apologizing, resigning and others (Horn and Ward 2006). In the data presentation section, the study focuses on requesting and protesting, although respondents of the questionnaires were presented with a wider range of speech acts which may be performed differently across the Russian and Greek versions. Cultural dimensions and orientations “provide a heuristic lens through which one can explore the relation between culture and speech act performance” (Meier 2010: 79). Russian society scores higher than Greek and English in power distance, which favour low-distance (Dranitsa 2012). Russians are more direct with friends and believe that directness is an indication of sincerity, but they may privilege distance if their freedom may be threatened (Bergelson 2012).

Constructing Relational Dynamics …

61

3 Methodological Considerations The study uses naturalistic evidence from the two target versions, Russian and Greek to trace shifts in speech act performance in the two target versions and elicits experimental data in order to examine to what extent the suggested target options meet the expectations of target readers. The research questions are: a.

b. c.

Are the Russian and Greek politeness patterns different from those of the ST version of the novel? In other words, do Russian, Greek and English communicators use different strategies of speech act performance, for instance, in requesting and protesting? What is the role of evaluative expressions in the target versions? How is tenor and power distance employed in the target versions?

The study examined parts of the novel contrastively and identified shifts (naturalistic approach). It then addressed trilinguals, Greek native speakers and Russian native speakers with good knowledge of English through a questionnaire to elicit experimental data. Three questionnaires asked their respective respondents (10 native Greek speakers, 10 native Russian speakers and 7 trilingual Greek-Russian speakers who are fluent in English) to assess the appropriateness of the suggested verbal material. Only trilinguals could fulfil this task.

4 Presentation of the Empirical Data, the analyst’s View As suggested, the study focuses on the phenomenon of relational dynamics through speech act performance, in the target Greek and Russian versions of the source English novel The Shell Seekers by R. Pilcher, which is a domestic novel, rich in everyday talk. The section shows variation in the implementation of the speech acts of requesting, suggesting/commanding and protesting through the parallel data of the novel.

4.1 Requesting, Suggesting English speakers tend to use a conventionally indirect strategy in making requests, in the following contexts, vs. more positive politeness and direct options preferred in Greek (Sifianou 1992). Russian speakers may also prefer directness, e.g. an imperative, assuming this is not an imposition on the personal freedom of the interlocutor, but a most appropriate form of speech act performance (Tatton 2008; McCarthy 2018) displaying solidarity. In example 1, the gardener (a young man) addresses Mrs. Penelope Keeling (63 years old) in the plural, signalling awareness of interpersonal distance. English does not have a tu/vous distinction to signal interpersonal distance or proximity in a grammaticalized manner.

62

ST1: TTa: TTb:

S. Volchenko

I won’t disturb you. If you could just show me what you want me to do… Δεν θα σας ενοχλήσω. Πείτε μου μόνο τι θέλετε να κάνω… ΒΤ. I will not disturb you. Just tell me what youplural want me to do… He becpokotec. Lyqxe obcnite mne, qto  dolen delat. ΒΤ. Do not worry. Youplural better explain to me what I have to do.

Olivia, Penelope’s daughter, who is smart, independent, but cool-headed and very abrupt, argues with her sister, Nancy, about Nancy’s idea that their mother is in need of a helper. ST2: TTa:

TTb:

Why should she have some dim woman foisted on her if she wants to live on her own? Ποιοι είμαστε εμείς για να της επιβάλουμε τη συντροφιά ενός ζωντόβολου, αφού εκείνη θέλει να ζήσει μονή της; ΒΤ. Who are we to impose the company of a clod on her, since she wants to live alone? Zaqem navzyvat e obwectvo kako-to neizvectno comnitelno liqnocti, ecli ona xoqet it odna. ΒΤ. Why impose on her the company of some unknown doubtful person, if she wants to live alone?

Ποιοι είμαστε εμείς (Who are we?) in the Greek TT2, more directly signals the speaker’s awareness of power distance, and the Russian version makes the force of imposition explicit (which also reveals interpersonal distance awareness). In example 3, a Navy officer talks about naval regulations and suggests that the interlocutor should have a haircut. The speech act is performed more indirectly in English (Why don’t you…?), whereas both target versions avoid the indirectness of the English interrogative in performing the speech act of suggesting and the Russian version uses an imperative. ST3:

TTa:

TTb:

“Stern. Your hair. You must do something about it.” “It mustn’t touch your collar, you know. Naval regulations. Why don’t you get the hairdresser to cut it off?” Στερν. Τα μαλλιά σου. Κάτι πρέπει να κάνεις με τα μαλλιά σου. Ο κανονισμός απαγορεύει να αγγίζουν το κολάρο του πουκαμίσου. Πρέπει να τα κόψεις. ΒΤ. Stern. Your hair. You have to do something with your hair. The regulation forbids them to touch the collar of the shirt. Yousingular have to have it cut.… –Ctepn, nado qto-to cdelat c vaximi volocami. to nedopyctimo. –Bolocy ne dolny ppikacatc k vopotniqky: takovy tpebovani yctava voenno-mopckix cil. Cxodite k papikmaxepy i poctpigitec. ΒΤ. - Stern, we need to do something with your plural hair. It is unacceptable.

Constructing Relational Dynamics …

63

–Hair must not touch the collar: these are the requirements of the regulations of the naval forces. Go to the hairdresser and get your plural hair cut. The section shows that the two target languages establish their own ways of signalling interpersonal distance awareness, but generally they favour directness in making requests or suggestions/commands, with the English version favouring indirectness.

4.2 Protesting Protesting is an expositive illocutionary act of disapproval (Austin 1962). In example 4, Nancy protests, in her communication with her husband; she is more direct and aggressive in the Russian version, with the Stop it! οption, which shortens interpersonal distance. In example 5, it is the Greek version which compromises distance following the original. ST 4: TTa:

TTb:

That’s not fair! You make me sound like the worst sort of Women’s Libber, an aggressive great lesbian. Αυτό είναι άδικο! Μιλάς σαν να ήμουν το χειρότερο δείγμα φεμινίστριας, μια επιθετική λεσβία. ΒΤ. This is not fair! You speak as if I were the worst example of a feminist, an aggressive lesbian. Ppekpati! Ty xoqex ppedctavit men zadlo feminictko, dako otvpatitelno gpybo lecbinko ΒΤ. Stop it! You want to picture me as an inveterate feminist, some kind of disgusting rude lesbian.

In example 5, Mrs. Croftway, Nancy’s domestic helper, who is impolite and disrespectful (despite her lower social status), asks Nancy how old she is, which is a face-threatening act. Nancy becomes outrageous. The Russian version retains power distance, despite Nancy’s irritation and hurt feelings (see youplural ), the Greek version, by contrast, favours interpersonal proximity (see yousingular ), as if anger and outrage is incompatible with high tenor in everyday situations. ST5: TTa: TTb:

I hate you, Mrs. Croftway. I hate you. Σε μισώ, κυρία Κρόφτγουει. Σε μισώ. ΒΤ. I hate you singular , Mrs. Croftway. I hate you singular ,. vac nenaviy, miccic Kpoftve. vac nenaviy ΒΤ. I hate youplural , Mrs. Croftway. I hate you.

The section shows that the two target languages display occasional awareness of power distance/proximity in speech act performance, but English seems to always favour indirectness. Honorifics may also provide important evidence of the relational dynamics between interlocutors and in translation they may register potential crosscultural variation in the relational dynamics between fictional addressees.

64

S. Volchenko

4.3 Evaluative Expressions and Exaggerating Evaluative expressions are positive politeness devices and the same holds for exaggerating (Brown and Levinson 1987). Nancy, who feels that nobody appreciates her and is terribly jealous of her siblings, tells her husband about her brother Noel, for whom she has very little respect: ST6: TTa: TTb:

Twenty-three he was and he’d never paid a penny’s worth of rent to her. Είκοσι τριών χρονών μαντράχαλος και δεν της είχε ποτέ πληρώσει νοίκι. ΒΤ. Twenty-three-year-old lubber and had never paid her rent. Doil do dvadcati tpex let i nikogda ne platil za kvaptipy. ΒΤ. He has lived to be twenty-three and never paid rent.

Μαντράχαλος (lubber), in the Greek version, is a low-tenor item assuming interpersonal proximity with the interlocutor, and is appropriate in this context, given the intimate context Nancy shares with her husband. Idioms and fixed expressions are important markers of close relational dynamics, which native speakers widely use in order to express their thoughts and emotions (Ya˘gizand Izadpanah 2013). In the next example the Greek version also uses expressiveness, the Russian version makes use of the exclamation mark. In example 7, Olivia asks her mother about her [the mother’s] self-discharge from hospital: She wonders whether the doctor protested about her initiative to leave without permission. ST 7: TTa: TTb:

“But didn’t the doctor protest?” “Loudly.” Ο γιατρός σου δεν διαμαρτυρήθηκε; Χάλασε τον κόσμο. ΒΤ. Didn’t your doctor complain? He made a fuss. A doktop pazve ne vozpaal? – Gpomoglacno! ΒΤ. “But didn’t the doctor protest?” “Loudly!”

The data set shows that there is a tendency in the Greek version to exaggerate (positive politeness/interpersonal proximity) by using low-tenor vocabulary and idiomatic phrases when no such item appears in the ST.

5 Respondents’ View As suggested, the questionnaire elicited experimental data which confirm the power distance variable across English-Greek-Russian. Respondents who answered the questionnaires came up with the following suggestions: The Greek respondents agreed with the relational dynamics shaped in Questionnaire 1 and enjoyed the lowtenor vocabulary and idiomatic expressions used in the Greek target version. The Russian speakers approved of the formal and distant relational dynamics shaped in the Russian version. The results of the trilingual speakers were somewhat different, in that they had some reservations with respect to the appropriateness of the suggested

Constructing Relational Dynamics …

65

interpersonal dynamics. Only 30% mentioned that the translation was “not exactly appropriate” in Greek and 20% mentioned that the translation was “not exactly appropriate” in Russian and suggested more direct options.

6 Discussion of the Results The study attempted to explore the communicative dimension of power distance in the Greek and Russian versions of the novel The Shell Seekers by R. Pilcher. Its significance lies in that it shows how translation registers appropriate degrees of social distance and politeness, in fictional social reality. Juxtaposing versions of a literary work may improve understanding of how pragmatic appropriateness may be achieved across versions of a ST, and how comparison of translated texts can contribute to language education and to translation training. This study examined cross-cultural variation in communicating politeness and the dimension of power distance in speech acts, in the English ST version of the novel The Shell Seekers by R. Pilcher and in its Greek and Russian TTs. A random 3,000-word parallel sample, per version, consisting of parallel data sets (English, Russian and Greek) reveal some interesting findings. In the Russian version, in almost 100% of the communicative situations, the translator used plural verb endings (formality) when communicators were strangers, independently of age and status, which respondents (native speakers of Russian) found normal and appropriate. These findings suggest that Russian favours high power distance in the above situations. The Greek target version favoured lower power distance, depending—among others—on age and status. One interlocutor could use a more formal style or a less formal one, which the questionnaire respondents agreed with. Greek favoured higher power distance than English in the context of the novel; this, for instance, is evident by the tu/vous distinction which is operative in Greek but not in English. Besides, the Greek version used low-tenor vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, which minimized interpersonal distance. There seems to be a gradation with respect to the appropriate level of power distance favoured across the three versions, which may be represented as follows (Fig. 1): The translators, that is, intuitively adjust the level of power distance in performing speech acts across cultures. The data show that power distance (and the level of imposition, McCarthy 2018) are parameters affecting speech act performance. At points, a minority of respondents, trilingual speakers of Russian, English and Greek mentioned that the translation was not exactly appropriate: for the Greek LOW------- English --------- Greek ----------Russian----------HIGH. Fig. 1 Power distance continuum

66

S. Volchenko

version 30% or for the Russian version 20%, but the majority agreed that the translators did convey cultural particularity. In terms of the variable of in/directness, Russian and Greek seem to prefer a more direct strategy—see the imperative mood which prevails in requests, whereas the English ST speakers more often used indirect strategies to minimize imposition. There are several limitations to this study. It only examined speech act realization, in a particular novel, to highlight the significance of cross-cultural relativity between English, Greek and Russian in translation contexts. A larger parallel data set would provide more accurate results on cross-cultural pragmatics manifested through translation. As suggested, communicative behaviour varies across cultures. Awareness of pragmatic meaning in an author’s utterance is vitally important for translation practice. The power distance dimension of Hofstede et al. (2005) theory of cultural relativism and the interpersonal distance in the theory of politeness allowed understanding of variation between the Greek and Russian translators’ options. A contrastive analysis of fictional target data may advance understanding of how pragmatic appropriateness may be achieved across versions and how juxtaposing translation data can contribute to language education.

Appendix: Questionnaires Questionnaire 1 The research topic is the relational dynamics in the Russian and Greek versions of the novel The Shell Seekers. Summary of the novel The Shell Seekers (Ψ άχνοντας για κοχύλια) is a novel by Rosamunde Pilcher which describes the last months in the life of Penelope Keeling, the protagonist of the novel, who is portrayed as a bohemian English lady, daughter of a famous painter. In the novel, the author mainly focuses attention on Penelope’s relationships with her three children, Nancy, Olivia and Noel. Nancy is the eldest daughter and is very close to her mother caring for her. She also likes portraying herself as a high-class lady (for instance she lives in a big house, with a byre and horses) following social conventions (for instance eating in the dining room no matter whether it is cold there or not), having servants who show almost no respect to her. However, Nancy and her husband do not have enough income to cover these expenses. Olivia is a successful business woman, not famous for her looks when she was young, but quite impressive. Noel is a handsome young man, a self-aware egotist, who is interested in spending his time pleasurably. As suggested, the focus is on family relationships and the interaction of the family members with other people. Instructions: Please answer the following questions by ticking the appropriate box. Thank you for your cooperation.

Constructing Relational Dynamics …

1.

67

Penelope Keeling (63 years old) thanks a young taxi driver for taking her to her destination. Which do you think her choice would be?

ST.

“Oh, that’s kind of you”.

«Καλοσύνη σου, παιδί μου».

«Ευχαριστώ πολύ, είστε πολύ ευγενικός».

Penelope remembers herself at the age of 19 when she met her future husband, who was a young officer at the time. Which of the two versions most appropriately renders the style of their conversation? ST.

“Hop in, then, and I’ll give you a lift.” “Are you going that way?” “No. But I can do.” “I’ve seen you around, haven’t I? You work in the Wardroom.” “That’s right.” “Enjoying it?” “Not much.” “Why did you take the job, then?” “I couldn’t do anything else.”

Which one, do you think, the conversation between them would be? «Έλα μέσα. Θα σε πάω εγώ». «Είναι στο δρόμο σου;» «Όχι αλλά δεν μου κάνει κόπο». «Σ’ έχω ξαναδεί έτσι δεν είναι;» «Εργάζεσαι στη λέσχη». «Ακριβώς». «Σ’ αρέσει η δουλειά σου;» «Όχι και τόσο». «Τότε γιατί τη διάλεξες;» «Δεν είχα δικαίωμα επιλογής».

2.

«Καθίστε, θα σας πάω εγώ. «Είναι στο δρόμο σας;» «Όχι, αλλά θα κάνω με χαρά την παράκαμψη». «Νομίζω ότι σας είδα κάπου. Εργάζεστε στην λέσχη». «Ναι» «Σας αρέσει η δουλειά σας;» «Όχι πραγματικά. «Γιατί συμφωνήσατε σε μια τέτοια δουλειά; «Δεν μπορώ να κάνω τίποτα άλλο».

Please, choose one of the two translations which would sound most natural according to your taste of the language.

• Olivia is smart, independent but very abrupt in her manners. In this situation, she talks to her sister about their mother’s doctor informing them that she doesn’t agree with his view. Which one do you think Olivia’s characterization of the doctor would be?

68

S. Volchenko

ST

A country GP

Απλός παθολόγος του χωριού

Ένα επαρχιακό γιατρουδάκι

• Nancy converses with her domestic helper, Mrs Croftsway, who is insolent and rude. Which do you think are Mrs. Croftsway’s words? “I thought your mother was out of hospital and home again.” Απ’ όσο ξέρω, η μητέρα σας έφυγε από το νοσοκομείο και βρίσκεται στο σπίτι της

Απ’ όσο ξέρω, η μητέρα σας το έσκασε από το νοσοκομείο και βρίσκεται στο σπίτι της

• Nancy believes she has been wronged and is jealous of her siblings. She talks to George, her husband, about Noel, her brother, for whom she has very little appreciation: ST.

Twenty-three he was and he’d never paid a penny’s worth of rent to her

Είκοσι τρία ήταν και δεν της πλήρωσε ποτέ ούτε μισό νοίκι.

3.

Είκοσι τριών χρονών μαντράχαλος και δεν της πλήρωσε ποτέ ούτε μισό νοίκι.

Please choose the version you like best with reference to the way each child calls their mother.

All three of Penelope’s children called her by a different name. Noel addressed her as Ma. Nancy, for some years, had called her Mother, which she considered suitable to their ages and to Nancy’s own station in life. Only Olivia—so hard-hearted and sophisticated in every other way —persisted with “Mumma.” Και τα τρία παιδιά της Πενέλοπε τη φωνάζαν διαφορετικά. Ο Νόελ την έλεγε «μαμά». Η Νάνσυ τα τελευταία χρόνια «μητέρα», κρίνοντας ότι αυτό ταιριάζει περισσότερα στις ηλικίες τους, άλλα και στη δική της κοινωνική θέση. Μόνο η Ολίβια, η τόσο σκληρόκαρδη και χειραφετημένη, είχε κολλήσει στο «μαμά»

Τα τρία παιδιά της Πενέλοπε τη φωνάζαν διαφορετικά, το καθένα με τον δικό του τρόπο. Ο Νόελ την έλεγε «μα». Η Νάνσυ την αποκαλούσε «μητέρα», κρίνοντας ότι αυτό ταιριάζει περισσότερα στις ηλικίες τους, άλλα και στη δική της κοινωνική θέση. Μόνο η Ολίβια - η πιο σκληρόκαρδη και χειραφετημένη - την έλεγε πεισματικά «μανούλα».

Constructing Relational Dynamics …

4.

69

Darling has been rendered in various ways. Please, tick the best rendition of the term in Greek.

• Nancy is addressing her children, her 11-year old son and her 14-year old daughter. ST.

“Darlings, I have to go to London tomorrow to meet Aunt Olivia …”.

Αγαπητά μου, αύριο πρέπει να nαω στο Λονδίνο. Θα δω την Θεία Ολίβια

Μωρά μου, αύριο πρέπει να nαω στο Λονδίνο. Θα δω την Θεία Ολίβια

• Ambrose (her future husband) addresses Penelope: ST.

“Darling Penelope, you are the most delicious creature.”

Γλυκιά μου Πενέλοπε, είσαι το πιο υπέροχο πλάσμα στον κόσμο

Αγαπημένη μου Πενέλοπε, είσαι το πιο υπέροχο πλάσμα

• Penepole’s father addresses his daughter ST.

He (Penelope’s father) was seventy-four. Tall and distinguished, with a deeply lined, deeply tanned face and a pair of brilliant, unfaded blue eyes….. “Papa.” His gaze was sombre, as though he did not recognize her, as though she were a stranger… Then, abruptly, he smiled, and raised an arm in a familiar gesture of loving welcome. “My darling.” She went to his side.

Γλυκιά μου

5.

Κοριτσάκι μου

Please choose the most appropriate rendition according to your intuition, in Greek.

• EXPRESSING ANGER Nancy talks to her servant, Mrs. Croftsway. ST.

“How old are you, then?” (η κυρία Κρόφτγουει ρωτάει) She (Nancy) was outrageous. Nancy felt herself stiffen with the sheer offensiveness of Mrs. Croftway, and was aware of the blood rushing to her cheeks. She longed to have the courage to snap at the woman; to tell her to mind her own business, but then perhaps she would give in her notice and she and Croftway would depart, and what would Nancy do then with the garden and the horses and the rambling house and her hungry family to feed?

70

S. Volchenko

“As a matter of fact, I’m forty-three.” “Is that all? Oh, I’d have put you down as fifty any day.” Nancy gave a little laugh, trying to make a joke of it, for what else was there to do? “That’s not very flattering, Mrs. Croftway.” “It’s your weight. That’s what it is. Nothing is so aging as letting your figure go. You ought to go on a diet … it’s bad for you, being overweight...” TT.

«Μα τότε πόσων χρονών είστε εσείς;» απόρησε η κυρία Κρόφτγουει. Ήταν χυδαία. Μπροστά σε τόση προστυχιά η Νάνσυ ένιωθε το κορμί της να κοκαλώνει και το αίμα ν ’ανεβαίνει στο μάγουλά της. Ευχόταν να είχε θάρρος να την αποπάρει, να της πει με κοιτάζει τη δουλειά της, αλλά την εμπόδισε ο φόβος μήπως εκείνη τα παρατηρούσε όλα κι έφευγε μαζί με το Κρόφτγουει. Και τότε πως θα τα έβγαζε πέρα η Νάνσυ με τον κήπο και με τα άλογα μετά το ανοικονόμητο σπίτι της και μετά μαγείρεμα για την πεινασμένη οικογένειά της; «Λοιπόν, είμαι 40 ετών» «Τόσο μόνο; Έπαιρνα όρκο πως είστε πενηντάρα». Η Νάνσι γέλασε απρόθυμα, προσπαθώντας να το ρίξει να κάνει; «Αυτό δεν είναι κολακευτικό για μένα, κυρία Κρόφτγουει». Είναι του πάχους σας. Ναι, αυτό φταίει. Τίποτα δεν γερνάει περισσότερα από το πάχος …..»

ST.

“I hate you, Mrs. Croftway. I hate you”.

Σε μισώ, κυρία Κρόφτγουει. Σε μισώ

Σας μισώ, κυρία Κρόφτγουει. Σας μισώ

• REQUESTING She went on quickly before Mrs. Croftway could start objecting to these suggestions.“Perhaps you could give Croftway a message for me and ask him to take Lightning to the blacksmith”. What did Nancy tell Mrs. Croftsway? Η Νάνσυ συνέχισε βιαστικά για να μην προφτάσει να αρχίζει τις διαμαρτυρίες.

Η Νάνσυ συνέχισε βιαστικά για να μην προφτάσει να αρχίζει τις διαμαρτυρίες.

«Σας παρακαλώ να πείτε από μέρους μου στον Κρόφτγουει να πάει τον Κεραυνό (άλογο) στον Γύφτο».

«Ίσως θα μπορούσατε να δώσετε στον Κρόφτγουει ένα μήνυμα από εμένα και να του ζητήσετε να πάει τον Κεραυνό (άλογο) στον σιδηρουργό».

• The gardener addresses Mrs. Penelope:

Constructing Relational Dynamics …

71

“I won’t disturb you. If you could just show me what you want me to do…” Please choose the gardener’s utterance «Δεν θα σας ενοχλήσω. Πείτε μου μόνο τι θέλετε να κάνω…»

«Δεν θα σας ενοχλήσω. Αν μπορούσατε μόνο να μου δείξετε τι θέλετε να κάνω ...»

• ASKING Penelope calls the solicitor’s office“Would it be possible to speak to Mr. Roy Brookner?” “I wondered if you would be in this neighborhood sometime in the near future?” «Θα μπορούσα να μιλήσω με τον κύριο Ρόι Μπρούκνερ»; «Μήπως θα βρίσκεστε στην περιοχή μας τις ερχόμενες ημέρες»;

«Θα ήταν δυνατόν να μιλήσω στον κ. Ρόι Μπρούκνερ»; «Αναρωτιόμουν αν θα βρίσκεστε σε αυτήν τη γειτονιά κάποια στιγμή στο κοντινό μέλλον»;

• COMMANDING The Wren Officer made a few notes on the form, and then screwed the top back on her pen. “Stern. Your hair. You must do something about it.” “It mustn’t touch your collar, you know. Naval regulations. Why don’t you get the hairdresser to cut it off?” O αξιωματικός κράτησε μερικές σημειώσεις και ύστερα δήλωσε «Στερν. Τα μαλλιά σου. Κάτι πρέπει να κάνεις με τα μαλλιά σου. Ο κανονισμός απαγορεύει να αγγίζουν το κολάρο του πουκαμίσου. Πρέπει να τα κόψεις».

O αξιωματικός κράτησε μερικές σημειώσεις και ύστερα δήλωσε «Στερν. Τα μαλλιά σου. Κάτι πρέπει να κάνεις με τα μαλλιά σου. Ο κανονισμός απαγορεύει να αγγίζουν το κολάρο του πουκαμίσου. Γιατί δεν πάτε στο κομμωτήριο για να τα κόψετε;»

Questionnaire 2 (Questionnaire 2 was identical with questionnaire 1, with the Russian rendering in the place of Greek).

72

S. Volchenko

References Annin, I. 2010. Cultural differences in politeness based on analysis of Russian and English communication styles. Transcultural Studies 6 (1): 201–211. Austin, J.L. 1962. How to do things with words? Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. Bergelson, M. 2012. Russian cultural values and workplace communication patterns. In Intercultural communication: A reader, ed. L.A. Samovar, R.E. Porter, and E.R. McDaniel, 189–198. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Brown, P., and S. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dranitsa, A.A. 2012. Russian business culture according to G. Hofstede methodology. Journal of Economics and Social Sciences 1: 1–4. Hofstede, G. 2013. Hierarchical power distance in forty countries. In Organizations alike and unlike: Towards a comparative sociology of organizations, ed. Cornelis Lammers and David Hickson, 97–119. London: Routledge. Hofstede, G.H., G.J. Hofstede, and M. Minkov. 2005. Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind, vol. 2. New York: McGraw Hill. Horn, L.R., and G.L. Ward, eds. 2006. The handbook of pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell. Iliadi, P.L.L., and T.V. Larina. 2017. Refusal strategies in English and Russian. RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics 8 (3): 531–542. McCarthy, M.M. 2018. A pragmatic analysis of requests in Irish English and Russian. TEANGA, Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics 25: 121–137. Meier, A.J. 2010. Culture and its effect on speech act performance. In Speech act performance: Theoretical, empirical and methodological issues, ed. Alicia Martínez-Flor and Esther Usó-Juan, 109–126. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Searle, J.R. 1969. Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Sifianou, M. 1992. The use of diminutives in expressing politeness: Modern Greek versus English. Journal of Pragmatics 17 (2): 155–173. Tatton, H. 2008. “Could you, perhaps, pretty please?”: Request directness in cross-cultural speech act realization. Studies in Applied Linguistics and TESOL 8 (2): 1–4. Ya˘giz, O., and S. Izadpanah. 2013. Language, culture, idioms, and their relationship with the Foreign language. Journal of Language Teaching & Research 4 (5): 954–957.

Texts Pilcher, R. 1987. The shell seekers. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Πίλτσερ, Ρ. 2014. Ψ άχνοντας για κοχύλια. [Looking for Shells]. Αθήνα: Ωκεανίδα. Pilqep, P. 2018. Cobipateli pakyxek. [Seekers of the shells] CPb: Azbyka, AzbykaAttikyc.

Transferring Aggression and Offensiveness

The Madness Narrative in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher Konstantina Kyriakou

Abstract The study attempts to trace diachronic evidence of attitudes towards madness in literature translated into Greek. It explores three Greek translations of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher (Kennedy in A historical guide to Edgar Allan Poe. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001), spanning from 1995 to 2013. Foucault’s (Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason. Routledge, London, 1965) Madness in Civilization is a theoretical background regarding shifting attitudes towards madness from a historical perspective. In discourse, attitudes towards madness may be manifested through pragmatic phenomena like impoliteness (Culpeper in Impoliteness: Using language to cause offence. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011), a pragmatic theoretical framework used for testing the following hypothesis: Using the notions of offensiveness, interpersonal distance and explicit references to mental illness, the study shows that the degree of impoliteness of the first-person narrator towards the mentally ill protagonist, Roderick Usher, decreases in the latest translation, as a result of the disability movement, suggesting that the attitude of the Greek public towards mental illness is becoming more tolerant and inclusive. Α questionnaire distributed to Greek-English bilinguals, of twenty to thirty years of age, confirms the findings, suggesting that representations of mental illness in fiction undergo a major shift towards inclusion and solidarity during the twenty-first century. Τhe research suggests that translators need to be aware of societal tensions to regulate the implications they allow from the verbal choices they make. Keywords Madness · Literature · Translation · Mental illness · Impoliteness

1 Introduction Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most influential writers of the nineteenth century, whose body of work mainly encompasses poems and short stories. Even though K. Kyriakou (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_6

75

76

K. Kyriakou

he was not admired by his romantic contemporaries (Mavrelos 2017), Poe won posthumous acclaim as the pioneer of horror stories and the genre of science fiction (Stableford 2003). He is one of the main representatives of gothic fiction, which is a subgenre of romanticism, with themes ranging from horror and death to romance (Gothic novel 2020, online). Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher introduces a plethora of gothic elements, as the narrator sets out to visit an old friend and his secretive family. Having been invited by his ailing friend, the narrator travels to the bleak residence of his childhood companion, a dilapidated mansion owned by the ancient family of the Ushers, laying for generations in a “direct line of descent” (Poe 1839: 5). The narrator visits his friend, Roderick Usher, who confides in him everything concerning his malady, as well as the cataleptic condition of his sister, Madeline Usher. After several days, Roderick announces Madeline’s death. The narrator helps the grieving brother with the entombment of Madeline in the underground vaults of the mansion, when he discovers that the siblings are twins bound by “sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature” (Poe 1839: 18). Roderick Usher’s condition aggravates and the narrator reads peculiar books to him owned by the family. As Roderick’s condition shows no signs of improvement, the narrator felt uneasy, especially during a stormy night. As the narrator reads a story to his friend, he starts hearing the noises that appear in the book. In a fit of madness Roderick reveals that they buried Madeline while she was still alive and that she is standing outside the door of the chamber, seeking vengeance from her brother, which she finally took. Subsequently, the mansion collapses into the tarn located at the front of the edifice. Even though the nature of Roderick Usher’s illness is not disclosed in the short story itself, critics argue that the protagonist is experiencing some sort of mental illness (Walker 1966), which was inherent in the family (Hill 1963). Either described in terms of depression or paranoia induced by Roderick’s fear of imminent revenge from his sister (Zimmerman 2009), Roderick’s mental instability is widely accepted by critics. Since the story is narrated in first person by Roderick’s close friend, the idea that the narrator is describing Roderick’s descent into madness (Gruesser 2004) is prevalent. As The Fall of the House of Usher is one of the most famous short stories written by Poe (Kennedy 2001), it comes as no surprise that Greek translators have always been interested in this story: Kosmas Politis, one of the first translators of Poe in Greece, was drawn to Poe’s work after World War II, when the preferred ST language in Greece shifted from French to English (Verdiaki online). Giorgos Goulas (Πόε 2001) was interested in translating this particular short story due to its many adaptations for the theatre and the opera. Katerina Shina was motivated by her desire to paint a more complete picture of Edgar Allan Poe, endeavouring with her translation to embrace all the semantic layers of the short story (Πόε 2013). Each translator renders the story, filtering it through their understanding of the plot and their translating aims. Thus, attitudes towards madness vary, as some translators emphasize or even ridicule mental illness. This study will argue that attitudes towards mental illness may shift through the years, so the two earlier translations (1995, 2001) may render the madness narrative in a different way vs. the most recent one (2013)

The Madness Narrative …

77

which may be presenting mental illness in a kinder light. This initial hypothesis is based on the fact that public opinion towards mental illness has changed, as the general public seems to have renounced the narrative of social outcast, for the sake of compassion and acceptance of people suffering from mental illnesses. This tendency will be attributed to the translators’ awareness of prevailing attitudes towards madness and their intention to regulate the verbal choices in their translations accordingly.

2 Literature Review and Presentation of Methodology The study showcases how three Greek translations of Poe’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher handle the motif of madness and how the attitudes towards madness change through the years. It examines three translations published in 1995, 2001 and 2013, in order to study the evolution of public opinion on matters of mental illness, as constructed in the three target texts. As suggested, the study contrasts parallel data (the source text and three translated versions) in order to flesh out how pragmatic aspects of meaning, like implications, are handled in the target environment. This study will use excerpts from the short story before the climax of Roderick’s secret revelation. It contrasts the three translations, regarding the narrator’s attitude towards Roderick. Foucault’s work on madness in civilization is a theoretical framework underpinning the shaping of attitudes towards madness from a historical perspective. On a par, the study uses Culpeper’s impoliteness model to advance understanding of the narrator’s impoliteness towards Roderick from a pragmatic point of view. In his seminal work Madness and Civilization, Foucault traces the history of madness in the West, alluding to portrayals of madness in society and literature. His study on how society has treated madness from the Middle Ages up until the nineteenth century postulates that social attitudes towards mental instability have been condemning and distancing. Mad people have experienced society’s rejection throughout history and have suffered under the ignorance of medicine for centuries. During the seventeenth century, they were being confined, in the eighteenth century police would not hesitate to incarcerate them, while in the nineteenth century, which is the temporal setting of Poe’s short story, they were considered morally degenerate (Foucault 2001). Since major advances in psychoanalysis did not occur until the beginning of the twentieth century, the terminology used in the nineteenth century for mental illness was quite vague, a fact evident in the short story as well. The narrator’s reference to Roderick Usher’s “nervous agitation” (Poe 1839: 4) and “peculiar gloom” (ibid.: 10), are just a couple of such instances. Foucault postulates that abusive language towards the mentally ill was not a rare phenomenon (ibid.). The analysis uses his work to identify nineteenth century beliefs about madness in the short story. Abusive behaviour may be manifested through impoliteness in discourse. Culpeper’s theory of coercive impoliteness refers to “impoliteness that seeks a realignment of values between the producer and the target” (Culpeper 2011: 226). The realignment involves power relations, because, in order for impoliteness to be

78

K. Kyriakou

successful, the producer must have assumed superiority over the person referred to. The purpose of coercive impoliteness on the producer’s part is to “appear superior” (Culpeper 2011: 227), “get power over actions” (ibid.: 227) and “get power in conversation” (ibid.: 227). The study argues that the narrator uses coercive impoliteness by taking advantage of his superiority over the vulnerable, ill friend. The narrator is being impolite towards Roderick Usher in order to gain superiority and consolidate his reliability as a narrator. Culpeper’s impoliteness formulae help analyze how the narrator is being impolite towards Roderick. Readers of the short story are probably the best judges of the narrator’s discursive approach, so the study designed a questionnaire regarding attitudes towards madness in the translation of the novel, to monitor how respondents perceive impoliteness in target versions and whether they trace distinctions regarding the degree of offensiveness in each translation. As the aim of the study is to examine whether attitudes towards madness change diachronically, the translation excerpts in the questionnaire did not appear in chronological order of appearance in the publication‚ in order to avoid influencing choices made by the participants. The questions were both closed and open-ended, designed to achieve maximum validity and reliability and avoid random answers (Coolican 2004). The translation excerpts in Sect. 3 are representative instances of shifts and will be closely studied below. Question 1 of the questionnaire (see Appendix) aimed at identifying the respondents’ opinion about society’s attitudes towards mental illness, through the years. This open-ended question was the first to appear in the questionnaire, for viewing respondents’ opinion before they had access to the data of the study. Question 2 asked respondents to rank target fragments regarding the use of mental illness terminology, using the Likert scale. It aimed at examining whether participants pick up on the shifting meaning of terms in the target versions. Question 3 was a single-selection question with a short justification: it aimed at examining whether references to humanity in each translation inform the participants’ understanding of offensiveness. Question 4 was a decision-making task with a short justification, which aimed at identifying whether the participants pick up on the different degrees of offensiveness in target versions. Question 5 asked respondents to rank target version fragments in terms of degree of offensiveness. Question 6 has a similar rationale, namely, asking participants to rank target versions regarding negativity towards Roderick’s mental state. A short justification aimed at examining whether respondents were influenced by the varying degrees of offensiveness portrayed by the representation of Roderick’s mental state in each translation. Question 7, the last question of the questionnaire, asked participants to identify the narrator’s attitude towards Roderick in the target versions. More specifically, it aimed at identifying whether the shifting interpersonal distance informs respondent answers. The group of ten (10) participants was largely homogeneous: male and female Greek-English bilinguals, amateur translators, in the age group of twenty to thirty years old.

The Madness Narrative …

79

3 Presentation of the Empirical Data The empirical data are presented in three categories corresponding to a different pragmatic phenomenon: explicit/implicit references to mental illness and use of medical terminology, offensiveness and interpersonal distance. This is a rough categorization, as some shifts might blur the boundaries between these categories. All of the categories are subsumed under the pragmatic phenomenon of impoliteness.

3.1 Allusions to Mental Illness and Psychiatric Terminology Excerpt 1: Before meeting Roderick, the narrator provides some background information on the peculiar man and his family. ST1:

TT1a:

TT1b:

I was aware, however, that this very ancient family had been noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of temperament, displaying itself, through long ages, in many works of exalted art, and manifested, of late, in repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even more than to the orthodox and easily recognizable beauties, of musical science. Γνώριζα, ὡστόσο, πώς τήν οἰκογένειά του, πού εἴταν πολύ παλιά, τήν χαρακτήριζε ἀνέκαθεν μιά ἰδιαίτερη εὐαισθησία, πού εἶχε ἐκδηλωθεἴ, γιά πολλές γενεές, μέ μιά καλλιτεχνική παραγωγή γεμάτη ἐξημένη φαντασία, καί, τελευταῖα, σ’ ἐπανειλημένες γενναιόδωρες, ἀλλά δίχως θόρυβο ἐλεημοσύνες, καθώς καί σέ μιά μανιώδη ἀφοσίωση μᾶλλον στίς περίπλοκες ἐκφράσεις τῆς μουσικῆς παρά στίς παραδεγμένες ὀρθόδοξες κι εὐκολονόητες ὀμορφιές αὐτῆς τῆς τέχνης (1995: 14–15). BT. I knew, however, that his family, that was very old, had always been known for a special sensibility, which manifested itself, for many generations, with an artistic production full of seething imagination, and, lately, with repeated but quiet charities, as well as with a frantic devotion perhaps to the complicated expressions of music rather than to the recognizable orthodox and easily understood beauties of this art. Ήξερα, ωστόσο, ότι στην πολύ μεγάλη ιστορία της οικογενείας του κυριαρχούσε ανέκαθεν μια χαρακτηριστική καλλιτεχνική ευαισθησία, που εκδηλωνόταν για πολλές γενιές, ξανά και ξανά, μέσα από πολλά έργα υψηλόφρονης τέχνης και, τελευταία, μέσα από αλλεπάλληλες απλόχερες όσο και αθόρυβες ελεημοσύνες, όπως και με μια παράφορη προσήλωση στους δαιδάλους, περισσότερο ίσως απ’ ό,τι στις ορθόδοξες και ευγνώριστες ομορφιές, της μουσικής επιστήμης (2001: 17). BT. I knew, however, that in the long history of his family dominated always a characteristic artistic sensibility, which manifested itself for many generations, over and over again, through many lofty works of art and, lately, through consecutive generous and quiet charities, as with a

80

ΤΤ1c:

K. Kyriakou

passionate dedication to the mazes, more so than in the orthodox and recognizable beauties of the musical science. Γνώριζα ωστόσο πως η πολύ παλιά οικογένειά του ήταν πασίγνωστη, εδώ και χρόνια αμνημόνευτα, για την ιδιαίτερα ευαίσθητη ιδιοσυγκρασία της, που αποτυπωνόταν επί πολλές γενιές σε έργα υψηλής τέχνης και εκδηλωνόταν, τελευταία, επανειλημμένως σε γενναιόδωρες αλλά διακριτικές αγαθοεργίες, καθώς και σε μια παθιασμένη αφοσίωση στις περίπλοκες μάλλον, παρά στις ορθόδοξες και εύκολα αναγνωρίσιμες, ομορφιές της μουσικής επιστήμης (2013: 78). ΒΤ. I knew that his very old family was very well-known, for many years, for its notably sensitive idiosyncrasy, which portrayed itself for many generations on lofty works of art and manifested itself, lately, repeatedly in charities and discrete beneficences, as well as in a passionate devotion perhaps to the complicated rather than orthodox and easily recognizable, beauties of the musical science.

The first translation refers to a seething imagination (TTa: εξημμένη φαντασία) of the family, which could be a trace of the origin of Roderick’s illness. However, the other two translations only talk about the family’s artistic inclination (TTb: έργα υψηλόφρονης τέχνης and TTc: έργα υψηλής τέχνης). What is striking is the way the three translators render the family’s passionate devotion item: the first translator opts for frantic devotion, whose Greek equivalent and its root (TTa: μανιώδη αφοσίωση) directly allude to manic depression. Rather than a random choice of diction, this could be a part of the translator’s “inferential work” (Culpeper 2011: 161) regarding Roderick’s mental state. This choice of diction is quite insensitive and could be considered as an attempt on the narrator’s part to stigmatize his friend. The second translator follows a similar approach by referring to the family’s passionate dedication (TTb: παράφορη προσήλωση), while the third translator opts for a noun phrase which only denotes the family’s love for art (TTc: παθιασμένη αφοσίωση). Excerpt 2: Roderick Usher confides in his friend that his sister’s grave illness has affected his own mental health. ST2:

TT2a:

TT2b:

He admitted, however, although with much hesitation, that much of the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a more natural and far more palpable origin. Παραδεχότανε, ὡστόσο, ἄν καί μέ δισταγμό, πώς ἕνα μεγάλο μέρος αὐτῆς τῆς παράξενης κατάθλιψης, πού τόν βασάνιζε, μποροῦσε ν’ ἀποδοθεῖ σέ μιά φυσικότερη καί λογικότερη αἰτία (1995: 20). BT. He would admit, however, although with hesitation, that a big part of this strange depression, which tormented him, could be attributed to a more natural and rational reason. Παραδέχτηκε ωστόσο, έστω και απρόθυμα, ότι σημαντικό μέρος αυτής της ιδιάζουσας μελαγχολίας που τον ταλαιπωρούσε ίσως να προερχόταν από μια πολύ πιο απτή και φυσιολογική αιτία (2001: 24).

The Madness Narrative …

ΤΤ2c:

81

BT. He admitted, however, even though unwillingly, that a significant part of this peculiar melancholia which has been tormenting him perhaps arose from a more palpable and natural reason. Παραδεχόταν ωστόσο, αν και με δισταγμό, ότι μεγάλο μέρος αυτής της ασυνήθιστης κατήφειας που τον είχε καταλάβει μπορούσε να αποδοθεί σε μια πιο φυσική και απτή αιτία (2013: 84). ΒΤ. He would admit, however, even though with hesitation, that a large part of this unusual gloom which occupied him could be attributed to a more natural and palpable reason.

The stance the first two translators adopt is obvious in this example: They both render the ST item gloom using explicit medical terms (TTa: depression = κατάθλιψη and TTb: melancholia = μελαγχολία), while the third translator retains the vagueness of the original (gloom = κατήφεια). This could be an attempt on the translator’s part to avoid the stigma of mental illness (Foucault 2001), as Roderick has not been diagnosed with some sort of mental disorder. Depression more explicitly alludes to mental illness, than melancholia does, which is not a mental illness per se but a mere symptom of mental illness (Foucault 2001). The first translator even goes as far as to refer to Madeline’s illness as a more “rational” explanation (TTa: λογικότερη) of Roderick’s agitated state, shedding light on the presupposition that the narrator has already had thoughts about Usher being irrational. Allusions to mental illness occur throughout the first target version as shown in example 3, which renders ST constitutional and a family evil as μιά οἰκογενειακή ἀρώστια…(a family illness…). The next section focuses on whether the narrator uses offensive vocabulary to refer to Roderick Usher’s condition. This may signal a difference in the way the condition is discursively shaped in the target versions.

3.2 Offensiveness Offensiveness is an impoliteness notion which may emerge in discourse at various levels. The section attempts to qualitatively examine levels of offensiveness in the three target versions. Excerpt 3: The narrator conveys Roderick’s words regarding his illness. ST3:

TT3a:

It was, he said, a constitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to find a remedy—a mere nervous affection, he immediately added, which would undoubtedly soon pass off. Εἴταν, εἶπε, μιά οἰκογενειακή ἀρώστια πού προερχότανε ἀπό την κράση, καί εἴταν ἀπελπισμένος πιστεύοντας πώς δέν ὑπάρχει καμιά θεραπεία – μιά νευρική πάθηση, πρόσθεσε αμέσως, πού σίγουρα θά περνούσε σύντομα (1995: 18–19). BT. It was, he said, a family illness originating from their constitution, and he was desperate believing that there was no remedy – a nervous condition, he immediately added, which would surely pass off soon.

82

TT3b:

ΤΤ3c:

K. Kyriakou

Ήταν, είπε, μια έμφυτη οικογενειακή κατάρα, που τη θεραπεία της τη γύρευε με απελπισία - απλώς μια πάθηση νευρικής φύσεως, βιάστηκε να προσθέσει, που δεν θα αργούσε να περάσει (2001: 23). BT. It was, he said, an innate family curse, whose remedy he was desperately seeking for - merely a condition of nervous nature, he hastily added, that would not take long to pass off. Ήταν, είπε, ένα οργανικό οικογενειακό κακό, από το οποίο είχε χάσει κάθε ελπίδα ότι θα μπορούσε να θεραπευτεί, μια απλή νευρική πάθηση, πρόσθεσε αμέσως, που αναμφίβολα θα περνούσε σύντομα. (2013: 82). ΒΤ. It was, he told me, an organic family evil, from which he had lost every hope of getting cured, a simple nervous condition, he immediately added, which would undoubtedly soon pass off.

Excerpt 3 refers to Roderick’s illness in terms of TTa οἰκογενειακή ἀρώστια (family illness), TTb έμφυτη οικογενειακή κατάρα (innate family curse) and TTc οργανικό οικογενειακό κακό (organic family evil). The most offensive rendition appears in TTb, because curse carries negative connotations of punishment and impending doom; it adopts an offensive and even mocking attitude towards mental illness. The curse rendition could be insensitive, even taboo. The least offensive translation seems to be TTc rendition οργανικό οικογενειακό κακό (organic family evil) which allows the implication of something which can be most easily treated. Excerpt 4 shows a similar pattern. TTb makes use of the most offensive rendition σαλεμένο μυαλό (unhinged mind) for ST item agitated mind. ΤΤa item ταραγμένο μυαλό is less offensive but still carries negative connotations and the least offensive rendition seems to appear in TTc εξημμένο μυαλό (excited mind) which may even have the potential to carry positive connotations. Excerpt 4: Several days after Madeline’s entombment, Roderick’s health has deteriorated and the narrator is speculating about the reason behind this deterioration. ST4:

TT4a:

TT4b:

Τhere were times, indeed, when I thought his increasingly agitated mind was labouring with some oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the necessary courage. Εἴταν, πράγματι, στιγμές, πού ἓλεγα πώς το ἀδιάκοπα ταραγμένο του μυαλό ἀναμασοῦσε κάποιο μυστικό, πού τόν βασάνιζε, κι ἀγωνιζότανε νά βρεῖ τό θάρρος νά τό ἀποκαλύψει (1995: 27). BT. There were, indeed, times, when I thought that his incessantly agitated mind was ruminating some secret, which tormented him, and he was struggling to find the courage to reveal it. Μερικές φορές, μάλιστα, μου πέρναγε από το νου ότι το σαλεμένο του μυαλό πάλευε με κάποιο αβάσταχτο μυστικό, το οποίο ήθελε να μου αποκαλύψει αλλά δεν έβρισκε το θάρρος (2001: 34). BT. Sometimes, in fact, it crossed my mind that his unhinged mind was struggling with some unbearable secret, which he wanted to reveal to me but he could not find the courage.

The Madness Narrative …

ΤΤ4c:

83

Υπήρχαν πράγματι στιγμές που νόμιζα ότι το ολοένα και πιο εξημμένο του μυαλό βασανιζόταν από κάποιο πιεστικό μυστικό, και πάσχιζε να βρει το κουράγιο να το αποκαλύψει (2013: 92). ΒΤ. There were indeed times when I thought that his increasingly excited mind was tormented by some oppressive secret, and he struggled to find the courage to reveal it.

The references to Roderick’s mind carry different degrees of offence in the target versions. The TTb item σαλεμένο raises the degree of impoliteness by its “choice of intense lexis” (Culpeper 2011). Here, the reference to Roderick’s mind is overtly offensive and may connote the narrator’s ridicule towards Roderick. The narrator’s patronizing behaviour is being perpetuated, as the man is trying to give credibility to his narrative by attempting to convince the reader of Roderick’s mental instability. The third rendition (excited mind) carries no offence.

3.3 Interpersonal Distance Interpersonal distance in communication is the assumed distance between speaker and addressee. In this section, interpersonal distance is also the distance the speaker assumes to have from third entities referred to in discourse. In the following examples, the narrator refers to Roderick Usher. Excerpt 5: As the days go by in the House of Usher, the narrator joins Roderick in activities such as painting and playing music. ST5:

TT5a:

TT5b:

ΤΤ5c:

For me at least – in the circumstances then surrounding me – there arose out of the pure abstractions which the hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his canvas, an intensity of intolerable awe. Γιά μένα τουλάχιστον, μέσα στίς περιστάσεις πού μέ περιστοίχιζαν τότε, ἀπό τήν καθαρή ἀφαίρεση πού αὐτός ὁ ὑποχoνδριακός κατόρθωνε ν’ ἁπλώνει πάνω στό μουσαμά του, πήγαζε ἕνα ἐντατικό και ἀφόρητο δέος (1995: 21). BT. For me at least, in the circumstances that surrounded me then, from the pure abstraction which this hypochondriac managed to spread on his canvas, arose an intensive and intolerable awe. Εγώ τουλάχιστον, υπό την επήρεια των τότε καταστάσεων, διέκρινα πως μέσα από τα απολύτως αφαιρετικά σχέδια, με τα οποία εκείνος ο υποχονδριακός πασάλειβε το μουσαμά, αναδυόταν ένα έντονο και αφόρητο δέος (2001: 27). BT. I at least, under the influence of the circumstances, distinguished that from within the purely abstract designs, with which that hypochondriac would smear his canvas, arose an intense and intolerable awe. Για μένα τουλάχιστον – μέσα στη συγκυρία που είχα βρεθεί –, από τα καθαρά αφαιρετικά σχήματα, που αυτός ο υποχόνδριος επινοούσε και άπλωνε στο μουσαμά του, πήγαζε μια αφόρητη ένταση (2013: 85).

84

K. Kyriakou

ΒΤ. For me at least – in the circumstance I found myself – from the purely abstract shapes, which this hypochondriac would devise and spread on his canvas, arose an intolerable tension. Regarding the attitude of the narrator towards Roderick, the use of “personalized third person negative references” (Culpeper 2011: 135) is rather indicative of interpersonal distance. All three translations are deictically specific through the use of deictic expressions (αυτός, εκείνος), which may be favoured in Greek (Sidiropoulou 2019). TTb item that hypochondriac refers to Roderick and assumes interpersonal distance, whereas the TTa and TTc demonstrative adjectives this, assume interpersonal proximity. TTb item that hypochondriac signals the narrator’s disdain for Usher and his attempt to disassociate himself from the ailing man. The narrator’s distance from Roderick is also manifested through the narrator’s representation of Roderick’s painting skills. TTb portrays Usher smearing (πασάλειβε) the canvas, thus disparaging the man’s artistic talent, while TTc acknowledges Roderick’s artistic inclination and his ability to devise (επινοούσε) interesting shapes. Besides, TTa and TTb item υποχονδριακός assume more interpersonal distance than TTc υποχόνδριος. Here again, TTc shapes more positive aspects of Roderick’s sensitivity and mitigates his vulnerability. Example 6 shows how the narrator’s interpersonal distance towards Roderick is balanced by various target discourse devices. Excerpt 6: As the two friends become increasingly preoccupied with music, art and literature, Roderick announces his ill sister’s death to the narrator. The narrator has been talking about Roderick’s favourite books, particularly about a manual which deals with the occult and has a tremendous influence on Usher. ST6:

TT6a:

TT6b:

I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and its probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, one evening, having informed me abruptly that the lady Madeline was no more, he stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a fortnight. Δέν μπόρεσα νά μή σκεφτῶ τό ἐξωφρενικό τελετουργικό πού εἶχα διαβάσει σ’ αὐτό τό βιβλίο, καί τήν πιθανή ἐπίδραση πού εἶχε στόν ὑποχονδριακό μου φίλo, ὃταν, ἕνα βράδι, ἀφού με πληροφόρησε ἀπότομα πώς ἡ λαίδη Μάντλιν δέν βρισκόταν πιά στή ζωή, μοῦ ἀνακοίνωσε τήν πρόθεσή του νά φυλάξει τό πτῶμα της γιά δυό βδομάδες (1995: 25). BT. I could not help thinking of the outrageous ritual which I had read in this book, and its probable influence on my hypochondriac friend, when, one night, after having informed me abruptly about that lady Madeline was no longer alive, he announced to me his intention to preserve her corpse for two weeks. Πώς να μην έρθει στο νου μου το εξωφρενικό τελετουργικό που περιέγραψε αυτό το έργο, καθώς και η πιθανή επίδρασή του σε αυτόν τον υποχονδριακό όταν, ένα βράδυ, αφού με ενημέρωσε κοφτά πως η λαίδη Μαντλέν είχε φύγει από τη ζωή, δήλωσε στη συνέχεια πως σκόπευε να διατηρήσει το σώμα της επι δεκαπενθήμερο (2001: 32).

The Madness Narrative …

ΤΤ6c:

85

BT. How could the outrageous ritual that this work described not come to mind, as well as its probable influence on this hypochondriac when, one night, after having informed me abruptly that lady Madeline had departed this life, he subsequently stated that he intended to preserve her body for fifteen days. Δεν έπαψα στιγμή να σκέφτομαι το αλλόκοτο τελετουργικό που περιγραφόταν σ’ αυτό το έργο και την πιθανή του επίδραση στον υποχόνδριο φίλο μου, όταν, ένα βράδυ, αφού με πληροφόρησε απότομα ότι η λαίδη Μέιντλιν δεν ζούσε πια, μου ανακοίνωσε την πρόθεσή του να διατηρήσει το πτώμα της για ένα δεκαπενθήμερο (2013: 90). ΒΤ. I never stopped thinking about the bizarre ritual described in this work and its probable influence on my hypochondriac friend, when, one night, after having informed me abruptly that lady Madeline was no longer alive, he announced to me his intention to preserve her corpse for fifteen days.

TTa and TTc display the item my friend when referring to hypochondriac Roderick, which mitigates the distance assumed with ὑποχονδριακός (hypochondriac). TTb displays the least interpersonal distance, in terms of the deictic item this in this hypochondriac. The most proximal option appears in TTc, where υποχόνδριος is less distanced than TTa/b ὑποχονδριακός. Findings confirm the initial hypothesis that the latest translation adopts a more compassionate attitude towards mental illness. Table 1 summarizes how pervasive the narrative of mental illness is the three target versions, and the levels of offensiveness and interpersonal distance in them. The + sign means “enforced”, the – sign means “weakened” feature. The findings could be subsumed under the umbrella ‘pragmatic phenomenon of impoliteness’ as shown in the graph below: (7 shifts = 100%) Some degree of impoliteness (+, ± ) was observed in the 3 target versions (TTa: 5 out of 7 = 71,43%, TTb: 7 out of 7 = 100% and TTc: 1 out of 7 = 14,3%) (Fig. 1). We observe that the first two translations (1995, 2001) exhibit a high degree of impoliteness, while in the latest translation, impoliteness decreases significantly. The researcher’s calculations suggest that attitudes towards madness have improved in the twenty-first century. Section 4 focuses attention on measuring impoliteness according to respondents’ view. Table 1 Feature manipulation in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher

Mental illness narrative

Offensiveness

Interpersonal distance

TTa

+

+

+

TTb

+

+

+

TTc

−

−

−

86

K. Kyriakou

Fig. 1 Degrees of impoliteness in 3 Greek target versions (the researcher’s view)

4 The Questionnaire As suggested, a questionnaire was distributed to 10 bilingual respondents in order to confirm the researcher’s view with respect to pragmatic implications following from certain choices in the three target versions. The questionnaire manifests an emic (respondent’s) view to the data and the results are as follows: Question 1 (see appendix) asks respondents whether people suffering from mental illness have been treated with compassion or have they been subject to ridicule: Seven (7) participants believe that mentally ill people have been subject to ridicule in the past but things are starting to change. Two (2) participants think that the answer depends on many factors (environment, type and extent of the illness) or that the answer lies somewhere in the middle, while one (1) participant believes that mentally ill people have always been treated with compassion. These findings show that the participants are positively predisposed towards the aim of the study, supporting the hypothesis before answering the questionnaire. Question 2 asks respondents to rank translation excerpts referring to Roderick’s situation [from (1) least to (3) most explicit] regarding the allusion they make to mental illness: Seven (7) out of ten (10) participants (70%) believe that the earliest translation (1995) is the most explicit one regarding allusions to mental illness, while four (4) out of ten (10) participants (40%) think that the latest translation is the least explicit one. Question 3 asks participants which translation they prefer and why, bearing in mind that the narrator is describing a friend: Five (5) out of ten (10) participants selected the second translation (2001) as being more appropriate. These participants deemed this translation as “more polite/ friendly/ kind/ catchy/ vivid”. Three (3) participants opted for the earliest translation, because of its “softer tone” and “positive attitude”. Two (2) participants chose the latest translation because it is “simpler, clearer”. In Question 4, the narrator refers to Roderick; the question asks which translation threatens his face the most and asks for justification: Five (5) out of ten (10) participants (50%) deemed the second translation (2001) as more face threatening, while six (6) out of the ten (10) participants (60%) thought that the latest translation

The Madness Narrative …

87

(2013) was not face threatening. Respondents justified their view with the absence of ο φίλος μου in the second translation (2001). Question 5 examines the degree of offensiveness regarding the narrator’s references to Roderick’s mental state: Five (5) out of ten (10) participants (50%) thought that the second translation (2001) was the most offensive, while six (6) participants (60%) did not find the latest translation (2013) offensive at all. Question 6 asks respondents to match target text excerpts to degree of negativity towards Roderick’s illness and asks for justification: What prompted you to provide your answers? Seven (7) out of ten (10) participants found the earliest translation (1995) neutral, while nine (9) participants (90%) found the second translation (2001) highly negative. Eleven out of thirteen participants provided the strongly negative word κατάρα (curse) as a justification for their choice. Question 7 asks respondents to assess the interpersonal proximity/distance the narrator assumes from Roderick, in each target fragment: Seven (7) out of ten (10) participants found the narrator in the second translation (2001) as the most distant. The justifications mentioned the “distant/ negative attitude”, the “intense, overwhelming tone” and the use of the pronoun I (which in Greek adds emphasis because verb suffixes have pronominal use). The results of the questionnaire are summed up in the following graph (Fig. 2): Once again, the assumption is that the first two translations (1995, 2001) exhibit a higher degree of impoliteness towards Roderick, while the latest one (2013) is significantly less impolite, in the participants’ opinion. Moreover, the participants thought the earliest translation is even more impolite than the initial findings. Findings confirm the original hypothesis that there has been an improvement of attitudes regarding mental illness. Fig. 2 Degrees of impoliteness in 3 Greek target versions (the respondents’ view)

88

K. Kyriakou

5 Discussion The study examined whether and how mental health stigma reverberates in the three target Greek versions of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. In discussing stigma and social identity, Goffman (1963) highlighted practices of discrimination we engage ourselves with, which perpetuate assumptions of inferiority: The attitudes we normals have toward a person with a stigma, and the actions we take in regard to him, are well known, since these responses are what benevolent social action is designed to soften and ameliorate. By definition, of course, we believe the person with a stigma is not quite human. On this assumption we exercise varieties of discrimination, through which we effectively, in not unthinkably, reduce his life chances. We construct a stigma-theory, an ideology to explain his inferiority and account for the danger he represents. (1963: 5)

Mental health stigma may reverberate in society, until benevolent social action “softens and ameliorates” it. The study attempted to examine to what extent practices of discrimination may be registered in target discourses of a literary work dealing with mental illness. The study assumed that discrimination may be manifested through impoliteness devices in discourse and examined such traces in three Greek target versions. It confirms the hypothesis that the latest translation indeed exhibits a considerably lower degree of impoliteness than those of the two earlier translations. These findings potentially display changing attitudes regarding mental disorder in society and literary translation, specifically a tendency towards a more compassionate representation of the identity of mentally ill people. There are some limitations to this study. One potential shortcoming of the study is the interpretation of the shifts observed in the translations, namely the explicit references to mental illness. Apart from the intention of the target versions to stigmatize the protagonist, the use of explicit terminology could be attributed to the dates of publication. More specifically, Poe published this story in 1839, roughly half a century before Sigmund Freud’s thorough studies on psychoanalysis, and all the translations are published after 1995. Thus, the use of medical terms could be attributed to breakthroughs in the field of psychoanalysis during the time gap between the source text and the target texts. Another limitation is the limited number of the participants (10) answering the questionnaire. This may be a shortcoming, yet the uniformity of the group of volunteers may compensate for the limited number of respondents. All three translations may exhibit a compassionate attitude of the narrator towards Roderick. All three translators to some extent portray the narrator as being sympathetic towards Roderick’s predicament and willing to help the suffering man. However, examples of this sort were scarcely encountered and were thus treated as marginal.

The Madness Narrative …

89

6 Conclusion This diachronic study aimed at identifying a renegotiation of attitudes towards madness in literary translation. Excerpts from three Greek translations (1995, 2001, 2013) manifest a change in the narrator’s attitude towards the mentally ill Roderick. Michel Foucault’s work on the evolution of mental illness in Western civilization shed light on the study from a historical perspective, while Jonathan Culpeper’s impoliteness theory was used to trace the pragmatic nuances of the narrator’s behaviour towards Roderick in each translation. The results consolidated the initial claim, suggesting that the most recent translation exhibits a more compassionate attitude compared to earlier translations, which were significantly more impolite and disparaging towards Roderick’s character. These findings could suggest a broader change in society, not only with reference to people with mental disorders but regarding marginalized groups in general. Akin to mental disorder, attitudes towards prostitution in translation have undergone a major shift during the twenty-first century in Greece. This observation possibly reflects the evolution of social ideological stances towards prostitution as a whole (Kasi 2013). A similar tendency has been identified in translations of literary texts dealing with drug addiction. These studies postulate that a more lenient representation of these identities could be attributed to the establishment of institutional support towards individuals dealing with drug addiction in Greece (Tzanakari 2012). These studies could possibly indicate a change in society as a whole and gradual embracing of minorities. The study of shifting representations of mental disorder in Greek translations of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher highlights a crucial aspect of translation practice, which is translator awareness of novel narratives circulating in society, which may manifest social change and their potential to adjust implications accordingly. As stated in Bourdieu’s theory of what constitutes the social, it is of seminal importance to foreground “social practices, not individual actions” (Inghilleri 2011: 280). Being engaged in social practice, translators need to be aware of social implications following from discursive options, in order to produce translations driven by intended ideological tendencies rather than personal preferences. Taking into consideration the bidirectional relationship between the constitution of society and discourse (Saldanha 2011), translators cannot be ignorant of social change and its effects on translation. Social awareness is a major skill translators should possess, especially when engaging with texts pertaining to vulnerable social groups that have been villainized and marginalized throughout history.

90

K. Kyriakou

Appendix_Questionnaire: Attitudes towards madness in translation Introductory note: The following excerpts are extracted from three Greek translations of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. In the excerpts below, the first-person narrator is talking about his childhood friend, Roderick Usher. The narrator has been invited to Usher’s mansion by Roderick himself, who is suffering from a peculiar illness. 1.

In your opinion, have people suffering from mental illness always been treated with compassion or have they been subject to ridicule? ……………………………………………………………………………

2.

Rank the following translation excerpts from (1) least to (3) most explicit regarding the reference/allusion they make to mental illness: 1 (least explicit)/ 2 (neutral)/ 3 (most explicit)

Παραδέχτηκε ωστόσο, έστω και απρόθυμα, ότι σημαντικό μέρος αυτής της ιδιάζουσας μελαγχολίας που τον ταλαιπωρούσε ίσως να προερχόταν από μια πολύ πιο απτή και φυσιολογική αιτία. Παραδεχόταν ωστόσο, αν και με δισταγμό, ότι μεγάλο μέρος αυτής της ασυνήθιστης κατήφειας που τον είχε καταλάβει μπορούσε να αποδοθεί σε μια πιο φυσική και απτή αιτία. Παραδεχότανε, ωστόσο, αν και με δισταγμό, πως ένα μεγάλο μέρος αυτής της παράξενης κατάθλιψης, που τον βασάνιζε, μπορούσε ν’ αποδοθεί σε μια φυσικότερη και λογικότερη αιτία. 3.

Bearing in mind that the narrator is describing a friend, which translation would you prefer? Why? …………………………………………………………………………… Translation 1: Τα μεταξένια του μαλλιά, επίσης, είχαν μακρύνει εντελώς αφρόντιστα και, ατίθασα και αραχνοΰφαντα όπως ήταν, μάλλον πετούσαν παρά έπεφταν γύρω απ’ το πρόσωπό του. Κι έτσι δεν κατάφερνα, όση προσπάθεια και αν κατέβαλα, να συνδέσω τα αραβουργήματα του κεφαλιού του με την ιδέα που είχα για το ανθρώπινο είδος. Translation 2: Επίσης όσο για τα μεταξένια του μαλλιά, που τάχε αφήσει να μεγαλώσουν αφρόντιστα, αραχνοΰφαντα και ακατάστατα, όπως είταν, κι έτσι που μάλλον ανέμιζαν παρά που έπεφταν γύρω στο πρόσωπό του, δεν μπορούσα, ακόμη και κάνοντας μια προσπάθεια, να βρω καμιά σχέση ανάμεσα σ’ αυτά τ’ αραβουργήματα και σε κάποια αντίληψη απλής ανθρωπιάς. Translation 3:

The Madness Narrative …

91

Αλλά και τα μεταξένια μαλλιά του, που τα είχε αφήσει να μακρύνουν αφρόντιστα, έτσι αραχνοΰφαντα και ακατάστατα που ήταν, κι έτσι που ανέμιζαν στεφανώνοντας το πρόσωπό του με αραβουργήματα, δεν μπορούσα, παρά τις προσπάθειές μου, να τα συσχετίσω με κάποια απλή αντίληψη περί ανθρωπίνου. 4.

In the following translation excerpts, the narrator refers to Roderick. In which translation is his face threatened? Please, justify your answer. …………………………………………………………………………… Translation 1: Πώς να μην έρθει στο νου μου το εξωφρενικό τελετουργικό που περιέγραψε αυτό το έργο, καθώς και η πιθανή επίδρασή του σε αυτόν τον υποχονδριακό όταν, ένα βράδυ, αφού με ενημέρωσε κοφτά πως η λαίδη Μαντλέν είχε φύγει από τη ζωή, δήλωσε στη συνέχεια πως σκόπευε να διατηρήσει το σώμα της επι δεκαπενθήμερο. Face threatened ……. Face not threatened …….

Translation 2: Δεν μπόρεσα να μη σκεφτώ το εξωφρενικό τελετουργικό που είχα διαβάσει σ’ αυτό το βιβλίο, και την πιθανή επίδραση που ειχε στον υποχονδριακό μου φίλo, όταν, ένα βράδι, αφού με πληροφόρησε απότομα πως η λαίδη Μάντλιν δεν βρισκόταν πια στη ζωή, μου ανακοίνωσε την πρόθεσή του να φυλάξει τό πτώμα της για δυο βδομάδες. Face threatened ….. Face not threatened……

Translation 3: Δεν έπαψα στιγμή να σκέφτομαι το αλλόκοτο τελετουργικό που περιγραφόταν σ’ αυτό το έργο και την πιθανή του επίδραση στον υποχόνδριο φίλο μου, όταν, ένα βράδυ, αφού με πληροφόρησε απότομα ότι η λαίδη Μέιντλιν δεν ζούσε πια, μου ανακοίνωσε την πρόθεσή του να διατηρήσει το πτώμα της για ένα δεκαπενθήμερο. Face threatened …… Face not threatened ……

5.

Match the following translation excerpts to the degree of offensiveness regarding the narrator’s references to Roderick’s mental state: 1 (not offensive at all)/ 2 (somewhat offensive)/ 3 (very offensive)

Translation 1: Είταν, πράγματι, στιγμές, που έλεγα πως το αδιάκοπα ταραγμένο του μυαλό αναμασούσε κάποιο μυστικό, που τον βασάνιζε, κι αγωνιζότανε να βρει το θάρρος να το αποκαλύψει. Translation 2: Υπήρχαν πράγματι στιγμές που νόμιζα ότι το ολοένα και πιο εξημμένο του μυαλό βασανιζόταν από κάποιο πιεστικό μυστικό, και πάσχιζε να βρει το κουράγιο να το αποκαλύψει.

92

K. Kyriakou

Traslation 3: Μερικές φορές, μάλιστα, μου πέρναγε από το νου ότι το σαλεμένο του μυαλό πάλευε με κάποιο αβάσταχτο μυστικό, το οποίο ήθελε να μου αποκαλύψει αλλά δεν έβρισκε το θάρρος. 6.

Match the following excerpts to degree of negativity towards Roderick’s illness. What prompted you to provide your answers? …………………………………………………………………………… 1 (highly negative)/ 2 (negative)/ 3 (neutral)

Translation 1: Ήταν, είπε, μια οικογενειακή αρώστια που προερχότανε από την κράση, και ήταν απελπισμένος πιστεύοντας πως δεν υπάρχει καμια θεραπεία – μια νευρική πάθηση, πρόσθεσε αμέσως, που σίγουρα θα περνούσε σύντομα. Ἐκδηλωνότανε μ’ ένα πλήθος αφύσικα συναισθήματα. Translation 2: Ήταν, είπε, μια έμφυτη οικογενειακή κατάρα, που τη θεραπεία της τη γύρευε με απελπισία- απλώς μια πάθηση νευρικής φύσεως, βιάστηκε να προσθέσει, που δεν θα αργούσε να περάσει. Τα συμπτώματά της ήταν ένα πλήθος από αλλόκοτες φυσικές ευαισθησίες. Translation 3: Ήταν, είπε, ένα οργανικό οικογενειακό κακό, από το οποίο είχε χάσει κάθε ελπίδα ότι θα μπορούσε να θεραπευτεί, μια απλή νευρική πάθηση, πρόσθεσε αμέσως, που αναμφίβολα θα περνούσε σύντομα. Εκδηλωνόταν με ένα πλήθος αφύσικα συναισθήματα. 7.

What would you say about the attitude of the narrator towards Roderick in each excerpt? Does the narrator want to be associated with the man or not? …………………………………………………………………………… Translation 1: Για μένα τουλάχιστον- μέσα στη συγκυρία που είχα βρεθεί-, από τα καθαρά αφαιρετικά σχήματα, που αυτός ο υποχόνδριος επινοούσε και άπλωνε στο μουσαμά του, πήγαζε μια αφόρητη ένταση. Translation 2: Εγώ τουλάχιστον, υπό την επήρεια των τότε καταστάσεων, διέκρινα πως μέσα από τα απολύτως αφαιρετικά σχέδια, με τα οποία εκείνος ο υποχονδριακός πασάλειβε το μουσαμά, αναδυόταν ένα έντονο και αφόρητο δέος. Translation 3: Για μένα τουλάχιστον, μέσα στις περιστάσεις που με περιστοίχιζαν τότε, από την καθαρή αφαίρεση που αυτός ο υποχονδριακός κατόρθωνε ν’ απλώνει πάνω στο μουσαμά του, πήγαζε ένα εντατικό και αφόρητο δέος.

The Madness Narrative …

93

References Coolican, H. 2004. Research methods and statistics in psychology. London: Hodder Arnold. Culpeper, J. 2011. Impoliteness: Using language to cause offence. Cambridge University Press. Foucault, M. 2001 [1965]. Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason. London: Routledge. Goffman, Erving. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. New York: Simon and Schuster. Gruesser, J. 2004. Madmen and moonbeams: The narrator in “the fall of the house of usher.” The Edgar Allan Poe Review 5 (1): 80–90. Hill, J. 1963. The dual hallucination. In “the fall of the house of usher.” Southwest Review 48 (4): 396–402. Inghilleri, M. 2011. Sociological approaches. In Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies, 2nd ed., ed. M. Baker and G. Saldanha, 279–282. London: Routledge. Kennedy, J.G. 2001. A historical guide to Edgar Allan Poe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mavrelos, N. 2017. Η υποδοχή του Poe στην Ελλάδα και ο φακός του Ροΐδη [Poe’s reception in Greece and Roidis’ lens]. Σύγκριση 14: 76–99. Saldanha, G. 2011. Linguistic approaches. In Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies, 2nd ed., ed. M. Baker and G. Saldanha, 148–152. London: Routledge. Sidiropoulou, M. 2019. Vaguness-specificity in English-Greek scientific translation. In The Routledge handbook of translation and pragmatics, ed. R. Tipton and L. Desilla, 266–278. London: Routledge. Stableford, B. 2003. Science fiction before the genre. In The Cambridge companion to science fiction, ed. E. James and F. Mendlesohn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Walker, I.M. 1966. The ‘legitimate sources’ of terror in “the fall of the house of Usher.” The Modern Language Review 61 (4): 585–592. Zimmerman, B. 2009. Poe as amateur psychologist: Flooding, phobias, psychosomatics, and “the premature burial.” The Edgar Allan Poe Review 10 (1): 7–19.

Electronic Sources Kasi, V. 2013. Social identities on stage: Mrs. Warren’s Profession. In Interlingual perspectives translation e-volume, Maria Sidiropoulou. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Philosophy, Faculty of English Language and Literature. Retrieved January 11, 2021 from http://en.metafraseis.enl.uoa.gr/interlingual-perspectives-e-volume/contents-of-thee-volume.html Tzanakari, V. 2012. Jack Kerouac: Subcultural identity and Beat representation. In Interlingual perspectives translation e-volume, ed. Maria Sidiropoulou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Philosophy, Faculty of English Language and Literature. Retrieved January 11, 2021 from http://en.metafraseis.enl.uoa.gr/interlingual-perspectives-e-volume/con tents-of-the-e-volume.html Verdiaki, M. Ο διηγηματογράφος Πόε εν Ελλάδι. Οι ελληνικές μεταφράσεις των: The Murders in the rue Morgue, The Gold Bug. Academia. December 27, 2020. https://www.academia.edu/ 36797392/Ο_διηγηματογράφος_Πόε_εν_Ελλάδι_Οι_ελληνικές_μεταφράσεις_των_The_Mur ders_in_the_rue_Morgue_The_Gold_Bug

94

K. Kyriakou

Texts Poe, E.A. 1839. The fall of the house of Usher. Elegant Ebooks. Retrieved November 12, 2020, from https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/index.html Πόε, Ε. Α. 1995. Ο Οίκος των ‘Ωσερ. Αλλόκοτες Ιστορίες, 13–33 (Mετφρ. Κ. Πολίτης). Aθήνα: Εντροπία. Πόε, Ε.Α. 2001. Η Πτώση του Οίκου των Άσερ. Η Πτώση του Οίκου των Άσερ και… Παραλλαγές, 15–43 (Μετφρ. Γ. Γούλας), Aθήνα: Απόπειρα. Πόε, Ε.Α. 2013. Η Πτώση του Οίκου των Άσερ. 21 Ιστορίες και «Το Κοράκι», 76–100 (Μετφρ. Κ. Σχινά), Aθήνα: Μεταίχμιο.

Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights Sofia-Konstantina Zacharia

Abstract The aim of this study is to study how Heathcliff and Catherine’s unfulfilled love, in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, and its dramatic consequences, hatred and revenge, can be shaped cross-culturally and inter-culturally through rendition of impoliteness. The study also considers the role of gender and social class in shaping the reality of the novel in target versions, which may have emotional consequences and cause offence (Culpeper in Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011). To this end, the study examines two Greek versions of the novel which are 36 years apart (Καζαντζής 1984; Μαντόγλου 2020) and a recent theatrical adaptation with respect to the level of impoliteness the target versions employ. The 1984 version seems to make use of a language which is less offensive and aggressive, in contrast to the more recent version of 2020. As the use of impoliteness may reflect conventions of the period a target version emerges in, potential shifts in the rendition of impoliteness could suggest a change in how society caused offence in 1984, as opposed to nowadays. Α questionnaire addressing 13 postgraduate students at NKUA confirmed the interpretation of findings. The study shows that impoliteness is a significant tool for shaping identities in translated fiction and seems to creatively interact with pragmatic parameters like gender and social class. Keywords Pragmatics · Gender · Social class · Aggression · Impoliteness

1 Introduction Wuthering Heights is the only novel written by Emily Brontë (1847). The novel deals with the destructiveness of love (Watson 1949) that never changes. Obsessive love, passions and revenge are prevalent in the story, as the main characters of the novel, Heathcliff and Catherine, torture everybody with their decisions (Bloom 1988a, b). Heathcliff was an orphan wandering alone in Liverpool, until Catherine’s father, S.-K. Zacharia (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_7

95

96

S. -K. Zacharia

Mr. Earnshaw, found him and gave him shelter. He showed Heathcliff great affection, in contrast to his wife and his son, Hindley, who was Catherine’s elder brother and Heathcliff’s worst enemy. Hindley tortured and disrespected Heathcliff when they were children and after his wife’s death, Hindley became drunkard and started gambling. Until his death, Hindley leads a violent drunken existence indebted to his enemy (Bloom 1988a, b) and is forced to mortgage all his fortune to him. Catherine betrayed her true love for Heathcliff, and chose to marry a wealthy man, Mr. Edgar Linton who would give her social prestige and would upgrade her social status. Heathcliff felt betrayed and he returned after three years of absence, as a wealthy and educated man, ready to put his revenge plan into action. We learn about characters’ innermost thoughts, Heathcliff’s insidious plan of revenge through different narrators, Mr. Lockwood, the tenant of Heathcliff’s house and the housekeeper Nelly Dean who had taken care of Earnshaw’s house and Linton’s house when they were alive. As Rena-Rozier (2010: 758) suggests, Wuthering Heights is “a gothic mirror of the narrative situation of the novel itself”. When the characters in the novel do not take what they want, they resort to revenge, which assumes conflict and aggression. As Vargish argues (1971: 14), “revenge has profound psychological and aesthetic significance. It forces the action forward”. The question arises as to how translators go about the theme of love, revenge and anger, and how gender or social class can discursively manifest itself and affect expression of people’s aggression and impoliteness. In other words, the study shows how translation practice may renegotiate identities motivated by contextual factors. A motivation for this study has been the observation that the offence and the influence of social class on characters’ decisions may be presented differently in one of the Greek versions (1984), where the language of aggression and impoliteness varies to meet shifting social norms. As Vargish (1971: 7) suggests Heathcliff’s disaster is that Catherine’s love does not meet the needs of her social position and education. Furthermore, those who lack the privilege of belonging to the high class become vengeful: Heathcilff—an orphan—had been underestimated by the majority of the characters and desires to make them suffer. Im/politeness is a significant aspect of social communication interacting with emotion (Kienpointner 2008) and hostility (Tracy 2008) and aiming to preserve social order. Culpeper (in Bousfield and Locher 2008: 36) suggests that impoliteness aims at the target’s “face loss” through verbal abuse, threats, bullying and so on. In highlighting the significance of this discursive phenomenon, he suggests that people may feel more hurt by verbal violence than physical violence. The study takes an intercultural approach to impoliteness (Culpeper et al. 2014) and makes use of Culpeper’s (1996) model of impoliteness and its strategies to describe variation between the two target versions. It will suggest that the more recent Greek translation makes more frequent use of the strategy of negative impoliteness as described in Culpeper (2005: 41–42):

Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights

Bald on record impoliteness:

Positive impoliteness:

Negative impoliteness:

Sarcasm or mock politeness:

Withhold politeness:

97

the FTA is performed in a direct, clear, unambiguous and concise way in circumstances where face is not irrelevant or minimized. the use of strategies designed to damage the addressee’s positive face wants, e. g., ignore the other, exclude the other from an activity, be disinterested, unconcerned, unsympathetic, use inappropriate identity markers, use obscure or secretive language, seek disagreement, use taboo words, call the other names. the use of strategies designed to damage the addressee’s negative face wants, e. g., frighten, condescend, scorn or ridicule, be contemptuous, do not treat the other seriously, belittle the other, invade the other’s space (literally or metaphorically), explicitly associate the other with a negative aspect (personalize, use the pronouns “I” and “You”), put the other’ s indebtedness on record. the FTA is performed with the use of politeness strategies that are obviously insincere, and thus remain surface realisations. the absence of politeness work where it would be expected. For example, failing to thank somebody for a present may be taken as deliberate impoliteness (summarized from Culpeper 1996: 356-357).

The paper starts with a naturalistic study examining how social stratification interacts with the use of impoliteness in English and in the two Greek versions. Impoliteness has more broadly been approached from a wide array of disciplines, each gravitating towards different labels, even when they deal with language (Culpeper and Hardaker 2017). The study then uses experimental methodology, in the form of a questionnaire, to confirm the pragmatic value of certain changes with native speakers of Greek. Thirteen graduates of the Department of English Language and Literature, NKUA, answered questions on the value of certain shifts in order for me to doublecheck the interpretation of the findings. For better understanding the character’s use of offensive and aggressive language, the study examined a theatrical adaptation of the novel with respect to how the concept of impoliteness and the role of social class could be used from a mediator’s point of view. When the characters of the novel do not manage to meet the standards of English society, they are considered inferior and beggars. This is what urges Heathcliff to seek revenge and become offensive towards anyone. In both target versions, the negative emotions of the characters are strong and they are driven by feelings of compulsive love that leads to hatred.

98

S. -K. Zacharia

2 Presentation of the Empirical Data As mentioned, the two Greek versions approach impoliteness in a different way. The earlier Greek version (1984) presents less offensive and less aggressive main characters, while the latest presents them as morally repugnant and vulgar. The assumption is that the approach reflects conventions of the period these translations were created in, suggesting that offensiveness may be heightened nowadays. The field of linguistic impoliteness developed first in a rather fitful fashion, then gathered pace in the mid-1990s, but only really took off around 2008 (Culpeper and Hardaker 2017:199). Sinkeviciute (2015: 317) even claims that now it “has become one of the most researched topics in pragmatics in the twenty-first century” (See also Blitvich 2010). There are numerous shifts which reflect variation in the way the translators transfer Heathcliff’s and other characters’ negative emotions. Section 2.1 presents how the first and second versions have reshaped characters’ use of offensiveness and the role of social class in it. Section 2.2 presents a questionnaire intended to elicit Greek respondents’ perception of levels of offensiveness, with reference to certain target options.

2.1 Level of Impoliteness In 1801, the new tenant at Thrushcross Grange in Yorkshire, visits his landlord, Heathcliff, at his isolated moorland farmhouse, “Wuthering Heights”. He meets Hareton, an uneducated young man, a very attractive young woman, Cathy Linton and notices the hostility of the people who live there. He believes that the young woman is Hareton’s wife and when he realizes this is not the case, he makes insidious thoughts, such as the following. ST1:

TT1a:

Then it flashed upon me- “The clown at my elbow, who is drinking his tea out of a basin and eating his bread with unwashed hands, may be her husband: Heathcliff junior, of course. Here is the consequence of being buried alive: she has thrown herself away upon that boor, from sheer ignorance that better individuals existed! A sad pity-I must beware how I cause her to regret her choice”. (2009: 10) Μου κατέβηκε άλλη ιδέα: ίσως να ‘ναι άντρας της τούτος ο καραγκιόζης δίπλα μου, που πίνει το τσάι απ΄ τη γαβάθα και τρώει το ψωμί με άπλυτα χέρια – Χήθκλιφ ο νεότερος βέβαια. Να τι παθαίνεις όταν θάβεσαι ζωντανός: η κοπέλα παραδόθηκε σε τούτον το χωριάτη από απλή άγνοια πως υπάρχουνε καλύτεροι άντρες! Κρίμα, πολύ κρίμα! Πρέπει να βρω έναν τρόπο να την κάνω να μετανιώσει για την εκλογή! (1984: 19) BT: Another idea came to me: maybe this karaghiozis (clown in the Greek traditional shadow puppet theatre) next to me is her husband, who drinks the tea from the cup and eats the bread with unwashed hands - Heathcliff

Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights

TT1b:

99

the younger of course. Here is what you get when you are buried alive: the girl was given to this villager out of simple ignorance that there are better men! Too bad, too bad! I have to find a way to make her regret the election! Έπειτα είχα μια άλλη ιδέα. Μπορεί αυτός ο γελοίος δίπλα μου που πίνει το τσάι του από τη γαβάθα και κόβει το ψωμί του με τα βρόμικα χέρια του, μπορεί αυτός να είναι ο σύζυγός της. Ο Χίθκλιφ ο νεότερος, βεβαίως. Να τι συμβαίνει όταν αφήνεσαι να σε θάψουν ζωντανή: η κοπέλα χαραμίστηκε με αυτό τον αγροίκο από καθαρή άγνοια πως υπήρχαν και καλύτεροι άνδρες! Τι κρίμα· πρέπει να έχω τον νου μου να μην την κάνω να μετανιώσει για την επιλογή της. (2020: 47) ΒΤ: Then I had another idea. Maybe this ridiculous person next to me who drinks his tea from the bowl and cuts his bread with his dirty hands, maybe he is her husband. Heathcliff the younger, of course. Here is what happens when you let yourself to be buried alive: the girl was wasted on this boorish out of sheer ignorance that there were better men! What a pity · I must have in mind not to make her regret her choice.

The TTb (2020) item χαραμίστηκε (was wasted) is evaluative suggesting that something valuable is related to someone valueless or of lower status, which heightens offensiveness with reference to Hareton. Likewise, the TTb items boorish (τον αγροίκο) and ridiculous (γελοίος) are more offensive than villager (το χωριάτη) and this clown (καραγκιόζης), respectively. TTb is also more gender-aware, blaming the lady who let herself to be buried alive in the marriage (αφήνεσαι να σε θάψουν ζωντανή) vs. TTa item [the girl] was given to this villager (η κοπέλα παραδόθηκε σε τούτον το χωριάτη), where the girl is not blamed for the fact, the assumption is that the family or her environment is to blame. In example 2, Mr. Earnshaw had bought two mares in a parish festival and gave them to his son Hindley and his step-son, Heathcliff. Heathcliff took the nicest one but when it started limping, he threatened his brother that if they do not change horses, he will testify to his father that he had hit him three times this week and, in this way, Hindley will get these beatings back with interest. Example 2 presents Hindley’s reply: ST2:

TT2a:

“Off, dog! cried Hindley threatening him with an iron weight, used for weighing potatoes and hay…Take my golt, gipsy, then!” said young Earnshaw, “And I pray that he may break your neck; take him, and be damned, you beggarly interloper! And wheedle my father out of all he has-only, afterwards, show him what you are, imp of Satan-And take that, I hope he’ll kick out your brains”. (2009: 34) Φύγε, σκυλί! φώναξε ο Χίντλεϋ κι άρπαξε το καντάρι που ζυγίζαμε πατάτες και σανό…. Άντε, πάρε τ’ άλογό μου, γύφτο! φώναξε ο Χίντλεϋ. Κι ας σε γκρεμίσει ο Θεός μιαν ώρα αρχύτερα απ’ αυτό! Παρ’ το και πήγαινε στο διάβολο, ζητιάνε, σφετεριστή – και ξεζούμισε τον πατέρα μου απ’ ό,τι έχει και δεν έχει κι ύστερα μονάχα δείξε του τι είσαι, γιε του Σατανά! Άντε, άρπαχ’ το! Κι ας ήταν να σου δώσει μια κλωτσιά, να σου σπάσει το ξερό σου! (1984: 49)

100

ΤΤ2b:

S. -K. Zacharia

ΒΤ: Go away, dog! Hindley shouted and grabbed the can we weighed potatoes and hay…. Come on, take my horse, gypsy! cried Hindley. And may God bring you down an hour earlier than that! Nevertheless, go to the devil, beg, usurper – and oust my father from what he has and does not have, and only then show him what you are, son of Satan! Come on, grab it! Even if it was to give you a kick, to break your dry head! «Φύγε, παλιόσκυλο!» φώναξε ο Χίντλεϋ, απειλώντας τον με ένα σιδερένιο ζύγι, με το οποίο ζύγιζαν τις πατάτες και τον σανό….«Πάρε το άλογό μου, τσιγγάνε!» είπε ο νεαρός Έρνσο. «Και εύχομαι να γκρεμοτσακιστείς, παρ’ το μαζί με τις κατάρες μου, παλιο ζητιάνε, εισβολέα! Και γδύσε τον πατέρα μου, πάρ’ του, ό,τι έχει και δεν έχει, κι έπειτα δειξ’ του ποιος είσαι, σπορά του Σατανά. Άντε παρ’ το, ελπίζω να σου τινάξει τα μυαλά στον αέρα». (2020: 79) BT: “Go away, bad dog!” cried Hindley, threatening him with an iron scales, with which they weighed potatoes and hay… “Take my horse, gypsy!” said the young Ernso. “And I hope you get stuck, with my curses, nasty beggar, invader! And undress my father, take what he has and does not have, and then show him who you are, sow of Satan. Anyway, I hope he blows your brains out.”

In TTb (2020) the items παλιόσκυλο (bad dog) and παλιοζητιάνε (nasty beggar) are more offensive than σκυλί (dog), ζητιάνε (beggar), respectively. Likewise, TTa item εισβολέα (invader), σπορά του Σατανά (sow of Satan) are more offensive and aggressive than TTa (1984) σφετεριστή (usurper), γιε του Σατανά (son of Satan), respectively. Moreover, the items γδύσε in TTb and να γκρεμοτσακιστείς, μαζί με τις κατάρες μου (get lost with my curses, 2020) are more aggressive than the TTa item ξεζούμισε (drained them off ) and Πάρ’ το και πήγαινε στο διάβολο (take it and go to Hell). TTb shows more menace, with options which enact a stronger face-attack. Tracy (2008: 173) argues that face-attack would be a better term, as “‘[i]mpolite’ is too tame a descriptor for serious acts of face threat”. In this strategy, Culpeper (2005: 41) explains that the speaker performs the Face Threatening Act (FTA) in a direct, clear, unambiguous and concise way. There is an intention on the part of the speaker to attack the face of addressee. Here, we can see Hindley’s intention to damage his stepbrother’s image. Although there is impoliteness in the original text, TTb (2020) encodes a more offensive behaviour of Hindley towards Heathcliff. Hindley directly attacks Heathcliff’s face. Cathy, Catherine’s daughter, had persuaded Hareton to uproot much of Joseph’s garden with gooseberries and cherries, and they discussed how to plant a variety of plants from Grange. Heathcliff heard about their actions and became very angry: ST3:

“And who the devil gave you leave to touch a stick about the place?” demanded her father-in-law, much surprised. “And who ordered you to obey her?” he added, turning to Hareton. The latter was speechless; his cousin replied – “You shouldn’t grudge a few yards of earth for me to ornament, when you have taken all my land!”

Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights

TT3a:

TT3b:

101

“Your land, insolent slut? You never had any!” said Heathcliff. “And my money,” she continued, returning his angry glare, and, meantime, biting a piece of crust, the remnant of her breakfast. “Silence!” he exclaimed. “Get done, and begone!” (2009: 284) -Και ποιος στο διάολο σου ‘δωσε την άδεια ν’ ανακατεύεσαι στο σπίτι; Και ποιος στο διάολο σου ‘πε εσένα, Έρτον, να κάνεις ό,τι σου λέει; Ο Έρτον δε μιλούσε, μα η Κατερίνα σήκωσε κεφάλι: -Δε θα ‘πρεπε να γκρινιάζετε για λίγες πήχες γη που πήγα να στολίσω, μια και μου πήρατε όλη μου την περιουσία κι όλα μου τα χωράφια…. -Τα χωράφια σου, ανόητο παλιογύναικο; Και πού τα βρήκες τα χωράφια σου; -Ναι, τα χωράφια και τα χρήματα και ό,τι άλλο είχα! Φώναξε άγρια η Κατερίνα, δαγκώνοντας νευρικά ένα κομμάτι ψωμί που ‘χε απομείνει από το μπρέκφαστ… -Πάψε! Της είπε ο Χήθκλιφ. Τέλειωνε και δίνε του!. (1984: 363) BT: -And who the hell gave you permission to interfere at home? And who the hell told you, Erton, to do what she tells you? Erton did not speak, but Katerina raised her head: -You should not whine about the few acres of land I went to decorate, since you took all my property and all my fields’. -Your fields, stupid nasty woman? And where did you find your fields? -Yes, the fields and the money and everything else I had! Katerina shouted wildly, nervously biting a piece of bread that was left from the breakfast. -Stop! Heathcliff told her. Finish and go! «Και ποιος διάολος σου έδωσε εσένα την άδεια να χώσεις το χεράκι σου εδώ μέσα;» τη ρώτησε ο πεθερός της ξαφνιασμένος. «Και εσένα ποιος σου είπε να κάνεις ό,τι σου λέει αυτή;» πρόσθεσε γυρίζοντας στον Χέρτον. Εκείνος δε μίλησε, αλλά η ξαδέλφη του είπε: «Σου κακοφαίνεται που πήγα να ομορφύνω λίγα μέτρα γης, ενώ εσύ μου έχεις πάρει όλα μου τα κτήματα!» «Τα κτήματά σου, αυθάδικο τσουλί! Ποτέ δεν είχες τίποτα». «Και τα λεφτά μου επίσης», συνέχισε, κοιτάζοντάς τον κι εκείνη θυμωμένα, ενώ δάγκωνε νευρικά μια κόρα από το ψωμί, που είχε απομείνει από το φαγητό. «Σκάσε», της είπε ο Χήθκλιφ. «Τέλειωνε και φύγε από δω!» (2020: 422) BT: “And who the hell gave you permission to have your hand in here?” her father-in-law asked in surprise. “And who told you to do what she tells you?” he added, turning to Herton. He did not speak, but his cousin said to him: “It seems bad to you that I went to beautify a few meters of land, while you have taken all my estate!” “Your estates, arrogant slut! You never had anything.”

102

S. -K. Zacharia

“And my money, too,” she continued, looking at him angrily as she nervously bit a crust of bread left over from the meal. “Shut up,” Heathcliff told her. “Finish and get out of here!” Cathy, Catherine’s daughter makes fun of her cousin Hareton, who was uneducated due to Heathcliff. Despite his illiteracy, he made decent efforts to learn to read, using his cousin’s books so that he would rise in her own eyes. Here, we have Cathy’s reaction to his efforts. ST4:

TT4a:

TT4b:

“Oh!” she replied, “I don’t wish to limit his acquirements: still, he has no right to appropriate what is mine, and make it ridiculous to me with his vile mistakes and mispronunciations! Those books, both prose and verse, are consecrated to me by other associations; and I hate to have them debased and profaned in his mouth! Besides, of all, he has selected my favourite pieces that I love the most to repeat, as if out of deliberate malice” (2009: 267) Α, απάντησε, δεν έχω βέβαια καμιά πρόθεση να τον εμποδίσω σε τίποτα, μα δεν μπορώ κιόλας να τον αφήσω να μου παίρνει τα πράματά μου και να γελοιοποιεί ό,τι αγαπώ, με τα λάθη του και την κακή του προφορά. ‘Όλα τούτα τα βιβλία, τα κείμενα κι οι στίχοι, είναι συνδεδεμένα στο μυαλό μου με θύμησες ιερές και τώρα το νομίζω ιεροσυλία να τ’ ακούω από το στόμα του. Κι ύστερα, σα να το κάνει από σκοπό, πήγε και διάλεξε εκείνα ακριβώς που αγαπώ περισσότερο και μ’ αρέσει η ίδια ν’ απαγγέλω πότε-πότε… (1984: 343) BT: Ah, she replied, of course I have no intention of hindering him in anything, but I cannot even let him take my things and ridicule what I love, with his mistakes and his bad accent. All these books, the texts and the lyrics, are connected in my mind, with sacred remembrances and now I think it is sacrilege to hear them from his mouth. And then, as if he does this on purpose, he went and picked exactly the ones I love the most and I like to recite myself from time to time… «Α!» απάντησε. «Δεν έχω καμία διάθεση να περιορίσω τη μόρφωσή του, όμως δεν έχει κανένα δικαίωμα να σφετερίζεται τα δικά μου βιβλία και να τα γελοιοποιεί με τα απαράδεκτα λάθη του και τη χυδαία προφορά του! Τα βιβλία μου, τόσο τα πεζά όσο και τα ποιητικά, είναι για μένα ιερά, και συνδέονται με άλλες στιγμές της ζωής μου, και δε μου αρέσει να τα εξευτελίζει και να τα μαγαρίζει αυτός! Επιπλέον, έχει διαλέξει τα πιο αγαπημένα μου, αυτά που μου αρέσει να ξαναδιαβάζω, σαν να το κάνει για να μου μπει στο μάτι». (2020: 401) BT: “A!” she replied. “I have no intention of limiting his education, but he has no right to usurp my own books and ridicule them with his unacceptable mistakes and vulgar accent! My books, both prose and poetic, are sacred to me, and they are connected to other moments of my life, and I do not like him to humiliate and muck them up! In addition, he has chosen my favorites, the ones I like to re-read, as if he does it to get it in my eye”.

Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights

103

In TTb (2020) impoliteness is heightened in comparison to TTa (1984). The TTb translator adds some pragmatically transparent (humiliating) phrases. Moreover, he adds some offensive adjectives to heighten impoliteness such as απαράδεκτα λάθη (unacceptable mistakes) and χυδαία προφορά (vulgar accent). Cathy aims to downgrade her cousin’s value. Ridiculing somebody and “being contemptuous is an impoliteness sub-strategy” (Culpeper 1996: 356–357), which may be evident through the humiliating phrases used by Cathy. Moreover, the influence of social class is quite evident here as Cathy becomes impolite towards her cousin Hareton because he is uneducated and despite his diligent efforts to elevate himself in her eyes, she humiliates him by telling him that “he ridicules her books with his unacceptable mistakes”. Hareton worked as a servant and farmer, with no access to education; his laborious efforts to learn to read is an example of how education can help people raise up in society and develop qualities and talents into something better and more refined. Example 5 shows that TTb is more aware of social inequalities. Catherine talks to Nelly, the housekeeper, communicating her concerns about Edgar’s marriage proposal. She has accepted it but does not know if she did well and asks Nelly for her opinion. During this conversation, Catherine expresses her true emotions about her honest love for Heathcliff but also what urged her to accept Edgar’s proposal. ST5:

TT5a:

TT5b:

if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am”. (2009: 71) δε θα το ΄κανα ποτέ αν ο καταραμένος ο αδελφός μου δεν είχε ρίξει πια τον Χήθκλιφ τόσο κάτω. Μα τώρα θα ΄ναι μια ταπείνωση για μένα, να παντρευτώ τον Χήθκλιφ! Γι’ αυτό δεν πρέπει να το μάθει πόσο τον αγαπώ’ τον αγαπώ, όχι γιατί είναι πιο όμορφος από τον Έντγκαρ, αλλά γιατί ταιριάζουμε περισσότερο εγώ κι αυτός- είναι οι ψυχές μας απ΄την ίδια πάστα, όποια κι αν είν’ αυτή. (1984: 98-99) BT: I would never have done it if my cursed brother had not thrown Heathcliff so low. But now it would be a humiliation for me to marry Heathcliff! That is why he should not know how much I love him, I love him, not because he is more handsome than Edgar, but because he and I are more suited - they are our souls from the same paste, whatever it is. αν ο κακός άνθρωπος εκεί μέσα δεν είχε φέρει τον Χήθκλιφ σε αυτή τη θέση, δε θα το σκεφτόμουν διόλου. Θα ξέπεφτα πολύ αν παντρευόμουν τώρα τον Χήθκλιφ, κι αυτός δε θα μάθει ποτέ πόσο τον αγαπάω, και όχι επειδή είναι ωραίος, Νέλι, αλλά επειδή είναι ο εαυτός μου περισσότερο ακόμα κι από εμένα. (2020: 130) BT: if the bad guy in there had not brought Heathcliff to this position, I would not have thought of it at all. I would stoop a lot if I married Heathcliff now, and he will never know how much I love him, and not because he is nice, Nelly, but because he is myself even more than me

104

S. -K. Zacharia

TTb item (2020) θα ξέπεφτα πολύ αν παντρευόμουν τώρα τον Χήθκλιφ (I would stoop a lot if I married Heathcliff now) suggests that Catherine is very much aware of social hierarchy which she wants to climb rather than ignore. The TTb item ξέπεφτα implies that Catherine is going to transition from a flourishing, prosperous state to a subordinate one (economic, social). The TTa item θα ΄ναι μια ταπείνωση για μένα (it would be humiliating for me) is intense, but it more easily connotes a wider set of contexts: ethical or other, rather than solely social and economic. There are quite a few examples of this kind in TTb, which makes the version more aware of the social stratification. The two target versions show a different perception of the reality of the novel. TTb is more offensive and/or aggressive and has higher awareness of social/economic hierarchy. This may be due to particular variables which may change over time and affect discourse construction. Brontë’s novel has been adapted for theatre, cinema, opera, musical and ballet and the question arises as to how a different type of discourse genre (e.g. a performance translation of the novel) could have handled aggression between characters. The novel was adapted into a Greek theatrical play for a performance of the State Theater of Northern Greece, in Thessaloniki, in February 2017, at the Theater of the Society for Macedonian Studies (NTNG, directed by Kalavrianos 2016–2017). A view into Kalavrianos’ performance version shows that the degree of impoliteness is being lowered in some parts of the story. For example, Cathy behaves differently: in one of her dialogues with Erton, she seems to laugh at him about the fact he is uneducated but in the end she tells him that she is going to help him, which is very evident in the following example. Moreover, she apologizes for making fun of him. She even asks him to become friends. TT:

BT:

ΕΡΤΟΝ: Πρώτα με κοροϊδεύεις επειδή δεν ήξερα να διαβάζω και τώρα μου φωνάζεις επειδή θέλω να μάθω; ΚΑΘΥ: Νωρίς το θυμήθηκες; ΙΩΣΗΦ: Δεσποινίς, δεν έχει σημασία πότε ξεκινάει κανείς. ΚΑΘΥ: Δεν θέλω να τον κοροϊδεύω και χαίρομαι πραγματικά που θέλει να μάθει. Αλλά δεν θέλω να παίρνουν τα βιβλία μου χωρίς να με ρωτήσουν! Αυτά τα βιβλία είναι ιερά για μένα…… ΕΡΤΟΝ: Εγώ φταίω, που, από τότε που σε γνώρισα, θέλησα να μάθω να διαβάζω. ΚΑΘΥ: Γιατί; Ιωσήφ, πες του σε παρακαλώ πως του ζητάω συγγνώμη και πως, αν το δεχτεί, θα του μάθω να διαβάζει σωστά. Φίλοι; ΕΡΤΟΝ: Φίλοι. (2017: 124-125) Erton: First, you are making fun of me because I did not know how to read and now you are shouting at me because I want to learn? Cathy: You remembered that early! Joseph: Miss, it does not matter when anybody starts.

Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights

105

Cathy: I do not want to make fun of him and I am really happy he wants to learn. But I do not want them to take my books without asking me! These books are sacred for me…… Erton: It’s my fault, that, since I met you, I wanted to learn to read. Cathy: Why? Joseph, please tell him that I apologize to him and that, if he accepts, I will teach him to read correctly. Friends? Erton: Friends. The theatrical adaptation lowers offensiveness and Heathcilff is referred to as a kiddie (πιτσιρίκι) who was wandering alone in the streets, which shows interpersonal proximity rather than distance or aggression ΝΕΛΥ: BT:

Ήταν ένα πιτσιρίκι που ζούσε ολομόναχο. He was a little boy who lived all alone,

while in the other two novel translations the boy is referred to as gypsy, which is a pejorative characterization. It seems that offensiveness is a variable which fluctuates across genres and times when manifested in target discourses of the same novel/play.

2.2 A Lay Person’s Perspective The section takes an emic perspective into the use of offensiveness in translations of the novel. The study distributed a questionnaire to thirteen graduate students of the Department of English Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, with no previous knowledge of the purpose of the research. The intention was to confirm the level of impoliteness across the Greek versions, verifying that offensiveness is a variable which may fluctuate across target versions. The questionnaire provided three versions (including the theatrical adaptation as version c) of five exchanges from the novel and asked respondents to use their linguistic insight into Greek in order to say which version carries the highest level of offensiveness/aggression. Table 1 summarizes the results of the questionnaire: version b is confirmed to be the one which makes use of higher aggression in the universe of the novel. Table 1 Individual answers on the degree of impoliteness in the Greek versions Question In which target text is impoliteness more noticeable?

Answer a

Answer b

Answer c

• 1

3

10

0

• 2

3

6

4

• 3

5

8

0

• 4

5

8

0

• 5

3

10

0

106

S. -K. Zacharia

The results of the questionnaire broadly match my own analysis in Section 2.1. The respondents seemed to acknowledge variation in the degree of offensiveness employed in the three Greek target versions. Respondents also noticed that the social class, which people belong to, may have an impact on the language they use. It seemed that the higher the social class the lower the offensiveness, in contrast to higher social class people who seemed to make use of a more refined offensiveness.

3 Discussion of the Results This study showed how offensiveness varies between Greek target versions of a novel and how pragmatic parameters like social class and gender may inform one or another target version and change the impact they have on an audience. The research first studied a 1984 and a 2020 Greek target versions of Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights together with a recent theatrical adaptation of the novel to view how translators depict characters in terms of the use of impoliteness strategies. The study assumes Culpeper’s theory model of impoliteness (1996: 356–357) to understand impoliteness and focuses on the level and intensity of impoliteness suggested in the target versions. The target versions showed that TTb (2020) heightens offensiveness relative to TTa (1984), by highlighting more offensive and aggressive aspects of characters’ profile, in contrast to TTa (1984) and to TTc, the theatrical adaptation (2017). The theatrical adaptation (Καλαβριανός 2017) was the least offensive version, for instance, Cathy seems to apologize for her mocking behaviour towards her cousin, Hareton, at the end, a strategy which does not appear in the other two target versions. One question is why the stage adaptation is less offensive than the page translations of the novel. The assumption is that the multimodal components of the spectacle (music, posture, voice, etc.) do part of the job of constructing offensive aspects of meaningmaking in the conflictive context of the novel, so less responsibility is left to the discourse to carry the message across. Alternatively, the ideological intention of the performance may shape a less offensive version of characters: e.g. the homepage of the National Theatre of Northern Greece (NTNG online1 ) notes that “Bronte presents the story of their destruction [Heathcliff and Catherine’s] bringing to the surface the desperate and passionate depths of human existence, in a manner that reminds of ancient tragedy” (emphasis added). Perhaps the perspective of ancient tragedy has intuitively suppressed aggression and impoliteness in the performance translation, because violence was not permitted on stage as the World History Encyclopedia suggests: the plot of a tragedy was almost always inspired by episodes from Greek mythology, which we must remember were often a part of Greek religion. As a consequence of this serious

1

https://www.ntng.gr/default.aspx?lang=en-GB&page=16&newsid=1807, accessed July 15, 2021.

Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights

107

subject matter, which often dealt with moral right and wrongs, no violence was permitted on the stage. (World History Encyclopedia, online)

The results of the questionnaire and my own observation seem to confirm variation in the use of offensiveness in the target versions for the page. Variation could be attributed to the time of translation, an earlier one (1984) when offence could be more easily criticized, vs. a more recent one (2020), where impoliteness may be more freely expressed. The respondents were unaware of the purpose of the research and had no prior knowledge of the subject or the materials used, for being as impartial as possible and focusing on the target language and the various characters in different social situations and circumstances. The study, thus, does justice to the perspective of the readership as a methodological tool (via the use of the questionnaire) in an attempt to confirm variation in offensiveness. The varied use of impoliteness tallies with the role of social class and the gender awareness TTb assumes. The main character of the novel, Heathcliff resorts to personalized negative assertions, pointed criticisms and threats in order to attack his addressees verbally. Impoliteness strategies vary wildly, from linguistic details (e.g. ‘personalising’, use of the pronouns I and you) to broad functional categories e.g. “frightening” (Blas Arroyo 2001). Heathcliff face-attacks fictional addressees to cause offence. Cathy counters Heathcliff’s impoliteness with impoliteness, a strategy referred to as “reactive rudeness” (Kienpointner 1997: 266): this is a way of restoring face loss that might have resulted from initial impoliteness. In addition, Heathcliff resorts to a patronizing behaviour, especially when he communicates with Cathy, in order to show his power over her. A patronising behaviour (including condescending, belittling, ridiculing and demeaning behaviours) involves an abuse of power that infringes an understood hierarchy (Culpeper 2011). This is deliberate, rather than accidental impoliteness (Culpeper and Hardaker 2017). The study connected translation and impoliteness perspectives in Wuthering Heights, in an attempt to show that the use of impoliteness is never constant and interacts with social class and occasionally gender, in shaping a different reality in the two Greek versions. TTb carried the most negative politeness options with TTc the least. Translation practice seems to be an area which can contribute significant insights to the use of impoliteness and, in fact any pragmatic phenomenon. It provides an alternative area where the use of pragmatic phenomena may shift in various contexts of situation, temporal and cultural.

Appendix: A Lay Person’s Perspective into the Level of Offensiveness in Extracts of the Novel Questionnaire Below are extracts culled from two Greek target versions (1984, 2020) of Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights by (1847), and how the extract appears in a

108

S. -K. Zacharia

theatrical adaptation (2017) of the novel. Please say in which of the target extracts impoliteness is more noticeable and give reasons.

Extract 1 ST:

TTa:

TTb:

Here is the consequence of being buried alive: she has thrown herself away upon that boor from sheer ignorance that better individuals existed! A sad pity-I must beware how I cause her to regret her choice. Να τι παθαίνεις όταν θάβεσαι ζωντανός: η κοπέλα παραδόθηκε σε τούτον το χωριάτη από απλή άγνοια πως υπάρχουνε καλύτεροι άνδρες! Κρίμα, πολύ κρίμα! Πρέπει να βρω έναν τρόπο να την κάνω να μετανιώσει για την εκλογή! (1984: 19) Να τι συμβαίνει όταν αφήνεσαι να σε θάψουν ζωντανή: η κοπέλα χαραμίστηκε με αυτό τον αγροίκο από καθαρή άγνοια πως υπήρχαν και καλύτεροι άνδρες! Τι κρίμα’ πρέπει να έχω τον νου μου να μην την κάνω να μετανιώσει για την επιλογή της. (2020: 47)

Answer: …………………………………………………………………….………

Extract 2 ST:

TT:

ΤΤb:

I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lighting, or frost from fire. (2009: 71) Όση δουλειά έχω να ‘μια στον Παράδεισο, άλλη τόση έχω να δεχτώ το χέρι του Έντγκαρ Λίντον και δε θα το ΄κανα ποτέ αν ο καταραμένος ο αδελφός μου δεν είχε ρίξει πια τον Χήθκλιφ τόσο κάτω. Μα τώρα θα ΄ναι μια ταπείνωση για μένα, να παντρευτώ τον Χήθκλιφ! Γι’ αυτό δεν πρέπει να το μάθει πόσο τον αγαπώ’ τον αγαπώ, όχι γιατί είναι πιο όμορφος από τον Έντγκαρ, αλλά γιατί ταιριάζουμε περισσότερο εγώ κι αυτός- είναι οι ψυχές μας απ΄την ίδια πάστα, όποια κι αν είν’ αυτή. Κι ο Λίντον είναι τόσο ανόμοιος με μας, όσο μια φεγγαροαχτίδα απ΄την αστραπή ή το χιόνι απ΄τη φωτιά….. (1984 :98–99). Δεν έχω καμία δουλειά στον Παράδεισο, και, αν ο κακός άνθρωπος εκεί μέσα δεν είχε φέρει τον Χήθκλιφ σε αυτή τη θέση, δε θα το σκεφτόμουν διόλου. Θα ξέπεφτα πολύ αν παντρευόμουν τώρα τον Χήθκλιφ, κι αυτός δε θα μάθει ποτέ πόσο τον αγαπάω, και όχι επειδή είναι ωραίος, Νέλι, αλλά επειδή είναι ο εαυτός μου περισσότερο ακόμα κι από εμένα. Όποιο και αν είναι το υλικό από το οποίο είναι φτιαγμένες οι ψυχές μας, η δική του και

Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights

TTc:

109

η δική μου είναι από το ίδιο, και ο Λίντον είναι τόσο διαφορετικός όσο μια αχτίδα του φεγγαριού από τον κεραυνό, ο πάγος από τη φωτιά. (2020: 130). Για όλους είναι ο ιδανικός. Όμορφος, μορφωμένος, ευγενής, από καλή οικογένεια, θα μου εξασφάλιζε μια άνετη ζωή και ένα πλούσιο σπίτι. Αλλά είμαστε τόσο διαφορετικοί… όσο ο πάγος και η φωτιά. Ενώ ο Χήθκλιφ…έχει ψυχή σαν τη δικιά μου, από το ίδιο υλικό είμαστε και οι δυο φτιαγμένοι…. Αλλά θα ήταν μεγάλη ταπείνωση για μένα να τον παντρευτώ… Θα ήταν… σαν να ξέπεφτα…. (theatrical adaptation, 2017: 37).

Answer: …………………………………………………………….………

Extract 3 ST:

TTa:

TTb:

“I wouldn’t be you for a kingdom, then!” Catherine declared, emphatically—and she seemed to speak sincerely. Nelly, help me to convince her of her madness. Tell her what Heathcliff is—an unreclaimed creature, without refinement—without cultivation; an arid wilderness of furze and whinstone. I’d as soon put that little canary into the park on a winter’s day as recommend you to bestow your heart on him! It is deplorable ignorance of his character, child, and nothing else, which makes that dream enter your head. Pray don’t imagine that he conceals depths of benevolence and affection beneath a stern exterior! He’s not a rough diamond—a pearl—containing oyster of a rustic; he’s a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man…. and he’d crush you, like a sparrow’s egg, Isabella, if he found you a troublesome charge. I know he couldn’t love a Linton; and yet he’d be quite capable of marrying your fortune and expectations. (2009: 91) Ούτε ψύλλος στον κόρφο σου! δήλωσε η Κατερίνα εμφαντικά κι έμοιαζε να λέει την αλήθεια. Νέλλυ, βοήθα με να την πείσω για την τρέλα της. Πες της τι λογής άνθρωπος «αγαπάει»: ένα αποπαίδι, αμόρφωτο και κακοαναθρεμμένο - σαν ένας ξερότοπος γεμάτος αγκάθια και τριβόλια! Θα ‘τανε σα να ‘βαζα το καναρίνι μου μεσ’ στο δάσος με το χιόνι! Μόνο γιατί δεν ξέρεις την πραγματικότητα, παιδί μου, σου μπήκε τέτοια ιδέα στο κεφάλι! Ή μπας και νόμισες πως κατ’ από το αυστηρό εξωτερικό του κρύβεται ένας θησαυρός από στοργή και καλοσύνη-διαμάντι αδούλευτο, να πούμε, ή στρείδι με ακριβό μαργαριτάρι; Είν’ ένας άγριος, κακομοίρα μου, άγριος κι άπονος, σκυλί αληθινό! Αν σε ‘βρει εμπόδιο μπρος του, Ισαβέλλα θα σε πατήσει σαν το αυγό! Ξέρω καλά πως του είναι αδύνατο να ερωτευτεί μια Λίντον, μ’ όλο που θα του καλάρεσε το βιος σου και η θέση σου. (1984: 123) «Δε θα ήθελα να είμαι με τίποτα στη θέση σου λοιπόν!» δήλωσε η Κάθριν, κατηγορηματικά - και φάνηκε να μιλάει ειλικρινά. «Νέλι, βοήθησέ με να την κάνω να καταλάβει την τρέλα της. Πες της τι είναι ο Χίθλιφ. Ένα παιδί χωρίς γονείς, χωρίς καλλιέργεια’ ένας χερσότοπος με ξερόχορτα και

110

TTc:

S. -K. Zacharia

κοτρόνες. Θα ήταν σαν να έβαζα το καναρίνι μου στο δάσος τον χειμώνα, αν σε συμβούλευα να του δώσεις την καρδιά σου! Έχεις παντελή άγνοια του χαρακτήρα του, παιδί μου, αλλιώς δε θα σου περνούσαν τέτοιες ιδέες από το μυαλό. Ή μήπως νόμισες πως κάτω από το άγριο παρουσιαστικό του κρύβεται θάλασσα στοργής και καλοσύνης; Δεν είναι ένα ακατέργαστο διαμάντι - ένα μαργαριτάρι μέσα σε ένα βρόμικο όστρακο’ είναι άγριος, αδίστακτος, άπονος άντρας. Θα σε τσακίσει σαν αυγό, Ιζαμπέλλα, αν σε θεωρήσει εμπόδιο στον δρόμο του. Ξέρω πως δε θα μπορούσε να ερωτευτεί μια Λίντον, αλλά είναι ικανός να παντρευτεί την περιουσία σου και την κοινωνική σου θέση. (2020: 157) Nέλυ! Τι λέει; Εξήγησέ της ποιος είναι ο Χήθκλιφ. Πες της ότι είναι ένας άξεστος, ένας χοντράνθρωπος, ένας ακαλλιέργητος. Νομίζεις ότι έχει κάτι ευγενικό κάτω από το απότομο φέρσιμό του; Ότι είναι ένα ακατέργαστο διαμάντι κι εσύ θα τον κάνεις να λάμψει; Ο Χήθκλιφ δεν μπορεί να αγαπήσει μια Λίντον. Δεν γίνεται. Το μόνο που θέλει από εσένα είναι η περιουσία σου. Αυτή έχει βάλει στο μάτι. Μη νομίζεις λοιπόν πως θα μπορούσε ποτέ να σε αγαπήσει. (theatrical adaptation, 2017: 50)

Answer: …………………………………………………………….………

Extract 4 ST:

TTa:

TTb:

Miss Linton regarded her sister-in-law with indignation. “For shame! for shame!” she repeated, angrily. “You are worse then twenty foes, you poisonous friend!”. “Ah! you won’t believe me, then?” said Catherine. “You think I speak from wicked selfishness?” “I’m certain you do,” retorted Isabella; “and I shudder at you!” “Good!” cried the other. “Try for youself, if that be your spirit; I have done, and yield the argument to your saucy insolence”. (2009: 91) Η Ισαβέλλα την κοίταξε οργισμένη: - Ντροπή σου, φίδι φαρμακερό! Πας να μου κάνεις τη φίλη, μα είσαι χειρότερη από δέκα εχθρούς μαζί…. - Δε θες λοιπόν να μ’ ακούσεις; Μπας και πιστεύεις πως το κάνω από συμφέρον ή εγωισμό; - Το πιστεύω - κι ανατριχιάζω… - Εν τάξει! Μια κι έτσι λες, δοκίμασε! Εγώ ό,τι είχα να πω, σ’ το είπα. Πώς να τα βγάλω πέρα με τα μυξοκλάματα και την αδιαντροπιά σου; (1984: 124) Η δεσποινίς Λίντον κοίταξε τη νύφη της με οργή. «Ντροπή σου! Ντροπή σου!» επανέλαβε θυμωμένη. «Εσύ είσαι χειρότερη από όλους μου τους εχθρούς μαζί, εσύ είσαι φίδι φαρμακερό!» «Δε με πιστεύεις λοιπόν;» είπε η Κάθριν. «Νομίζεις πως μιλάω έτσι από κακία ή από εγωισμό;» … (2020: 157)

Offensiveness in Target Versions of Wuthering Heights

TTc:

111

ΙΣΑΒΕΛΛΑ: Ντροπή σου! Ντροπή σου! ΚΑΘΡΙΝ: Εγώ θέλω να σε προστατεύσω. ΙΣΑΒΕΛΛΑ: Το μόνο που θέλεις είναι να τον έχεις δικό σου! ΚΑΘΡΙΝ: Πολύ ωραία. Εγώ ό,τι είχα να πω, το είπα. (theatrical adaptation, 2017: 50).

Answer: …………………………………………………………….………

Extract 5 ST:

TTa:

TTb:

TTc:

“You are leagued with the rest, Ellen!” she replied. “I’ll not listen to your slanders. What malevolence you must have to wish to convince me that there is no happiness in the world?” (2009: 92) - Είσαι και εσύ ένα με τους άλλους, Νέλλυ! απάντησε η Ισαβέλλα. Φύγε, δε θέλω να ακούω τις σπιουνιές σου…. Τι κακόψυχη που θα πρέπει να ‘σαι για να θέλεις να με πείσεις πως δεν υπάρχει ευτυχία σ’ αυτόν τον κόσμο… (1984: 125). «Έκανες κι εσύ συμμαχία με τους άλλους, Νέλι!» απάντησε. «Δε θα ακούσω τις συκοφαντίες σου. Τι κακία που πρέπει να έχεις στην ψυχή σου για να θέλεις να με πείσεις πως δεν υπάρχει ευτυχία σε αυτό τον κόσμο.» (2020: 159). ΙΣΑΒΕΛΛΑ: Είστε όλοι ίδιοι! Δεν θα ακούσω άλλο τις συκοφαντίες σας! Δεν θα καταφέρετε να με πείσετε πως δεν υπάρχει ευτυχία στον κόσμο! (theatrical adaptation, 2017: 51).

Answer: …………………………………………………………….……… Thank you!

References Blas Arroyo, J.L. 2001. “No diga chorradas…” La descortesía en el debate político cara a cara. Una aproximación pragma-variacionista. Oralia 4: 9–45. Blitvich, P.G.-C. 2010. The YouTubification of politics, impoliteness and polarization. In Handbook of research on discourse behavior and digital communication: Language structures and social interaction, ed. R. Taiwo, 540–563. Hershey: Information Science Reference. Bloom, Harold. 1988a. The Brontës. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. Bloom, Harold. 1988b. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights—A contemporary literary views book. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. Bousfield, D., and M.A. Locher. 2008. Impoliteness in language: Studies on its interplay with power in theory and practice. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Brontë‚ E., Jack Ian, and S. Helen. 2009. Wuthering Heights (4th ed). New York: Oxford University Press Inc. Culpeper, J. 1996. Towards an anatomy of impoliteness. Journal of Pragmatics 25: 349–367. Culpeper, J. 2005. Impoliteness and entertainment in the television quiz show: The weakest link. Journal of Politeness Research 1: 35–72.

112

S. -K. Zacharia

Culpeper, J. 2011. Impoliteness: Using language to cause offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Culpeper, J., and C. Hardaker. 2017. Impoliteness. In The Palgrave handbook of linguistic (im)politeness, ed. Jonathan Culpeper, Michael Haugh, and Dániel Z. Kádár, 199–226. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Culpeper, J., G. Schauer, L.M. Marti, M. Mei, and M. Nevala. 2014. Impoliteness and emotions in a cross-cultural perspective. SPELL: Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature 30: 67–88. Kienpointner, M. 1997. Varieties of rudeness: Types and functions of impolite utterances. Functions of Language 4 (2): 251–287. Kienpointner, M. 2008. Impoliteness and emotional arguments. Journal of Politeness Research: Language, Behaviour, Culture 4 (2): 243–265. Sinkeviciute, V. 2015. “There’s definitely gonna be some serious carnage in this house” or how to be genuinely impolite in big brother UK. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 3 (2): 317–348. Tracy, K. 2008. Reasonable hostility: Situation-appropriate face-attack. Journal of Politeness Research: Language, Behaviour, Culture 4 (2): 169–191. Vargish, T. 1971. Revenge and “Wuthering Heights.” Studies in the Novel 3 (1): 7–17. Watson, M. 1949. Tempest in the soul: The theme and structure of “Wuthering Heights.” NineteenthCentury Fiction 4 (2): 87–100.

Texts Έμιλυ Μπροντέ. 1984. Ανεμοδαρμένα Ύψη [Wuthering Heights], Μετφρ. Καρατζής Β. Αθήνα: Kάκτος. Έμιλυ Μπροντέ. 2017. Ανεμοδαρμένα Ύψη [Wuthering Heights], Μετφρ. Γ. Καλαβριανός. G. Αθήνα: Κάπα εκδοτική. Έμιλυ Μπροντέ. 2020. Ανεμοδαρμένα Ύψη [Wuthering Heights], Μετφρ. Mαντόγλου, A. Αθήνα: υχογιός.

Electronic Sources Ancient Greek Tragedy, World History Encyclopedia. 2013. https://www.worldhistory.org/Greek_ Tragedy/. Accessed July 17, 2021. Rena-Rozier, E. 2010. Gothic criticisms: “Wuthering Heights” and nineteenth-century literary history. ELH 77 (3): 757–775. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40963185. Accessed January 9, 2021.

Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist Marina-Sofia Vlachou

Abstract The theme of identity is immensely important in translating fiction. The study explores Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), with respect to how the identity of the main character emerges in two Greek translations of the novel (To Π oρτ ρα´ιτ o τ oυ Nτ o´ ριαν Γ κρ šι [The portrait of Dorian Gray], trans. ´ A. Alexandrou. κoβ´oστης, Aθηνα, 1947; To Π oρτ ρα´ιτ o τ oυ Nτ o´ ριαν Γ κρ šυ ´ [The portrait of Dorian Gray], trans. T. Theodorakopoulos. Zαχαρ´oπoυλoς, Aθηνα, 1989) and with respect to which aspects of identity may be highlighted in each one of them. The study makes use of (Brewer and Gardner in J Pers Soc Psychol 71:83– 93, 1996) three levels of identity: the individual, interpersonal and group levels. It explores (a) the level of identity potentially favored in the translations, which are 42 years apart and (b) the impact of face in shaping identity (Spencer-Oatey in J Pragmat 39:639–656, 2007), drawing on a rhetorical and critical perspective (Martin and Nakayama in Intercultural communication in contexts. McGraw Hill, New York, 2010), which focuses on contextual and social factors. Shaping the identity of Dorian Gray may be an outcome of manipulating the use of a number of pragmatic phenomena. Findings show that each translator intuitively draws on a different level of (Brewer and Gardner in J Pers Soc Psychol 71:83–93, 1996) model, diversifying the social reality which Dorian Gray’s character emerges from. The 1947 (Alexandrou) version rather highlights the interpersonal level of identity while the 1989 version (Theodorakopoulos) highlights the individual level, presumably drawing on prevailing ideological positions emerging in the context of their time of publication. The study is an attempt to apply Brewer and Gardner’s theory in the translation of fiction and advances understanding of aspects of culture which may contribute to improving audience reception of fiction. Keywords Levels of identity · Pragmatics · Rhetoric · Critical analysis · Ideology

M.-S. Vlachou (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_8

113

114

M.-S. Vlachou

1 Introduction The storyline in the novel is about the transformation of Dorian Gray’s identity which is reflected on his face in his portrait. The painter discusses the painting at his art studio with a friend Lord Henry Wotton. They both affect Dorian’s way of living, which makes people around him suffer, including his love choices. As time passes by, the expression of his face on the portrait, which is a reflection of his soul, changes from cruel to aging, to corrupted and horrifying. Dorian murders the painter enraged and blackmails Alan into disposing the body. He decides to become virtuous and goes to see if the portrait has improved, but he rather sees that it has acquired a cunning look. He decides to destroy the portrait and stabs it with a knife. His servants hear a scream, and, when they arrive, they see a loathsome old man dead on the floor with a knife in his chest and a portrait of the beautiful young man he once was. The theme of identity formation is immensely important in Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). The study explores how the main character’s identity emerges in two Greek translations of the novel and which aspects of identity may be highlighted in each one of them (TTa: translator Aris Alexandrou, 1947, Govostis Editions and TTb: translator Loukas Theodorakopoulos, 1989, S. I. Zacharopoulos Editions). The two translations differ in terms of pragmatic inferences managed through lexical item selection, as will be seen later. Social reality may influence and construct discourse and verbal strategies used in a target version as well as a translator’s behavior (Muslat 2012) as the volume highlights. Literary texts may allow extra inferences related to author intentions and the sociopolitical conditions, at the time of publication. In 1947, Greece was in the final phase of the civil war (1947–1949) which followed the end of the German occupation described as the period of ‘white terror’ (Mazower 2000). In 1989, a period of migration from the Balkans started in Greece, these minorities were seen as a threat to the national body and politics and as an alterity. This issue was present in films and prose fiction. The situation gave rise to racism and exploitation and at the same time a crisis in Greek identity and the feeling of oppression caused by multiculturalism (Calotychos 2013). The target versions of the novel in the two periods of Greek history may reflect the social conditions in which they occurred. The study investigates how these conditions may have influenced the Greek target versions and the shaping of the main character’s identity.

2 Literature Review and Methodology The study focuses on how the identity of the central character has been shaped. Identity may be ‘social’, in ‘group’ terms, or ‘individual’ identity (Jaffe 2000). The contrast between Dorian’s beautiful and ugly images reflects the aesthetics of contemporary identity politics in which identity is formed as the difference between negative and positive cultural expectations. Psychology suggests that identity can be

Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist Table 1 Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) levels of self-representation

Identity level

115 Concept of self

Individual

Individuated

Interpersonal

Relationships with others

Group

Group membership

individual (self-definition as an individual) or collective (self-definition as a group member) (Spencer-Oatey 2007). Brewer and Gardner (1996: 84) distinguish three levels of self-representation and therefore identity: the individual level, the interpersonal level and the group level. The individual level refers to the personal self-individuated concept of self, the interpersonal level refers to the relational self-concept which derives from relationships with others and the group level refers to the collective self-concept derived from group membership. At the individual level, the personal self is the differentiated, individuated self-concept most characteristic of studies of the self in Western psychology (e.g., Pelham, 1993). At the interpersonal level, the relational self is the self-concept derived from connections and role relationships with significant others. This corresponds most closely to the interdependent self as defined by Markus and Kitayama (1991) in their analysis of the difference between American and Japanese self-construals. Finally, at the group level is the collective self, which corresponds to the concept of social identity as represented in social identity theory and self-categorization theory (Hogg & Abrams, 1988; Turner et al., 1987). These different aspects of the self refer to different levels of inclusiveness of the conceptualization of the self — the shift from “I” to “we” as the locus of self-definition. This shift in inclusiveness of self-representations is postulated to be associated with corresponding transformations of the bases for content of the self-concept, the frame of reference for evaluations of self-worth, and the nature of social motivation. (1996: 84)

The suggested levels of identity may be summarized in Table 1. Vignoles et al. (2011) suggest that individual identity includes values, desires or somebody’s life experiences and focuses on the individual’s agent role; interpersonal identity includes somebody’s interactions, defines identity within interpersonal space and rather assumes that identity cannot be formed individually. Collective identity includes someone’s membership in social groups and the attitudes deriving from identification with them. The study examined identity shifts across the two target versions and analyzed them in terms of Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) identity theory and, specifically, what level of the theory the target versions prioritize in shaping Dorian’s identity. Different target discourses of the same novel are expected to comprise identity indicators, especially in contexts where self-presentations are unveiled. Discourse analysis is a powerful tool concerned with the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ something is said and in what context (Bamberg et al. 2011) and is assumed to highlight varying aspects of Dorian’s identity. Extracts of the target versions of the novel, which differ in some respect, are selected and analyzed on the assumption that they are relevant to identity formation (Vangelisti and Young 2000).

116

M.-S. Vlachou

The study collected data from parts of the novel which are related to key points of the plot. For example, Chapters 2 and 3 include the first encounter with the characters’ identities, and this is where personalities begin to unfold. Other data draw on other chapters which present critical points in the plot, like the painter’s murder which is the climax of the story and Dorian and Alan’s conflict, a part which makes Dorian’s degradation apparent. Most of the data the study analyzes are related to Dorian Gray’s character except perhaps when the intention is to identify a potential tendency of the translators toward the levels of identity they favor. The study follows a rhetorical approach for the analysis of the results, namely, it critically interprets meanings in the context in which they occur (Martin and Nakayama 2010).

3 Presentation of the Empirical Data The following extracts will be examined in terms of which one of the target versions more emphatically refers to the individual or interpersonal aspect of identity. In example 1, the painter talks to their shared friend, Lord Henry, about Dorian Gray. ST1: TT1a: TT1b:

He has a simple and a beautiful nature. (1992: 15) ´ (1947: 25) E´ιναι απλ´oς και šχει χρυση´ καρδια. BT. He is simple and has a golden heart. ´ ´ Eχει šναν απλ´o και ωρα´ιo χαρακτηρα. (1989: 32) BT. He has a simple and beautiful character.

To ‘have a golden heart’ (TTa) in Greek means to be compassionate with others, which I would assume orients Dorian’s characterization toward the interpersonal level of Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) identity theory. The second option, ‘to have a beautiful character’ (TTb), is a characterization rather oriented toward the individual level of Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) identity theory because it singles the character out, as exceptional, without alluding to its relation to the social context. In example 2, Lord Henry discusses with Dorian Gray. ST2: TT2a:

TT2b:

You are too charming to go in for philanthropy, Mr Gray – far too charming. (1992: 16) ´ E´ισαστε πoλ´ γoητευτικ´oς, κριε ´ κρšι, και δεν σας παει να ασχoλε´ισθε με ϕιλανθρωπ´ιες. ϒπερβoλικα´ γoητευτικ´oς για μια τšτoια ασχoλ´ια. (1947: 27) BT. You are too charming, Mr Gray, and it does not suit you to be involved with philanthropy. E´ισαστε πoλ´ χαριτωμšνoς για να ασχoλε´ιστε με τη ϕιλανθρωπ´ια, κριε ´ κρšυ…υπερβoλικα´ χαριτωμšνoς. (1989: 34) BT. You are too graceful to deal with philanthropy, Mr. Gray… too graceful.

‘Charming’ (γ oητ ευτ ικ o´ ς ) is someone who charms other people around them, so this rendition seems to activate the interpersonal dimension of identity formation.

Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist

117

‘Graceful’ (χ αριτ ωμšν oς ) relates to the individual per se, rather than their relation with other people, so the assumption is that the graceful characterization refers to the individual level of identity theory. In example 3, Basil, the painter, asks Lord Henry to leave. ST3: TT3a:

TT3b:

Would you think it awfully rude of me if I asked you to go away? (1992: 17) α τo θεωρoσες ´ τρoμερα´ σκληρ´o απ´o μšρoς μoυ, αν σε παρακαλoσα ´ να ϕγεις; ´ (1947: 27) BT. Would you consider it terribly tough of me, if I kindly asked you to leave? ´ α ηταν πoλ´ αγενšς εκ μšρoυς μoυ, αν σε παρακαλoσα ´ να ϕγεις; ´ (1989: 34) BT. Would it be very rude of me, if I kindly asked you to leave?

Both Greek versions use a politeness pattern which rather sounds too polite in the target Greek environment. The difference is that TTa is more aware of the interpersonal dimension of the communicative situation because the speaker asks the interlocutor what he thinks, whereas TTb seems to blur the interpersonal dimension. Example 3 uses politeness strategies in both target versions. TTa uses a positive politeness strategy as there is concern about the addressee’s wants. By contrast, in TTb the translator employs a negative politeness strategy because he impersonalizes speaker and addressee (Culpeper and Haugh 2014). This also supports the claim that TTb focuses on individuality, more than TTa does. In example 4, Basil, the painter, is working on the portrait, so Dorian has to stand still. He complains that he got tired of standing and Basil apologizes to him. ST4: TT4a: TT4b:

My dear fellow, I am so sorry. (1992: 19) Aγαπητš μoυ ϕ´ιλε, σoυ ζητω ´ συγνωμη. ´ (1947: 31) BT. My dear friend, I ask your forgiveness Mε συγχωρε´ις, καλ´o μoυ παιδ´ι. (1989: 39) BT. Forgive me, my good child

The TTa honorific friend assumes a clearer interpersonal dimension between the interlocutors because friendship is a relational concept. By contrast, the TTb honorific π αιδ´ι (child) is just a characterization of Dorian and it is not necessarily relational. The TTa interpersonal vs. the TTb personal dichotomy is also evident at a point in the plot when Dorian is starting to feel angry with Basil and his work with the portrait. Dorian addresses Basil and suggests that he knows society better than Basil does. ST5: TT5a: TT5b:

I know the age better than you do. (1992: 121) šρω την επoχη´ μας καλτερα ´ απ´o εσšνα. (1947: 174) BT. I know our age better than you do. šρω την επoχη´ μoυ καλτερα ´ απ´o σšνα. (1989: 220) BT. I know my age better than you do.

118

M.-S. Vlachou

The TTa option our age again implies an interpersonal or group level of identity, whereas TTb version more evidently relates to the individual level of identity theory through my age, which also tallies with the self-centered and corrupted person Dorian has become. After Basil and Dorian’s conflict, Dorian kills Basil and then asks Alan—a friend who is a chemist—to help him get rid of the corpse. However, Alan refuses to help Dorian and get involved in his business. ST6: TT6a:

TT6b:

What is it to me what devil’s work you are up to. (1992: 134) ´ Tι με νoιαζει εμšνα σε τι σατανικšς δoυλειšς šχεις ανακατευτε´ι. (1947: 191) BT. Why should I care in what devil works you have gotten involved into. ´ ´ εμšνα με τι διαβoλoδoυλειšς καταπιανεσαι. Tι με νoιαζει (1989: 242) BT. Why should I care with what devil-works you undertake.

TTa seems to allude to the interpersonal level of identity formation because getting involved (šχ εις ανακατ ευτ ε´ι) suggests collaborating with other people in illegal business, whereas the TTb option undertake (κατ απ ιανεσ ´ αι) does not carry the implication of group activity. After Alan’s refusal to help, Dorian blackmails him that he will reveal a letter where Alan says he does not want anyone to know. Dorian says that he is sorry for Alan to have to do this. ST7: TT7a: TT7b:

I am so sorry for you, Alan. (1992: 135) ´ ´ ´ Aλαν. ε λυπαμαι ειλικρινα, (1947: 194) BT. I honestly feel sorry for you Alan ´ ´ υπαμαι, Aλαν. (1989: 245) BT. I am sorry, Alan

The sorry for you option in TTa also implies an interpersonal level of interaction, which is blurred in TTb. The interpersonal vs. individual aspect of identity appears in subtle ways throughout TTa and TTb, respectively, as implied in the contrast of to be obliged vs. to be one’s duty to do x. It appears in the last chapter where the idea of Dorian confessing the crime is being under consideration. ST8: TT8a:

TT8b:

Yet it was his duty to confess, to suffer public shame, and to make public atonement. (1992: 176) ´ Kι ωστ´oσo, ε´ιχε χρšoς να oμoλoγησει, να υπoϕšρει τη δημ´oσια ατ´ιμωση και να πασκ´ισει να εξιλεωθε´ι δημ´oσια. (1947: 251) BT. However, he was obliged to confess, to suffer public disgrace and to strive to atone publicly. ´ ´ ´ Kι o´ μως ηταν καθηκoν τoυ να oμoλoγησει, να υπoστε´ι τη δημ´oσια ´ καταισχνη, ´ να ζητησει τη δημ´oσια εξιλšωση. (1989: 314) BT. But it was his duty to confess, to endure public opprobrium, to ask for public atonement.

Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist

119

In TTa the interpersonal aspect of identity is activated because having being obliged to do x more clearly implies a debt to society. This may be interpreted as being related to an interpersonal level of identity. On the other hand, in TTb, being one’s duty to do x implies something less of an interaction, thus more explicitly referring to the individual aspect of identity. The analysis of the data explored implications following from expressions, at points where the two target versions differed. TTa more intensely implies interaction or other people’s involvement (friend, reputation, involved, debt) and may be connected to the interpersonal aspect of identity. On the other hand, TTb less explicitly implies interaction and more emphasis is put on the individual aspects of self. The use of personal pronouns also seems to contribute to the above dichotomy. According to Morell (2004), personal pronouns activate an interpersonal discursive aspect. As mentioned, the first stage of data analysis relied on the researcher’s intuition (etic perspective) and was followed by native Greek respondents’ view as to the pragmatic value of options across the two Greek versions (emic perspective). A questionnaire was designed addressing 15 adults in their late 20s and early 30s, who were unfamiliar with the purpose of the research. Its purpose was to test whether the addressees agree with the author’s analysis of the results and which translation they would prefer for shaping Dorian’s hedonistic identity. The questionnaire (see Appendix 1) explored respondents’ opinion with respect to which translation heightened awareness of Dorian’s personality and face or interpersonal relationships. Respondents were asked to justify their answers. The questionnaire used examples related to Dorian from the above analysis (examples 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 and 8) providing the context of situation for each question. The graph in Fig. 1 shows the results of the questionnaire, namely, how many respondents favored which answer, per example number. The respondents seemed to agree with the results for almost all the examples examined. In nine out of ten questions the majority agreed with the interpretation provided. Specifically, for the second example all addressees replied that Dorian was in the spotlight in the sense 15

16

14

14 11

12

7

8 6

10

9

10

4

6 4 4

4

4 2

0

1

0 0

0

1

0

0 TT1

TT2

TT5 A

TT6 B

Fig. 1 Participant answers to the questionnaire

TT7

No Difference

TT8

120

M.-S. Vlachou 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Interpersonal

Hedonistic A

B

Fig. 2 Which version the participants considered more interpersonal or hedonistic

that he was more emphatically praised by Basil and there was more reference to him, agreeing that TTa was more interpersonal. For examples 1 and 5, 73–93% of the participants agreed that χ ρυσ η´ καρδια, ´ ϕ ημη ´ and the first person plural pronouns suggest a more collective approach to identity formation. A low majority (53–67%) agrees that example 8 emphasizes Dorian, thus highlighting the individual aspect of identity and also that TTa is more inclusive in that it considers other people. Almost 60% of the participants prefer TTb for shaping Dorian’s hedonistic identity. In example 6, there was a significant percentage of participants (26%) who thought that none of the translations suggests interaction with other people; however, seven participants suggested that TTa is interpersonal, all agreeing that ανακατ ευτ ε´ι suggests interaction. In example (7), over 50% thought that TTa focused on the individual aspect of identity. Figures 1 and 2 presents the questionnaire results.

4 Discussion of the Results Verbal options may considerably affect the way readers perceive the reality of the text and experience its impact. The options suggested in the analysis point to an interpersonal and an individual perception of self and level of identity formation. Results showed that TTb (1989, Theodorakopoulos) tends to emphasize the individual level of identity when referring to Dorian’s personality, more intensely than TTa did. In Spencer-Oatey’s (2007) terms, the frame for analysis is an individual one, when the face-sensitive aspects are related to individual and personal qualities, whereas when the speaker is concerned about the face of the interlocutor the level of identity is an interpersonal one. She also suggests that negative face (be unimpeded by others) reflects the value of hedonism and self-direction. According to Schwartz

Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist

121

(2012), hedonism is the value of self-indulgence and fun, aiming at personal pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself, while self-direction includes independence, freedom and aims at independent thought and action. Thus, TTb seems to be claiming negative face for Dorian, by focusing on the individual level of his identity, and shaping his identity in a rather negative way, in the Greek context. Dorian is presented as hedonistic and egocentric. As Spencer-Oatey (2007) suggests, people may claim face in relation to kindness which is linked to Schwartz’s value of Benevolence and positive face. Benevolence aims at protecting and enhancing someone’s well-being. As a result, TTa claims a positive face for Dorian; it ‘connects’ him with other people and presents him as paying more attention to other people’s needs. Both identity and face are concerned with self-image including individual, interpersonal and collective aspects of self. The difference seems to be that, while identity is treated as being a part of the individual, face is an interactional phenomenon (Spencer-Oatey 2007). Sifianou and Blitvich (2018) argue that it is extremely difficult to separate identity from face, because they are connected to each other and integrally related. Likewise, Arundale (2010) suggests that face is a dyadic accomplishment that is closely connected to the use of language achieved through the interaction of participants. Could it be possible to think of the two notions as separate? The study would suggest that one of the versions (TTa) is more sensitive to concerns of face, the other (TTb) is more oriented toward identity. Drawing on rhetorical and critical perspectives (Martin and Nakayama 2010), the assumption is that the context in which the two translations were created and the prevailing ideologies of the time, have influenced the translators’ perception of identity. As mentioned, Greece was in a crucial historical moment when the first translation appeared. In 1947, Greece was in the middle of a civil war and the rivalry among compatriots have probably led Alexandrou (TTa) to adopt an interpersonal approach to identity, out of respect for the sense of community. After all, fiction can advance interpersonal sensitivity (Fong et al. 2013). On the other hand, the years preceding 1989 allowed more focus on the self. Sociopolitical conditions, where the sense of self was more prominent, could have produced a hedonistic character who feels less embedded in social context or does not care about other people.

5 Conclusion The study applied Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) identity theory to translated fiction to distinguish between translators’ approach to identity formation through translated discourse. Although there were a few counterexamples (see Appendix 2), there seemed to be a dominant tendency in TTa to form the main character’s identity by drawing on the interpersonal (and group) level of identity theory, whereas the TTb displayed a tendency to prioritize identity formation by drawing on the individual level of identity theory. Both perceptions of identity were correlated to the sociopolitical conditions of the publication times.

122

M.-S. Vlachou

Shaping Dorian’s identity rather negatively, by drawing on the individual level of identity, tallies with the intended hedonistic implication with reference to Dorian’s character and heightens the negative aspects of his mindset, than if drawing on the interpersonal aspect. Thus, there seems to be a pattern followed in the two versions which indicates intracultural difference in the way the translators behaved intuitively. Translation shifts in retranslation situations help in identifying intracultural variation in communication styles, in social reality at the time of publication. For instance, the findings of the study may support the claim that a change has occurred from a collectivistic perception of identity representation toward an individualistic one in the target environment. This would provoke an advanced understanding of aspects of culture which could lead audiences to an improved reception of fiction. A limitation of the study may be that examples could have been drawn from more chapters of the novel rather than from a few important parts in the plot, and the questionnaire could have addressed more participants, of a wider age range for plurality of opinion and accuracy. There have been (very few) counterexamples to the claim that TTa is more inclusive and highlights the interpersonal aspect of identity. The extracts in Appendix 2 illustrate this point.

Appendix 1: Levels of Identity Formation Across TTa and TTb Questionnaire Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist impressed and infatuated by Dorian’s beauty; he believes that Dorian’s beauty is responsible for the new mood in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he is soon enthralled by the aristocrat’s hedonistic world view: that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in life. Upon realizing that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than himself, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and records every sin. The two translations of The Picture of Dorian Gray seem somewhat different in the way they shape Dorian Gray’s identity. This questionnaire is designed to investigate your view on how Dorian’s identity is shaped in each translation by focusing on some excerpts from the novel. The question is whether Dorian’s identity is shaped differently in each translation. In the first excerpt Basil talks about Dorian Gray to Lord Henry. Please, circle A for TTa or B for TTb to answer this question 1. ST1:

He has a simple and a beautiful nature.

Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist

TT1a: TT1b:

123

´ E´ιναι απλ´oς και šχει χρυση´ καρδια. ´ ´ Eχει šναν απλ´o και ωρα´ιo χαρακτηρα.

Which one of the two translations presents Dorian as more egocentric? Why? ………………………………………………………………… 2. Lord Henry discusses with Dorian Gray. ST2: TT2a:

TT2b:

You are too charming to go in for philanthropy, Mr Gray – far too charming. ´ E´ισαστε πoλ´ γoητευτικ´oς, κριε ´ κρšι, και δεν σας παει να ασχoλε´ισθε με ϕιλανθρωπ´ιες. ϒπερβoλικα´ γoητευτικ´oς για μια τšτoια ασχoλ´ια. E´ισαστε πoλ´ χαριτωμšνoς για να ασχoλε´ιστε με τη ϕιλανθρωπ´ια, κριε ´ κρšυ…υπερβoλικα´ χαριτωμšνoς.

Which version, would you say, focuses more on Dorian? Why? ………………………………………………………………… 3. Dorian is starting to feel angry with Basil and his work with the portrait. Dorian addresses Basil and suggests that he knows society better than Basil does. ST5: TTa: TTb:

I know the age better than you do. šρω την επoχη´ μας καλτερα ´ απ´o εσšνα. šρω την επoχη´ μoυ καλτερα ´ απ´o σšνα.

Which version brings Dorian closer to Basil? Why? ………………………………………………………………… 4. Basil and Dorian have a conflict, Dorian kills Basil and then asks Alan—a friend of his who is a chemist—to help him get rid of the corpse. However, Alan refuses to help Dorian and to interfere with his business. ST6: TTa: TTb:

What is it to me what devil’s work you are up to. ´ εμšνα σε τι σατανικšς δoυλειšς šχεις ανακατευτε´ι. Tι με νoιαζει ´ εμšνα με τι διαβoλoδoυλειšς καταπιανεσαι. ´ Tι με νoιαζει

Does any of the versions suggest interaction with other people? If your answer was YES, which one? Why? ………………………………………………………………… 5. After Alan’s refusal to help, Dorian threatens him in order to convince him to help. In this example Dorian says that he is sad that he has to do this. ST7: TTa: TTb:

I am so sorry for you, Alan. ´ ´ ´ Aλαν. ε λυπαμαι ειλικρινα, ´ ´ υπαμαι, Aλαν.

Which version focuses on Dorian? Why? ………………………………………………………………… 6. A point in a third-person narrative where the idea of confessing the crime is being under consideration. ST8:

Yet it was his duty to confess, to suffer public shame, and to make public atonement.

124

TTa: TTb:

M.-S. Vlachou

´ Kι ωστ´oσo, ε´ιχε χρšoς να oμoλoγησει, να υπoϕšρει τη δημ´oσια ατ´ιμωση και να πασκ´ισει να εξιλεωθε´ι δημ´oσια. ´ ´ ´ Kι o´ μως ηταν καθηκoν τoυ να oμoλoγησει, να υπoστε´ι τη δημ´oσια ´ καταισχνη, ´ να ζητησει τη δημ´oσια εξιλšωση.

Would you say that one of the translations focuses more on Dorian? If Yes, which one? Why? ………………………………………………………………… Please, answer the following questions on the basis of the examples you just read: 7. Which version seems to bring other people into the picture? Why? ………………………………………………………………… 8. Which version seems to portray a more positive version of the protagonist? Why? ………………………………………………………………… 9. Which version would you prefer for shaping Dorian’s hedonistic character? Why? ………………………………………………………………… 10. ……………………………………………………………………… Thank you!

Appendix 2: Counterexamples Extremely few counterexamples appeared in the target versions, where—contrary to expectation—the TTa favored an individual level of identity, with the TTb favoring an interpersonal or group one. Sibyl is talking to her brother Jim about Mr. Isaac, her manager. ST11: TT11a: TT11b:

Tonight he will announce me as a revelation. (1992: 55) ´ Aπ´oψε θα δηλωσει ´ πως ε´ιμαι η απoκαλυψη. (1947: 83) BT. Tonight he will affirm that I am the revelation ´ ´ Aπ´oψε θα με παρoυσιασει στo κoιν´o σαν «απoκαλυψη». (1989: 104) BT. Tonight he will present me to the audience as “revelation”

Dorian tries to justify his crime by threatening Alan with the letter. ST13: TT13a: TT13b:

You were stern, harsh, offensive. (1992: 136) H´ σoυν αυστηρ´oς, σκληρ´oς, πρoκλητικ´oς. (1947: 194) BT. You were stern, tough, defiant ´ ταθηκες αυστηρ´oς, απ´oτoμoς, πρoσβλητικ´oς απšναντ´ι μoυ. (1989: 245) BT. You stood stern, bluff, offensive against me

Shaping the Hedonistic Protagonist

125

References Arundale, R.B. 2010. Constituting face in conversation: Face, facework, and interactional achievement. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (8): 2078–2105. Bamberg, M., A. De Fina, and D. Schiffrin. 2011. Discourse and identity construction. In Handbook of identity theory and research, ed. S. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, and V. Vingoles, 177–199. New York: Springer. Brewer, Marilynn B., and W. Gardner. 1996. Who is this ‘“we”’? Levels of collective identity and self-representations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71 (1): 83–93. Calotychos, V. 2013. The Balkan prospect: Identity, culture, and politics in Greece after 1989. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Culpeper, J., and M. Haugh. 2014. Pragmatics and the English language. New York: Red Globe Press. Fong, K., J.B. Mullin, and R.A. Mar. 2013. What you read matters: The role of fiction genre in predicting interpersonal sensitivity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 7 (4): 370–376. Jaffe, A. 2000. Scenes of sympathy: Identity and representation in Victorian fiction. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. Martin, J.N., and T. Nakayama. 2010. Intercultural communication in contexts. New York: McGraw Hill. Mazower, M., ed. 2000. After the war was over: Reconstructing the family, nation, and state in Greece, 1943–1960. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Morell, T. 2004. Interactive lecture discourse for university EFL students. English for Specific Purposes 23 (3): 325–338. Muslat, A. 2012. Translation and the characteristics of literary text. Arab World English Journal 3 (1): 42–49. Sifianou, Maria, and P. Garcés-Conejos Blitvich (Guest), eds. 2018. Introduction: Im/politeness and globalization. Special Issue on Im/Politeness and Globalization. Journal of Pragmatics 134: 113–119. Spencer-Oatey, H. 2007. Theories of identity and the analysis of face. Journal of Pragmatics 39 (4): 639–656. Vangelisti, A.L., and S.L. Young. 2000. When words hurt: The effects of perceived intentionality on interpersonal relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 17 (3): 393–424. Vingoles, V., S. Schwartz, and K. Luyckx. 2011. Introduction: Toward an integrative view of identity. In Handbook of identity theory and research, ed. S. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, and V. Vingoles, 1–27. New York: Springer Verlag.

Electronic Sources Schwartz, S. H. 2012. An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture 2 (1). https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/vol2/iss1/11/ (Accessed 20 December 2020).

Texts Wilde, O. 1947. To Π oρτ ρα´ιτ o τ oυ Nτ o´ ριαν Γ κρ šι [The portrait of Dorian Gray], trans. A. Alexandrou. Aθηνα: ´ κoβ´oστης.

126

M.-S. Vlachou

Wilde, O. 1989. To Π oρτ ρα´ιτ o τ oυ Nτ o´ ριαν Γ κρ šυ [The portrait of Dorian Gray], trans. T. Theodorakopoulos. Aθηνα: ´ Zαχαρ´oπoυλoς. Wilde, O. 1992. The picture of Dorian Gray. England and Wales: Wordsworth Editions.

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage Athina Sarafi

Abstract The study examines three translations of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party (2013) for the Greek stage. The essence of the comedy of menace is the ominous, threatening feeling in the subtext, while the dialogue is mundane with some humorous moments. The question arises as to how the three Greek versions (1969, 2013, 2016) transfer this “ominous threatening feeling”, in a language—like Greek, which favours positive politeness in interaction (Sifianou in J Pragmat 17:155– 173, 1992). Results indicate that the translators adjust aggression and interpersonal dynamics in order to render the violence in the subtext. A questionnaire, addressing 15 English-Greek bilingual postgraduate researchers, examines target reception of these devices. The significance of the study lies in that it shows how pragmatic variables in social interaction are highly significant in establishing communication with a target audience. Keywords Comedy of menace · Translation · Aggression · Interpersonal dynamics

1 Introduction The study examines three Greek translations of Harold Pinter’s absurdist play, The Birthday Party, in comparison with the ST. The play is a comedy of menace, with humorous moments and an underlying sense of threat in the subtext. The theme in the plays of these dramatists is “this sense of metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of the human condition” (Esslin 2001). Pinter deviated from the mainly metaphysical focus of the absurdist plays, concentrating on the human’s feeling of entrapment in everyday life and by extension to society (Borrow 1962). Borrow (ibid.) claims that “what he exposes is the presence of a menace which threatens, intimidates and destroys the individual, yet remains unidentified” (1962: 3). The aim of the research is to trace translation strategies which render these subtle nuances for the Greek audience. A. Sarafi (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_9

127

128

A. Sarafi

The Birthday Party (2013) was first staged at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge, England, on 28 April 1958, received mixed reviews, but in time it became one of the Nobel laureate writer’s most frequently performed plays. The plot develops in a boarding house at a seaside town. The owners are an elderly couple, Meg and Petey, who have a guest, Stanley. One morning two new guests arrive, Goldberg and McCann, who are apparently looking for someone, which turns out to be Stanley. The two strange men interrogate Stanley in order to verify his identity. Meg together with her young neighbour Lulu, Goldberg and McCann throw a birthday party for Stanley. Lulu is seduced by Goldberg. By the end of the play, Stanley has become an incoherent shadow of a man who is taken away by the two men, even though Pete pointlessly tries to stop them. Meg never finds out that Stanley is gone. Harold Pinter wrote a letter to Peter Wood, the director of the first stage performance of The Birthday Party in 1958. In this letter we find some very intriguing thoughts of the dramatist about his play, the most remarkable of which are his closing lines: “The play is a comedy because the whole state of affairs is absurd and inglorious. It is, however, as you know, a very serious piece of work”. “Pinter places unverifiability at the center of our experience of the comic” (Diamond 1985: 12), “ultimately destabilizing his audience” (ibid.: 22). The audience may even find themselves laughing when they “hear the desperation of their (characters) voices and sense their internal struggle” (ibid.: 23). Neither the audience nor the characters understand what is happening, because “the purpose of others is unknowable, but even more importantly, because on top of that, Pinter’s characters do not know themselves” (Bennett 2011: 61). Hynes (1992) even tries to explain what is happening to the audience while watching a Pinter play: “so we laugh and wonder what’s going on; we laugh and wonder what we’re laughing at. This uncertainty, carefully crafted, is only one reason for our finding Pinter’s work unpleasant or discomforting” (1992: 744). In Pinter’s plays, the threat usually comes in the form of an “intruder” coming into a safe environment. Alwan (2016) notes that “security becomes an illusion, a vain hope, a part of man’s fragility in a world that allows no one to remain alone” (2016: 31). In The Birthday Party, we see two men coming to take Stanley away, but the audience never learns who they really are, what crime Stanley is being accused of, or even what his punishment will be. As Kramer (1991) suggests, lack of reasoning creates an ominous, eerie feeling for the audience. This mysterious feeling and the sense that disaster approaches is gradually heightened until the end. The menace is more frightening because the audience along with the accused does not know what he is being accused of. Physical violence is never portrayed on stage, it is only implied. Pinter uses language as a means to portray power, struggle, suffering and violence. The interrogation scene in The Birthday Party is the perfect example of the manipulation of the language by the playwright. The two interrogators talk incessantly, saying nonsense which sounds funny when read out of context. But taking into consideration the situation and the threat they pose on Stanley, it is as if they are hitting him with their words. The audience too feels confused and vulnerable, which makes them feel the menace. After all, quoting Holtgraves (2008), “language cannot only precipitate aggression, it is also a form of aggression” (ibid.: 198).

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage

129

2 Literature Review Verbal aggression is a highly researched concept in the theory of (im)politeness. It attracted the attention of scholars before 2000 (Hydén 1995: Culpeper 1996) and after that, scholarly interest heightened even more (Boushfield 2008), resulting in numerous publications and a journal specifically devoted to the concept, namely, the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict. Aggression and fiction have been fruitfully connected in research. McIntyre and Bousfield (2017) suggest that fiction is a highly appropriate genre for the study of (im)politeness, which pragmaticists are grateful for; conflict, dramatic tension and humour may be fruitfully researched through fiction: the stylistic effects that we encounter in fiction (e.g. conflict, dramatic tension, plot development, humour, etc.) are often created by narrators and characters violating aspects of interaction. Such violations can be revealing of how processes of interaction work, and these insights can be useful to pragmaticians in reassessing and revising pragmatic concepts and frameworks for analysis. These are academic reasons for studying fiction. (2017: 759–760)

If fiction is appropriate for studying im/politeness and other pragmatic phenomena, the assumption is that the translation of fiction can equally fruitfully contribute to the study of pragmatic phenomena inter-culturally, improving both pragmaticists’ and translators’ perspective (Sidiropoulou 2020). The study uses the translation of fiction to improve understanding of the treatment of relational dynamics interculturally. Pinter’s plays have attracted the attention of Greek translation scholars who attempted to tackle the specifics of politeness transfer between English and Greek. Sidiropoulou (2012) examined the ratio of positive and negative politeness devices in Greek target versions of Pinter’s plays. She found that the transfer of politeness patterns differs in that the ratio of the incoming positive/negative politeness devices changed in the TTs (in favour of positive politeness) and that this was relative to the play type. For instance, Pinter’s struggle-for-power plays displayed a much higher ratio of incoming positive politeness devices in contrast to Pinter’s memory-plays where the incoming positive politeness devices were much fewer. This study narrows down the scope of research in that it intends to examine how translators handle the relational dynamics between characters of a struggle-for-power play, The Birthday Party. The study examines how the relational dynamics among characters are renegotiated in the three Greek target versions of The Birthday Party to appeal to the target Greek audience. The study uses the translators’ expertise to draw conclusions about how interpersonal proximity/distance and aggression may unveil aspects of the violence in the subtext.

3 Methodology The research juxtaposes Pinter’s text with three Greek translations of the play: Πάρτυ Γενεθλίων 1969 transl. Pavlos Matesis (TTa), Το Πάρτι Γενεθλίων 2013 transl.

130

A. Sarafi

Errikos Belies (TTb) and Πάρτυ Γενεθλίων 2016 transl. Dimosthenis Papadopoulos (TTc). The incidents are presented in the chronological order they appear in the play. The choice of three target versions aims at initiating an account of the strategies used in the transfer of the ‘comedy of menace’ to the Greek audience. Additionally, the study distributed a questionnaire to 15 postgraduate respondents, bilingual speakers of Greek and English, between ages 20 and 30. It presented a short overview of the plot and gave extracts from the three target texts, for respondents to assess the appropriateness of the relational dynamics and the implication of threat and even fear in the subtext. The purpose of the questionnaire was to distinguish which strategies were most successful in transferring the subtextual threat that the comedy of menace is all about, in order to explore how a theme which is so relevant to implicitness (and to a negative politeness culture) can be transferred into a positive politeness culture (Sifianou 1992), like Greek.

4 Presentation of Empirical Data The translational shifts presented below are selected from all three acts of the play and they are short instances of the dialogue among the characters. In example 1, Meg is talking to her husband, Pete, and then calling Stanley to wake him up. ST 1: TT1a:

TT1b:

TT1c:

MEG. I’m going to wake that boy. Stan! Stanny! (She listens.) Stan! (2013: 11) Μεγκ: Πάω να ξυπνήσω εκείνο το παιδί. Στάνλεϋ! Σταν! Σταν! (1969: 17, 18) BT. I’m going to wake that kid. Stanley! Stan! Stan! Μεγκ: Πάω να ξυπνήσω τον μικρό. Στάνλεϋ! Στάνλεϋ! Στάνλεϋ! (2013: 18–20) BT. I’m going to wake the little one. Stanley! Stanley! Stanley! Μεγκ: Πάω να ξυπνήσω αυτό το παιδί. Σταν! Στάνλεϋ! Σταν! (2016: 15, 16) BT. I’m going to wake this kid. Stan! Stanley! Stan!

All three versions construct Meg as a motherly figure towards Stan as in the ST. Perhaps TTb heightens Meg’s motherly nature, since τον μικρό is more endearing than TTa and TTc το παιδί. That gives a first indication, that TTb attempts to create the implication that the three characters are a type of a family, which creates the illusion of a safe space making the audience not expect much turmoil. The secure feeling will later be interrupted by the ‘intruders’. In example 2, Stanley complains to Meg. ST2:

STANLEY. And it isn’t your place to come into a man’s bedroom and—wake him up. MEG. Stanny! Don’t you like your cup of tea in the morning—the one I bring you? (2013: 13)

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage

TT2a:

TT2b:

TT2c:

131

Στάνλεϋ: Εσένα τι λόγος σου πέφτει να μπαίνεις στα δωμάτια των αντρών και - και να τους ξεσηκώνεις; Μεγκ: Γιατί Στάνλεϋ; Δε σ’ αρέσει το πρωινό σου τσαγάκι;… που στο φέρνω στο κρεβάτι νωρίς νωρίς; (1969: 28) BT. STANLEY. Is it your place coming into men’s rooms and –rouse them? MEG. Why Stanley? Don’t you like your morning tea?... that I bring you in bed bright and early? Στάνλεϋ: Κι εσένα ντροπή σου να μπαίνεις στα δωμάτια των αντρών και να τους ξεσηκώνεις! Μεγκ: Γιατί, αγόρι μου; Δεν σου αρέσει το τσάι το πρωί – αυτό που σου φέρνω στο κρεβάτι; (2013: 29) BT. STANLEY. And you should be ashamed going into men’s rooms and rouse them! MEG. Why, my boy? Don’t you like tea in the morning – the one I bring you in bed? Στάνλεϋ: Και δεν είναι δική σου δουλειά να μπαίνεις στο δωμάτιο ενός άντρα και – να τον ξεσηκώνεις. Μεγκ: Δεν σου άρεσε το τσάι που σου ’φερα το πρωί; (2016: 25) BT. STANLEY. And it is not your business going into a man’s room and –rouse him. MEG. Didn’t you like the tea I brought you in the morning?

After Stanley joins Meg in the kitchen, they have a conversation about his breakfast. As mentioned, Meg behaves like a mother to Stanley, but there are some sexual innuendos in their interaction. All three translators chose to interpret Stanley’s phrase wake him up into ξεσηκώνεις [rouse] which carries a sexual undertone, compared to a straightforward option να ξυπνάς [wake up]. Meg’s answer seems to be more distanced in TTc, compared to the other two. She does not use any diminutives as in TTa (το τσαγάκι σου) or any endearments, as we have in TTb (αγόρι μου). Bennett argues that Meg is a combination of mother/mistress, “in the sense that Meg’s need to feel like a subject (as opposed to an object who merely prepares food for her husband, etc.) develops into an unhealthy need for her surrogate son (Stanley) to replace her husband (Petey)” (2011: 55). Bennett further suggests that this situation emerges in the household, because the characters are not in touch with themselves and their own situations. In the questionnaire, when asked to choose which of the above TTs indicates a closer relationship between the characters of Meg and Stanley, 12 out of 15 (80%) of the participants chose TTb, 2 out of 15 (13.3%) chose TTa and only 1 out of 15 (6.6%) chose TTc. The results confirm that TTb creates a closer interpersonal distance. Respondents suggested that the endearing TTb term αγόρι μου created the feeling of closeness and familiarity. In example 3, Stanley refuses to accompany Meg to do her shopping. ST3: TT3a:

MEG. You’ll be lonely, all by yourself. Without your old Meg. (2013: 13) Μεγκ: Και να σ’ αφήσω μοναχούλη; Θα πλήξεις. Χωρίς τη Μεγκ σου, την παληά σου αγάπη! (1969: 30, 31)

132

TT3b:

TT3c:

A. Sarafi

BT. And leave you all alone? You’ll be bored. Without your Meg, your old love! Μεγκ: Θα νιώσεις άσχημα ολομόναχος. Χωρίς τη Μεγκ, την παλιά σου αγάπη; (2013: 31) BT. You’ll feel bad alone. Without Meg, your old love? Μεγκ: Θα βαρεθείς εδώ ολομόναχος. Χωρίς εμένα. (2016: 27) BT. You’ll be bored here all alone. Without me.

Once again, the extract manifests closeness in Stanley and Meg’s relationship which appears in varying degrees in the three target versions. ΤΤa (Matesis) indicates a very close and affectionate relationship through the diminutive μοναχούλη [all alone], TTb (Belies) seems to create a little more distance and TTc (Papadopoulos) cancels endearments altogether (without me), signaling a longer distance between the characters. The answer to the questionnaire question “In which of the three options is Meg more affectionate towards Stanley?” 14 out of 15 (93.3%) participants answered TTa and only 1 out of 15 (6.6%) chose TTb. According to the participants, TTa showed more affection using the diminutive μοναχούλη and the possessive τη Μεγκ σου [your Meg]. Diminutives can be used to overtly express positive feelings (Sifianou 1992). The assumption is that TTa and TTb intend to create a closer relationship between Meg and Stanley, connoting familiarity and friendship, which will later contrast with the negative presence of the intruders; TTc prefers more distanced relational dynamics between them. Meg and Stanley’s relationship is the closest in the play, so it may be worth examining how it is expressed. What is more, these are some of the first instances of interaction in the play and therefore it is of essence to see how the three translators choose to construct the scene before the two strange men arrive. It is Pinter’s intention to create a seemingly safe environment inside the boarding house, which will be later interrupted by the intruders. In example 4, Stanley and McCann meet for the first time, at the beginning of Act Two. ST4:

TT4a:

TT4b:

STANLEY. Evening. MCCANN. Evening. STANLEY. Staying here long? MCCANN. Not long. What’s your name? (2013: 20) Στάνλεϋ: …’σπέρα. ΜακΚαν: …’σπέρα. Στάνλεϋ: Θα κάτσετε πολύ εδώ; ΜακΚαν: Όχι πολύ. Τ’ όνομά σας; (1969: 67, 68) BT. STANLEY. Evening. MCCANN. Evening. STANLEY. Will youplural be staying here long? MCCANN. Not long. Your plural name? Στάνλεϋ: Καλησπέρα. ΜακΚαν: Καλησπέρα. Στάνλεϋ: Θα μείνεις πολύ εδώ;

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage

TT4c:

133

ΜακΚαν: Όχι πολύ. Τ’ όνομά σου; (2013: 65, 66) BT. STANLEY. Good evening. MCCANN. Good evening. STANLEY. Will yousingular be staying here long? MCCANN. Not long. Your singular name? Στάνλεϋ: Καλησπέρα. ΜακΚαν: Καλησπέρα. Στάνλεϋ: Θα μείνετε πολύ εδώ; ΜακΚαν: Όχι πολύ. Πώς σας λένε; (2016: 57) BT. STANLEY. Good evening. MCCANN. Good evening. STANLEY. Will youplural be staying here long? MCCANN. Not long. What’s your plural name?

This is the first interaction that Stanley has with one of the two strange guests (McCann and Goldberg). The relational dynamics between Stanley and them (the most violent of the relationships) begins to unfold at this point. In TTa (Matesis) and TTc (Papadopoulos), the characters talk to each other in the plural (vous, rather than tu, signalling social distance), whereas TTb (Belies) uses the second person singular verb suffix (tu, signalling social proximity). Perhaps, social proximity in TTb will make the violence in the subtext more unexpected and capture the attention of the audience. The questionnaire asked respondents which one of the three greetings they find more appropriate for the situation. 13 out of 15 (86.6%) chose TTc, and the other two participants were divided between TTa and TTb. The respondents found the interaction in TTc to be more polite, since the translator uses plural address and translates ST Evening into Καλησπέρα [Good evening], which is polite. In this example, as well, TTc favours interpersonal distancing. Later in the interaction between the three men, Stanley becomes increasingly irritated and angrily asks McCann why he keeps calling him sir. Interestingly enough, Stanley seems to be very aggressive at the beginning of their interaction (see Άκου δω [listen]), in TTa, which will eventually change as the play continues. TTa translates Stanley’s utterances in tu forms, and McCann’s in vous forms, which makes Stanley seem more aggressive and McCann hiding signals of the violence in the subtext. Both TTb and TTc render the whole exchange in tu forms, for both interlocutors, assuming proximity. The interaction between Stanley, Goldberg and McCann is a struggle for power. As Mostoufi (2014) aptly notes, “[i]n this play, characters use language as a manipulative weapon to dominate others” (ibid.: 147). This exchange is such an instance. In example 5, Stanley doesn’t want to be called sir by McCann and Goldberg. ST5:

STANLEY (sharply). Why do you call me sir? MCCANN. You don’t like it? STANLEY (to the table.) Listen. Don’t call me sir. MCCANN. I won’t, if you don’t like it. (2013: 21)

134

TT5a:

TT5b:

TT5c:

A. Sarafi

Στάνλεϋ: Γιατί με λες κύριο; ΜακΚαν: Δεν σας αρέσει; Στάνλεϋ: Άκου δω. Μη με λες εμένα κύριο. ΜακΚαν: Όπως αγαπάτε… αφού σας πειράζει. (1969: 75) BT. STANLEY. Why do yousingular call me sir? MCCANN. Youplural don’t like it? STANLEY. Listen here. Don’t callsingular me sir. MCCANN. As you wish… if it bothers youplural Στάνλεϋ: Γιατί με λες "κύριο"; ΜακΚαν: Δεν σου αρέσει; Στάνλεϋ: Μη με λες "κύριο". ΜακΚαν: Δεν θα σε λέω, άμα δεν σου αρέσει. (2013: 72) BT. STANLEY. Why do yousingular call me “sir”? MC CANN. Yousingular don’t like it? STANLEY. Don’t callsingular me “sir”. MCCANN. I won’t, if yousingular don’t like it. Στάνλεϋ: Γιατί με λες κύριο; ΜακΚαν: Δεν σου αρέσει ; Στάνλεϋ: Δε θέλω να με λες κύριο. ΜακΚαν: Δεν θα σε λέω. Αφού δε θες. (2016: 63) BT. STANLEY. Why do youlsingular call me sir? MC CANN. Yousingular don’t like it? STANLEY. I don’t want yousingular to call me sir. MCCANN. I won’t. If yousingular don’t want to.

The questionnaire asked participants to select the target text which they thought indicated more tension between the characters. 11 out of 15 (73.3%) chose TTa, 2 out of 15 (13.3%) chose TTb and also 2 out of 15 (13.3%) chose TTc. Most respondents chose TTa, firstly because they found that Άκου δω is more threatening and secondly because they thought that McCann’s answer Όπως αγαπάτε… αφού σας πειράζει [As you wish… if it bothers youplural ] is ironic, which adds to the intensity of the interaction. Sarcasm is considered a form of masked aggression. In example 6, Goldberg wishes Stanley happy birthday. ST6: TT6a:

TT6b:

TT6c:

GOLDBERG (rising). Oh, I forgot, I must congratulate you on your birthday. (Offering his hand.) Congratulations. (2013: 22) Γκόλντμπεργκ: Α! Ξέχασα. Να σας ευχηθώ για τα γενέθλιά σας. Χρόνια πολλά. (1969: 82) BT. Ah! I forgot. To wish youplural for your plural birthday. Happy birthday. Γκόλντμπεργκ: Ω, συγγνώμη, πρέπει να σου ευχηθώ για τα γενέθλιά σου. Χρόνια πολλά. (2013: 79) BT. Oh, I’m sorry, I must wish yousingular for your singular birthday. Happy birthday. Γκόλντμπεργκ: Α, ξέχασα, πρέπει να σου ευχηθώ για τα γενέθλιά σου. Χρόνια πολλά. (2016: 69) BT. Ah, I forgot, I must wish you singular for your birthday. Happy birthday.

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage

135

The TTa translator follows the same strategy, as in the previous example, and has Goldberg address Stanley in the plural (vous): να σας ευχηθώ (wish youplural ). TTb and TTc again shorten interpersonal distance by using the singular (tu). Additionally, TTb has Goldberg apologize for forgetting to wish Stanley earlier: Ω, συγγνώμη (Oh, I’m sorry). Apologizing, which assumes a good intention on the part of the speaker, once again erases any suspicion of the violence which is to follow. The questionnaire asked respondents to choose the target text that portrayed Goldberg as more apologetic. The vast majority, 13 out of 15 (86.6%) selected TTb and the remaining 2 out of 15 (13.3%) chose TTa. In explaining their answer, respondents preferred TTb because Goldberg apologizes explicitly (Συγγνώμη [I’m sorry]). Belies’ (TTb) presumed to make Goldberg appear more sincere and apologetic, in order to relax Stanley, is successful. In example 7, Goldberg confronts Stanley about his mood. ST 7:

TT7a:

TT7b:

TT7c:

GOLDBERG. You’re in a terrible humour today, Mr. Webber. And on your birthday too, with the good lady getting her strength up to give you a party. (2013: 23) Γκόλντμπεργκ: Το ηθικό σας είναι πολύ πεσμένο σήμερα, κύριε Γουέμπερ. Και μάλιστα που ναι και τα γενέθλιά σας, και η κακομοίρα η οικοδέσποινα σκοτώθηκε να σας σκαρώσει το πάρτυ. (1969: 83) BT. GOLDBERG. Your plural morale is very off today, Mr. Webber. And today in particular which is your birthday, and the poor landlady has killed herself to throw you a party. Γκόλντμπεργκ: Έχεις πολύ άσχημη διάθεση σήμερα, κύριε Γουέμπερ. Και μάλιστα την ημέρα των γενεθλίων σου, που η καλή μας οικοδέσποινα σκοτώθηκε να μας οργανώσει πάρτι. (2013: 80) BT. GOLDBERG. You are in a very bad mood today, Mr. Webber. And on your birthday, when our good landlady has tried hard to organize us a party. Γκόλντμπεργκ: Δεν έχετε καθόλου χιούμορ σήμερα, κύριε Γουέμπερ. Και ειδικά σήμερα, που είναι τα γενέθλιά σας. Η υπέροχη αυτή κυρία κάνει ό,τι μπορεί για να σας οργανώσει ένα πάρτυ. (2016: 70) BT. GOLDBERG. You have no humour today, Mr. Webber. And especially today, on your birthday. This lovely lady is doing everything she can to organize you a party.

Stanley gets more irritated as time passes, while McCann and Goldberg keep taunting him and aggravating him even more. In this instance Goldberg is being ironic towards Stanley, referring to his birthday party. In TTa and TTc, Goldberg continues to talk to Stanley in the plural (vous), whereas TTb uses second person singular (tu) again. What’s more, TTb further enforces interpersonal proximity, by using an inclusive pronoun our party, instead of the party. This collective perception of the situation, on the part of Goldberg, leaves their true intentions hidden and unsuspected. In example 8, Stanley attempts to kick McCann and Goldberg out.

136

ST8:

TT8a:

TT8b:

TT8c:

A. Sarafi

STANLEY. Right. Now you’ve both had a rest you can get out! MCCANN (rising). That’s a dirty trick! I’ll kick the shite out of him! STANLEY. You’d better be careful. (2013: 23) Στάνλεϋ: Κάτσατε; Κι οι δυο σας; Ξεκουραστήκατε;… Ωραία, άντε, δρόμο τώρα. ΜακΚαν: Έτσι ε; Μας την έπαιξες ε; Θα σου τονε κάνω εγώ να ξεράσει σκατά. Στάνλεϋ: Το καλό που σας θέλω – φρόνιμα. (1969: 86, 87) BT. STANLEY. Did you sit? Both of you? Did you rest?... Good, go on, get out now. MCCANN. Is that so? You played us huh? I‘ll make him vomit shit. STANLEY. You’ better – behave yourselves. Στάνλεϋ: Ωραία. Τώρα που ξεκουραστήκατε και οι δύο, άντε, φύγετε! ΜακΚαν: Κάνεις και κόλπα ε; Θα του δώσω τ’ άντερα στο χέρι! Στάνλεϋ: Καλά θα κάνετε να είστε πολύ προσεκτικοί. (2013: 83, 84) BT. STANLEY. Good. Now that you’ve both have had a rest, go on, go! MCCANN. So you are playing tricks huh? I’ll hand him his guts. STANLEY. You’d better be very careful. Στάνλεϋ: Ωραία. Τώρα λοιπόν που ξεκουραστήκατε λιγάκι μπορείτε να πηγαίνετε! ΜακΚαν: Παίζει βρώμικα ο τύπος! Θα τον κάνω να ξεράσει ό,τι έχει και δεν έχει! Στάνλεϋ: Προσέξτε καλά τι πάτε να κάνετε. (2016: 72, 73) BT. STANLEY. Good. Now that you have both rested a bit, you may go! MCCANN. The dude is playing dirty! I’ll make him vomit everything he’s got! STANLEY. Be very careful with what you’re about to do.

Stanley desperately tries to make the two men leave. The two men become irritated and more threatening towards Stanley. This interaction is right before the interrogation scene, which is the climax of the pressure that Goldberg and McCann apply on Stanley. TTa uses explicit and offensive vocabulary, see Θα σου τονε κάνω εγώ να ξεράσει σκατά [I’ll make him vomit shit]. TTb also creates tension with the abrupt and rude interaction. In TTc Stanley is more reserved and not so provocative, even using the diminutive λιγάκι [a bit], which could be used to neutralize the tension between them since it is considered a positive politeness marker (Sifianou 1992). The struggle between Stanley, Goldberg and McCann becomes increasingly intense. Tutas and Azak (2014) suggest that the play focuses on power relations consisting of three parties. Stanley is the desired object to be taken under control by the other two parties (Goldberg and McCann) who struggle to gain power. Struggle for power and attempts for domination emerge through several verbal attacks in the form of impoliteness. The questionnaire asked respondents to choose the target text in which they thought it was more likely for a fight to break out. 12 out of 15 (80%) chose TTa, 2 out of 15 (13.3%) chose TTc and one participant chose TTb. The reasoning behind their

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage

137

choice was extremely insightful. Not only does TTa use more vulgar and aggressive language, but also the continuous questions Stanley makes sound sarcastic and provocative. Sarcasm or mock politeness according to Culpeper is a face threatening act which is performed with the use of politeness strategies that are obviously insincere (1996). In example 9, McCann pressures Lulu to confess about her previous sexual life. ST9:

TT9a:

TT9b:

TT9c:

MCCANN. Your sort, you spend too much time in bed. LULU. What do you mean? MCCANN. Have you got anything to confess? MCCANN. Kneel down, woman, and tell me the latest! (2013: 36, 37) ΜακΚαν: Έτσι είσαστε η φάρα η δική σου. Πολλές ώρες σας τρώει το κρεβάτι. Λούλου: Δηλαδή, τι εννοείτε; ΜακΚαν: Έχεις να ομολογήσεις τίποτα; ΜακΚαν: Πέσε στα γόνατα, γυναίκα, και λέγε τα μαντάτα σου! (1969: 153) BT. MCCANN. That’s how you are your lot. Many hours staying in bed. LULU. What do youplural mean? MCCANN. Do you have anything to confess? (sing.) Fall to your knees, woman, and tell me your latest news! ΜακΚαν: Περνάς πολλές ώρες στο κρεβάτι, όπως κάνουν οι όμοιές σου. Λούλου: Τι εννοείς; ΜακΚαν: Δεν έχεις κάτι να ομολογήσεις; ΜακΚαν: Γονάτισε, γύναιο, και μίλα! (2013: 147, 148) BT. MCCANN. You spend many hours in bed, like your peers do. LULU. What do yousingular mean? MCCANN. Don’t yousingular have anything to confess? MCCANN. Kneel, tramp, and talk! ΜακΚαν: Γυναίκες σαν εσένα μένουνε πολλή ώρα στο κρεβάτι. Λούλου: Τι εννοείς; ΜακΚαν: Έχεις κάτι για το οποίο πρέπει να εξομολογηθείς; ΜακΚαν: Γονάτισε, αμαρτωλή, μίλα! (2016: 132, 133) BT. MC CANN. Women like you stay many hours in bed. LULU. What do yousingular mean? MCCANN. Do yousingular have something to confess about? MCCANN. Kneel, sinner, speak!

The third act takes place in the morning after Stanley’s birthday party, when we learn that Goldberg has seduced Lulu the night before. McCann and Goldberg blame Lulu that she initiated the events and McCann implies that she is immoral and pressures her to confess. Threat is enlaced in the way McCann talks to Lulu and the translators construct aggression differently. In TTa (Matesis), McCann calls her γυναίκα (woman), while she addresses him in the plural; in TTb, the translator (Belies) calls her γύναιο (tramp) which is the most offensive item of all three in Greek; TTc (Papadopoulos) creates a religious narrative through αμαρτωλή (sinner).

138

A. Sarafi

The questionnaire asked respondents to select the TT in which they thought Goldberg was more threatening towards Lulu. The vast majority, 11 out of 15 (73.3%) chose TTb, 3 out of 15 (20%) chose TTc and 1 out of 15 (6.6%) chose TTa. The respondents explained that they found the term γύναιο [tramp] the most offensive out of the three options. This word choice in combination with the imperative γονάτισε [kneel] made TTb more aggressive and as a consequence, more threatening. In example 10, Goldberg and McCann are trying to decide what to do with Stanley. ST10:

TT10a:

TT10b:

TT10c:

MCCANN. Do we wait or do we go and get him? GOLDBERG (slowly). You want to go and get him? MCCANN. I want to get it over. GOLDBERG. That’s understandable. MCCANN. So do we wait or do we go and get him? (2013: 35) ΜακΚαν: Τι κάνουμε τώρα; Θα περιμένουμε, ή πάμε να τον πάρουμε σηκωτόν; Γκόλντμπεργκ: Ώστε θες να πας να τον πάρεις σηκωτόν; ΜακΚαν: Θέλω να ξεμπερδεύω. Γκόλντμπεργκ: Ευνόητο. ΜακΚαν: Λέγε: θα περιμένουμε, ή θ’ ανέβουμε να τον μεταφέρουμε; (1969: 145) BT. MCCANN. What do we do now? Do we wait, or are we going to take him dragging? GOLDBERG. So you want to take him dragging? MCCANN. I want to get this over with. GOLDBERG. Understandable. MCCANN. Speak: do we wait or are we going up to move him? ΜακΚαν: Περιμένουμε, ή ανεβαίνουμε και τον παίρνουμε σηκωτό; Γκόλντμπεργκ: Θες να πας εσύ και να τον πάρεις σηκωτό; ΜακΚαν: Θέλω να ξεμπερδεύουμε. Γκόλντεμπεργκ: Κατανοητό. ΜακΚαν: Άρα περιμένουμε ή ανεβαίνουμε να τον πάρουμε σηκωτό; (2013: 140) BT. MCCANN. Do we wait, or do we go up to take him dragging? GOLDBERG. Do you want to go and take him dragging? MCCANN. I want to get this over with . GOLDBERG. Understood. MCCANN. So do we wait or do we go up and take him dragging? ΜακΚαν: Περιμένουμε ή πηγαίνουμε να τον πάρουμε; Γκόλντμπεργκ: Θες να πας να τον πάρεις; ΜακΚαν: Θέλω να τελειώνουμε. Γκολντμπεργκ: Κατανοητό αυτό. ΜακΚαν: Λοιπόν, περιμένουμε ή πηγαίνουμε να τον πάρουμε; (2016: 125) BT. MCCANN. Do we wait or do we go and get him? GOLDBERG. Do you want to go and get him?

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage

139

MCCANN. I want this over with. GOLDBERG. That is understandable. MCCANN. So, do we wait or do we go and get him? At the beginning of the third act, we do not see Stanley. We only learn from Petey, McCann and Goldberg that he had a nervous breakdown, clearly affected by the events of the previous night. Violence is once again implicated. The three translators have rendered this part of the text differently. TTa and TTb both use the term σηκωτό [dragging], which indicates violence, since it is clear that they must have taken him against his will. In fact, in TTb, the term is repeated three times, given great emphasis. In TTc, the utterances are curt and they do not reveal much about the situation. Clarke (2015) writes that Pinter’s seemingly simplistic dialogue is what fuels the audience’s imagination: “Simple phrases stacked on top of each other, seeming to carry very little information or exposition; however, managing to speak to a much greater violence or menace hidden in amongst the subtext” (2015: 22). The questionnaire asked respondents which version more clearly indicates that an act of violence has taken place. The respondents were divided; 8 out of 15 (53.3%) chose TTb and 7 out of 15 (46.6%) chose TTa. The participants who chose TTb claimed that the repetition of the item σηκωτό [dragging] made them certain that something violent had happened to Stanley. The participants who chose TTa argued that the phrase Τι κάνουμε τώρα; [What do we do now?] and Λέγε [Speak] create an urgency that implies that they have done something which they have to cover up. It is understandable that the participants were divided in this question, since TTa and TTb are fairly similar. It is evident that both translations were very successful since the audience understood the implication that a violent incident had occurred.

5 Discussion The questionnaire included one final question; “Taking into consideration the beginning of the play, do you think that the violence implicated at the ending was surprising?” The answers were extremely interesting. The majority of the respondents, 10 out of 15 (66.6%) did not find the ending so surprising. They felt that there were clues throughout the play about the violent end. They noted that there was a building tension in the dialogue which was expressed through sarcasm and passive aggressive attitude. They also noted that the underlying tension built up gradually throughout so they felt that it would naturally result in violence. 3 out of 15 (20%) actually found the violent end surprising. Based on the interactions between Stanley and Meg at the beginning, they did not think that the play would result in violence. Two of the participants did not give an answer. From the answers to the questionnaire and from our knowledge of language and pragmatics, we understand that the manipulation of two pragmatic variables made all the difference in the target texts; aggression and interpersonal dynamics. It is

140

A. Sarafi

necessary to clarify that there are differences between Greek and English within Brown and Levinson’s (1978/1987) politeness framework “which are evidence of cultural differences between the two societies” (Sifianou 1992). According to the same study by Sifianou, Greeks favour positive politeness, by claiming common ground, showing solidarity or even being affectionate towards the addressee. Taking into consideration that the English is a culture that does not conform to the same norms, we understand that the dialogue in the play needed to be adjusted so that it would appeal and create an analogous effect as the source text to source culture. Considering that Greek culture is one “in which emotions in general and affection in particular is expected to be shown overtly” (Wierzbicka 1985: 168), it is only logical that interpersonal proximity is the norm, in certain genres. This is the reason why in TTa and TTb, where the translators used endearments, diminutives and personal pronouns the relationship between Stanley and Meg was considered more affectionate. On the other hand, “higher levels of politeness have been found to be associated with greater interpersonal distance but also with greater liking” (Culpeper et al. 2017). The translation which was considered the most polite and distanced was TTc which maintained a more considerable distance among all characters. The second pragmatic variable that plays an important role in the translation of The Birthday Party is aggression. Aggression as a term is difficult to define. Bousfield (2008) clarifies that verbal aggression is “deployed as a conflict tactic and/or, as a device for attaining or maintaining power in a specific situation or context. It is, in short, instrumental” (ibid.: 76). As mentioned, violence is not portrayed onstage in The Birthday Party, it is only conveyed with aggressive language. Hence, we only have examples of verbal, instrumental aggression in this play. Holtgraves (2008) suggests that in Pinter’s plays, “aggressive acts often arise during the course of a verbal interaction, and clearly aspects of that interaction—its course, content, and structure—can play a role in the eventual likelihood of an aggressive act” (2008: 198). That means that there are several items in an interaction that could be considered aggressive. The factors that the respondents mainly noticed as more aggressive in the target texts were sarcasm, offensive or insulting language and the use of curt or imperative sentences. The target texts that the research and the audience found more aggressive were TTa and TTb. They made use of all of the aforementioned elements in order to make the dialogue as aggressive as possible. The aim of this research paper was to identify the strategies employed by the three translators in examining how they adjusted pragmatic variables in order to transfer the comedy of menace to the Greek stage. TTa (Pavlos Matesis) exploited interpersonal proximity and aggression to a great extent. At the beginning, the characters of Meg and Stanley appeared quite close, whereas by the end the language was very aggressive. This is how he constructs the implication of menace. TTb (Errikos Belies) manages to make the target version “authentic” through “the manipulation of im/politeness in the target versions of the playtexts” (Sidiropoulou 2020: 6); he hides clues about the imminent violence in the subtext and surprises the audience with the sudden outburst of narrated violent actions. Finally, TTc (Dimosthenis Papadopoulos) prefers interpersonal distance. The characters have an obvious distance among them throughout. Considering that the Greek audience is more

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage

141

Table 1 Features of the three Greek versions of Pinter’s The Birthday Party Categories of phenomena

TTa

TTb

TTc

Aggression

+

+

–

Interpersonal proximity (positive politeness)

+

+

–

Social distance (negative politeness)

+

–

+

familiar with social proximity in the contexts of the play, we could infer that the translator’s intention is to create a foreign and alienating gloss, which will make them feel uncomfortable and threatened. This is Papadopoulos’ method to recreate the play’s sinister feeling for the Greek audience. Table 1 summarizes features of the three versions. The significance of the research lies in that it showed that the manipulation of pragmatic variables is extremely important for transferring aspects of a source play to a target culture, which prefers a different politeness orientation (negative/positive) than that of the source culture. The study may be of interest to translators who intend to undertake similar tasks in that they can be inspired by the strategies presented in the study. It may be of interest to theatre practitioners because it analyzes different renditions of a playtext, belonging to a very challenging theatre genre very popular in Greece. The three translations could be used as a starting point for what to look for in similar projects. The topic may be further investigated from different angles. As this case study is limited to Greek versions of The Birthday Party, there could be a set of questions to be answered which would broaden the research perspective: how is the comedy of menace transferred on the Greek stage? Are features, other than the relational dynamics, manipulated in other cultural contexts to yield an analogous effect? What difference does it make when a play with violence in the subtext is transferred into a language with a same or different politeness orientation than that of the source culture?

6 Conclusion The purpose of the study was to identify the strategies used by three translators rendering Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party on the Greek stage. Taking into consideration that the main characteristics of the comedy of menace are an underlying threat with humorous overtones, the study attempted to explore what pragmatic variables may be manipulated on stage, which would enhance the communicative force of the genre, for the sake of the Greek audience. Translators seemed to have managed the relational dynamics between characters including aggression. Pavlos Matesis (TTa) created an antithesis between interpersonal proximity at the beginning and aggression at the end. Errikos Belies (TTb) also created an antithesis by manipulating im/politeness and used subtle hints of violence throughout, creating a sinister

142

A. Sarafi

feeling. Finally, Dimosthenis Papadopoulos (TTc) opted for interpersonal distance among the characters throughout, creating an uncomfortable and threatening feeling in the audience. The study explored the work of talented translators to show the significance of managing pragmatic variables, for making a playtext respond to the taste of an audience.

7 Appendix. Questionnaire: The Birthday Party on the Greek stage The Birthday Party is a play written by British playwright Harold Pinter in 2013. It belongs to the genre of the “Comedy of Menace”. The following shifts are taken from all three acts of the play and are shown in the order that they happen in the play. A few details about the characters: Meg owns the boarding house that Stanley has been living in for about a year. Goldberg and McCann arrive at the boarding house looking for someone. Lulu is Meg’s young neighbour. 1.

In which of the three versions do you think there is a closer relationship between the characters of Meg and Stanley? a.

b.

c.

2.

In which of the three options is Meg more affectionate towards Stanley? a. b. c.

3.

Στάνλεϋ: Εσένα τι λόγος σου πέφτει να μπαίνεις στα δωμάτια των αντρών και - και να τους ξεσηκώνεις; Μεγκ: Γιατί Στάνλεϋ; Δε σ’ αρέσει το πρωινό σου τσαγάκι;… που στο φέρνω στο κρεβάτι νωρίς νωρίς; Στάνλεϋ: Κι εσένα ντροπή σου να μπαίνεις στα δωμάτια των αντρών και να τους ξεσηκώνεις! Μεγκ: Γιατί, αγόρι μου; Δεν σου αρέσει το τσάι το πρωί - αυτό που σου φέρνω στο κρεβάτι; Στάνλεϋ: Και δεν είναι δική σου δουλειά να μπαίνεις στο δωμάτιο ενός άντρα και – να τον ξεσηκώνεις. Μεγκ: Δεν σου άρεσε το τσάι που σου ’φερα το πρωί; Please, provide a short explanation for your choice. Μεγκ: Και να σ’ αφήσω μοναχούλη; Θα πλήξεις. Χωρίς τη Μεγκ σου, την παληά σου αγάπη! Μεγκ: Θα νιώσεις άσχημα ολομόναχος. Χωρίς τη Μεγκ, την παλιά σου αγάπη; Μεγκ: Θα βαρεθείς εδώ ολομόναχος. Χωρίς εμένα. Please provide a short explanation for your choice.

Which of the three greetings do you find more appropriate for the characters of Stanley and McCann that meet for the first time?

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage

a.

b.

c.

4.

b.

c.

Στάνλεϋ: Γιατί με λες κύριο; ΜακΚαν: Δεν σας αρέσει; Στάνλεϋ: Άκου δω. Μη με λες εμένα κύριο. ΜακΚαν: Όπως αγαπάτε… αφού σας πειράζει. Στάνλεϋ: Γιατί με λες “κύριο”; ΜακΚαν: Δεν σου αρέσει; Στάνλεϋ: Μη με λες "κύριο". ΜακΚαν: Δεν θα σε λέω, άμα δεν σου αρέσει. Στάνλεϋ: Γιατί με λες κύριο; ΜακΚαν: Δεν σου αρέσει; Στάνλεϋ: Δε θέλω να με λες κύριο. ΜακΚαν: Δεν θα σε λέω. Αφού δε θες. Please provide a short explanation for your choice.

In which of the examples do you think that Goldberg is most apologetic? a. b. c.

6.

Στάνλεϋ: …’σπέρα. ΜακΚαν: …’σπέρα. Στάνλεϋ: Θα κάτσετε πολύ εδώ; ΜακΚαν: Όχι πολύ. Τ’ όνομά σας; Στάνλεϋ: Καλησπέρα. ΜακΚαν: Καλησπέρα. Στάνλεϋ: Θα μείνεις πολύ εδώ; ΜακΚαν: Όχι πολύ. Τ’ όνομά σου; Στάνλεϋ: Καλησπέρα. ΜακΚαν: Καλησπέρα. Στάνλεϋ: Θα μείνετε πολύ εδώ; ΜακΚαν: Όχι πολύ. Πώς σας λένε; Please provide a short explanation for your choice.

In which of the three options do you think there is more tension between the characters? a.

5.

143

Γκόλντμπεργκ: Α! Ξέχασα. Να σας ευχηθώ για τα γενέθλιά σας. Χρόνια πολλά. Γκόλντμπεργκ: Ω, συγγνώμη, πρέπει να σου ευχηθώ για τα γενέθλιά σου. Χρόνια πολλά. Γκόλντμπεργκ: Α, ξέχασα, πρέπει να σου ευχηθώ για τα γενέθλιά σου. Χρόνια πολλά. Please provide a short explanation for your choice.

In which of the three options do you feel that it is more likely that a fight will break out? a.

Στάνλεϋ: Κάτσατε; Κι οι δυο σας; Ξεκουραστήκατε;… Ωραία, άντε, δρόμο τώρα. ΜακΚαν: Έτσι ε; Μας την έπαιξες ε; Θα σου τονε κάνω εγώ να ξεράσει σκατά.

144

A. Sarafi

b.

c.

7.

In which of the three instances do you feel that McCann is more threatening towards Lulu? a.

b.

c.

8.

Στάνλεϋ: Το καλό που σας θέλω – φρόνιμα. Στάνλεϋ: Ωραία. Τώρα που ξεκουραστήκατε και οι δύο, άντε, φύγετε! ΜακΚαν: Κάνεις και κόλπα ε; Θα του δώσω τ’ άντερα στο χέρι! Στάνλεϋ: Καλά θα κάνετε να είστε πολύ προσεκτικοί. Στάνλεϋ: Ωραία. Τώρα λοιπόν που ξεκουραστήκατε λιγάκι μπορείτε να πηγαίνετε! ΜακΚαν: Παίζει βρώμικα ο τύπος! Θα τον κάνω να ξεράσει ό,τι έχει και δεν έχει! Στάνλεϋ: Προσέξτε καλά τι πάτε να κάνετε. Please provide a short explanation for your choice.

ΜακΚαν: Έτσι είσαστε η φάρα η δική σου. Πολλές ώρες σας τρώει το κρεβάτι. Λούλου: Δηλαδή, τι εννοείτε; ΜακΚαν: Έχεις να ομολογήσεις τίποτα; ΜακΚαν: Πέσε στα γόνατα, γυναίκα, και λέγε τα μαντάτα σου! ΜακΚαν: Περνάς πολλές ώρες στο κρεβάτι, όπως κάνουν οι όμοιές σου. Λούλου: Τι εννοείς; ΜακΚαν: Δεν έχεις κάτι να ομολογήσεις; ΜακΚαν: Γονάτισε, γύναιο, και μίλα! ΜακΚαν: Γυναίκες σαν εσένα μένουνε πολλή ώρα στο κρεβάτι. Λούλου: Τι εννοείς; ΜακΚαν: Έχεις κάτι για το οποίο πρέπει να εξομολογηθείς; ΜακΚαν: Γονάτισε, αμαρτωλή, μίλα! Please provide a short explanation for your choice.

Which of the three options do you think indicates more clearly that an act of violence has taken place? a.

b.

c.

ΜακΚαν: Τι κάνουμε τώρα; Θα περιμένουμε, ή πάμε να τον πάρουμε σηκωτόν; Γκόλντμπεργκ: Ώστε θες να πας να τον πάρεις σηκωτόν; ΜακΚαν: Θέλω να ξεμπερδεύω. Γκόλντμπεργκ: Ευνόητο. ΜακΚαν: Λέγε: θα περιμένουμε, ή θ’ ανέβουμε να τον μεταφέρουμε; ΜακΚαν: Περιμένουμε, ή ανεβαίνουμε και τον παίρνουμε σηκωτό; Γκόλντμπεργκ: Θες να πας εσύ και να τον πάρεις σηκωτό; ΜακΚαν: Θέλω να ξεμπερδεύουμε. Γκόλντεμπεργκ: Κατανοητό. ΜακΚαν: Άρα περιμένουμε ή ανεβαίνουμε να τον πάρουμε σηκωτό; ΜακΚαν: Περιμένουμε ή πηγαίνουμε να τον πάρουμε; Γκόλντμπεργκ: Θες να πας να τον πάρεις; ΜακΚαν: Θέλω να τελειώνουμε. Γκόλντμπεργκ: Κατανοητό αυτό.

Comedy of Menace: The Birthday Party on the Greek Stage

145

ΜακΚαν: Λοιπόν, περιμένουμε ή πηγαίνουμε να τον πάρουμε; Please provide a short explanation for your choice. 9.

Taking into consideration the beginning of the play, do you think that the violence implicated at the ending was surprising? If so, please explain briefly how you came to this realization. Thank you for your help!

References Alwan, H. 2016. Man’s dilemma in Harold Pinter’s play The birthday party. Journal of the College of Languages 33: 30–52. Bennett, M.Y. 2011. Reassessing the theatre of the absurd: Camus, Beckett, Ionesco, Genet and Pinter. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Borrow, N. 1962. Harold Pinter and the theatre of the absurd. B.A. University of Toronto. Bousfield, D. 2008. Impoliteness in interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Brown, P., and S. Levinson. 1978/1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Clarke, A. 2015. The absurd representations of Pinter’s Women: A study into the representation of female characters in the plays of Harold Pinter. M.A. thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, Auckland. Culpeper, J. 1996. Towards an anatomy of impoliteness. Journal of Pragmatics 25: 349–367. Culpeper, J., M. Haugh, and D. Kádár, eds. 2017. The Palgrave handbook of linguistic (im)politeness. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Diamond, E. 1985. Pinter’s comic play. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses Inc. Esslin, M. 2001. The theatre of the absurd, 3rd ed. New York: Vintage Books (ebook). Holtgraves, T. 2008. Language as social action: Social psychology and language use. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hydén, M. 1995. Verbal aggression as prehistory of woman battering. Journal of Family Violence 10 (1): 55–71. Hynes, J. 1992. Pinter and morality. The Virginia Quarterly Review 68 (4): 740–752. Kramer, P. 1991. Book review on The birthday party, 328–335. London: Faber and Faber. McIntyre, D., and D. Bousfield. 2017. (Im)politeness in fictional texts. In The Palgrave handbook of linguistic (im)politeness, ed. J. Culpeper, M. Haugh, and D. Kádár, 759–783. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Mostoufi, K. 2014. Manipulative language and loss of identity in Harold Pinter’s The birthday party: A pragmatic study. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 134: 146–153. Pinter, H. 1981. Letter to Peter Wood. The Kenyon Review 3 (3): 1–5. Sidiropoulou, M. 2012 Translating identities on stage and screen. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. Sidiropoulou, M. 2020. Introduction. Im/politeness and theatre translation. Im/politeness and stage translation. Special Issue. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 6 (1): 1–8. Sifianou, M. 1992. The use of diminutives in expressing politeness: Modern Greek versus English. Journal of Pragmatics 17: 155–173. Tutas, N., and N. Azak. 2014. Direct-indirect impoliteness and power struggles in Harold Pinter’s plays. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 158: 370–376. Wierzbicka, A. 1985. Different cultures, different languages, different speech acts. Polish vs. English. Journal of Pragmatics 9: 145–178.

146

A. Sarafi

Texts Pinter, H. 2013. Harold Pinter plays one, 7–39. London: Faber and Faber. Πίντερ, Χ. 1969. ΠΑΡΤΥ ΓΕΝΕΘΛΙΩΝ [The birthday party], trans. Παύλος Μάτεσις. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Δωδώνη. Πίντερ, Χ. 2013. ΤΟ ΠΑΡΤΙ ΓΕΝΕΘΛΙΩΝ [The birthday party], trans. Ερρίκος Μπελιές. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Ηριδανός. Πίντερ, Χ. 2016. ΠΑΡΤΥ ΓΕΝΕΘΛΙΩΝ [The birthday Party], trans. Δημοσθένης Παπαδόπουλος. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Το Ροδακιό.

In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage Constantinos Dimitrakakis

Abstract During the 1990s a new innovative kind of drama started to show up in Great Britain, known as in-yer-face theatre, originating from young writers who challenged conventional theatrical codes and presented provocative and aggressive material on stage in order to shock audiences and raise public consciousness (Sierz 2001). They were innovative in terms of content and form and established a new theatre language which was more direct, raw and offensive. This study examines a representative play of this genre, Attempts on her Life by Martin Crimp (1997) and two Greek translations of it (1999, 2007). The aim is to investigate how impoliteness and the shock effects are rendered and if the primary aim of in-yer-face theatre is achieved in these two Greek texts. Τhe study elicits data through a questionnaire addressing (a) translation postgraduates and (b) professionals related to the theatre industry. Results show that both groups perceive impoliteness in both stage translations in a similar way: the latest translation (2007) seems to fulfill the goals of in-yer-face theatre, a bit more eloquently. The significance of this study lies in highlighting the educational value of stage translation data: they can shed light on pragmatic phenomena (like impoliteness) cross-culturally which fit the needs of theatre genres for the benefit not only of researchers but also of theatre practitioners. Keywords In-yer-face theatre · Shock · Aggression · Impoliteness superstrategies

1 Introduction The study investigates the British theatre phenomenon of the late twentieth century, known as in-yer-face theatre, and highlights the shock value of aggression and impoliteness in this genre. British theatre critic Alex Sierz (2001, 2012, 2012 online) who offered a thorough and comprehensive study of this new theatrical wave, calls it “a theatre of sensation” which “jolts actors and spectators out of conventional responses, touching nerves and provoking alarm” (2001: 4). He also suggests that “such drama C. Dimitrakakis (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_10

147

148

C. Dimitrakakis

employs shock tactics or is shocking because it is new in tone or structure, or because it is bolder or more experimental than what audiences are used to” (ibid.). Sierz argues, in the 1990s “a group of young writers attempted a new way of relating to the audience”, which the label “in-yer-face” manifests (Aragay et al. 2007: 143). As suggested, the study uses one of the most representative plays, Attempts on her Life by Martin Crimp (1997), and its two Greek translations, Απόπειρες ζωής (Life’s Attempts) by translator Aspa Tompouli (1999) and Απόπειρες (Attempts) by Athanasia Karagiannopoulou (2007) and aims at tracing the different manifestations of impoliteness in the two Greek target versions. Attempts on her life is not a typical play, as there is no plot, no clear settings, no defined characters, no linear narrative. Instead, there are only dashes which denote the change of speakers. Τhe play consists of 17 scenarios (Crimp calls them scenes) which are not connected and each one has a title: All messages deleted, Tragedy of Love and Ideology, The Camera Loves You and so on. The scenarios have various forms, from monologues and adverts to songs and rapid dialogues. The main character, Anne, the “her” in the title, never appears on stage and, depending on the narratives of speakers in each scene, there is a different Anne (who is also referred to as Annie, Anya, Anny or Annushka). She is the recipient of a variety of telephone messages, the heroine of a film, a victim of civil war, a typical consumer, a megastar, a tourist guide, a make of car, a physicist, an international terrorist, an American survivalist, an artist, a refugee’s dead child, a victim of aliens, the girl next door, the object of a police investigation, a porn star, and the subject of a conversation among friends. During the play, the people talking about her include Mum and Dad, art critics, official interrogators, border guards, advertisers, film-makers, spin doctors, showbiz performers, abusive stalkers, lovers and friends. In geographic range, she skips across the globe with mentions of distant continents, as well as European capitals and North African countries. Her age fluctuates between teenage and forty; she’s both a single woman and a mother. (Sierz 2013: 49)

When Crimp was asked to summarize what his play is about, he said that it “tries to describe a whole range of events which are happening in the world, but from one particular viewpoint which is that of the privileged Western European viewer” (Aragay et al. 2007: 58). In-yer-face theatre is “any drama that takes the audience by the scruff of the neck and shakes it until it gets the message” (Sierz 2001: 4). The definition that Cambridge Dictionary gives for “in your face” is “shocking and annoying in a way that is difficult to ignore” and the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as something that is “characterized by or expressive of bold and often defiant aggressiveness” and “aggressively intrusive”. This kind of theatre aims to shock its spectators in many different ways: it breaks taboos and challenges moral codes, it attacks the pretense of modern society, it causes discomfort and anxiety by presenting verbal and physical abuse on stage (ibid.). “Unlike the type of theatre that allows us to sit back and contemplate what we see in detachment, the best in-yer-face theatre takes us on an emotional journey, getting under our skin. In other words, it is experiential, not speculative” (ibid.). This style of theatre forces us to experience the same hard feelings as the actors “rather than speculating about how it would be if the things you are watching befell you one day” (Izmir 2017: 81).

In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage

149

The writers who emerged in the 1990s had grown up in England in the period of Thatcherism, materialism, and the belief that profit was the ultimate test of anything’s worth (Aragay et al. 2007: 107). It is closely related to previous theatrical trends and practices: the theatre of Cruelty and the theatre of the Absurd have greatly influenced in-yer-face theatre because they both aimed at waking up the senses through unusual and frightening material on stage. Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco and Harold Pinter were also an important influence and inspiration for the majority of the in-yer-face dramatists. As in the theatre of the Absurd, the genre acknowledges the confrontational power of language: “because humans are language animals”, words can be more confrontational and cause greater distress “than the acts to which they refer” (Sierz 2001: 7). The next section deals with how linguistic pragmatics have dealt with the theme of aggression and impoliteness.

2 Literature Review Culpeper (1998: 87–88) argues that “verbal violence is a characteristic of recent twentieth-century drama and film” and as regards British drama, the abolition of theatrical censorship in 1968 was a key point after which more and more plays employed aggressive material, the most prominent being the in-yer-face ones. As Bousfield (2008) points out, “aggression is the overt manifestation of the intent to harm someone in some way” (2008: 77). Hydén (1995) makes a distinction between two types of aggression: verbal aggression and physical violence: “The concept of ‘verbal aggression’ here refers to a verbal act which has the intent (or perceived intent) to symbolically hurt or to threaten to hurt another” (Hyden 1995: 55–56). Grandage (2010: 137) points out that since 1990s many scholars showed great interest in the application of politeness theories to dramatic discourse, for example, Brown and Levinson whose theory supported the maintenance of social harmony. The concept of “face” is crucial in their politeness theory, which is derived from Goffman, is defined as “the public self image every member wants to claim for himself” (Brown and Levinson 1987: 61). This image is constantly threatened and violated in in-yerface theatre. Face includes two basic forms: positive face which is the want to be liked and accepted by others and negative face which is the want to be unimpeded by others (ibid.). As Culpeper (1996) argues, there are instances when a participant deliberately attacks the other’s face (1996: 354). Τhis deliberate aggravation, or impoliteness “is a type of aggression, and aggression has been a source of entertainment for thousands of years” (Culpeper 1998: 86). Brown and Levinson (1987) define face-threatening acts are those speech acts “that by their nature run contrary to the face wants of the addressee and or/of the speaker” (1987: 65). It could be argued that in-yer-theatre is itself a form of intentional face-threatening act: it attacks spectators’ faces through aggressive vocabulary and images, in order to wake them up. In researching impoliteness, Culpeper et al. (2003) suggest that impoliteness is a set of “communicative strategies designed to attack face, and thereby cause social conflict

150

C. Dimitrakakis

and disharmony” (2003: 1546). Culpeper (2005) suggested the following impoliteness superstrategies and classified them according to the degree of face attack, from the least to the highest one: 1.

2.

3.

4. 5.

Bald on-record impoliteness: the face-threatening act (FTA) is performed in a direct, clear, unambiguous and concise way in circumstances where face is not irrelevant or minimized. Positive impoliteness: the use of strategies designed to damage the addressee’s positive face wants, e.g. ignore the other, exclude the other from an activity, be disinterested, unconcerned, unsympathetic, use inappropriate identity markers, use obscure or secretive language, seek disagreement, use taboo words, call the other names. Negative impoliteness: the use of strategies designed to damage the addressee’s negative face wants, e.g. frighten, condescend, scorn or ridicule, be contemptuous, do not treat the other seriously, belittle the other, invade the other’s space (literally or metaphorically), explicitly associate the other with a negative aspect (personalize, use the pronouns “I” and “You”), put the other’s indebtedness on record. Off-record impoliteness: the FTA is performed by means of an implicature but in such a way that one attributable intention clearly outweighs any others. Withhold politeness: the absence of politeness work where it would be expected.

Impoliteness Meta-strategy. Sarcasm or mock politeness: the FTA is performed with the use of politeness strategies that are obviously insincere, and thus remain surface realizations (2005: 41–44).

3 Methodology This study examines how verbal aggression and impoliteness are rendered in the two Greek target versions of Crimp’s Attempts on her Life, drawing on Culpeper’s superstrategies, and the degree of shock to the Greek audience. The first version (TTa) Απόπειρες ζωής (Life’s Attempts) was translated and directed by Aspa Tompouli (1999) for the Experimental Stage of the Greek National Theatre whereas the second (TTb) Απόπειρες (Attempts) was translated and directed by Athanasia Karagiannopoulou (2007) at the Ilisia-Denisi Theatre, both in Athens. The play offers a lot of instances of impoliteness, so the study attempts to identify which one of the target versions best achieves the intended effect. After the naturalistic methodology, the study designed a questionnaire addressing ten postgraduate students of Translation and another ten theatre practitioners, all native speakers of Greek between 20 and 40 years old, who were asked to assess seven pairs of examples of verbal aggression from the same scenes drawing on both target texts. The study gave a brief description of in-yer-face theatre, familiarized the respondents with the situation the exchanges

In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage

151

derived from and required them to choose which of the two options maximized the shock effect, as if they were to stage the play today in Athens.

4 Presentation of Empirical Data The study analyzes seven examples of impoliteness from three scenes of the play. It provides a short description of the situation, the parallel data and the analysis follows. The first three examples come from the first scenario, entitled All Messages Deleted and are all voice messages on Anne’s answering machine. We do not know who the speakers are, who Anne is or what their relationship is, we do not even know if all these messages address the same Anne. It is a familiar play opening device but it takes too long; we hear eleven messages that cover a whole day and range from deeply apologetic to directly threatening. ST1

TTa

TTb

We know where you live you fucking bitch. You’re dead, basically. The things you fucking did. We don’t forget. (pause) You’ll wish you’d never been born (2005: 204). Ξέρουμε πού μένεις βρωμοπούτανο. Και είσαι νεκρή. Βασικά είσαι νεκρή. Και τι δεν έκανες βρωμιάρα. Εμείς δεν ξεχνάμε. (παύση) Θα εύχεσαι να μην είχες γεννηθεί ποτέ (1999: 2). BT: We know where you live dirty bitch. And you’re dead. Basically you’re dead. You did so much dirty woman. We don’t forget. (pause) You’ll wish you’d never been born. Ξέρουμε πού μένεις πουτάνα. Βασικά, είσαι ήδη νεκρή. Για τις μαλακίες που πήγες και έκανες. Δεν ξεχνάμε. (παύση) Θα φτύσεις το γάλα της μάνας σου (2007: 25). ΒΤ: We know where you live bitch. Basically, you’re dead. For the bullshit you did. We don’t forget. (pause) You’ll spit your mother’s milk.

In both Greek versions, verbal aggression is direct and shocking. A lot of swearwords are witnessed in both target versions and a kind of revenge is implicated. Culpeper’s positive impoliteness is used here since there are taboo words and calling Anne names in both texts: βρωμοπούτανο (dirty bitch), βρωμιάρα (dirty woman) in TTa and πουτάνα (bitch), μαλακίες (bullshit) in TTb. The speaker sounds really angry and tries to frighten Anne with expressions like TTa item You’ll wish you’d never been born and TTb You’ll spit your mother’s milk. Both translators use Culpeper’s negative impoliteness in these utterances. As Bousfield (2008) argues, “the use of taboo words strategy (Culpeper 1996) does appear to be the one most likely to combine with other strategies” (2008: 112). The intention of Crimp to shock is achieved here by both target versions. Ιn example 2, offensiveness is also high in the target versions. ST2

Let me tell you what I’m going to do to you. First you’re going to suck my cock. Then I’m going to fuck you up the arse. With a broken bottle. And that’s just for starters (1997: 205).

152

TTa

TTb

C. Dimitrakakis

Άκουσε τι θα σου κάνω. Πρώτα θα σε βάλω να γλείψεις τον δικό μου. Μετά θα σε γαμήσω μπρος και πίσω. Με μια σπασμένη μπουκάλα. Και αυτά είναι μόνο τα ορντέβ (1999: 5). BT: Listen to what I’m going to do to you. First, I’m going to make you suck mine. Then I’m going to fuck you front and back. With a broken bottle. And that’s only the hors-d’œuvre. Άφησέ με να σου εξηγήσω τι θα σου κάνω. Πρώτα θα σε βάλω να μου πάρεις τσιμπούκι. Μετά θα σε πάρω από τον κώλο. Μ’ ένα σπασμένο μπουκάλι. Κι αυτά μόνο γι’ αρχή (2007: 26). BT: Let me explain what I’m going to do to you. First, I’m going to make you give me a blowjob. Then I’m going to fuck your ass. With a broken bottle. And that’s only for the beginning.

Both versions are aggressive and shocking; they detail sexual intercourse which reminds us of a rape and there is much derogatory and profane language. In TTa, however, Tompouli uses the euphemism τον δικό μου (mine) for the taboo ST word cock. In addition, in both texts the speaker frightens and tries to humiliate Anne with his raw sexual descriptions on the answering machine. There is a combination of Culpeper’s positive and negative impoliteness in both texts. Moreover, while TTb employs the direct threat Κι αυτά μόνο γι’ αρχή (And that’s only for the beginning), TTa becomes ironic—following the original—in using the French loan item iThe speaker in the following voice message is sure that Anne is at home and listens to it and tries to persuade her pick up the phone. He makes a disgusting description of Anne lying dead on the floor while attempting in jest to guess her unwillingness to answer. ST3 TTa

TTb

So only the larvae of insects are listening to your messages. Listening to me […] as they tunnel through your remains. I’m growing morbid… (2005: 45). Έτσι λοιπόν, μονάχα οι κάμπιες των εντόμων ακούνε τα μηνύματά σου; Ακούνε εμένα […] καθώς ανοίγουν στοές στα απομεινάρια σου. Είναι μακάβριο… (1999: 15). BT: So only the larvae of insects are listening to your messages? They’re listening to me […] as they create galleries through your remains. It’s morbid…. Έτσι λοιπόν μονάχα το σμήνος από μύγες ακούει αυτό το μήνυμα. Οι μύγες με ακούν […] καθώς ανοίγουν σήραγγες μέσα στο σώμα σου. Γίνομαι μακάβριος… (2007: 27). BT: So only the swarm of flies is listening to this message. Flies are listening to me […] as they make tunnels through your body. I’m growing morbid….

The TTa item κάμπιες (larvae) and ανοίγουν στοές στα απομεινάρια σου (create galleries through your remains) give a creepy and raw representation of the dead body, whereas TTb μύγες (flies) and ανοίγουν σήραγγες μέσα στο σώμα σου (make tunnels through your body) make the image more threatening (see TTa στοές [galleries] vs. TTb σήραγγες [tunnels], “flies” may be more aggressive and annoying than “larvae”, etc.). Both translators employ Culpeper’s negative impoliteness strategy as the speaker ridicules Anne’s dead body.

In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage

153

n Greek ορντέβ (hors-d’œuvre) and therefore she also employs sarcasm or mock politeness. Crimp’s concern for the objectification and victimization of women is rather evident in this excerpt (Sierz 2013: 151). The next example is taken from Scenario 7, entitled The New Anny, and the speakers are probably advertisers who promote a new car. Anny is the brand. ST4

TTa

TTb

There is no room in the Anny for the degenerate races… …for the mentally deficient … ….or the physically imperfect. No room for gypsies, Arabs, Jews, Turks, Kurds, Blacks or any of that human scum (2005: 237). Δεν υπάρχει θέση για τις κατώτερες φυλές… …για τους πνευματικά καθυστερημένους… …. ή τους σακάτηδες. Τσιγγάνοι, Άραβες, Εβραίοι, Τούρκοι, Κούρδοι, Μαύροι – ή οποιοιδήποτε απ’ αυτή την ανθρώπινη κόπρο δεν έχουν θέση στην Άννυ (1999: 43–44). ΒT: There is no room for the inferior races… …for the mentally handicapped… …or the cripples. Gypsies, Arabs, Jews, Turks, Kurds, Blacks – or any of that human manure do not have any room in the Anny. Μέσα στο Άννυ δεν υπάρχει θέση για τους εκφυλισμένους …για τους διανοητικά καθυστερημένους… …. για τους σωματικά ανεπαρκείς. Δεν υπάρχει θέση για Άραβες, Εβραίους, Τούρκους, Κούρδους, Μαύρους και γενικώς για οποιοδήποτε απόβρασμα της κοινωνίας… (2007: 66). BT: In the Anny there is no room for degenerates …for the handicapped... or the physically deficient. There is no room for Arabs, Jews, Turks, Kurds, Blacks and generally every scum of society.

The TTa items κατώτερες φυλές, (inferior races), σακάτηδες (cripples), ανθρώπινη κόπρο (human manure) are rather racist and offensive remarks for these groups of people. Negative impoliteness is employed as the speakers explicitly scorn and show their disgust for certain people as well as positive impoliteness since there are the taboo words σακάτηδες (cripples) and κόπρο (manure) and the explicit exclusion of these groups in the new car model with the repetition of Δεν υπάρχει θέση (There is no room). TTb uses milder and more formal characterizations, namely, εκφυλισμένους (degenerates), σωματικά ανεπαρκείς (physically deficient) but there is also the taboo word απόβρασμα (scum) and the exclusion of people in the new car. Again, Culpeper’s positive and negative impoliteness are employed here. The following instance comes from Scenario 10 with the title Kinda Funny. It is a monologue and the speaker describes the unexpected visit of a man’s family to his mother after many years. Before this excerpt, the woman tells her mother-in-law over lunch that her husband “is in fact the commanding officer of a whole group of like-minded individuals who have armed themselves not out of any thirst for blood,

154

C. Dimitrakakis

but out of necessity because it is war” (Crimp 2005: 247). She actually reveals their fascist beliefs. In this scene, Crimp satirizes the seemingly “perfect” American family model which supports violence and is hostile to diversity (Chatzivasileiou 2013: 15). ST5

TTa

TTb

Annie has to explain to Mom how they don’t believe in taxes or welfare or any of that shit. How the war is a war against a government that takes the bread out of the working man’s mouth and gives it to the pornographers and abortionists of this world. Is a war against the God-forsaken faggots (2005: 247). Η Άννι είναι υποχρεωμένη να εξηγήσει στη μανούλα ότι δεν πιστεύουν στους φόρους, στο κράτος πρόνοιας και στις παρόμοιες μπούρδες. Ότι ο πόλεμος αυτός είναι ένας πόλεμος ενάντια σε μια κυβέρνηση που αρπάζει το ψωμί απ’ το στόμα του εργαζόμενου και το δίνει στους πορνογράφους και τους απατεώνες που εμπορεύονται τις εκτρώσεις αυτού του κόσμου. Είναι πόλεμος ενάντια στις αναθεματισμένες αδελφές (1999: 55). BT: Annie is obliged to explain to mummy that they don’t believe in taxes, welfare and nonsense of that kind. That this war is a war against a government that grabs the bread out of the working man’s mouth and gives it to the pornographers and fraudsters who do business with the abortions of this world. It’s a war against the damned faggots. Η Άννα αρχίζει να εξηγεί στη Μητέρα πως δεν πιστεύουν στους φόρους και στο κράτος πρόνοιας και σε τέτοιες μαλακίες. Και πως ο πόλεμος είναι πόλεμος. Πόλεμος ενάντια σε μια κυβέρνηση που αρπάζει το ψωμί από τα στόματα των εργαζομένων και το χαρίζει στους πορνογράφους και τους διαφθορείς του κόσμου. Είναι πόλεμος ενάντια στις μακριά από μας παλιαδερφές (2007: 79–80). BT: Anna starts to explain to Mother that they don’t believe in taxes and welfare and such bullshit. And that war is war. A war against a government that grabs the bread out of the working men’s mouths and gives it to the pornographers and the depraved of this world. It’s a war against the —away from us —old faggots.

TTa renders the ST taboo item shit as μπούρδες (nonsense) diminishing the shock effect, whereas TTb intensifies the aggression of the woman using μαλακίες (bullshit). Moreover, even though the TTa item απατεώνες που εμπορεύονται τις εκτρώσεις αυτού του κόσμου (fraudsters who do business with the abortions of this world) is closer to the ST word abortionists, the TTb rendition διαφθορείς (depraved) shows more bitterness for this kind of people. Last, the TTb expression μακριά από μας παλιαδερφές (away from us old faggots) seems to intensify the woman’s disgust for homosexuals a bit more than the TTb phrase αναθεματισμένες αδελφές (damned faggots). Both versions are manifestations of Culpeper’s positive (taboo language) and negative impoliteness (disrespect and ridicule of certain groups of people). The following example comes from Scenario 12 titled Strangely!. The speakers in this scene narrate the desperate attempt of a woman driving away from a destroyed city because a war is in progress when she reaches a checkpoint and the border guards

In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage

155

ask for her name, her destination, etc. She carries the dead body of her child in two plastic bags on the back seat. The speakers are probably the border guards. ST6

TTa

TTb

And while we’re on the subject of her appearance, why can’t she be more attractive? Why can’t she be more sympathetic? Why can’t she have a few more teeth? Why can’t she bend over and let us see her ass? (2005: 259). Και για να σταθώ στο θέμα της εμφάνισής της, γιατί δεν είναι πιο ελκυστική; Γιατί δεν μπορεί να είναι πιο συμπαθής; Γιατί δεν έχει περισσότερα δόντια; Γιατί δεν μπορεί να σκύψει και να μας αφήσει να δούμε τον κώλο της; (1999: 69). BT: And while I subject of her appearance, why isn’t she more attractive? Why can’t she be more sympathetic? Why doesn’t she have more teeth? Why can’t she bend over and let us see her ass? Και – εφόσον αναφερόμαστε στην εμφάνισή της – γιατί, ρε γαμώτο, δεν μπορεί να είναι λίγο πιο όμορφη; Λίγο πιο συμπαθητική; Γιατί να μην έχει ένα-δυο δόντια παραπάνω; Γιατί να μη σκύβει λίγο να δούμε τον κώλο της; (2007: 94). BT: And while we refer to her appearance, why, fuck, can’t she be a little bit more beautiful? A little bit more sympathetic? Why can’t she have one or two more teeth? Why can’t she bend over a little in order for us to see her ass?

Both translators use the taboo item ass and TTb adds the item fuck. Therefore, both target versions use Culpeper’s positive impoliteness strategy. What is more, in both versions, interrogations like TTa Why doesn’t she have more teeth? and Why can’t she bend over and let us see her ass? and TTb Why can’t she have one or two more teeth? or Why can’t she bend over a little in order for us to see her ass? equally ridicule a woman that has just lost her child, hence negative impoliteness is employed too in both texts. All the above expressions are quite shocking as they objectify and humiliate women. Crimp’s satire on male gaze is evident in both texts (Sierz 2013: 54). However, the interrogations in TTb come quickly one after the other and seem more direct. Example (7) comes from Scenario 16 with the title Pornó where speakers, probably film-makers, try to create a character called Anne, a teenage porn star. ST7

TTa

Pornó doesn’t stop her leading a normal life. The difference is … … is that Pornó is building up for her the kind of security and independence many women would envy (2005: 271). Το πορνό δεν την εμποδίζει να κάνει μια φυσιολογική ζωή. Η διαφορά είναι… … είναι ότι το πορνό της δίνει τη δυνατότητα να αισθάνεται σιγουριά και ασφάλεια, κάτι που πολλές γυναίκες θα ζήλευαν (1999: 82–83). ΒΤ: Pornó doesn’t prevent her from leading a normal life. The difference is…

156

TTb

C. Dimitrakakis

…is that Pornó gives her the opportunity to have confidence and security, something many women would envy. Το πορνό δεν την εμποδίζει να κάνει μια – κατά τα άλλα – φυσιολογική ζωή. Η διαφορά είναι… …είναι πως το πορνό ενδυναμώνει μέσα της την αίσθηση ασφάλειας και ανεξαρτησίας που πολλές γυναίκες θα ζήλευαν (2007: 110). BT: Pornó doesn’t prevent her from leading – in other respects – normal life. The difference is… …is that Porn strengthens inside her the sense of confidence and independence that many women would envy.

TTb suggests that porn industry gives her confidence and independence that many women would envy, whereas TTa refers to confidence and security. Independence raises implications of a more active female figure and is a more flattering characterization than that of TTa, which simply refers to confidence and security. Besides, TTb strengthens inside her the sense of confidence allows more connotations of female empowerment than TTa item gives her the opportunity.

5 Discussion of the Results The findings of the questionnaire were quite revealing in terms of which version heightens the shock effect of the above seven examples. The questionnaire was distributed to two respondent groups, namely, ten postgraduate students in Translation Studies and ten theatre practitioners and aimed at testing which translation is more shocking. It asked respondents to select one of two options taken from the above example pairs and asked them to provide metapragmatic comments justifying their choice. As regards example (1), of the questionnaire (see Appendix) both groups perceived the two TT versions in exactly the same way. Half of the postgraduates (5/10) and theatre practitioners (5/10) chose TTa and the other half of both groups TTb. Some argued that the TTb expressions βρωμοπούτανο (dirty bitch), βρωμιάρα (dirty woman) are rather offensive for females and together with the repetition of νεκρή (dead), TTa can be more frightening, whereas the rest found TTb expressions like πουτάνα (bitch), μαλακίες (bullshit), Θα φτύσεις το γάλα της μάνας σου (You’ll spit your mother’s milk) more direct, raw and threatening. In example (2), the group of postgraduates found again the two versions equally obscene and shocking (5/10 supported TTa, 5/10 selected TTb). There was a marginal difference with the theatre practitioners: six out of ten respondents regarded TTb as more violent and direct especially if it is to be staged. The two respondent groups perceived the two TT3 fragments completely differently. Seven out of ten postgraduates preferred TTa because the κάμπιες (larvae) and the item στοές στα απομεινάρια σου (galleries through your remains) create a

In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage

157

“monstrous and disgusting” image of the dead body. Particularly, they commented that TTa απομεινάρια (remains) is directly associated with death, as opposed to TTb item σώμα (body). On the other hand, most theatre practitioners (7/10) found the TTb fragment more bitter and horrific because μύγες (flies) are fast attackers and can be more aggressive than larvae while σήραγγες μέσα στο σώμα σου (tunnels through your body) are dark, much longer than a gallery and frightening when the train goes through in high speed. Τhey argued that the phrase ανοίγουν στοές στα απομεινάρια σου (create galleries through your remains) in TTa is a more poetic description which can alienate rather than shock the spectator and the interrogative ΄Ετσι λοιπόν μονάχα οι κάμπιες των εντόμων ακούνε τα μηνύματά σου; (So only the larvae of insects are listening to your messages?) weakens the force of the utterance. Crimp does not use interrogative for this phrase in the ST. As regards example (4), both groups found TTa more offensive and shocking. Eight respondents from the group of postgraduate students and seven theatre practitioners chose TTa because expressions like κατώτερες φυλές (inferior races), σακάτηδες (cripples), ανθρώπινη κόπρο (human manure) are rather humiliating and disrespectful for people who belong to other nations or have physical or mental disabilities. They pointed out that the above expressions are not politically correct especially when uttered by advertisers and hence the shock effect is stronger. In example (5), the majority of both groups preferred TTb: eight out of ten respondents from the group of theatre practitioners chose TTb as the most direct and aggressive because of the taboo item μαλακίες (bullshit) and παλιαδερφές (old faggots) which is offensive for homosexuals. One respondent argued that none of the two translated versions were satisfying because both target versions describe things mildly and would prefer a third version with enforced offensiveness. Similarly, the majority of postgraduates (7/10) selected TTb because of the rawness of the above words. In example (6), eight out of ten theatre practitioners emphasized the directness of TTb questions especially on stage. Similarly, nine out of 10 postgraduates suggested that TTb objectifies the woman more eloquently with the shorter questions about her appearance, her teeth and her ass and thus intensifies the emotional shock. Finally, in example (7), seven out of ten postgraduates preferred TTb, suggesting that confidence and independence cancels the common belief that working as a porn star is not a profession or humiliates women and thus it creates a higher moral shock than TTa does, with the phrase confidence and security. The group of theatre practitioners marginally (6/10) preferred TTb as more shocking, although four of them commented on the use of TTb item ενδυναμώνει (strengthens) as being a bit sophisticated. Both groups preferred TTb. Figure 1 summarizes the participants’ evaluation of the shock effect intensity in each target version. Both groups suggest that the more recent target version (TTb 2007) was more offensive and shocking. Postgraduate students marginally preferred TTb but perceived both TTs as almost equally shocking. On the other hand, theatre practitioners clearly preferred TTb as more shocking and, as their metapragmatic comments reveal, they took into account the fact that the above dialogues are to be staged. The higher percentages of the group of theatre practitioners in favour

158

C. Dimitrakakis

POSTGRADUATES Απόπειρες ζωής (1999)

Απόπειρες (2007)

THEATRE PRACTITIONERS Απόπειρες ζωής (1999)

Απόπειρες(2007)

OTHER

1%

39%

44% 56%

60%

Fig. 1 Intensity of shock effect in Greek target versions of Attempts on Her Life assessed by translation postgraduates and theatre practitioners

of TTb are observed in examples 5 (8/10) and 7 (8/10) whereas the highest one in postgraduates in favour of TTb appears in example 7 (9/10). The respective higher percentages of theatre practitioners in favour of TTa are found in example 4 (8/10) and of postgraduates in examples 3 (7/10) and 4 (7/10). With regard to Culpeper’s impoliteness superstrategies, both translators combined two or three strategies in each example, that is, positive, negative impoliteness and in some cases the meta-strategy of sarcasm or mock politeness. The most prevalent in both target versions are positive (particularly, taboo items and calling the other names) and negative impoliteness (particularly, frightening, ridiculing and treating the other not seriously). Sarcasm or mock politeness are observed in example 1 (TTa) with the use of the French word ορντέβ (hors-d’œuvre) and in example 6 (TTb) with the whole description of the advantages of a porn career. Therefore, it can be assumed that positive and negative impoliteness are the core strategies of the Greek target versions of this in-yer-face play which heightens the shock effect, but there is no safe assumption about which super strategy causes the highest shock effect since there has always been a combination of the two in each example. Of course, the limited data and the small number of respondents cannot allow generalizations. Findings show that, even though the chronological distance (1999, 2007) between TTs is just eight years, the latest version appealed more to respondents of the questionnaire because it contains more recent slang and especially swearwords. Moreover, it seems that impoliteness is heightened cross-culturally, an aspect of transfer which is an open research question, although if we take into consideration the preference for TTb, this may already be a hint that higher offensiveness may be appreciated in Greek. However, both target versions seem to achieve the basic aim of in-yer-face theatre, that is, to shock an audience by means of filthy language and taboo subjects.

In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage

159

6 Conclusion As mentioned, Crimp’s “aim is to expose the realities of society through violence themes and unfiltered language” (Ba˘girlar 2019: 608) and the question arises as to how the exposed realities can be transferred into another language. The study examined in-yer-face theatre aspects of transfer, through rendition into Greek of the play Attempts on her Life (1997) by Martin Crimp and focused on the intensity of the shock effect of its two Greek target versions (Tompouli 1999, Karagiannopoulou 2007). It identified manifestations of impoliteness, drawing on Culpeper’s impoliteness super strategies (2005). Culpeper (1998: 84) claims that “[i]n the case of drama, the key ‘dramatic’ points often occur at times of interactional conflict” and because in-yer-face theatre is based on violent interactions, the analysis of impoliteness strategies proved a useful tool for the study of the target versions. The respondents of the questionnaire (10 postgraduate students and 10 theatre practitioners) showed a preference for the more recent translation (TTb) although the impoliteness strategies employed in both TTs were more or less equally effective. Many respondents from both groups, especially the theatre practitioners, highlighted the importance of communicative force certain options acquire when used on stage, which actually affected their choices. As Culpeper argues (1998: 6), most plays are written to be staged and the Shakespearean critic Stanley Wells (1970) suggests that “the reading of a play is a necessarily incomplete experience” (ibid:ix). Moreover, Stanislavski claimed that “it is only on the stage that drama can be revealed in all its fullness and significance” (1968: 115) and Bassnett (2002) argues that if “the theatre translator is faced with the added criterion of playability as a prerequisite, he is clearly being asked to something different from the translator of another type of text” (2002: 126). The significance of the study is twofold: it examined the different manifestations of impoliteness in stage translation benefiting researchers and theatre practitioners and it also provided data that can be used for a more comprehensive analysis of the specific theatrical genre in terms of impoliteness strategies.

Appendix. Preferred levels of offensiveness QUESTIONNAIRE Imagine that you are to stage an English play of the IN-YER-FACE THEATRE genre in Athens, today. A primary technique of the genre is creating shock effects, as the genre deals with taboo issues, uses raw material and has vulgar scenes, both verbally and physically. Its purpose is to shake the audience until they get the message. Your task is to choose which one of the two versions of the same fragment you would prefer to use in your staging of the play. Please provide a short explanation.

160

C. Dimitrakakis

You listen to the following messages on the answering machine. We have no idea who speaks and the girl they address never appears on stage, nor do we have any clue about her identity or her past. 1.

Α. Β.

Ξέρουμε πού μένεις βρωμοπούτανο. Και είσαι νεκρή. Βασικά είσαι νεκρή. Και τι δεν έκανες βρωμιάρα. Εμείς δεν ξεχνάμε. Θα εύχεσαι να μην είχες γεννηθεί ποτέ. Ξέρουμε πού μένεις πουτάνα. Βασικά, είσαι ήδη νεκρή. Για τις μαλακίες που πήγες και έκανες. Δεν ξεχνάμε. Θα φτύσεις το γάλα της μάνας σου.

Please explain your choice…………………………… 2.

A.

B.

Άκουσε τι θα σου κάνω. Πρώτα θα σε βάλω να γλείψεις τον δικό μου. Μετά θα σε γαμήσω μπρος και πίσω. Με μια σπασμένη μπουκάλα. Και αυτά είναι μόνο τα ορντέβ. Άφησέ με να σου εξηγήσω τι θα σου κάνω. Πρώτα θα σε βάλω να μου πάρεις τσιμπούκι. Μετά θα σε πάρω από τον κώλο. Μ’ ένα σπασμένο μπουκάλι. Κι αυτά μόνο γι’ αρχή.

Please explain your choice ………………………………… 3.

A.

B.

Έτσι λοιπόν μονάχα το σμήνος από μύγες ακούει αυτό το μήνυμα. Οι μύγες με ακούν […] καθώς ανοίγουν σήραγγες μέσα στο σώμα σου. Γίνομαι μακάβριος. Έτσι λοιπόν, μονάχα οι κάμπιες των εντόμων ακούνε τα μηνύματά σου; Ακούνε εμένα […] καθώς ανοίγουν στοές στα απομεινάρια σου. Είναι μακάβριο.

Please explain your choice ………………………………… 4.

Advertisers are promoting a new luxurious car to potential consumers. (X is the brand name). A.

B.

Δεν υπάρχει θέση για τις κατώτερες φυλές, για τους πνευματικά καθυστερημένους ή τους σακάτηδες. Τσιγγάνοι, Άραβες, Εβραίοι Τούρκοι, Κούρδοι, Μαύροι – ή οποιοιδήποτε απ’ αυτήν την ανθρώπινη κόπρο δεν έχουν θέση στην Χ. Μέσα στο Χ δεν υπάρχει θέση για τους εκφυλισμένους, για τους διανοητικά καθυστερημένους, για τους σωματικά ανεπαρκείς. Δεν υπάρχει θέση για Άραβες, Εβραίους, Τούρκους, Κούρδους, Μαύρους και γενικώς για οποιοδήποτε απόβρασμα της κοινωνίας.

Please explain ………………………………………… 5.

Here is a description of a family ensemble at dinner (a couple with two children and the husband’s mother). See what the young lady says to her mother-in-law when the latter hears her son to say that they are “in war”.

In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage

Α.

Β.

161

Η Άννι είναι υποχρεωμένη να εξηγήσει στη μανούλα ότι δεν πιστεύουν στους φόρους, στο κράτος πρόνοιας και στις παρόμοιες μπούρδες. Ότι ο πόλεμος αυτός είναι ένας πόλεμος ενάντια σε μια κυβέρνηση που αρπάζει το ψωμί απ’το στόμα του εργαζόμενου και το δίνει στους πορνογράφους και τους απατεώνες που εμπορεύονται τις εκτρώσεις αυτού του κόσμου. Είναι πόλεμος ενάντια στις αναθεματισμένες αδελφές. Η Άννα εξηγεί στη Μητέρα πως δεν πιστεύουν στους φόρους και στο κράτος πρόνοιας και σε τέτοιες μαλακίες. Και πως ο πόλεμος είναι πόλεμος. Πόλεμος ενάντια σε μια κυβέρνηση που αρπάζει το ψωμί από τα στόματα των εργαζομένων και το χαρίζει στους πορνογράφους και τους διαφθορείς του κόσμου. Είναι πόλεμος ενάντια στις μακριά από μας παλιαδερφές.

Please explain ………………………………………… 6.

Interlocutors talk about a woman who works as a porn star. Α. Β.

Το πορνό δεν την εμποδίζει να κάνει μια φυσιολογική ζωή. Η διαφορά είναι ότι το πορνό της δίνει τη δυνατότητα να αισθάνεται σιγουριά και ασφάλεια, κάτι που πολλές γυναίκες θα ζήλευαν. Το πορνό δεν την εμποδίζει να κάνει μια -κατά τα άλλα- φυσιολογική ζωή. […] Η διαφορά είναι ότι πως το πορνό ενδυναμώνει μέσα της την αίσθηση ασφάλειας και ανεξαρτησίας που πολλές γυναίκες θα ζήλευαν.

Please explain…………………………………………… 7.

Interlocutors describe a scene where soldiers stop a lady for exceeding the speed limit in a war zone; the woman carries her dead child at the back seat. Α.

Β.

Και για να σταθώ στο θέμα της εμφάνισής της, γιατί δεν είναι πιο ελκυστική; Γιατί δεν μπορεί να είναι πιο συμπαθής; Γιατί δεν έχει περισσότερα δόντια; Γιατί δεν μπορεί να σκύψει και να μας αφήσει να δούμε τον κώλο της; Και-εφόσον αναφερόμαστε στην εμφάνισή της – γιατί, ρε γαμώτο, δεν μπορεί να είναι λίγο πιο όμορφη; Λίγο πιο συμπαθητική; Γιατί να μην έχει ένα-δυο δόντια παραπάνω; Γιατί να μη σκύβει λίγο να δούμε τον κώλο της;

Please explain ……………………………………… Thank you for your help!

162

C. Dimitrakakis

References Aragay, M., H. Klein, E. Monforte, and P. Zozaya. 2007. British theatre of the 1990s: Interviews with directors, playwrights, critics and academics. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Ba˘gırlar, B. 2019. Youth violence on the British stage: In-yer-face theatre. RumeliDE Dil Ve Edebiyat Ara¸stırmaları Dergisi 16: 604–615. Bassnett, S. 2002. Translation studies. London and New York: Routledge. Bousfield, D. 2008. Impoliteness in interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Brown, P., and S. Levinson. 1978/1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chatzivasileiou, C. 2013. Σύγχρονη Βρετανική Δραματουργία: το θέατρο Στα Μούτρα (In-yer-face theatre) ως ανάγνωση της κοινωνικής τοπογραφίας του 1990. [Contemporary British Dramaturgy: The in-yer-face theatre as a reading of the 1990 social topography]. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Culpeper, J. 1996. Towards an anatomy of impoliteness. Journal of Pragmatics 25 (3): 349–367. Culpeper, J. 1998. (Im)politeness in dramatic dialogue. In Exploring the dramatic language: From text to context, ed. J. Culpeper, M. Short, and P. Verdonk, 83–95. London: Routledge. Culpeper, J., D. Bousefield, and A. Wichmann. 2003. Impoliteness revisited: With special reference to dynamic and prosodic aspects. Journal of Pragmatics 35 (10–11): 1545–1579. Culpeper, J. 2005. Impoliteness and entertainment in the television quiz show: The weakest link. Journal of Politeness Research: Language, Behaviour, Culture 1 (1): 35–72. Grandage, S. 2010. Dramatic discourse. In The pragmatics encyclopedia, ed. L. Cummings, 135– 138. London and New York: Routledge. Hydén, M. 1995. Verbal aggression as prehistory of woman battering. Journal of Family Violence 10 (1): 55–71. Izmir, S. 2017. The oscillation between dramatic and postdramatic theatre: Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and F***ing. AAA: Arbeiten Aus Anglistik Und Amerikanistik, 42 (1): 71–99. Sierz, A. 2001. In-yer-face theatre: British drama today. London: Faber and Faber. Sierz, A. 2012. Modern British playwriting: The 1990s: Voices, documents, new interpretations. London: Bloomsburry Methuen Drama. Sierz, A. 2013. The theatre of Martin Crimp. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. Stanislavski, C. 1968. Building a character, trans. E.R. Hapgood. London: Methuen. Wells, S. 1970. Literature and drama. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Electronic Sources Cambridge. n.d. In your face. In Cambridge dictionary. Retrieved December 27, 2020, from https:// dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/in-your-face. Merriam-Webster. n.d. In your face. In Merriam-Webster dictionary. Retrieved December 27, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/in-your-face. Sierz, A. 2010, October 10. What is in-yer-face theatre? In In-yer-face theatre. Retrieved December 31, 2020, from http://www.inyerfacetheatre.com/what.html. Sierz, A. 2012, March 10. Theatrsdesk Q & A: Playwright Martin Crimp. Theartsdesk. Retrieved January 4, 2021, from https://theartsdesk.com/theatre/theartsdesk-qa-playwright-martin-crimp

In-Yer-Face Theatre on Greek Stage

163

Texts Crimp, Martin. [1997] 2005. Attempts on her life. In Martin Crimp: Plays 2. London: Faber and Faber. Κριμπ, Μάρτιν. 1999. Απόπειρες ζωής. Μτφρ.΄Ασπα Τομπούλη [Life’s attempts, trans. Aspa Tompouli]. Unpublished and staged. Κριμπ, Μάρτιν. 2007. Απόπειρες. Μτφρ. Αθανασία Καραγιαννοπούλου [Attempts, trans. Athansia Karagiannopoulou]. Αθήνα: Αιώρα.

Transferring Socio-Cultural Values

Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth Athanasios Vasileiadis

Abstract Destiny has been a troubling concept through the ages. Scholars have examined degrees of people’s relying on fate and destiny: Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (2000) have measured inner/outer direction (in corporate cultures) by asking questions highlighting the advantages of self-determination and inner control vs. the advantages of contingency, luck, fate and circumstance. The aim of the study is to show how notions of destiny and fortune travel through Greek versions of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. In comparing four target versions of the text in Greek, two of which were performance versions, the study shows how the concept of destiny is one of major significance in the target context. Findings indicate that the target versions favour impactful items when referring to fate, whereas Shakespeare’s ST used more loose terms. Results show that, especially performance versions, seem to assign high significance to the notion of destiny, while others may tone it down appearing more optimistic as to whether people can determine their own future. The study relies on both unelicited and elicited data (through a questionnaire eliciting information on whether the current Greek reader would appreciate awareness of destiny in fiction and theatre). Translation seems to be a powerful channel conveying aspects of ideological meaning and registering widespread narratives. Keywords Destiny · Fate · Awareness · Free will · Macbeth · Shakespeare · Theatre

1 Introduction Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s tragedies written around 1606. It is one of his most popular plays and has been produced by many famous theatrical stages around the world. It has also been adapted into a movie multiple times. The story revolves around the Scottish general, who has been victorious in a battle. He meets A. Vasileiadis (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_11

167

168

A. Vasileiadis

three Weird Sisters who prophesize that he will become the Thane of Cawdor and then the King of all Scotland. This leads Macbeth to a spree of satanic thoughts and evil deeds in order to gain what he considers to be his fateful right. One of the central themes of the play is fate and free will (Frey 2020 online), the subtle lines that divide what a person can do willingly and what is preordained to happen. Throughout the play, Macbeth has been trying to control and conquer his own fate. He murdered and fought in a war, all in order to overturn his destiny. Fate seems to be the winner in this game as it is ‘inevitable’ (Beardwood and Macdonell 2007: 1) and unchangeable. Macbeth’s fate had been sealed since he heard the prophecies in the First Act (Ellenberger, Engle, Kreydt, Way, n.d. online). It is ironic that as Macbeth actually moved further and further towards his ‘sealed’ fate, the more he tried to change it. Others have suggested that the three Weird Sisters, the supernatural beings that set the events into motion are left purposefully ambiguous and problematic. Shakespeare does not clarify whether they are ‘agents of fate’ who determine Macbeth’s doom or they are actually a ‘latency’ in Macbeth’s ‘ambitious character’ (Mambrol, n.d. online).

2 Literature Review and Methodology It has been argued that cultures differ from one another with reference to the ideological values they consider important. Among other characteristics and communication styles preferred cross-culturally, cultures may be ‘inner directed’ or ‘outer directed’: they are either motivated from within, from their internal thoughts and feelings, or they merely adjust themselves to the outer events that occur in the real world (Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars 2000). For instance, outer directed people may make more references to luck and circumstances. Although Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars apply their model of communicative values in the business world, and the model has been used to account for choices in parallel data of automobile advertising (Sidiropoulou 2018), the study intends to draw on the ‘inner/outer’ dichotomy to account for shifts in the present data set. The study compares four Greek translations of the Tragedy of Macbeth by Shakespeare (c. 1606), namely, one by Kostas Karthaios (1926), Vasilis Rotas (1927), Errikos Belies (2007) and Nikos Chatzopoulos (2020). Karthaios’ translation was staged twice by the National Theatre of Greece in 1967 and 1981 and by the State Theatre of Northern Greece in 1971–1972. Chatzopoulos’ translation is a performance one, staged by the National Theatre of Greece in 2020. Unfortunately, no evidence has been found indicating whether Rotas’ and Belies’ translations have been staged.

Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth

Kostas Karthaios (1926, TTa)

Vasilis Rotas (1927, TTb)

Errikos Belies (2007, TTc)

Nikos Chatzopoulos (2020, TTd)

169

Retranslations may allow for a diachronic exploration of how destiny may be perceived in Greek society. Karthaios’ and Chatzopoulos’ versions focus on the divine, involuntary course of a person’s life and display a heavy reliance on magical or godly forces that pave a person’s life path. Rotas, a Marxist, has had a more secular world view, namely, that a people’s fate lies in their own hands and is not strictly defined by other worldly forces. Belies seems to be suggesting that the notion of fate and destiny is a decisive factor in a person’s life. Analysis focused on selected parts of the play, where the events of destiny unfold: • Act 1, Scene 3, showing Macbeth’s interaction with the three Weird Sisters, the entities who gave Macbeth the prophecy of his future, the event that set all subsequent events in motion, motivating Macbeth to fulfil his destiny and become the king of Scotland. • Scene 1 from Act 3, when Macbeth has seemingly achieved what was in store for him. • Parts of Act 4, where the final showdown between Macbeth and fate is beginning to materialize. That is, when Macbeth is locked up in his castle, unafraid because there is no ‘man not born of a woman’ able to dethrone him, while Malcolm and the others prepare the assault to his castle. The point is important because it shows the events of destiny unfolding exactly as they were meant to be. • Act 5, with the meaningful resolution of the play, because it shows whether fate wins or whether Macbeth manages to change what has been anticipated. The study intends to explore whether the theme of destiny is prioritized in the four Greek translations of the play or toned down, by examining eight instances where God and destiny are referred to. After suggesting the degree to which the source and target versions have favoured references and allusions to destiny, the study designed a questionnaire which explored respondents’ taste as to whether they appreciated references to the notion of destiny.

3 Presentation of Empirical Data The section presents options in the four target versions which realize the varying viewpoints with respect to the notion of destiny. Ιn Scene 7 of Act 5, while Macduff is searching for Macbeth in hope of duelling and winning him, to take revenge for all the evil deeds he has committed. He listens to a horn of battle signalling someone of important status coming and utters the following:

170

ST1 TTa

TTb

TTc

TTd

A. Vasileiadis

By this great clatter, one of greatest note seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune! And more I beg not (c. 1606). Αυτή η μεγάλη ταραχή μηνάει κάποιον μεγάλο. Φέρε τον, Τύχη, μπροστά μου, κι άλλο δε ζητάω (1926: 130). BT. This great clatter bespeaks of someone great. Bring him, Fortune, in front of me, I don’t ask for anything else. Για τη μεγάλη αυτήν αντάρα ο πιο μεγάλος θα δίνει λέω τον τόνο. Τύχη, ας τονε βρω κι άλλο δε σου ζητώ (1927: 115). BT. For this big mayhem the grandest must give the tone. Fortune, let me find him and I don’t ask you anything else. Αυτή η μεγάλη φασαρία σημαίνει πως κάποιο πολύ σπουδαίο πρόσωπο είν’ εκεί. Αχ, Τύχη, κάνε να τον βρω! Δεν σου ζητάω τίποτ’ άλλο! (2007: 126). BT. This big commotion means that a very important person is there. Oh, Fortune, make it so that I find him! I don’t ask you anything else!. Το ηχηρό κροτάλισμα κάποιον πολύ υψηλόβαθμο φαίνεται ν’ αναγγέλλει. Βοήθα, Τύχη, να τον βρω, κι άλλο δεν σου ζητώ! (2020: 95). BT. The loud rattling seems to declare someone of high ranking. Help, Fortune, to find him, and I don’t ask for anything else!.

All TTs maintained Fortune and did not make any alterations, except perhaps that Shakespeare’s text used a lower-case ‘f’. All TTs used an upper-case initial highlighting its significance in determining the protagonist’s life trajectory. Incident 2 takes place at the beginning of the play, when the Weird Sisters prophesize the future of Macbeth. Specifically, this is what the Sisters sing with the conjured spirits, while holding each other’s hand: ST2 TTa TTb TTc TTd

The weird sisters, hand in hand (c. 1606). Τρεις Μοίρες είμαστε, τρεις αδερφές (1926: 27). BT. We are three Fates, three sisters. Τρεις Μοίρες χέρι χέρι (1927: 24). BT. Three Fates hand by hand. Οι τρεις Μοίρες χέρι χέρι περπατάμε (2007: 16). BT. We, the three Fates, walk hand in hand. Τρεις αδελφές, τρεις μοίρες (2020: 16) BT. Three sisters, three fates

ST weird sisters become TT Μοίρες (Fate)s, goddesses that have the power to prophesize and determine the future of the mortals. Elsewhere, TTb refers to them as Hags (Στρίγγλες) (Rotas 1927: 23) preferring a more tangible negative term over a magical or paranormal identity. The next point of variation takes place a little later, when two of the events foretold by the Weird Sisters (that is Macbeth being thane of Glamis and then becoming thane of Cawdor) become reality. This fuels Macbeth’s ambition for becoming the king of Scotland. That’s when he says to himself: ST3

If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,Without my stir (c. 1606).

Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth

TTa

TTb

TTc

TTd

171

Θέλει να γίνω βασιλιάς η μοίρα, τότε το στέμμα ας μου το βάλει η μοίρα, δίχως καμιά δική μου ενέργεια (1926: 32). BT. If fate wants me to become a king, then fate shall crown me, with no action of mine. Αν η τύχη με θέλει βασιλιά, ε, η τύχη ας μου βάλει το στέμμα δίχως να ενεργήσω εγώ (1927: 29). BT. If chance wants me king, then, let chance crown me without me acting. Εάν η Συγκυρία με χρίσει βασιλιά, η Συγκυρία θα μου φορέσει και το στέμμα: εγώ δεν κάνω καμία κίνηση (2007: 21). BT. If Coincidence crowns me king, Coincidence will crown me: I don’t do anything. Εάν με θέλει βασιλιά η τύχη, τότε η τύχη μόνη της ας μου φορέσει το στέμμα΄ εγώ δεν θα σαλέψω (2020: 20). BT. If chance wants me as king, then chance on her own shall crown me; I won’t budge.

ST chance, a generic term that does not overtly assume the supernatural is rendered as μοίρα (fate TTa), τύχη (fortune TTb and TTd) and TTc favours Συγκυρία (Coincidence TTc), with a capital case initial indicating importance or godly status. This means that worldly events take place at the same time with no visible cause-and-effect relation. In Act 3, Scene 1, the prophecy of the Weird Sisters has been fulfilled, and Macbeth is now king of Scotland, having assassinated king Duncan. His dear friend Banquo is having a soliloquy, commenting on Macbeth’s becoming king: ST4 TTa

TTb

TTc

TTd

Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, as the weird women promised, and, I fear, thou play’dst most foully for’t: (c. 1606). Να τα ‘χεις τώρα: κάουντορ, γκλάμις, βασιλιάς, όλα, καθώς σου τα έταξαν κείνες οι Μοίρες. Και φοβάμαι πως έχεις παίξει απαίσιο ρόλο σ’ αυτή την ιστορία (1926: 66). BT. Here you have them all: Cawdor, Glamis, king, everything, as those Fates promised to you. And I fear that you have played a terrible role in this story. Έγινες τώρα: βασιλιάς, Κάουντορ, Γκλάμις, όλα που σου ‘ταξαν οι μοίρες΄ και φοβάμαι πως πολύ άσκημα έπαιξες γι’ αυτό (1927: 57). BT. You have now become: king, Cawdor, Glamis, everything the Fates have promised you; and I fear you played very badly for this. Τώρα τα έχεις όλα όσα σου υποσχέθηκαν οι μοίρες: άρχοντας του Γκλάμις και του Κώντορ και βασιλιάς! Βέβαια φοβάμαι ότι έπαιξες πολύ βρώμικο παιχνίδι σ’ αυτή την ιστορία (2007: 57). BT. Now you have all the Fates promised to you: lord of Glamis and Cawdor and king! Of course, I fear you have played a very dirty game in this story. Τώρα τα έχεις όλα: βασιλιάς, Κώντορ, και Γκλαμς, όπως σου τα υποσχέθηκαν οι μάγισσες, κι έπαιξες βρόμικα, φοβάμαι, για να τα κερδίσεις (2020: 45).

172

A. Vasileiadis

BT. Now you have it all: king, Cawdor, and Glamis, as the witches have promised you, and you’ve played dirty, I fear, to win them The ST item weird women does not necessarily carry a metaphysical gloss. In contrast, TTa, TTb and TTc have preferred ‘fate’, highlighting the importance of destiny. TTd item ‘witches’ enforces mysticism and magic in the situation. In the same scene, Macbeth decides to have Banquo killed, as he is afraid of the line of kings who will supposedly spawn from him, as the Weird Sisters had prophesized. Macbeth thinks that Banquo is the only one who endangers his kinghood and he wants to eradicate him and his son at all costs: ST5 TTa

TTb

TTc

TTd

It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight, if it find heaven, must find it out to-night (c. 1606). Αποφασίστη! Μπάνκο αν είναι οι ουρανοί να δεχτούν την ψυχή σου, απόψε πάει εκεί (1926: 72). BT. It is decided! Banquo; if heaven is to admit your soul, tonight it goes there. Αποφασίστη: Μπάνκο αν είναι να βρεθεί στον ουρανό η ψυχή σου, απόψε πάει εκεί (1927: 63). BT. It is decided: Banquo if your soul is to be found in the sky/heaven, it goes there tonight. Τετέλεσται! Η ψυχή σου προς τον ουρανό οδεύει να βρει παράδεισο: κι απόψε ταξιδεύει (2007: 63). BT. It is done! Your soul is on its way to the sky to find heaven: and tonight it is travelling. Θεωρείται λήξαν. Μπάνκουο, αν η ψυχή σου είναι γραφτό να πάει στον Παράδεισο, θα γίνει απόψε αυτό! (2020: 50). BT. It is done. Banquo, if it is written that your soul goes to Heaven, this will happen tonight!.

Incident 5 shows that TTd displays higher awareness of destiny through item αν είναι γραφτό (if it is written TTd). We could also assume that TTc conveys a religious gloss through the item Τετέλεσται (it is over) an intertextual reference to the Bible, signifying the moment Christ gave his soul to God on the cross. In Act 4, Macbeth has consolidated his place on the throne and is constantly in a state of fearfulness of losing it. He wants to make sure that he will always be a king, not just temporarily. He visits the Weird Sisters, in order to further indulge in their witchcraft and learn what the future has for him. The Sisters then tell him that he shall reign until Birnam’s forest uproots and marches against him: ST6

TTa

Rebellion’s head, rise never till the wood Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath To time and mortal custom (c. 1606). Ω κεφαλή της ανταρσίας, μη σηκωθείς προτού να σηκωθεί το δάσος! Και πολύς στο θρόνο του θα ζήσει ο Μάκβεθ τον καιρό που η μοίρα του ‘χει ορίσει, ώστε με το στερνό να δώσει ανασασμό του αυτό που όλοι οι θνητοί χρωστούν, μια μέρα, στον καιρό και στη ζωή (1926: 95).

Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth

TTb

TTc

TTd

173

BT. Oh head of mutiny, don’t rise before the woods do! And Macbeth will live long on his throne for the time destiny has defined for him, so that with his last breath he gives what all mortals owe, a day, in time and in life. Κεφάλι μη σηκώσεις, ανταρσία, ωσότου να σηκωθεί το δάσος Μπέρναμ΄ στο καστέλι του θα ζει ο Μακμπέθ τον βίο του, ώσπου στον καιρό του ν’ αφήσει την πνοή του κατά τη θνητή συνήθεια (1927: 84). BT. Head don’t raise mutiny, until the Birnam’s woods rise; in his castle Macbeth will live his life, until he gives his breath to the time as is mortal custom. Ανήσυχε νεκρέ, ποτέ σου δεν θα εγερθείς ωσότου αρχίσει να περπατάει το δάσος του Μπέρναμ και ο Μακμπέθ, που έφτασε τόσο ψηλά, ένοικος θα είναι στη γη όσο έχει συμβόλαιο με τη φύση, μέχρι τη στιγμή που θα πληρώσει με την τελευταία του ανάσα το αντίτιμο που καταβάλουν όλοι οι θνητοί (2007: 88). BT. Restless dead one, you will never rise until Birnam’s forest starts walking; and Macbeth, who has come so high, will be a dweller on the Earth for as long as he has a contract with nature, until he pays with his last breath the price that all mortals pay. Νεκρός εχθρός μου δεν θ’ αναστηθεί προτού το δάσος απ’ το Μπέρναμ να ξεσπιτωθεί. Και στα ύψη θρονισμένος ο Μακμπέθ, θα ζήσει για όσο είναι προορισμένος απ’ τη φύση, στο χρόνο ξεπληρώνοντας την οφειλή του σαν όλους τους θνητούς με τη στερνή πνοή του (2020: 68). BT. A dead enemy of mine will not rise until Birnam’s forest is uprooted. And in heights Macbeth is reigning, he will live for as long as he is destined by nature, in time paying his debt like all mortals with his last breath.

The ST item lease of nature does not assume supernatural intervention. TTa item τον καιρό που η μοίρα του ‘χει ορίσει (the time destiny has defined) and TTd προορισμένος απ’ τη φύση (destined by nature) are the versions which most eloquently highlight human inability to affect one’s own life span. TTc item έχει συμβόλαιο με τη φύση (has a contract with nature) assumes a more active involvement of the individual; a conscious agreement one makes with somebody is a voluntary action. The rhyming and rhythm in TTd further convey a ‘mystifying effect’. A moment after the announcement of Lady Macbeth’s death, Macbeth comments on life, its futile nature and how death is related to time and destiny: ST7

TTa

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death (c. 1606). Όλο αύριο, και αύριο, και αύριο, σέρνεται αργά με το κοντό του βήμα από μέρα σε μέρα ως τη στερνή τη συλλαβή που γράφει η Μοίρα. Και όλα μας τα χτες έχουν φωτίσει μόνο τρελούς στο δρόμο που οδηγεί στου θανάτου το χώμα (1926: 126). BT. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, it creeps with its little pace from day to day till the last syllable that Fate writes. And all our yesterdays have lighted only lunatics on the road that leads to death’s soil.

174

TTb

TTc

TTd

A. Vasileiadis

Το αύριο και το αύριο και το αύριο σέρνεται με το μικρό του βήμα ημέρα την ημέρα ως τη στερνή γραμμένη συλλαβή του χρόνου΄ κι όλα τα χτες μας φώτιζαν τον δρόμο, σε τρελούς, για τη σκόνη του τάφου (1927: 111). BT. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps with its little pace day by day till the last written syllable of time; and all our yesterdays were lighting the way, to lunatics, for the dust of the grave. Το αύριο, που φέρνει το άλλο αύριο, και το άλλο αύριο: σέρνονται αργά, βήμα το βήμα, μέρα τη μέρα, ως την έσχατη συλλαβή του χρόνου που θα καταγραφεί. Και όλα τα δικά μας Χθες φωτίσανε πολλών ανόητων θνητών τον δρόμο προς τον θάνατο και την ανωνυμία της σκόνης (2007: 122). BT. Tomorrow, which brings another tomorrow, and another tomorrow: They creep, step by step, day by day, to the last syllable of time which will be recorded. And all our Yesterdays have lighted many foolish mortals’ ways to death and dust’s anonymity. Το αύριο, και το αύριο, και το αύριο σέρνεται με το βηματάκι αυτό, μέρα τη μέρα, μέχρι να διαβαστεί του χρόνου το γραφτό ως το τέλος΄ και όλα μας τα χθες, φωτίζανε το δρόμο σε ανόητους, να φτάσουν ως το θάνατο, ως το χώμα (2020: 92) . BT. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps with this little step, day by day, until what time has written to be read till the end; and all our yesterdays, have lighted the way to fools, to reach death, to reach the soil.

This incident is one that may add to the findings; even though there is no specific term in the ST referring to destiny or fate, all Greek TTs have included such a term, by either more explicitly referring to ‘Fate’ or more implicitly referring to something which has been written down. In the last words of the play, Macduff has slain Macbeth the usurper of the throne and Malcolm has now become king of Scotland. After being congratulated and hailed as king, he remarks as follows concerning the future of Scotland and its people: ST8 TTa

TTb

TTc

TTd

this, and what needful else That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, We will perform in measure, time and place (c. 1606). Αυτά, κι ό,τι άλλο μένει ακόμα για να γίνει, με τη βοήθεια Εκείνου που βοηθά από πάνω, οπόταν, κι όπου, κι όπως πρέπει, θα το κάνω (1926: 135). BT. These, and whatever else remains to be done, with the help of Him that helps from above, whenever and wherever and however, I will do. Αυτά κι ό,τι άλλο μας καλεί η ανάγκη, με τη χάρη της Χάρης θα το κάνουμε «εν καιρώ και τόπω» (1927: 119). BT. These and whatever else need calls us to do, by the grace of Grace, we will do “in due time and place”. Αυτά και ό,τι άλλο χρειαστεί πράξη θα κάνω με τη βοήθεια του Θεού: με μέτρο θα γίνουν όλα, όταν και όπως πρέπει (2007: 131). BT. These and whatever else needs action I will do with the help of God: with measure all will be done, when and how they should. Αυτά, και όσα ακόμα κρίνουμε αναγκαία, και με την ευλογία Εκείνου που τα πάνθ’ ορά, θα γίνουν εν ευθέτω χρόνω και με ορθή σειρά (2020: 99).

Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth

175

BT. These, and whatever else we judge as necessary, and with the eulogy of Him who watches everything, will happen in due time and in the right order. This is the only part where Shakespeare explicitly personifies an otherworldly element and gives it humane characteristics. First, TTa item τη βοήθεια Εκείνου (the help of Him) clearly alludes to the one Christian God. Additionally, ‘The grace of Grace’, one might assume is the ‘divine authority of the King’: a King was considered to be God’s anointed, at Shakespeare’s time. Even still, Shakespeare’s stance towards kingship can be considered ambiguous (McCoy 2004). We should not forget that Macbeth, a usurper and murderer was also king for a time, so we may consider the fact that Shakespeare might be critical and ironic towards monarchy and its ‘divine’ character. On the other hand, TTa, TTc and TTd all render ST Grace with more or less explicit references to the Christian God. TTc is the only point where God is referred to by name. Only in TTb, Rotas, a Marxist, did not stray from the original, using ‘religion-neutral’ terminology. The Christian religion preaches that God is the sole force that controls and alters a person’s destiny and that he has a plan for every human being. Humans of course exercise free will which contradicts the Christian concept of predestination, although their actions are inclined to be in accordance with God’s desire (Karamanolis 2000). Therefore, we may infer that God and Destiny are one, for the sake of this study.

4 Results and Discussion Results showed that the Greek TTs of Macbeth seem to display a higher destiny awareness than the original text. The TTs display destiny-oriented items which do not appear in the source text. Findings are summarized in Fig. 1. The figure shows that: • Every Greek TT favours the use of destiny terms in contrast to the ST, which makes use of just two destiny terms in all eight incidents. • TTb rendered by Vasilis Rotas, comprises the fewest destiny terms. • TTa and TTd by Kostas Karthaios and Nikos Chatzopoulos, respectively, carry the most destiny references. They are the TTs which are further away from the source version in terms of references to destiny. • TTb and TTc, rendered by Vasilis Rotas and Errikos Belies, respectively, sit right between TTa and TTd. They display mirrored results to each other. Figure 2 shows the percentage rates of the overall destiny terms in ST and TTs. All Greek texts have a significantly higher rate of destiny items vs. the ST. The Greek translations show a high awareness of destiny. Three out of four texts have at least doubled the destiny terms vs. the ST. TTb is the only Greek TT where the

176

A. Vasileiadis

Incidents with and without destiny terms 7 6

7

In. 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 5

5

In.2,4,5,6,7,8 In.2,5,6,7,8 3

In. 1,3 2

3 In.1,2,3,4,8

In. 5

ST

TTa

1

TTb

Incidents with destiny terms

In.4

In.5,6,7

In.1,3,4

1

In.1,2,3,5,6,7,8

TTc

TTd

Incidents without destiny terms

Fig. 1 Non-/emergence of destiny-related terms in ST and TTs

Percentage usage of destiny terms 88%

TTD

4 Greek TTs

63%

TTC

38%

TTB

88%

TTA

25%

ST 0

20

40

60

80

100

Fig. 2 Percentages of the overall occurrences of destiny terms in ST and TTs

destiny references were few evidently because the translator wished to debunk the text of its metaphysical aspects. The question arises as to why the translators have heighted awareness of the notion of destiny. Did they anticipate that it meets audience expectations? An emic perspective to the study may shed light on the appropriateness of raising destiny awareness through the TTs. A questionnaire addressing a group of fifteen postgraduate students in their late 20s and early 30s, who are aware of the importance of translator insight

Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth

177

in meeting the needs of an audience, wondered whether destiny awareness may be preferred by present day audiences. The questionnaire comprised four items. First, people were asked if they believe in the notion of destiny or not. Then, they were presented with three of the instances described above and two possible translations of them; one which makes use of a destiny item and one which does not. The aim of this questionnaire was to examine if the participants considered the destiny-oriented translations to be more appropriate on stage. The questionnaire was in Greek and appears in the appendix. Below are the questionnaire findings (Fig. 3). Most of the respondents believe in the notion of destiny, as shown by their answer to the first question of the questionnaire. The second question was Instance 3 and the participants had to choose between TTc3 and TTa3 (Fig. 4). Twelve out of fifteen participants chose the destiny-oriented translation. Some of the explanations were: ‘I chose the second translation because it refers to destiny

Fig. 3 Findings: Do you believe in the notion of destiny?

Fig. 4 Findings: Coincidence vs. fate

178

A. Vasileiadis

Fig. 5 Findings: It is concluded, Banquo

and not to mere chance’, ‘I think this is how we would say it in Greek’, ‘The word chance here means destiny’. The third question was Instance 5 where participants had to choose between TTd5 and TTc5 (Fig. 5). Twelve out of fifteen participants chose the destiny-oriented translation (the first option) once more. Some of their justifications were: ‘I feel like the reference to heaven goes hand in hand with fate’, ‘είναι γραφτό [it has been written] is a very common phrase in Greek’, ‘The phrase είναι γραφτό sounds closer to us culturally’. The last question was Instance 6 where respondents had to choose between TTd6 and TTc6 (Fig. 6).Nine participants chose the destiny-oriented translation and six the non-destiny-oriented one. An indicative explanation highlighted the appropriateness of referring to destiny in a target version:

Fig. 6 Findings: Rebellion’s head rise never till the wood of Birnam rise

Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth

179

I chose the first translation because it sounds more poetic. I understand from the lexical and grammatical characteristics that it has been written many years ago. However, it still reflects our beliefs for Resurrection after death, for the central role destiny plays in our lives, as in the example θα ζήσει όσο είναι προορισμένος από τη φύση. I feel like the reference to predestination is more appropriate and clearer, for a Greek target audience (A respondent’ view).

Questionnaire results show that the majority of respondents preferred the TTs that indicated a certain sense of destiny awareness to be more appropriate and in accordance with the Greek expectations. It is worth noting that many of their justifications referred to ‘appropriateness’ and ‘conventionality’. Besides, respondents were aware that the text is a tragedy. Tragedy is a literary genre where main and side characters are frequently shown to be trying to escape their fate, even fighting against it. This may be another reason why questionnaire respondents chose the destiny-oriented option as the most appropriate.

5 Conclusion As suggested, according to Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars, there are communities of practice which rely on fate and others that do not. ‘Inner direction’ highlights self-determination, ‘outer direction’ communities rely more on luck, fate and circumstance. This is evident even in automobile advertising translation where reference to fate is a cultural variable (Sidiropoulou 2018): ‘Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars measure inner/outer direction by questions highlighting the advantages of selfdetermination and inner control vs. “the advantages of contingency, luck, fate, and circumstance” (2000: 238)’. The former group are those communities of practice who believe that virtues and values exist ‘deep within’. On the other end of the spectrum, there are communities of practice who believe that virtue exists outside of our person, it exists ‘in natural rhythms, in the beauties and power of nature, in aesthetic environments and relationships’ (Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars ibid). Even if their work centres and concerns entrepreneurial organization, where such preferences are traced in the business world, these considerations seem to have a wider resonance to other communities of practice. The findings of text analysis from the naturalistic translation data and those elicited by experimental methods, the respondents’ answers to the questionnaire, confirm the hypothesis made in the introduction of this study, which suggested that Greek translations of Shakespeare’s Macbeth may have a tendency to display higher destiny awareness than the ST does. A limitation of the study may be its limited range of respondents: the participants of the questionnaire were of a certain age group (20s to 30s), which is also less than what it would have been a more inclusive and universal portion of the population, e.g. if both older and younger age groups had participated. Further studies need to be conducted so as to show if such a tendency in Greek literary translations may be well received. Also, additional material, genres and

180

A. Vasileiadis

content may be investigated and researched to suggest whether references to fate and luck may be appreciated.

Appendix. Questionnaire: Destiny awareness in Greek versions of Macbeth 1.

Do you believe in the notion of destiny? Yes No

Please choose one of the following renditions relying on your perception of what would be appropriate on stage. 2.

‘If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir’. This is an extract from the play. Which of the following Greek translations do you think to be the most appropriate? • «Εάν η Συγκυρία με χρίσει βασιλιά, η Συγκυρία θα μου φορέσει και το στέμμα: εγώ δεν κάνω καμία κίνηση». • «Θέλει να γίνω βασιλιάς η μοίρα, τότε το στέμμα ας μου το βάλει η μοίρα, δίχως καμιά δική μου ενέργεια». Why did you make this decision? ……………………………………………………………………………………

3.

‘It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul’s flight, if it find heaven, must find it out tonight’. This is an extract from the play. Which of the following Greek translations do you think to be the most appropriate? * • «Θεωρείται λήξαν. Μπάνκουο, αν η ψυχή σου είναι γραφτό να πάει στον Παράδεισο, θα γίνει απόψε αυτό!» • «Τετέλεσται! Η ψυχή σου προς τον ουρανό οδεύει να βρει παράδεισο: κι απόψε ταξιδεύει». Why did you make this decision? ……………………………………………………………………………………

4.

‘Rebellion’s head, rise never till the wood Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath To time and mortal custom’. This is an extract from the play. Which of the following Greek translations do you think to be the most appropriate? • «Νεκρός εχθρός μου δεν θ’ αναστηθεί προτού το δάσος απ’ το Μπέρναμ να ξεσπιτωθεί. Και στα ύψη θρονισμένος ο Μακμπέθ, θα ζήσει για όσο είναι προορισμένος απ’ τη φύση, στο χρόνο ξεπληρώνοντας την οφειλή του σαν όλους τους θνητούς με τη στερνή πνοή του».

Translating Destiny in Greek Versions of Macbeth

181

• «Ανήσυχε νεκρέ, ποτέ σου δεν θα εγερθείς ωσότου αρχίσει να περπατάει το δάσος του Μπέρναμ και ο Μακμπέθ, που έφτασε τόσο ψηλά, ένοικος θα είναι στη γη όσο έχει συμβόλαιο με τη φύση, μέχρι τη στιγμή που θα πληρώσει με την τελευταία του ανάσα το αντίτιμο που καταβάλουν όλοι οι θνητοί». Why did you make this decision? ………………………………………………………………………………… Τhank you for your help!

References Beardwood, R., and K. Macdonell. 2007. Insight text guide: William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. St Kilda: Insight Publications. Hampden-Turner, C.M., and F. Trompenaars. 2000. Building cross-cultural competence: How to create wealth from conflicting values. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. Karamanolis, G. 2000. Academy of Athens, Books and Readers, Choricius of Gaza, Diogenes Laertius, Epigram, Fate, Orphism, Peripatos, Pyrrho, Zeno. In Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic tradition, 1, ed. Graham Speake, 610–611. London: Routledge. McCoy, R.C. 2004. ‘The grace of grace’ and Double-Talk in Macbeth. Shakespeare Survey, 57: 27–37. Sidiropoulou, M. 2018. Markets and the creative paradigm: Identity variability in English-Greek translated promotional material. JoSTrans 29: 102–125.

Electronic Sources Ellenberger, K., C. Engle, T. Kreydt, and C. Way. n.d. WEEK’s Macbeth analysis. http://weeksm acbeth.weebly.com/literary-analysis.html. Accessed 28 July 2021. Frey, A. 2020, January 29. ‘Macbeth’: Themes and symbols. https://www.thoughtco.com/macbeththemes-and-symbols-4581247. Accessed 28 July 2021. Mambrol, N. n.d. Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. https://literariness.org/2020/07/25/ analysis-of-william-shakespeares-macbeth/. Accessed 28 July 2021.

Texts Shakespeare, William. c. 1606, Tragedy of Macbeth. Ware: Wordsworth Editions. Ουίλλιαμ Σαίξπηρ. 1926. Μάκβεθ (transl. Kostas Karthaios). Αθήνα: Πατάκης. Ουίλλιαμ Σαίξπηρ. 1927. Μάκμπεθ (transl. Vasilis Rotas). Αθήνα: Επικαιρότητα. Ουίλλιαμ Σαίξπηρ. 2007. Μάκμπεθ (transl. Errikos Belies). Αθήνα: Kέδρος. Ουίλιαμ Σαίξπηρ. 2020. Μάκμπεθ (transl. Nikos Chatzopoulos). Αθήνα: Εθνικό Θέατρο.

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese Zhan Zhang

Abstract Innovative proper names, whimsical employment of wordplay and acoustic features of a language are highlights of children’s literature in terms of creating childness, constructing characters and producing humour. Such linguistic creativity, however, is language-specific and could not be easily transferred to other languages in a similar vein. This study examines translation strategies employed in Hu’s (2013) Mandarin Chinese version of Eugene Trivizas’ Greek children’s story, The Last Black Cat, attempting to shed light on a less-widely examined language pair, like Greek-Chinese. Specifically, it discusses translation techniques of proper names, transfer of wordplay and sound-play, with respect to the effectiveness of the translation strategies involved. Adopting firstly an etic approach, the current study observes that the original work exploits nonsensical content in combination with rhyming in slogans to demonstrate the irrationality of social discrimination and the beast in humankind, whereas the Chinese translation prioritizes semantic rendering due to linguistic constraints. The study then takes an emic stance by distributing questionnaires to 10 second-year Chinese university students of Greek language major to examine target reader reception of the strategies. Participants had to choose from two Chinese options according to their own liking: one is Hu’s translation which focuses on semantic meanings, the other is my creative translation version emphasizing fluency and naturalness through linguistic and cultural adaptation. Results suggest an overall preference for localized rendering over a faithful representation of semantic meanings. The paper draws attention to the interaction between GreekChinese through translation, a language pair that has less widely attracted the attention of scholars, and suggests directions for future research regarding pragmatic issues in children’s literature. Keywords Children’s literature · Readability · Translation of proper names · Wordplay · Sound-play Z. Zhang (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] Tianjin Foreign Studies University, Tianjin, China © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_12

183

184

Z. Zhang

1 Introduction Translating for children usually involves transcreation (Dybiec-Gajer 2020) where concepts of pragmatics such as implicature, humour and politeness are of paramount importance and quite challenging when translators aim at effective intercultural communication. Humour, for example, is not perceived and understood in a unitary way: sociocultural and discoursal context, relationships between interactants, recipients’ values and personal interpretations, etc. may have an impact on the realization of its final effect (Tsakona 2013). When one steps out of the adult’s world, into the imaginative cosmos of children, similar problems emerge. The translation of children’s literature constitutes a special kind of cultural communication: in order to achieve an effective rendition, translators have to overcome not only linguistic and cultural hurdles, but also to care for the unique demands of a rather different readership. Having children as recipients, the question arises whether translators approach pragmatic issues in the same way they do when translating adult literature. “Childness”, the “quality of being a child: dynamic, imaginative, experimental, interactive and unstable” (Hollindale 1997: 46), is a common trait in children; the way it is manifested through literature, however, may vary across communities of practice, and perhaps across cultures. Delivering an appropriate level of “childness” seems to involve a balance between emotional content, creativity, clarity of expression and linguistic playfulness. Translating children’s stories from various cultural backgrounds is essential in educating future citizens with a global vision and critical thinking. Children’s literature written in less widely spoken languages, such as Greek, can sometimes be overlooked on the book market and in the process of cultural exchange. Discussions over translation strategies between language pairs that do not involve English (for example, Greek and Mandarin Chinese) are rare in the field. Written language contact between Modern Greek and Mandarin Chinese is so far limited due to the lack of learning materials, references, cultural communication and scholars who may access both languages. Most of the Modern Greek literature was translated into Chinese through English or other European languages.1 Attempting to provide an overview on the Chinese approach to translating Greek children’s literature, this study examines the shifts and the translation techniques employed in Hu Jingjing’s (direct Greek-Chinese) translation of Trivizas’ novel The Last Black Cat as a case study.

1

Some examples are The Collected Poems of Cavafy (Huang 2002), Zorba the Greek (Fan and Wang 2016) and The Last Temptation of Christ (Dong and Fu 2007).

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese

185

2 Literature Review The definition of “children’s literature” has been broadly discussed but it remains a contentious issue. It points to both “literature produced and intended for children” and “literature read by children” (Oittinen 2002). This ambiguity in definition is sensible, considering the fact that the readership of children’s literature barely remains constant, “today’s adult literature may be tomorrow’s child literature” (Oittinen 2002: 67). There are many cases of books originally written for adults which later became children’s books, for example, The Little Prince, Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels. This also applies vice versa: children’s stories such as Little Nicholas, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory also received great popularity among adults. In fact, such works seem to address an ambivalent audience, because parents often accompany children in the reading (or in the viewing) experience. This dual readership requires translators to mediate between a proper representation of the themes for adults and a children-friendly narrative, especially when unfamiliar world knowledge, values, and concepts are introduced to young readers for the first time. In such cases, a dynamic and cheerful use of language is of significant concern to balance out or to “sugarcoat” the weightiness of serious topics that is actually discussed. Thus “readability, or ease of reading and understanding determined by linguistic difficulty” (Puurtinen 1998: 2) should be taken into consideration in the translation process, provided that the concept of readability of children’s literature may differ from that of adults’ literature. The “telling” aspect of a narrative, i.e., speakability (Snell-Hornby1988), is another important issue to address, as implied by the phrase “storytelling”. Stories, being influenced by their prominent oral heritage, bear features of orality even in written form (Hans-Heino 1992). This is especially true for children’s literature because children usually have stories read to them, aural texture of a story, such as acoustic vocabulary, rhythm, tone, punctuation and sound-play, is equally significant (Lathey 2008). Regarding linguistic styles of children’s literature, Puurtinen (1994: 85) suggests that dynamic style with simple syntactic constructions and finite words are generally preferred over the use of static styles (such as passive structures and embedded clauses) because the latter is more demanding on readers’ short-term memory and thus could interrupt the reading flow. According to Anderson-Cartlett (1984), children’s books overall favour lexical repetition, employ shorter sentences and dialogues, prefer words with Germanic roots rather than Latin roots. The simplified narration resembles day-to-day oral communication, a trait that might be consistent with the above-mentioned speakability issue. Linguistic variation in children’s books constitutes a topic of interest because it “serves an additional stylistic function compared with adults’ literature, since it can help making characters more recognizable to children” (Stamou 2012: 314).

186

Z. Zhang

3 Methodological Considerations The study examined the humorous effects emanating from the interrelation between ST surface content and implied meaning and juxtaposed it to the translation strategies used in the Chinese translation (transl. Hu 2013, People’s Literature Publishing House & Daylight Publishing House, Beijing) which had a rather foreignizing gloss. I tried my hand at applying a more domesticating approach in transferring certain points of the story into Chinese and then the study asked ten Chinese respondents to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies in Chinese. Results showed that domestication can create a more appealing transfer outcome, where childness may be more easily reproduced through wordplay which achieves a kind of “functional” equivalence.

4 Presentation of the Empirical Data As one of the modern Greek children’s stories that were brought to the Chinese audience through direct translation, Eugene Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat is a story that depicts human reality through the lens of the animal world. At a distant island, a group of scheming people attempted to divert public attention from the incompetence of the government and make black cats a scapegoat for all human misery. By propagating the superstitious idea that black cats bring misfortune and bad luck, the conspirators launched a ruthless slaughter campaign. In the face of this holocaust, the cats, however, have failed to band together and defend themselves. Soon, there was just one black cat left, and the nightmare slowly expanded to cats of other colours. The story mirrors a human society with racial discrimination, conspiracies, superstition, xenophobia and populism, drawing on George Orwell’s Animal Farm.2 Although the theme is weighty and adult-like, the story is narrated for children through an animal’s perspective, with rich humour. Implied meaning and linguistic creativity make this book a valuable source of data for examining the linguistic and cultural shifts which a translator may introduce into a target text to achieve appropriate levels of childness in the translation product. The following sections explore rendition of (1) proper names, (2) wordplay, and (3) rhymes and acoustic vocabulary.

4.1 Proper Names In literary works, characters’ names bear more information than being simply a way to address someone. Names entail semantic, semiotic and sound symbolic meanings (Fernandes 2006), carrying implied messages concerning characters, places, or objects. 2

From the book-cover of the Chinese edition (Hu 2013).

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese

187

With regard to the translation of names, there is currently no agreement in the field as to which strategy is the most appropriate. Some scholars assert that as culture-specific items, names should be preserved (Aixelá 1996) rather than localized, because they are representative of the cultural identity of the narration (Kurultay 1994, as cited in Thomson-Wohlgemuth, 1998). Others, on the other hand, are in favour of a domesticating approach, claiming that foreign names of unusual phonological sequences and rare spellings may create linguistic barriers for readers (Puurtinen 1995), whereas memorable and recognizable names facilitate reading (Tymoczko 1999). Therefore, in the face of foreign names, translators are expected to not only maintain their semiotic, semantic and sound symbolic meanings as much as possible, but also in a manner that does not collide with established linguistic patterns of the target language to avoid awkwardness. Below are some of the translation strategies observed in transferring proper names in Chinese.

4.1.1

Calque

Calque suggests “a special kind of borrowing where the SL expression or structure is transferred in a literal translation” (Munday 2016: 89). At the lexical level, calque usually refers to a morpheme-to-morpheme translation of the original word. In the translation of proper names, where culture-specific elements (e.g., suffixes) may not have TL equivalents, calque resembles a form of partial translation, that is to say, transferring embedded meaning components with certain modifications. Name 1 Tσαμπατζ´ικoς → 吃白食 The proper name Tσ αμπ ατ ζ ι´κ oς is a diminutive (-ικoς) of the Greek adjective τ ζ αμπ ατ ζ ης ´ (one who accepts free food from others without giving anything back as an exchange) and gives the name an affectionate gloss. By creating a new collocation, the Chinese translation renders the same meaning: 吃 (eat) 白 (without paying) 食 (food). Name 2 Mεταξoνoρης ´ → 茹丝 The first component of Mετ αξ oν o´ ρης comes from μετ αξ ´ ι (silk), while the suffix -oρης ´ is a typical suffix of Greek surnames. The creative credible combination helps build the social context of the story. The Chinese item 茹丝 is a combination of two characters, 茹 which phonetically imitates -νoρης, ´ and 丝 which means silk. Name 3 Koψoνoρης ´ → 砍手 This is the name of a cat character who always manages to steal fish from restaurants with both brawn and brain. The first component of the creative proper name Koψ oν o´ ρης derives from κ o´ βω (cut) and potentially from κ oψ´ιδι (grilled meat chops) and implying agility; as mentioned the -oρης ´ suffix is a typical suffix of Greek surnames. Its Chinese translation 砍手 means the “cutter” or “chopper”.

188

Z. Zhang

Name 4 αδoμoρης ´ → 油面孔 Λαδ oμo´ ρης is a cat character who lives in food stores and smells like caviar. The first component derives from the Greek word λαδι ´ (oil). As for the second component -μoρης, ´ apart from -oρης ´ being a common suffix for surnames, μoρη ´ is a low tenor item for “face”. The Chinese translation 油 (oil) 面孔 (face) is a morpheme-to-morpheme translation of the original item. The juxtaposition of character-indicating elements with customary name suffixes creates a humorous effect because what the character would potentially like to keep private (i.e., their true self) is blatantly obvious to the audience through their name.

4.1.2

Reduplication

Reduplication is a word-forming technique in Chinese. Being either total reduplication (doubling the entire free morpheme) or partial reduplication, it conveys profound lexical and semantic meanings. When used in adjectives, it serves as a modifier and helps achieve higher expressiveness. As stated by Liu (2013), stylistic repetition enables writers to underline the signified features of an adjective, attach weight to the narration, and help attract readers’ attention. In the phrase “伟伟大大的平凡” (“the great-great ordinary”), for instance, the adjective “伟大” (“great”) is duplicated because the information contained is to be highlighted so as to create a clear contrast with the noun “ordinary”. Through such repetition, readers are led to be more aware of the connoted message and the authors’ intention. Furthermore, the repetition of syllables also adds balance and clarity to the expression (Liu 2013), creating musicality and increasing both auditory and articulatory pleasure. When used in appellation, reduplication is a conventional way to express endearment and intimacy (Lim and Wee 2001). According to Wong (2003), reduplication in names is mostly child-orientated, that is, it usually appears in conversations where children are involved. Names with features of reduplication, he claims, can help achieve a soother children-adults interaction, because they resemble baby talk and are therefore easier for children to memorize and imitate. As the most frequently observed name translation technique in the Chinese version of The Last Black Cat, reduplication is usually employed in combination with other techniques. The following names, for instance, employ both techniques of reduplication and partial translation. Name 5 Moυντζoρης ´ → 黑点点 The proper name Moυντ ζ o´ ρης (from μoυντ ζ o´ ρα [coal dirt]) is not very likable due to its association with untidiness and poverty. Actually, the character itself admits that “I have an ugly name”. In Chinese 黑 means black, and the reduplicated morpheme 点 means dot(s). The use of reduplication softens the negative gloss the adjective carries, making the adjective sound less harsh and assigning it some degree of tenderness and affection. ´ Name 6 αλταπηδας → 蹦蹦

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese

189

´ The name Σαλτ απ ηδας ´ combines an Italian loan word in Greek (σαλτo [jump]) which carries the connotation of agility and the standard Greek verb π ηδ αω ´ (jump). When used as a nickname, it implies naughtiness. The Chinese translation 蹦蹦 is a reduplication of the single morpheme 蹦 (jump). This item could be easily associated with the set-phrase 蹦蹦跳跳 (jumping and bouncing around), alluding to an energetic and vivacious personality. Name 7 Nιαoυρ´ινoς → 喵喵 Nια oυρ´ιν oς comes from the Greek item νια´ oυ (miaow), an onomatopoeia of the crying of cats and the -ινoς suffix makes it a credible Greek surname. The reduplicated morpheme 喵 also indicates the sound of cats in Chinese. Name 8 Mπιζo´ → 珠珠 Mπ ιζ o´ is a French loan item which currently means “jewellery” in Greek. The same does the Chinese morpheme 珠. Moreover, in terms of pronunciation, the sound of 珠 resembles the -ζ o´ syllable, making the ST phonetically faithful to the TT.

4.1.3

Transliteration

Transliteration is the transferring of sounds into a target text. In the Greek-Chinese case, the sounds of each syllable of the Greek original are represented using various Chinese ideographs. As the most common practice in name translation across the world, transliteration is often used when there is no special meaning embedded. Several examples in The Last Black Cats are listed below: Name

ST

TT

9

Pαμσης ´

拉姆西

10

κρατσιšλα

格拉琪拉

11

Pασμ´ινoς

拉斯米诺斯

12

ι´oνα

菲奥娜

Sometimes Greek names can be polysyllable, especially surnames; in these cases, a full transliteration might sound clumsy, because native Chinese names usually contain only two to three ideographs. Thus, the translator chooses to translate only ´ the name and omit the surname, for example, “Aνšστης Aναπαιστoυ” as “阿奈斯 提” instead of the lengthy full transliteration “阿奈斯提 阿纳巴斯提乌”, to make those names easier to pronounce and to remember. At the end of this section, it is worth noting that the aforementioned strategies are usually used in combination to achieve better readability (for example “Mαυριλšνα” is translated into “黑莲娜3 ” resorting to both imitation and transliteration). 黑莲娜: “黑” is an imitation to the original suffix “Mαρ-”, ´ both meaning “black”; while “莲娜” is a transliteration of the rest syllables.

3

190

Z. Zhang

4.2 Wordplaying Wordplay adds extra semantic layers to the text and creates playfulness, encouraging children to appreciate and explore the potentialities of their native language. However, the play on words is often based on the rather arbitrary nature of linguistic symbols: this arbitrariness may cause translation difficulties, especially when the two languages are unrelated to each other (Weissbrod 1996). In The Last Black Cat, the author insightfully makes the Greek item for cat ´ (γατα) reverberate in the whole of the narration (as wordplay) by slightly distorting certain Greek items to resonate cats. He creatively replaces κατ a- prefixes of items, in terms of γ aτ α-, to create alliteration through wordplay, e.g., gata-zitountai for kata-zitountai, gata-didei for kata-didei etc. ST1 TT1 ST2

TT2 ST3 TT3 ST4 TT4

´ αταζητoνται ´ oι μαρες ´ γατες (2001: 120). BT. Black Cats are wanted 通缉黑猫 (2013: 87). BT. Black Cats are wanted ´ ´ καλo´ μαθητη´ ε´ιναι να γαταδ´ιδει šνα μαρo To καθηκoν τoυ καθε ´ γατ´ι (2001: 121). BT. The duty of every good student is to turn in a black cat 每个好学生的职责, 就是告 告发一只黑猫 (2013: 88). BT. The duty of every good student is to turn in a black cat ´ ´ ´ Oπoιoς πρoσϕšρει γαταϕγιo ´ σε μαυρη γατα…. (2001: 141). BT. Anyone who provides shelter to black cats… 任何给黑猫提供庇 庇护所的人…. (2013: 103). BT. Anyone who provides shelter to black cats… ´ υμβαλετε κι εσε´ις στην γαταπoλšμηση (2001: 146). BT. Come and contribute to the confrontation against... … 对抗…. (2013: 108). 你们也来帮忙对 BT. Come and help to confront against…

Since cats are the protagonists of the novel, this group of wordplay increases readability by highlighting the theme, triggering emotional response and creating humorous effects. The Chinese translation could not achieve the same outcome due to linguistic constraints. The back translations in English for both texts are the same because the wordplay and embedded pun in the original text cannot be easily rendered in English either, thus only the semantic meanings are presented. ST5 TT5

´ ´ ´ Aγαπητo´ι γατoι, γατες και συνεργατες (2001: 154). BT. Dear cats(male form) , cats (female form) and cooperators 亲爱的猫先生、猫女士和猫 猫同胞们 (2013: 115). BT. Dear Mr cat, Miss cat and compatriots/the fellow cats

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese

191

In ST5, the Greek item for cats(+female suffix) rhymes with the Greek item for cooperators creating a pun and a humorous effect because it implies that cats are ubiquitous. In Chinese, the pun is not reproduced4 but rather compensated for: the phrase “同 胞” implies both “fellow countryman; compatriot” and “those born of same parents” and the Chinese translation explores the ambiguity by creating a closer relationship among the cats, assuming solidarity (cats of the same origin that are deemed to be united for the same aim) and heightening collectivism. Although the wordplay and pun are inevitably lost, the Chinese translation compensates for the pun by semantically richer vocabulary. Another very interesting example would be the translation of a company’s name ´ ΦA.Π A.ΔOK, which consists of the initials of its three main products ϕ ακες , π αγ ι´δες και δ o´ κανα (mousetraps, traps, snares) (2001: 297). The company’s name appears in the novel in the very first chapters and remains a mystery to the protagonists until Chapter 29. In Chinese, this term is rendered as卜盛佳, an item that does not readily make sense to the target readers, just as ΦA. Π A. ΔOK. does not, to the Greek readers. The three characters卜, 盛, 佳 are homophones of 捕, 绳, 夹, which stand for 捕鼠器 (mousetraps), 绳套 (ropes), and 捕兽夹 (animal-traps), respectively. The original work employs abbreviations to create suspense, while the Chinese translation uses the play of homophonic words for the same effect. Apart from what has been said, in Greek, ΦA.Π A.ΔOK may create associations ´ with the A.OK (ανελληνιo oσιαλιστικ´o K´ινημα: Panhellenic Socialist Movement), a social-democratic political party of the past in Greece. Even though the author’s political stance is not clearly stated in the novel, it is possible that the name of this company serves as an allegorical device, discreetly ridiculing the reality of Greek politics. Besides, the first two syllables ΦA.Π A. in Greek stands for “slap” or “smack”, hinting at violence, aggression, and conspiracy. Due to the lack of equal background, the Chinese translation could not create the same allusions.

4.3 Rhythm and Aural Texture The aural texture of a story, which may include or allude to lullabies, nursery rhymes and jingles, is important to children who are in the stage of discovering the power and joy of the phonology of their own language (Lathey 2008). In The Last Black Cat, the play of sounds seems to achieve mainly two functions: (1) to allude to certain qualities of the characters, and (2) being used in slogans and signposts where the texts need to be concise, emotionally powerful, catchy and memorable.

4

Mr and Ms are simply added to function as gender indices.

192

4.3.1

Z. Zhang

Sound-play, Alliteration and the Construction of Characters

The following example is from Chapter 14 of the novel. With black cats being on the verge of extinction, the protagonist manages to organize a gathering of all cats on the island, trying to unite them to change the situation that they are facing. At the meeting, characters’ personalities are highlighted via the ways they speak (e.g. some are indifferent and selfish, some compete to be leaders, some are arrogant and pretentious…). The sentence in ST6 is uttered by a cat who, according to the author, is “goodwilled, but when he speaks in public, he tends to say things that he himself could not understand to assert himself” (Trivizas 2001: 161). In the source text, the two nonsense words κρ o´ σ ιμη and κρ ασ ´ ιμη are similar in pronunciation with κρ´ισ ιμη (crucial) but they are not actual words in dictionaries. The alliteration and assonance (repetition of sounds “κρι” and “σιμη”), on the one hand, makes the text sound like a cheerful tongue-twister when read aloud; and on the other hand, this kind of hollow and ludicrous language manifests the pretentious identity of the character in a rather humorous and dynamic way. The Chinese translation uses a series of words that end with “急” (rush) to achieve the same effect. The words 惜 (xi) and 利 (li) also rhyme with 急 (ji) to produce musicality. ST6

TT6

4.3.2

´ ´ ´ Oντως η κατασταση ε´ιναι κρ´ισιμη, αρχισε. εν ε´ιναι κρ´oσιμη. Oτε ´ ´ κρασιμη. E´ιναι κρ´ισιμη. Kαι ε´ιναι κρ´ιμα πoυ ε´ιναι κρ´ισιμη, γιατ´ι θα ´ ´ ´ να μην ηταν κρ´ισιμη. (2001: 161). ηταν χρησιμo BT. Indeed the situation is crucial, (he) started. It’s not cricial. Not cracial. It’s crucial. And it’s a pity that it’s crucial, because it would be useful if it was not crucial “事实上, 现在情况很危 危急”他开始发言, “不是着 着急, 也不是心 心急, 是危 危急 。而且很可 可惜是危 危急, 因为如果不是危 危急的话就会对我们很有 有利”(2013: 120–121). BT. “The truth is that, the situation now is crucial” he started his speech “It’s not rushy, not impatient. It is crucial. And it’s a pity that it’s crucial, because if it was not crucial, it would be beneficial to us” Sound-play and Rhyme in Slogans

Nonsensical slogans are frequently used to demonstrate the irrationality and fanatic behaviour of the crowd when misled by wrong political beliefs and conspiracies. The rhyming couplets in Greek are humorous because they elaborate rhyming contrasts with nonsensical content which heightens awareness of the nonsensical nature of racism. The Chinese versions, in TTs 7, 8, 9, skip rhyming and prioritize semantic meaning. ST7 TT7

´ ´ Aν πετχεις ´ μαρη ´ γατα, πšταξš της δšκα πιατα! (2001: 134). BT. If you encounter a black cat, throw it ten plates! (rhyming in Greek) 如你巧遇黑猫, 丢他十个盘子! (2013: 99).

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese

ST8 TT8 ST9 TT9

193

BT. If you encounter a black cat, throw him ten plates! ´ ´ Tην δoυλεια´ παρατα, και πν´ιγε μια μαρη ´ γατα! (2001: 134). BT. Abandon work, and drown a black cat (rhyming in Greek) 放下工作, 淹死黑猫! (2013: 99). BT. Put down work, drown black cat(s)! ´ ´ Tη γρoυσoυζια´ σταματα! κ´ισε μια μαρη ´ γατα! (2001: 135). BT. Stop the jinx! Cleave a black cat! (rhyming in Greek) 终结噩运!撕碎黑猫! (2013: 100). BT. Stop the jinx! Cleave black cat(s)!

The study took an etic approach to the data by describing what the translation strategies are and accounting for the effect they compensate for. The study will now take an emic approach to the translated data, accessing native speakers’ view on the effectiveness of certain translation strategies in the Chinese version.

5 Target Reader Reception To testify the effectiveness of the aforementioned translation strategies and look into readers’ preferences on certain issues, a questionnaire was distributed to 10 secondyear Chinese students from Tianjin Foreign Studies University. All students are native Chinese speakers and major in modern Greek. In the first part of the questionnaire, students were instructed to choose from two options of proper names according to the personality or physical traits of the characters. The original Greek names were not provided, so that students are not tempted to choose the most literal version, out of appreciation for the original, but to assess the properties and appropriateness of the options. In all three examples, Hu’s translation focuses on semantic rendering (see Sect. 4.1.1); while my translations explore Chinese conventional co-occurrence of words and attempt to create naturalness at the expense of a faithful representation of semantic meanings. For name 3, the creative translation “闪电侠” contains two semantic components, “闪电” meaning “lightning/flash”, and “侠” referring to Chinese knights-errant. The morpheme “侠” has a strong heroic resonance and is commonly used in children’s cartoons and Chinese Kong-Fu novels. Although the meaning of κ o´ βω (cut) is omitted, the character’s nimbleness is expressed in a localized way. As for name 2, “胖油仔” is not an accurate representation, since the morpheme “胖” (fatty) adds extra semantic meaning to the original. The well-being of this cat character is implied by the original component “λαδo” (suggesting that he/she is well-fed) but expressed explicitly in my translation. The last morpheme “仔” is a common name suffix (mostly used in southern China) to address young men in informal situations. The use of target culture-specific elements increases naturalness and familiarity. Similarly, in the last example, the semantic message embedded in “偷吃鼠” is slightly altered, but is more or less the same spirit. “偷吃” means “steal to eat” and “鼠”

194

Z. Zhang

Table 1 Translation of proper names Semantic rendering

Cultural and linguistic adaptation

Name 3: Koψoνoρης ´

砍手 (0%)

闪电侠(100%)

闪电(flash/lightning) 侠 (man, knights-errant, has a heroic gloss)

Name 4: αδoμoρης ´

油面孔 (10%)

胖油仔 (90%)

胖(fatty) 油(oil) 仔( used to address young men, informal)

Name 1: Tσαμπατζ´ικoς

吃白食 (40%)

偷吃鼠 (60%)

偷吃(stealing food to eat) 鼠(mouse)

means “mouse”. Whereas, the original name only indicates that the character “eats free food”. Results suggest a general preference of natural translations (100% of the students favoured the adapted version in the case of name 1, 90% for name 2, and 60% for name 3, as demonstrated in Table 1) over faithful semantic renderings. The second part of the questionnaire examined slogans discussed in Sect. 4.3.2. In each question, participants had to choose between two options, among which, one (Hu’s translation) faithfully delivers the original’s semantic meaning, the other (my translation) focuses on stylistic features such as rhyming. Participants were not provided with the original text and were even unaware that both Chinese texts are translations. Their choices were based on their reading experience only. In ST6, my translation sacrifices the nonsensical item (i.e. throw ten plates) of the original and replaces it with a simpler statement. The humorous effect of the nonsensical is lost at the expense of naturalness. In my translation of ST7, the message is also delivered in a localized manner. For the last slogan, my translation adds rhyming. The violence embedded in the original text (e.g. Σκ´ισ ε [tear (a black cat) apart]) and the dramatic effect created, however, fail to be delivered. As demonstrated in Table 2, participants’ preferences are not polarized on this topic. But still there is a obvious preponderance of those who favour stylistic renderings (40% vs 60% in the first example, 30% vs. 70% in the second). Students’ answers on the third example show no particular preference in either case. In the last section, students were asked to produce their own innovative translations for ST5 and ST6 (discussed in Sect. 4.2 and 4.3.1). Although some of the answers do not make sense, their efforts to create dynamic equivalence and to produce the same effect as the original, by using homophonic words, Chinese-specific expressions or/and common phrases, are evident.

6 Discussion As indicated by the above analysis, Hu’s translation of Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat took a rather foreignizing approach. When it is impossible to preserve the meaning of

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese

195

Table 2 Translation of slogans Semantic rendering

Stylistic adaptation

ST7: Aν πετχεις ´ μαρη ´ γατα, ´ πšταξš της δšκα πιατα! ´

如你巧遇黑猫, 丢他 十个盘子! (40%)

看到黑猫 猫, 一个不饶 饶! (60%)

BT: (if you) See black cats, spare no one! [rhyming in Chinese]

ST8: Tην δoυλεια´ παρατα, ´ και πν´ιγε μια μαρη ´ γατα! ´

放下工作, 淹死黑猫! (30%)

除害祸在 在前, 谋私活 在后! (70%)

BT: Eradicate scourges first, do personal jobs later. [parallel structure]

ST9: Tη γρoυσoυζια´ ´ σταματα! κ´ισε μια ´ μαρη ´ γατα!

终结噩运, 撕碎黑猫! (50%)

铲除黑猫 猫, 生活更好 好! (50%)

BT: Eradicate black cats, life will be better! [rhyming in Chinese]

multi-layers of the source text, features such as rhyming and wordplay are sometimes neglected for the sake of semantic faithfulness. In the context of children’s literature, the long-held discussion of domestication and foreignization method (Venuti 1995) may be approached differently. Results from the above reception study suggest an overall preference for natural expressions in the target environment over semantic faithfulness. Domesticating awkward foreign collocations with natural expressions can meet target readers’ expectations and their habitual use of language, and thus produces familiarity between text and readership. This seems even more the case in children’s literature, in reading comprehension and other language skills in general. Children do not process literature as a piece of art, but merely stories to be read or heard. Stories will firstly be understood and then be appreciated. This priority of intelligibility highlights the necessity for appropriate cultural, linguistic and stylistic adaptation. Children do not dwell on nuances of a text but tend to grasp the spirit and enjoy the atmosphere. While omission of excessive wordplay may result in a plain and monotonous narrative, over-explanations and “trying hard to be funny” approaches at any cost, would also bring a counter-effect. Consequently, childness could be simply explained as “understandable and enjoyable to children”. Even failing to render the same playfulness level embedded in the language of the original, a translated text can still be enjoyable. The relativity of what is “understandable”, “enjoyable” and “humorous” makes the notion of “childness” also relative. Another pragmatic issue to be addressed is the translation of verbal humour. The so-called Incongruity-resolution theory suggests that humour is created when inconsistencies are related (Beattie 1776). That is to say, humour comes with cognitive “surprises”. To produce humour, an expression needs to defy readers’ expectations, yet still be understandable following an alternative explanation (Vandaele 2010). The analysed proper names and slogans of the original text are considered humorous because they combine credible linguistic forms with nonsensical contents so as to

196

Z. Zhang

build more vivid characters and to highlight the morale of the story. The Chinese translations, given the cultural and linguistic restraints, used different incongruities to achieve the same effect, pursuing functional equivalence. Apart from reconstructing incongruities, humour translation is also “group- or culture- specific” (Vandaele 2010: 149), an aspect which is well manifested in translating for children. Cultural differences surely affect the perception and transfer of humour and childness. According to Hofstede’s (1990) cultural dimension theory, for example, China has higher power-distance, and is culturally more collectivistic and masculine than Greece. Lewis’ (2005) model of cross-culture communication also indicates that China as a reactive culture, is more compromising and prone to void conflicts; while Greece as a multi-active culture, is impulsive and emotional. Pragmatically speaking, these differences are possible to make “what is funny in one culture” bizarre or even unacceptable in the other. But what may be worth contemplating is whether children are immersed and influenced by the overall cultural mindset at the same degree as adults. It takes time for humankind to develop a sense of belonging with their tribes. Children, who are young, unsophisticated, not aware of stereotypes and taboos, may perceive cultural differences from a different angle. In this sense, we could ask whether translators could be more daring in preserving cultural differences when translating for children. Future studies can be conducted regarding children’s reception of pragmatic issues to develop a fuller understanding of this concept. Either way, it is important for translators to consider the approximate age range, background (cultural and linguistic) knowledge, and the unique characteristics of the readership, so as to evaluate which aspect of the text should be emphasized. Therefore, children’s literature, a genre of less lexical burden and requiring less specialized knowledge, might be even more tricky for translators to deal with.

7 Conclusion Chiaro (2010) confirms the challenge of multi-layer meaning transfer in the translation of humorous texts and acknowledges the difficulty of transferring both meaning components, suggesting shifts for the duplicity of meaning to be maintained: we should consider ourselves very lucky if in an attempt to translate […(demanding)] examples into any other language we are able to come up with translations that manage to maintain both original content and the duplicity which render them amusing. […] The chances of one, let alone both, these options being possible are extremely remote. This does not mean that the joke cannot be translated, but it does mean that it may require drastic changes if it is to remain a joke (2010: 4).

In an attempt to analyse how childness and playfulness may be achieved in translation, this study examined important aspects of children’s literature i.e. proper names, wordplaying and aural texture using Hu’s Chinese translation of Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat as a case study. Translation strategies of proper names observed in Hu’s translation involve calque, reduplication, transliteration and a combination of the above. Language-specific wordplay and sound-play, which are usually challenging,

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese

197

are either compensated by the potentialities of the target language or simply omitted for the sake of comprehensibility, at points where the multi-layer wordplay strategies of the source text cannot be reproduced. A reception study of the different translation strategies demonstrated an overall preference for naturalness over a precise rendering of semantic meaning. The study suggested an alternative explanation and the relative importance of childness, calling for translators’ attention to the characteristics of children as a different readership. The study also discussed implications for pragmatic meaning transfer. Although exploratory, this study provides new insights to the translation of children’s literature from a perspective of two typologically distant languages and opens up issues for future research.

Appendix. Questionnaire answered by Chinese respondents of 20–21 years old, from the Department of Modern Greek Philology, School of European Languages, Tianjin Foreign Studies University, China. (ENGLISH VERSION OF THE CHINESE QUESTIONNAIRE ADDRESSING THE CHINESE RESPONDENTS) Questionnaire At a distant island, a group of scheming people attempted to direct the public’s attention from the incompetence of the government and make black cats a scapegoat for all human misery. By propagating the superstitious idea that black cats bring misfortune and bad luck, they launched a ruthless cat-slaughter campaign…. Having the above context in mind, please answer which translation options you would prefer as shown in the following questions: (THE INFORMATION ON THE GRAY AREA WAS NOT PRESENTED TO RESPONDENTS). 1.

Below are three sets of names designed for our animal characters, which of them do you prefer?

1)

For a cat character who’s agile, smart and always manage to steal fish from the cooks.

198

2)

3)

2.

Z. Zhang

2.

B.

Hu’s translation. Meaning “cutter”, this translation is semantically faithful to the original “Κοψονούρης”.

My translation. This proper name literally means “the knights-errant of flash and lightning. The suffix “ ” is a common name-suffix used in Chinese Kong-Fu novels and cartoons. Being a culturespecific expression, it also has a strong heroic gloss. The “cut” meaning embedded in the original Greek name is omitted.

For a cat character who lives in a grocery store and smells like caviar. A.

B.

My translation. It means “fat-oily-boy”. The last morpheme is a common name suffix to address young men in informal discourses. It has a strong Chinese characteristic and creates intimacy. “Fat” is an added message to achieve naturalness.

Hu’s translation. It means “oily-face”, and is a morpheme-to-morpheme translation of the Greek original “Λαδομούρης”. This collocation, however, is rare in Chinese context.

For a mouse character who lives in people’s houses and eats food for free. A.

B.

Hu’s translation. It’s a semantically faithful translation of “Τσαμπατζίκος” (meaning “eating food for free”)

My translation. It means “the mouse that steals food to eat”. The meaning of “stealing” is added to achieve naturalness.

This group of people is going to put up posters and make slogans to persuade the general public to “contribute” to their “black-cat-eliminating movement”, which of the following slogans do you like more? A.

1.

A.

!

B.

Hu’s translation. Semantically faithful. Nonsensical content of the original is kept. Rhyme is lost.

My translation. Nonsensical content of the original is discarded. Rhyme is kept.

A.

B.

My translation. It employs a typical Chinese-styled structure (syntax and semantic meaning of two sentences respond to each other). Rhyme is kept.

Hu’s translation. Semantically faithful. Rhyme is lost.

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese

A.

3.

3.

,

Hu’s translation. Semantically faithful. Rhyme is lost.

199

B.

,

My translation. Semantically slightly different. Rhyme is kept.

Among all the cat characters in the book, there is one cat who is “good-willed, but when he speaks in public, he tends to say things that he himself could not understand to assert himself”. The abstract below is from one of his public speeches. How would you translate the following sentence? Please pay attention to wordplaying and alliteration.

´ ως η κατ ασ Oντ ´ τ ασ η ε´ιναι κρ´ισ ιμη, αρχ ´ ισ ε. Δεν ε´ιναι κρ o´ σ ιμη. O´ τ ε ´ ιμη. E´ιναι κρ´ισ ιμη. Kαι ε´ιναι κρ´ιμα π oυ ε´ιναι κρ´ισ ιμη, γ ιατ ι´ θ α ητ ´ αν κρ ασ ´ ιμo να μην ητ χ ρ ησ ´ αν κρ´ισ ιμη.

60% of the students employed similar translation techniques with Hu, using homophonic words or even similar Chinese characters to achieve the same effect; 2 students did not seem to understand the original’s intention and mistranslated it; one student used parenthesis to explain the humorous effect; one student directly explained the character and omitted the wordplay.

4.

How will you translate the following sentence into Chinese? Please take into ´ ες, ´ consideration of the wordplay of “γατα” (cat) embedded in σ υνεργ ατ where the -γ ατ ´ ες suffix does not mean cats.

´ ´ ´ Aγαπητo´ι γατoι, γατες και συνεργατες. 40% of the students translated it as “(猫)女士们, 先生们, 朋友们” (ladies, gentlemen and friends) which is a common expression used in speech to address an audience. For the creative part, 30% of the students directly translated ´ “συνεργατες” as “合作伙伴” or “合作者”(cooperators); one student translated it as “愿意帮助他们的其他种类的猫咪”(cats of other colours who are willing to help); one as “同胞” (fellow countryman; compatriot), the exact same words used by Hu; One student mistranslated as “夫妻” (couples).

References Aixelá, Javier Franco. 1996. Culture-specific items in translation. In Translation, Power, Subversion, ed. R. Álvarez and M.C.-Á. Vidal, 52–78. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

200

Z. Zhang

Anderson-Cartlett, Celia. 1984. Style in children’s literature: A comparison of passages from books for adults and for children. [Unpublished PhD Thesis]. University of Rhode Island. Beattie, James. 1776. An essay on laughter, and ludicrous composition. In Essays, 414–456. Edinburgh: W. Creech and E. and C. Dilly. Chiaro, Delia. 2010. Translation and humour, humour and translation. In Translation, humour and literature—Translation and humour, vol. 1, ed. Delia Chiaro, 1–29. London: Continuum. Dybiec-Gajer, J. 2020. Postanthropocentric transformations in children’s literature: Transcreating. In Negotiating translation and transcreation of children’s literature. From alice to the Moomins, ed. Joanna Dybiec-Gajer, Riitta Oittinen, and Małgorzata Kodura, 39–55. Singapore: Springer. Fernandes, Lincoln. 2006. Translation of names in children’s fantasy literature: Bringing the young reader into play. New Voices in Translation Studies 2 (2): 44–57. Hans-Heino, Ewers. 1992. Children’s literature and the traditional art of storytelling. Poetics Today 13 (1): 169–178. Hofstede, Geert. 1990. Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. New York: McGrawHill. Hollindale, Peter. 1997. Signs of childness in children’s books. Stroud: Thimble Press. Lathey, Gillian. 2008. Children’s literature. In Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies, ed. Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha, 31–34. London: Routledge. Lewis, Richard D. 2005. When cultures collide: Leading across cultures, 3rd ed. Boston and London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Lim, Choon Yeoh, and Lionel Wee. 2001. Reduplication in Singapore Colloquial English. In Evolving identities: The English language in Singapore and Malaysia, ed. BY Vincent Ooi, 89–101. Singapore: Times Academic Press. Liu, Chen-Sheng Luther. 2013. Reduplication of adjectives in Chinese: A default state. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 22 (2): 101–132. Munday, Jeremy. 2016. Introducing translation studies: Theories and applications, 4th ed. London: Routledge. Oittinen, Ritta. 2002. Translating for children. London: Routledge. Puurtinen, Tiina. 1994. Dynamic style as a parameter of acceptability in translated children’s books. In Translation studies. An interdiscipline, ed. Mary Snell-Hornby. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Puurtinen, Tiina. 1995. Linguistic acceptability in translated children’s literature. Joensuu: University of Joensuu. Puurtinen, Tiina. 1998. Syntax, readability and ideology in children’s literature. Meta 43 (4): 524– 533. Snell-Hornby, Mary. 1988. Translation studies. An integrated approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Stamou, Anastasia. 2012. Representations of linguistic variation in children’s books: Register stylisation as a resource for (critical) language awareness. Language Awareness. 21 (4): 313–329. Thomson-Wohlgemuth, Gabriele. 1998. Children’s literature and its translation: An overview. Unpublished MA Dissertation. University of Surrey: School of Language and International Studies. Tsakona, Villy. 2013. Okras and the metapragmantic stereotypes of humor: Towards an expansion of the GTVH. In Developments of linguistic humour theory, ed. Marta Dynel, 25–48. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Tymoczko, Maria. 1999. Translation in a postcolonial context. Manchester, UK: St Jerome Publishing. Vandaele, Jeroen. 2010. Humor in translation. In Handbook of translation studies, ed. Yves Gambier and Luc. Van Doorslaer, 147–152. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The translator’s invisibility: A history of translation. New York: Routledge. Weissbrod, Rachel. 1996. Curiouser and curiouser: Hebrew translations of wordplay in Alice’s adventures in Wonderland. The Translator 2 (2): 219–234. Wong, Jock. 2003. The reduplication of Chinese names in Singapore English. RASK 19: 45–85.

Trivizas’ The Last Black Cat in Mandarin Chinese

201

Texts Trivizas, Eugene. 2001. I Teleftaia Mavri Gata [The Last Black Cat]. (in Greek) [Eυγšνιoς Tριβιζας. ´ 2001. H τ ελευτ α´ια μα ´ ρη γ ατ ´ α. Aθηνα: ´ Mετα´ιχμιo]. Hu, Jing Jing. 2013. Zhui Hou Yi Zhi Hei Mao [The Last Black Cat]. Beijing: People’s Literature Publishing House and Daylight Publishing House.

Sociocultural Awareness Through Dubbing Disney Film Songs Konstantinos Karantzis

Abstract Given the universal appeal of animation films and the importance of the messages they convey to a young audience, songs play a significant role in the filmmaker’s intention to summarize the plot of animation films for young audiences and convey the film message. The question arises as to how target cultures may receive pragmatic meaning associated with such film parts. The case study focuses on the ways sociocultural awareness is raised through songs in children’s films, which address a rather ambivalent audience, namely, children and parents. The study analyzes four Disney film songs and their Greek dubbed versions to examine if and how sociocultural values have been transferred in the dubbed Greek versions. It focuses on pragmatic shifts which translators allowed into the target versions to enhance the summarizing function of the songs in a culturally familiar manner. Findings show that dubbers interfere with the religion, race and gender narratives of animation films to match those circulating in target environments. The significance of the research lies in that it shows the liberties dubbers take in rendering animation film songs, making it a subgenre of its own. Keywords Animation · Disney · Songs · Filmmaking · Stereotypes · Dubbing · Pragmatics

1 Introduction Disney films have been a global success and the question arises as to how pragmatic meaning and ideology travels in transferring these films cross-culturally, especially through the dubbed versions, where the mediator’s freedom is higher than in subtitling. Disney films are essentially children’s films, and as such, they present stories that ultimately intend to educate young people on various sociocultural matters. Religion, race and gender seem to be some of the narratives widely circulating in several Disney films, among many others. K. Karantzis (B) University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_13

203

204

K. Karantzis

A very crucial part of the structure of children’s films are the songs which—among other things—summarize the plot, refresh the young audiences’ memory as to what is going on in the story and circulate intended ideological messages. Songs encapsulate world views and the question arises how they translate into other cultures. A rather efficient way for scholars to study how dubbed Disney films and the narratives they carry are transferred across cultures, is through naturalistic data, i.e. juxtaposing source and target versions of some very popular songs featuring in films. The study analyzes four Disney film songs, and their corresponding Greek dubbed versions to examine to what extent, if at all, they are modified in the mediation process and in what way.

2 Literature Review and Methodology Sociocultural awareness, the implicit knowledge of sociocultural norms, is important for socialization and is often pursued through children’s literature. In translated products addressing children (books, films etc.), the question arises how, if at all, and to what extent, a target version shows concern for renegotiating the items which are meant to advance socialization in young addressees. The study will be focusing on how source sociocultural norms may be reshaped in target versions of film songs for target child audiences. When it comes to disseminating messages and values, songs can have a great impact on listeners (Garfias 2004). Connell and Gibson (2002) argue that, due to the fluidity of meaning in music, listeners are able to create their personal meaning relevant to their own lives. Lyrics often carry references to individual, ideology and culture (Frith 1996). The world of Disney has attracted scholarly attention and has led to the creation of a new field of scholarship which may be called ‘Disney Studies’. Numerous scholars have conducted studies on Disney feature films discussing various representations in the films and their music. Lester (2010), for example, conducted a study on what it was like to finally have the first African-American Disney Princess, when for instance the Tron movie (1982) associated whiteness with courage, heroism and Godliness (Green 2013). Goldman (2013) examined representations of Latin America in the films Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1945). Norden (2013) explained how The Hunchback of Notre Dame attempts to deconstruct existing disability representations (e.g. the Moral model [disability is punishment], the Medical model [disability is a problem to be overcome] and instead champions the Social model [a person’s disabled status is a social and cultural construction]). Hughes (2016) conducted a study on how Disney promoted gender roles over three different Disney eras (Classic, Renaissance, and Modern Disney). Disney films have had a huge impact on children’s world views. Lee and Madej (2011) referred to ‘Disney’s own focus on using narrative to provide both entertainment and learning to their audience’ (2011: 118). Hetcht (2011) highlighted their impact on children’s movies on family life: ‘the themes found in princess movies are likely to play a role in the development of children’s culture and influence the

Sociocultural Awareness Through Dubbing Disney Film Songs

205

way in which children view family life and how they approach marriage and having a family’ (2011: 55). If their role is that impactful, one may wonder what type of impact target versions may have on target audiences, especially if the target versions have been modified. The study will be focusing on three narratives and on how they play out in Greek target versions of films. It will trace shifts in song lyrics to examine how the songs were modified in target versions. First, the study examines two songs which circulate religious narratives. The first one comes from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and the second from 101 Dalmatians (1961). The second narrative the study will be focusing on is that of racial representation. The song comes from the film The Princess and the Frog (2009). The third narrative is that of gender representation, namely, the mannerisms, interests, aspects of one’s gender behaviour and appearance (Serano 2016). The song on this narrative comes from the film The Aristocats (1970). The question is how these songs translate into Greek and what type of sociocultural awareness they disseminate. A criterion for choosing these texts is the films’ strong popularity in both the source and target versions and because the themes of the songs fall in line with the narratives this study will be focusing on. One recurring pragmatic phenomenon in the data is implicature. Implicatures are inferences the hearer calculates from an utterance, although the speaker has not explicitly expressed them. It is about what the speaker implied rather than said (Horn and Ward 2006).

3 Presentation of Empirical Data 3.1 Religious Awareness As mentioned, The Hunchback of Notre Dame attempts to deconstruct existing disability representations promoting the view that ‘a person’s disabled status is a social and cultural construction’ (Norden 2013). However, a closer look at the Greek translated lyrics of the songs shows additional narratives which may circulate in the target environment through the Greek target versions: one is shaping children’s religious awareness.

3.1.1

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The film is about Quasimodo, the disfigured bell ringer of Notre Dame, who spends most of his time with the gargoyles of the temple. Deep inside, he wishes to spend time with other people, and this leads to his encounter with Esmeralda, a beautiful gypsy girl. Esmeralda catches the eye of Quasimodo’s sinister guardian, Frollo. We follow Quasimodo in his quest to save Esmeralda from Frollo. The Hunchback of the Notre Dame is the first film in which religion is put at the forefront. We see a belief in

206

K. Karantzis

a forgiving, loving God who implicitly condemns abortion and racism. Throughout the film, the words God and Lord, are spoken and sung more frequently than in any previous Disney film. The song is Esmeralda’s only song in the film. She sings it when she seeks sanctuary in the Notre Dame Cathedral following a relentless pursuit by Judge Frollo, the film’s villain. It is essentially a populist prayer (Pinsky 2004).

1 2

3

4

4a

5

6

ST lyrics (1996) God help the outcasts

Dubbed lyrics (1996) Είμαστε όλοι παιδιά του Θεού

I don't know if You can hear me Or if You're even there

Αν μ' ακούς και με πιστεύεις, όσο πιστεύω εγώ,

I don't know if You would listen to a gypsy's prayer Yes, I know I'm just an outcast, I shouldn't speak to You/ Still I see Your face and wonder,/were You once an outcast too? God help the outcasts Hungry from birth Show them the mercy They don't find on earth God help my people We look to You still God help the outcasts Where nobody will I ask for wealth, I ask for fame I ask for glory to shine on my name I ask for love I can possess I ask for God and His angels to bless me/I ask for nothing I can get by But I know so many less lucky than I Please help my people The poor and down trod I thought we all were children of God God help the outcasts Children of God The Hunchback of Notre Dame

πρέπει απόψε να κατέβεις απ' τον ουρανό. Όπως τ' άσπρο περιστέρι, φτερούγισε να 'ρθεις για ένα κόσμο που υποφέρει, να προσευχηθείς.

you have to descend tonight from heaven flutter like the white dove, to come, to pray for a world that’s suffering

Κατατρεγμένοι σ' όλη τη γη, ζει, Παναγιά μου, η δικιά μου η φυλή. Κατατρεγμένος, μόνος, φτωχός, ζούσε για χρόνια, κι ο ίδιος σου ο γιος.

Persecuted all over the earth, lives my race, my (dear) Mother Mary. Persecuted, alone, poor, lived for years, your very own son. I want us to see a miracle on earth

Κι ότι ζητώ, δόξα, στοργή, θέλω ένα θαύμα να δούμε στη γη Φίλους πολλούς, να μ' αγαπούν να’ μαι φωτιά για να καίω τους εχθρούς σου. Εγώ ζητάω σώμα, ψυχή, να φτάσει ως εσένα αυτή η προσευχή. Για τους τσιγγάνους, κυρά τ ουρανού, πες μια κουβέντα στ' αυτί του Θεού. Είμαστε όλοι, παιδιά του θεού.

Η Παναγία των Παρισίων

Back-translation We’re all God’s children If you hear me and believe in me, as I believe in you,

let me be a fire to burn thy enemies I ask my prayer to reach you For the gypsies, heavenly lady, Say a good word in God’s ear We are all children of God Virgin Mary of Paris

The Greek version seems to enforce the religious sentiment in children. In the source text (ST) item (1) I don’t know if You can hear me Or if You’re even there translates into Αν μ ‘ακούς και με πιστεύεις, όσο πιστεύω εγώ/ (If you hear me and

Sociocultural Awareness Through Dubbing Disney Film Songs

207

believe in me, as I believe in you/), the doubt of the original about the communication potential with Heaven is weakened in the Greek target text (TT) version, where the faith of the person who prays is taken for granted and there is no doubt that God can hear. Religion is claimed to have been embedded in the Greek culture (Trantas 2018), so the tendency may be attributed to the place religion holds in Greek society. Alternatively, it can be a manifestation of the constructivist discourse perspective, where discourse has the power to shape children’s identities. Another difference lies in that the prayer in the ST addresses God, rather than Virgin Mary who is the addressee in the Greek TT version. Esmeralda asks Mother Mary to be a mediator for her and tell God to protect the dispossessed, thus highlighting the value of equality (TT item 6: Για τους τσιγγάνους, κυρά τ ουρανού, πες μια κουβέντα στ’ αυτί του Θεού/ For the gypsies, heavenly lady, Say a good word in God’s ear), as if Virgin Mary, being a female and a mother can sense Esmeralda’s suffering and mediate to God for her. Thus, Virgin Mary resonates more prominently in Greek in addition to the fact that her name appears in the Greek title of the film (Virgin Mary of Paris), which sounds more coherent in Greek. The TT item 5, να ‘μαι φωτιά για να καίω τους εχθρούς σου (let me be fire to burn thy enemies), is an addition, not appearing in the ST. It is as if, for the Greek audience, the person praying needs to offer something in return for the mercy of God. The image of a flaming female warrior fighting for her God alludes to the sufferings one goes through and the subsequent promise that God will vindicate for those who have fought and suffered for him (Peterman and Schmutzer 2016). Religious ideology is thus projected to construct the perception of intended identities. Racial awareness is also enhanced in the Greek version. In example pair (3) I don’t know if You would listen to a gypsy’s prayer/ Yes, I know I’m just an outcast, the racial implication is transferred to the Greek version where reference is made to the Roma minority (τσιγγάνους/gypsies) and Esmeralda explicitly speaks of her race (η δική μου η φυλή). Thus, the principle of racial equality is enforced, although the Greek audience may feel close to the Roma community. In the past, the Roma community was alienated from the main Greek population but recent studies (Gkofa 2016) show that this is no longer the case. The Greek version primarily majors on trust in Virgin Mary, on race awareness and on the value of racial equality in favour of the poor and the dispossessed.

3.1.2

Dalmatians—Τα 101 Σκυλιά Της Δαλματίας

The film is about Cruella De Vil’s failed efforts to kidnap Roger and Anita’s dalmatian dogs. She wants to skin them in order to make a fur coat. She even hires people to do the job for her. We see Perdita, Pongo and their puppies’ adventures trying to successfully evade Cruella’s plans. The film would be any animal rights activist’s gift from heaven and has inspired generations of people to denounce animal cruelty. A woman whose first name signifies cruelty and her last name forms the word ‘Devil’ (de Vil), wants to do the unspeakable: skin the Dalmatian puppies to make a fur coat.

208

1

2 3

4

5 6 7 2

K. Karantzis

ST lyrics (1961) Cruella de Vil,

Dubbed lyrics (1961) Κρουέλα Ντε Βιλ

Back-translated lyrics Cruella de Vil

Cruella de Vil, Cruella de Vil If she doesn t́ scare you No evil thing will. To see her is to take A sudden chill {Ohh} Cruella...Cruella She is like a spider Waiting for the ...kill Look out for Cruella de Vil. At first you think Cruella is a devil But after time has worn away the shock You come to realise You v́ e seen her kind of eyes Watching you from underneath a rock. This vampire bat This inhuman beast She ought to be locked up And never released. The world was such a wholesome place until Cruella ... Cruella de Vil. 101 Dalmatians

Κρουέλα Ντε Βιλ, Κουρέλα Ντε Βιλ η κόρη του Χάρου την πόρτα χτυπά Θα 'ρθεί εδώ το αίμα να μας πιει

Curella de Vill The Charon’s daughterknocks on the door she will come here to drink our blood

Κουρέλα, Κρουέλα Σα μαύρη αράχνη τώρα δα θα μπει Κουρέλα Κουρέλα Ντε Βιλ

Doodle, Doodle1 she will come in like a black spider Doodle, Doodle de Vil

Μπροστά σου η Κρουέλα αν θα τύχει σταυρό να κάνεις μην την ξαναδείς Δυο μάτια φοβερά και γλώσσα σαν οχιά σαν μιλά αυτή ξερνά χολή

If Cruella appears in front of you, cross yourself praying not to see her again.

Κακό θηλυκό, δεν πρέπει να ζει/ ευθύς για καλό μας σε κλούβα να μπει ο κόσμος μόνον έτσι θα σωθεί Κουρέλα Κουρέλα Ντε Βιλ

Evil female who should not be alive, imprison her for the world’s salvation

Two terrible eyes, a tongue like that of a viper

Curella Curella de Vil

Τα 101 Σκυλιά της Δαλματίας

In 101 Dalmatians, Cruella is the embodiment of evil. She is human, a female and her sin appears to be covetousness (Pinksy 2004). The name’s sinister connotations (Cruella de Vil = cruel Devil) are not reproduced in the dubbed Greek version, except perhaps for the near-homophonous derogatory item in Greek Curella. The Greek version seems to compensate for the cancelled implication of cruelty by creating a word play, in terms of Curella, an offensive, ridiculing item heard at football matches. Religious awareness is enforced with the TT addition (4) σταυρό να κάνεις μην την ξαναδείς (cross yourself praying not to see her again). TT item (5) Κακό θηλυκό (Evil female), also an addition, seems to echo the Christian belief that women are the Daughters of Eve, the original temptress responsible for man’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The ΤΤ makes every effort to highlight religious hints of the ST. The ST item (6) This inhuman beast alludes to the biblical Beast (Satan) and is compensated for in terms of ‘Charon’s daughter’. The TT item (7) ο κόσμος μόνον έτσι θα σωθεί (this is the only way to salvation), strongly carries religious connotations, as a purpose of Christianity is to save people’s souls.

Sociocultural Awareness Through Dubbing Disney Film Songs

3.1.3

209

The Princess and the Frog

Based on the classic Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale The Frog Prince, The Princess and the Frog is about the hard-working waitress Tiana, and arrogant Prince Naveen crossing paths. A voodoo magician has transformed the Prince into a frog and Tiana follows suit after kissing the transformed Prince. The story describes Prince Naveen and Tiana’s efforts to break the spell and realize their dreams through hard work and perseverance. This is the first Disney film to feature an African-American princess. Given the tumultuous past which the studio has had in the portrayal of race, and the way it has promoted cultural stereotypes, critics questioned this film long before its release. In the same vein, one reads how Asian stereotypes were presented in the 1955 film Lady and the Tramp. The Princess and the Frog, did not create a controversy, but still lacked in terms of racial representation, as well as historic accuracy gave the actual situation of New Orleans back in 1912 (Spain 1979). Lester (2010) uses the following quotation from Bell Hooks’ Reel to Real: Race, Sex and Class at the Movies suggesting that the more non-white subjects feature in films, the more the politics of representation emerges as a social issue: When it comes to the issue of race and representation, much of what we see on the screen paints a grim picture. As more non-white images appear ‘on the screen, they at least promote public debate and discussion about the politics of representation’. (1996: 94)

The song ‘Down in New Orleans’ comes in during the title sequence of the film and introduces the audience to the city of New Orleans and the two protagonists.

210

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

K. Karantzis

ST lyrics (2009) Down in New Orleans

Dubbed lyrics (2010) Νέα Ορλεάνη

Back-translated lyrics New Orleans

In the south land there's a city Way down on the river Where the women are very pretty And all the men deliver

Αν πας στο Νότο θα βρεις μια πόλη, στο ποτάμι εκεί πέρα Γυναίκες άνδρες το τσούζουν όλοι, έχουνε στυλ και άλλον αέρα

If you go southwards you will see a city women and men all get wasted, they’ve got style and a different vibe

They got music, it's always playing Start in the day time, go all through the night When you hear that music playing/Hear what I'm saying /and make you feel alright Grab somebody, come on down Bring your paintbrush, we're painting the town Oh, there's some sweetness going around Catch it down in New Orleans

Η μουσική σαν μπύρα ρέει έξω στον δρόμο και στην προκυμαία Άκου μπάντες πάτα πλέι, στην πόλη που έχει νότες για σημαία

The music flows like beer out in the streets and on the pier Listen to music bands, press play, at the town that has musical notes for a flag

Πιάσε τάμα μπες στο μουντ, γέλιο κλάμα και φαστ φουντ μες στο κλίμα μη φοβoύ, το στυλ το Νιου Ορλίν

Catch a votive, get in the mood, Laughter, crying and fast food/ in the mood don’t be scared,/ in the style of New Orleans

We got magic, good and bad Make you happy or make you real sad/ Get everything you want or lose what you had/ Down here in New Orleans

Μαγεία μαύρη, μαγεία λευκή μάγοι σπουδαίοι, καλοί και κακοί Πάρτο όλο ή μείνε ταπί Νιου Ορλίν αυτό είναι τάμα πόλη

Black magic, white magic/ great wizards, good and bad/ Take it all or stay on ace New Orleans, what a miracle town

Hey partner, don't be shy Come on down here and give us a try/ You wanna do some living before you die/ Do it down in New Orleans Stately homes and mansions/ Of the sugar barons and the cotton kings Rich people, old people, all got dreams/ Dreams do come true in New Orleans

Άκουσέ με, άσε τις ντροπές Μέσα σ' όλα γρήγορα μπες Θέλεις να γλεντήσεις λίγο κι εσύ, πάμε Νιου Ορλίν

Listen, don't be shy, You wanna party a little too,/ Let’s go to New Orleans

Νέα Ορλεάνη, χρήμα ουρά και δίπλα φτωχαδάκια Πλούσιοι μαύροι, λευκοί φτωχοί Τα βρίσκουν μες το Νιου Ορλίν

New Orleans, plenty of dough next to the poor champs Rich black people, poor white people Get along in New Orleans

Princess and the Frog

Η πριγκίπισσα και ο βάτραχος

In the first verse (TT Item 1), the Greek translator has chosen to explicitly bring up ‘alcohol consumption’ as a sign of pleasurable lifestyle in New Orleans: Women and

Sociocultural Awareness Through Dubbing Disney Film Songs

211

men all get wasted, They’ve got style and a different vibe. Alcohol consumption is a habit shaping identities. Likewise, TT (4) Catch a votive get in the mood/ Laughter crying and fast food, renders the joyous working habit but eliminates the cleanliness connotations emanating from Bring your paintbrush, we’re painting the town, which would have been a worthwhile habit to highlight for the young. Local stereotypes of the American culture (fast food consumption) are preserved as globalization has made them accessible worldwide together with loan items like μουντ and φαστ φουντ (transliterations of mood and fast food). TT (5) reproduces the contrasts of the ST Black magic, white magic/Great wizards, good and bad, giving the city an exotic gloss. TT (7) brings up the contrast of black and white population but reversing the black/poor white/rich binaries which also creates an unusual connotation (Rich black people, white poor people), especially if they reconcile their differences (Get along at New Orleans). The song presents a favourable and utopian image of the city, which would appeal to a population who is rather not used to racial difference in everyday life, that’s why the black and white comes up again and again and replaces the ST binary items rich/old. Skin-colour differences may still be an issue in Greek society, as manifested elsewhere in Greek discourses addressing the public. For instance, in a Greek translated press article on the release of the film The Princess and the Frog, translated from The Independent, the Princess’es skin colour did come up in the headline of the translated article, whereas in the original English headline, the character’s skin colour was not mentioned at all (Sidiropoulou 2021: 24). The Independent headline was ‘Meet Tiana, a Disney heroine like no other’, whereas the Greek headline read ‘Η μαύρη πριγκίπισσα δεν βγήκε από τα παραμύθια’ (The black princess did not come out of fairy tales)”. Foregrounding the Princess’es skin colour in the press headline has been assumed as another sign that skin colour matters. Finally, one of the most important phrases of the song, the optimistic message which summarizes the film’s central theme is not part of the translated version, namely, the ST item Dreams do come true in New Orleans, also affecting the ideological perspective of the target version. The next section also deals with gender identities.

3.2 Gender Representations Gender representation is a frequent theme in an interdisciplinary area of studies, including translation practice. It appears in Mulan who steals her father’s armour and sword and runs away to join the army to save him. However, Mulan’s transgression supports patriarchal power structures rather than disputes established gender roles (Limbach 2013). This subsection focuses on translation shifts shaping the character of Thomas O’Malley, in the animation film, The Aristocats. The film is about the story of 4 cats which live in Paris, with a retired opera diva and her butler. In her will, she leaves all her possessions to the 4 of them. The jealous and greedy butler kidnaps them and tries to get rid of them, but a stray cat and some retired army dogs make sure this doesn’t happen.

212

1 2

3

4

K. Karantzis

ST lyrics (1970) Thomas O'Malley Cat

Dubbed lyrics (1970) Back-translated lyrics Tσίφτης γάτος μουστακάτος The yob, mustached cat

I like cheech-a-cheechchee-roni Like they make at home Or a healthy fish with a big backbone I'm Abraham DeLacey Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley O'Malley the alley cat!

Αν είχα νόστιμα της ώρας Δύο ψαράκια τώρα Θα ήταν όλη δικιά μου η χώρα

If I had a couple of delicious freshly cooked small fish /The whole country would be mine

Είμαι τσίφτης γάτος Γάτος μουστακάτος Θέμος, ο μάγκας, Μάγκας και γυναικάς

I’m a yob cat Mustached cat Themos the dude A dude and a womanizer

I've got that wanderlust Gotta walk the scene Gotta kick up highway dust Feel the grass that's green

Ανέμελα γυρνώ Κάνω τουρισμό Όλο σκόνη θα με βγεις Και μην απορείς

I wonder around carefree as a tourist I’ve got dust all over me do not be surprised

Gotta strut them city streets Showin' off my éclat, yeah Tellin' my friends of the social elite/ Or some cute cat I happen to meet

Γυροφέρνω γειτονιές Σαν ναμ' αφεντικό Οο ναι! Και έτσι λοιπόν

I wonder in neighbourhoods/ like I am the boss Oh yeah!

That I'm Abraham DeLacey Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley O'Malley the alley cat!

Με γνωρίζουν παντού Κύκλοι απλοί κι αριστοκρατικοί Γιατί είναι τσίφτης γάτος Γάτος μουστακάτος Θέμος, ο μάγκας, Μάγκας και γυναικάς

Everybody’s got to know me/ poor and aristocrats ‘cause I’m a yob, a mustached cat/ [my name is] Themos the yob, A dude and a womanizer

I'm king of the highway Prince of the boulevard Duke of the avant-garde The world is my backyard

Αφέντης του κόσμου Πρίγκιψ και βασιλιάς Δούκας της τεμπελιάς Και την ανεμελιάς

The world’s boss A prince and king Duke of laziness And of shiftlessness

So if you're goin' my way That's the road you wanna seek Calcutta to Rome or Home Sweet Home in Paris.../ Magnifique, you all!

Γι' αυτό το ξέρουν όλοι Τ' όνομά μου το μικρό Καλκούτα και Ρώμη Καράκας και Βόννη Ακόμη και στην Ελλάδα γνωστό

That’s why everybody knows my first name Calcutta and Rome Caracas and Bonn It’s famous even in Greece

I only got myself And this big old world But I sip that cup of life With my fingers curled

7 ζωές εγώ έχω να ζήσω Μα θα ήταν πιο καλά Να 'χα κι άλλη μια Όπου πάω και σταθώ Δεν έχω να φοβηθώ Χορεύω γελώ

I only have 7 lives to liveBut it would have been better for me to have another one too/ wherever I go, I have nothing to fear. I dance and laugh, I get

I don't worry what road to

Sociocultural Awareness Through Dubbing Disney Film Songs

take/ I don't have to think of that/ Whatever I take is the road I make/ It's the road of life make no mistake, for me Yeah, Abraham DeLacey Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley O'Malley the alley cat That's right And I'm very proud of that Yeah! The Aristocats

Σ' όλους κάνω καλό Και πολλές φορές Κάνω τον τρελό Γιατί ναι! Είμαι τσίφτης γάτος Γάτος μουστακάτος Θέμος ο μάγκας Μάγκας και γυναικάς Σωστά εγώ είμαι όλα αυτά Ναι!.. Οι Αριστόγατες

213

along with everybody and sometimes I pretend I am mad. ‘cause, jeah! I am a yob, a mustached cat, Themos, the dude, a dude and a womanizer

That's right, all this is me. Yes!

With the TT items 1 (I’m a yob cat/ Mustached cat) and 2 (Themos the dude/A dude and a womanizer), the translator seems to elaborate on and further develop the implication that arises from the ST item the alley cat in the ST line I’m Abraham DeLacey/Giuseppe Casey/Thomas O’Malley/ O’Malley the alley cat! The line describes someone who has ‘been around’ and is supposedly tough enough to survive the adversities he might have to face; it has been transferred explicitly, appears as a yob, a tough guy, and a womanizer. A more macho type, male role model is presented to the Greek audience, alluding to the fact that Greek society might be more familiar with such male roles when it comes to gender representation. The ST item 3 (Showin’ off my éclat, yeah) translating into TT Like I am the boss, also tallies with the macho male identity shaped in terms of the above choices. Finally, TT item 4 (Duke of laziness/ And of shiftlessness), is another interesting shift. The notion of shiftlessness could also be attributed to the fact that the addressees, in this case, people from the South, are sometimes stereotyped as ‘lazy’. This may mostly be attributed to the sunny weather (Brearly 1948). It could also favour a male role model that does not meddle with the chores of a household or raising one’s children (du Boulay 1986), further limiting the position of women in society (Loizos and Papataxiarchis 1991) and further consolidating a macho masculine role model in modern Greek society. Although societies change and develop over time and the concept of culture cannot be universal but adjusted to communities of practice, Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) considered Greece and Italy one of the masculine cultures, where the roles of men and women are separate, rather than overlap, as the case is in feminine cultures. The humorously exaggerated macho role of the Greek Thomas O’Malley seems to be verifying this.

4 Discussion of the Results The aim of the study was to examine to what extent dubbers allowed pragmatic shifts into target versions, in order to enhance the communicative function of the songs, in a culturally familiar manner. Findings show that dubbers took numerous liberties that, at times, did significantly alter the original song meanings. There seems to be

214

K. Karantzis

a tendency for potentially localizing content, building up a sociocultural awareness more in tune with the target cultural environment. For instance, dubbers enhanced the religious sentiment, thus emphasizing the importance religion holds in children’s socialization. The narrative of racial representation appears to still be a delicate matter in Greek society. The dubbers kept showcasing the character’s racial characteristics by adding and repeating elements alluding to the character’s skin colour, thus showing that the Greek audience may not be as familiar with the theme of racial equality and are still working on it. Finally, when it comes to gender representation, it is as if the Greek audience appears to be enjoying a macho male role model, back in the 1970s, with masculine behavioural features humorously favoured in a patriarchal society. Dubbers have opted for a localized translation technique that favours the receiving environment’s sociocultural norms and stereotypes. The significance of the study lies in that it shows the liberties dubbers may take in rendering animation film songs, according to their awareness of what is familiar and enjoyable, making it a subgenre of its own. It is also a rich resource for those interested in examining societal norms of a target language and culture. The current research could also have educational value in that it can be used as a reference point for dubbers, as it outlines the range of liberties dubbers may take. It may potentially reveal a need for retranslating animated films that are more in tune with present-day society. An open research problem is how universal this phenomenon is, cross-culturally and intra-culturally. This would involve more narratives and languages. Another interesting question to answer would be how a bilingual audience reacts to these changes. If I can judge by colleagues and students, they are thrilled at the sound of these songs and proudly confirm that they have highly enjoyed them since childhood.

References Boulay, J. Du. 1986. Women: Images of their nature and destiny in rural Greece. In Gender and power in Rural Greece, ed. Jill Dubisch, 139–168. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Brearly, H. 1948. Are southerners really lazy? The American Scholar 18 (1): 68–75. Connell, J., and C. Gibson. 2002. Sound tracks: Popular music identity and place (critical geographies), 1st ed. London: Routledge. Frith, S. 1996. Music and identity. In Questions of cultural identity, ed. S. Hall and P. Du Gay, 108–127. London: Sage. Garfias, Robert. 2004. Music: The cultural context. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology. Gkofa, P. 2016. Being Roma—Being Greek: Academically successful Greek Romas’ identity constructions. Race Ethnicity and Education 20 (5): 624–635. Goldman, Karen S. 2013. Saludos Amigos and the three caballeros: The representation of Latin America in disney’s “good neighbor” films. In Cheu Johnson (ed.), Diversity in Disney films—Critical essays on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability, 36–54. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company.

Sociocultural Awareness Through Dubbing Disney Film Songs

215

Green, Michael. 2013. Securing the virtual frontier for Whiteness in Tron. In Diversity in Disney— Critical essays on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability, ed. Cheu Johnson, 238–252. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company. Hecht, Jennifer. 2011. Happily ever after: Construction of family in Disney princess collection films. Master Thesis. California: San Jose State University. Hofstede, Geert, and Geert Jan Hofstede. 2005. Cultures and organizations—Software of the mind. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hooks, Bell. 1996. Reel to real: Race, sex, and class at the movies. New York, NY: Routledge. Horn, L., and G. Ward. 2006. The handbook of pragmatics, 1st ed. MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Hughes, Lauren. 2016. Someday my Prince will come: How are gender roles enabled and constrained in Disney music, during classic disney, the Disney renaissance, and modern Disney? University of Mississippi. Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College: Honors Theses. 572. Lee, Newton, and Krystina Madej. 2011. Disney stories—Getting to digital. New York: Springer. Lester, Neal A. 2010. Disney’s the princess and the frog: The pride, the pressure, and the politics of being a first. The Journal of American Culture 33 (4): 294–308. Limbach, Gwendolyn. 2013 “You the man, well, Sorta”: Gender binaries and liminality in mulan. In Diversity in Disney films—Critical essays on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability, ed. Cheu Johnson, 161–178–248. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. Loizos, P., and E. Papataxiarchis. 1991. Contested identities: Gender and kinship in Modern Greece (Princeton modern Greek studies). Princeton: Princeton University Press. Norden, Martin F. 2013. “You’re a surprise from every angle”: Disability, identity, and otherness in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In Diversity in Disney films—Critical essays on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability, Cheu Johnson, ed., 227–248. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. Peterman, G.W., and A.J. Schmutzer. 2016. Between pain and Grace: A biblical theology of suffering. Chicago: Moody Publishers. Pinsky, M.I. 2004. The gospel according to Disney: Faith, trust, and Pixie Dust (7th ed.). Westminster: John Knox Press. Serano, J. 2016. Outspoken: A decade of transgender activism and trans feminism, 1st ed. Oakland, CA: Switch Hitter Press. Sidiropoulou, Maria. 2021. Pragmatic perspectives of meaning-making in translation. In Aspects of Meaning-making through Translation, ed. Maria Sidiropoulou, 23–67. Athens: Patakis. Spain, Daphne. 1979. Race relations and residential segregation in New Orleans: Two centuries of paradox. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 441: 82–96. Trantas, Georgios E. 2018. The question of a contemporary Greek-Orthodox economic ethic. Zeitschrift Für Balkanologie 54 (2): 217–228.

Gender in Translation: The Handmaid’s Tale in Greek Aspasia Koutsoumpogera

Abstract The study explores the representation of women in two Greek translation versions (1990, 2018) of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Drawing upon feminist theories of language and translation, and feminist practices in translation, the study critically examines how female identities are shaped in the Greek versions, to elucidate translator decision-making. The data show that the 1990 translator seems to have the tendency to neutralize female power, by raising religious connotations in shaping them, whereas the 2018 translator enforces the representation of powerful female identities, through items which highlight their power. Respondents confirmed the findings of the study through a questionnaire asking them to identify the powerful female representation, thus verifying that the second translation takes a more feminist translation approach, critically adjusting the representation of female identities. The significance of the study lies in that it shows the potential of discourse and translation to reshape identities and perpetuate or resist intended ideologies. Keywords Female identity · Representation · Pragmatic implications · Connotations

1 Introduction Gender has been defined in multiple ways in the literature. The post-structuralist understanding of gender is that ‘gender is considered to be a construction in discourse which is subject to power and other non-linguistic contextual factors’ (Meng 2019: 29). The importance of gender as a concept in translation studies appeared in the late 1980s. How translations construct gender identities is one of the questions posed by feminist translation scholars (von Flotow 1991; Simon 1996). Feminist translation and feminist linguistics share ‘a perception of language as being embedded in sexist societal structures and a critique of and resistance to sexist usages of language’ (Ergun A. Koutsoumpogera (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_14

217

218

A. Koutsoumpogera

2010: 310). The more recent decades have seen a growing number of translation and gender studies using feminist perspectives to approach gender-related issues. The aim of the research is to explore female identity formation in the target language (Greek) by contrasting two Greek translations of the English novel The Handmaid’s Tale written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. Selecting Atwood’s novel for this type of research is far from random. The novel is characterized by pervasive themes of suppressed female identity. Thus, it provides the grounds for posing questions in respect to translating female identities and for examining how female characters may be renegοtiated in target versions and environments. The novel (1985) is narrated by Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a dystopian version of the US, after the takeover of a totalitarian regime called the Sons of Jacob. Due to heavy pollution and radiation, most women experience fertility issues and are unable to conceive. As one of the few fertile women in Gilead, Offred, is forced to copulate with a man from the elite, in an attempt to propagate the human race. The book contains two different types of narrative sections: there are chapters focussed on the present, where Offred details her daily routine, the people she serves, and her acquaintances; and ‘night’ chapters where Offred, narrates her own thoughts and memories, recalls her capture and how she was trained to be a Handmaid at the Rachel and Leah Center. The book was made into a movie by German director Volker Schlendorf, with a script written by Harold Pinter (1990), it became an opera (2000) and aired on television in 2017. A Guardian review suggests that ‘this novel seems ever more vital in the present day, where women in many parts of the world live similar lives, dictated by biological determinism and misogyny’ (Newman 2010, The Guardian 26 September). The story was used in the protests against the Trump election in the US presidency and his disparaging references to women. Atwood’s literary work has had an impact worldwide. The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens awarded Margaret Atwood an honorary doctorate on December 9, 2013. The novel has been translated twice in Greek. First, in 1990 by translator Pavlos Matesis for Estia publications (Η ιστορία της Πορφυρής Δούλης); almost three decades after the first publication of The Handmaid’s Tale in Greek, the book was re-translated in 2018 by the author, translator and theatrical author Augustos Corteau for Psychogios publication house (H ιστορία της Θεραπαινίδας).

2 Literature Review Simon (1996) highlighted the secondary position attributed to both women and translation. She argued that the basis of feminist translation theory is to ‘identify and critique the tangle of concepts which relegates both women and translation to the bottom of the social and literary ladder’ (Simon 1996: 1). Furthermore, ideological and political agendas of early feminist theorists always showed up in the translation of feminist experimental works and anthologies. By actively or even vigorously claiming the presence and authority of female translators, they tried to make women and their position more noticeable in cultural and social activities. The patriarchal

Gender in Translation: The Handmaid’s Tale in Greek

219

language has been questioned by the feminist translators. Conventional syntactic, semantic and lexical structures were altered in order to support the new female experience and representation. Von Flotow (1991) has introduced three main feminist strategies in translation: supplementing, prefacing/footnoting and hijacking. In supplementing, the translators compensate for the differences between languages. Prefacing/footnoting is seen as the procedure of actively engaging with the source text and participating in the creation of meaning. Last, hijacking is the technique where translators deliberately feminize a source text. Simply put, by employing those strategies the feminine elements are highlighted and the male ones reduced. Contemporary translation scholars appear to look past this early feminist viewpoint and address issues related to gender from a range of perspectives. Von Flotow (2004: 14) underlines the importance of target cultural contexts, suggesting that “[g]ender awareness in translation practice poses questions about the links between social stereotypes and linguistic forms, about the politics of language and cultural differences, about the ethics of translation”. The focus on gender studies in translation has moved from the earlier essentialist approach to exploring different problems, linking translation, identity and power together. As Meng (2019: 49) puts it, it is worth examining the relationship between gender, discourse and context, in terms of CDA: A useful approach to the investigation of the relationships between gender identities and context, discourse and power, and of the effects of contextual and discursive factors upon gender construction is critical discourse analysis. CDA’s critiques of the workings of power and dominance in society render it an appropriate and handy tool to explore gendered discourses.

3 Methodology The study examines how linguistic choices made by the two translators (1990, 2018) affect the shaping of female identities, in meaningful ways. It takes a comparative descriptive approach to the two versions in order to trace variation in gender identity rendition and highlight the potential this variation may display in terms of meaningmaking. To confirm that the two versions present noticeable variation in female representation or/and which version presents a more powerful representation of women, the study distributed a questionnaire to 15 postgraduate respondents between late 20s and early 30s (see appendix). The questionnaire presented four extracts from the source text, paired with their two target extracts (TTa and TTb) and asked respondents to choose the translated extract which they believe best portrays more dynamic female characters. Respondents were also asked to provide an explanation for their decisions. Translators’ names were not available to the participants and the position of a and b target extracts was interchanged on the questionnaire layout to avoid allowing respondents to associate position with ideological attitudes inscribed in discourse.

220

A. Koutsoumpogera

The use of a questionnaire addressing native speakers of the target language methodologically suggests a concern for an emic approach to the data, in addition to the researcher’s etic approach (based on her intuition into the target language).

4 Presentation of Empirical Data The following extracts display a set of shifts between the 1990 and 2018 target versions, which contribute to portraying diversified female identities. There are types of shifts translators have opted for, manifesting the strategy they favour throughout the novel. Example 1 contrasts the target titles. ST 1: TTa (1990): TTb (2018):

The handmaid’s tale (1985/title) Η ιστορία της Πορφυρής Δούλης. BT. The crimson slave’s tale Η ιστορία της Θεραπαινίδας. BT. The servant’s tale.

Titles are of paramount importance serving as attention attractors. ST item handmaid is rendered as TTa Πορφυρή Δούλη (crimson slave), in 1990, probably with socio-religious allusions. As will be shown further down, the 1990 version rather favours a theological perspective as culturally relevant. The 2018 translator discusses the reasons for rejecting or prioritizing certain options, in the introduction to the 2018 publication. The 2018 version opts for Θεραπαινίδα (maid/servant), which in the target language alludes to therapy/therapeutic, provided that these women were used as a therapy for infertility (2018: 1). Handmaids are quite literally named after the men they serve. By removing individual names, the regime removes their identity and their ability to maintain a sense of self. The name Offred stands for Commander Fred Waterford and Ofglen for Commander Glen whose last name is not referred in the novel. Ofglen is another Handmaid who is Offred’s shopping partner. In a part of the story, the two Handmaids came across a group of Japanese tourists who were visiting the city. Women in the tourist group were free, unlike the Handmaids, who could simply do nothing more than recall their previous lives. ST2: TTa:

TTb:

Ofglen stops beside me and I know that she too cannot take her eyes off these women (1985: 34). Η τέτοια του Γκλέν σταματάει δίπλα μου και το ξέρω ότι και εκείνη αδυνατεί να αποσύρει τα μάτια της απ’ αυτές τις γυναίκες (1990: 47). BT. The what’s-her-name who belongs to Glenn stops next to me and I know that she too cannot take her eyes off these women. Η Τουγκλέν κοντοστέκεται πλάι μου και ξέρω ότι και αυτή τρώει με τα μάτια της τις γυναίκες (2018: 48). BT. Ofglen stands by my side and I know that she also eats those women with her eyes.

Gender in Translation: The Handmaid’s Tale in Greek

221

TTa item αδυνατεί να αποσύρει τα μάτια της (she cannot take her eyes off ) assumes a less aggressive social behaviour than TTb item αυτή τρώει με τα μάτια της τις γυναίκες (she eats those women with her eyes, a fixed expression). Besides, the TTa referring expression Η τέτοια του Γκλέν (The what’s-her-name who belongs to Glenn) conveys a derogatory implication, as opposed to TTb item Τουγκλέν which sounds like a foreign name in Greek. In discussing language gender and ideology, Nakamura (2014: 39–40) confirms that there are norms which identify female behaviour and manner of speaking: “[p]olite, soft, and indirect speech today functions as the norm of women’s speech because it is considered to be feminine speech”. TTa seems to be aware of such norms, TTb rather pays less attention to them and paints a more aggressive female figure. Aggression often tallies with power and Rosdahl (2017: 137) suggests that “[t]he discourse of femininity, as a form of normativity, has produced powerful effects […] The proliferation of this specific form of femininity has generated effects of power which have created and specified knowledges about woman.” In TT3a, the passive role of women is also manifested through the item και μόνο κάθεται (and just sits, following the ST), whereas in ΤΤ3b just has disappeared. TTb portrays a more dynamic female character. Even the simple act of ‘gazing’ (she eats those women with her eyes) allocates her power. In the position the patriarchic regime has put Ofglen in, she has not been deprived of all her power. Foucault (1992: 155) highlights the power of the gaze, suggesting that an inspecting gaze suffices to simulate physical violence. He suggests that there is no need for arms, physical violence, material constraints. Just a gaze. An inspecting gaze, a gaze, which each individual under its weight will end by interiorizing to the point that he is his own overseer, each individual thus exercising this surveillance over, and against himself.

Another reference to the power of gaze is also made in example 6. ST 3: TTa: TTb:

ST 4: TTa:

TTb:

Sometimes the Commander’s Wife has a chair brought out, and just sits in it, in her garden (1985:19). Καμία φορά η κυρία του Ταξιάρχη λέει και της φέρνουν μια πολυθρόνα, και μόνο κάθεται (1990: 20) Καμία φορά η Σύζυγος του Κυβερνήτη ζητά να της βγάλουν μία καρέκλα και κάθεται στον κήπο της (2018: 26). BT. Sometimes the Governor’s Wife asks for a chair and sits in her garden. Maybe it’s just something to keep the Wives busy, to give them a sense of purpose (1985: 21). Μία λύση, να ‘χουν με τι ν΄ απασχολούνται οι Γαμετές, ορρός αυταπάτης που διαθέτουν λόγο ύπαρξης (1990: 27). BT. One solution, to have the Gametes something to do, a serum of delusion that they have a reason to exist. Μπορεί να ναι απλώς κάτι για να περνούν οι Σύζυγοι την ώρα τους, για να χουν ένα αίσθημα σκοπού (2018: 27). BT. It may be just something for Spouses to spend their time, to have a sense of purpose.

222

A. Koutsoumpogera

The Commander Fred Waterford and his Wife Serena Joy belong to the elite; Offred has been placed in their household for producing them children. TTa again perpetuates the theological gloss to favour a theocratic perspective: it translates Commander in terms of a religious term for archangels (Ταξιάρχης) which alludes to a high military rank because they are semi-homophonous (Ταξιάρχης instead of Ταξίαρχος). TTa merges the religious with the military frame to suggest the rigid hierarchies of the regime and the weak female positions. The religious gloss runs throughout TTa, as also shown in example 6, with the TT6a items διακορεύω (deflower) and άβατο (abaton, no-go zone) connoting religious discourse. ΤΤb opts for Κυβερνήτης (Governor), probably alluding to the US. Translating Wife is also meaningful. TTb item Σύζυγος is rather formal, implying that women hold more power due to the legal relationship with the Commander(s). TTa opts for κυρία (Mrs, polite) and Γαμετή, which is outdated and conservative, and views the female body only through the lens of reproduction. King (1997: 29) views the female body as ‘a particular target of disciplinary power in order to argue that gender, specifically femininity, is a discipline that produces bodies and identities and operates as an effective form of social control’. Handmaids were managed by ‘Aunts’. Aunts had the highest status for a working female in Gilead. They were responsible for the re-education of the Handmaids in order to fulfil their mission properly. Aunt Lydia makes some of the most misogynist statements in the novel. TTb uses a close translation for aunt, Θεία, a straightforward equivalent, often used in Greek for addressing or referring to an older woman and indicates respect. TTb option θα έδινε αγώνα, (she would fight for their right to use the front door) seems to construct a more dynamic female role and a strong collective identity. Bussey (2011: 622) suggests that women in societies where they are deprived of their social advantages have succeeded in remedying their situation by drawing on their collective gender identity. TTa, by contrast, translates aunt as Godmother (Νονά) creating connotations of a mafia, by allusions to the American crime novel The Godfather. ST 5: TT5a:

TT5b:

After a while it will be either all front doors or all back. Aunt Lydia said she was lobbying for the front (1985: 20). Όλες από την πίσω πόρτα; Η Νονά Λυδία είπε, κινείται παρασκηνιακά για την εμπρόσθια (1990: 27). BT. Everyone from the back door? Godmother Lydia said she was moving behind the scenes for the front. Η που θα χρησιμοποιούμε μόνο την μπροστινή πόρτα ή μόνο την πίσω. Η Θεία Λίντια είπε ότι θα έδινε αγώνα για την μπροστινή (2018: 28). BT. We will use only the front door or the back. Aunt Lydia said she would fight for the front.

TT6b retains the sexual connotations of the ST, following from the penetrated item. ST 6:

To be seen—to be seen—is to be—her voice trembled— penetrated. What you must be, girls, is impenetrable (1985: 35).

Gender in Translation: The Handmaid’s Tale in Greek

TT6a:

TT6b:

223

Ακόμα και ο οφθαλμός είναι σε θέση να διακορεύσει. Ένα το χρέος σας κορίτσια: να μείνετε άδυτο άβατο (1990: 48). BT. Even the eye is able to deflower. One is your duty girls: to remain an untouched sanctuary. Το να σας βλέπει κάποιος - να σας τρώει με τα μάτια - είναι (και η φωνή της έτρεμε) σαν να διεισδύει μέσα σας. Και εσείς κορίτσια, πρέπει να είστε αδιαπέραστες σε κάθε διείσδυση (2018:49). BT. Seeing you—eating you with their eyes—is (and her voice trembled) as if penetrating you. And you girls, you have to be impenetrable in every penetration.

‘To be seen—is to be—… penetrated’ was Aunt Lydia’s slogan in educating the ‘girls’. The male gaze is presented as objectifying and possessive. Surveillance is seen as the defining feature of masculine sexuality, for the handmaids to be lawful subjects of the regime.

5 Discussion of the Results Since 1980, feminist scholars in translation studies have discussed the interplay between gender and translation, namely, how feminine identities can be reshaped through discourse in another language context for discursively representing female dynamics. Following Meng (2019), the study examined the interplay between gender, discourse and context, namely, how context can influence discourse. As mentioned, the two Greek translations of The Handmaid’s Tale differ in how they shape feminine identities: TTa (1990) creates strong religious connotations, as if the Gilead regime was highly theocratic. This is evident in the rendition of the title, in the first place. It uses more archaic language creates implications that tend to minimize female power, in agreement with the author’s intention. On the other hand, TTb opts for items which are not derogatory for women in Gilead and shapes more vivid images of them by making use of metaphors and fixed expressions to render female characters more transparent in the target context. Out of the three main feminist strategies in translation, introduced by von Flotow (1991), namely, supplementing, prefacing/footnoting and hijacking, TTb seems to make attempts at hijacking the target text, i.e. it deliberately feminizes the target version by enforcing elements which favour more powerful female representations. TTa, actively participates in the creation of meaning by disseminating the narrative of a weak female identity in a theologically oriented context. To test the validity of the claim, the study compiled a questionnaire intended to measure readers’ reception of the connotations created by the female representations the two versions made of the women in Gilead. The 15 postgraduate respondents who were asked to use their insight as native speakers of Greek in order to identify which member of the target extract pairs renders a more powerful female figure. Results showed that the version which portrayed more powerful female figures was TTb,

224

A. Koutsoumpogera

whereas TTa was enforcing female powerlessness, in agreement with the intention of the author. Furthermore, respondents preferred the TTb version by 75%. When asked to explain why they preferred TTb, some suggested that the formal language of TTa discouraged them. Others said that a blatant weakening of female power (TTa) may be in agreement with author intentions but hiding female powerlessness to some extent—through discourse—as in TTb, may make the workings of power more elusive, as it may be in real life. The study attempted to shed light on intra-cultural variation in rendition of female identities in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale and the reception of the target options in the target environment at the time of the more recent translation, i.e. 28 years after the appearance of the first Greek translation of the novel. The significance of the study lies in that it shows the potential of discourse to reshape identities by balancing the powerfulness vs. powerlessness interplay in the representation of women, so as to portray a credible balance at the time of publication. For Larkosh (2011: 5), “[n]one of us is exempt from the ways in which acts of translation, whether in a literal or in a more figurative cultural sense, continually reshape understandings of ‘our’ identities”. Language as an important social tool can reshape the status of women and the power relationship between male and female identities. Future research could potentially further explore the extent to which the English-Greek translation context offers (re)writings of feminine identity and the strategies used to portray them. The study couldn’t agree more with Cronin’s (2006) view that translation offers a unique opportunity for the study of cultural identity diachronically: translation is central to any proper understanding of the emergence of cultural identity in human history and offers an innovative and positive vision of the way in which translation can be used to deal with one of the most salient issues in an increasingly borderless world. (2006: i)

Appendix: Representation of Female Figures QUESTIONNAIRE The following extracts are from the two Greek translations of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. It is narrated by Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a dystopian version of the United States of America after the takeover of a totalitarian regime. Due to heavy pollution and radiation, fertility issues are common, and most women are unable to conceive. As one of the few fertile women in Gilead, Offred is forced to produce children for the Commanders, the ruling class of men and their Wives. Aunts are in charge of training and indoctrinating the Handmaids. Please read the following extracts to identify the translation that you believe offers a more powerful representation of female figure(s). PLEASE CIRCLE_Sex: Male/Female, Age: 20–25/ 25–30.

Gender in Translation: The Handmaid’s Tale in Greek

1.

225

The Handmaids always travel in pairs when outside. Offred does her shopping with Ofglen, another Handmaid when they encounter a group of Japanese tourists and their interpreter. ST - Ofglen stops beside me and I know that she too cannot take her eyes off these women – Η Τουγκλέν κοντοστέκεται πλάι μου και ξέρω ότι και αυτή τρώει με τα μάτια της τις γυναίκες. – Η τέτοια του Γκλέν σταματάει δίπλα μου και το ξέρω ότι και εκείνη αδυνατεί να αποσύρει τα μάτια της απ’ αυτές τις γυναίκες.

2.

Please provide a short explanation of your choice. ……………………………………………………………………………………………… The Commander’s wife sits in her garden and knits constantly. All the Wives knit scarves for the soldiers at the frontlines. ST - Maybe it’s just something to keep the Wives busy, to give them a sense of purpose. – Μία λύση, να ‘χουν με τι ν΄ απασχολούνται οι Γαμετές, ορρός αυταπάτης που διαθέτουν λόγο ύπαρξης. – Μπορεί να ναι απλώς κάτι για να περνούν οι Σύζυγοι την ώρα τους, για να χουν ένα αίσθημα σκοπού.

3.

Please provide a short explanation of your choice. ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Offred likes to remember her former life. She recalls talking to her college friend, Moira, in her dorm room and her reaction for dating a married man. ST - She said I was poaching, on another woman’s ground. – Είπε, καταπατούσα τα οικόπεδα άλλης γυναίκας. – Με έλεγε λαθροθήρα, ότι κυνηγούσα στα εδάφη άλλης γυναίκας.

4.

Please provide a short explanation of your choice. ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Τhe voice of Aunt Lydia rings in Offred’s head, insisting that women are better off in Gilead, free from exploitation and violence, than they were in the dangerous freedom of pre-Gilead times. ST - What you must be, girls, is impenetrable. – Και εσείς κορίτσια, πρέπει να είστε αδιαπέραστες σε κάθε διείσδυση. – Ένα το χρέος σας κορίτσια: να μείνετε άδυτο άβατο.

Please provide a short explanation of your choice. ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you!

226

A. Koutsoumpogera

References Bussey, Kay. 2011. Gender identity development. In Handbook of identity theory and research, ed. J. Schwartz Seth, Koen Luyckx, Vivian L. Vignoles, 603–628. New York: Springer. Cronin, Michael. 2006. Translation and identity. London: Routledge. Ergun, Emek. 2010. Bridging across feminist translation and sociolinguistics. Language and Linguistics Compass 4 (5): 307–318. Flotow, Luise von. 1991. Feminist translation: Contexts, practices and theories. TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 4 (2): 69–84. Foucault, Michel. 1992. The history of sexuality. London: Penguin. King, Helen. 1997. Reading the female body. Gender & History 9 (3): 620–624. Larkosh, Christopher, ed. 2011. Re-engendering translation: Transcultural practice, gender/sexuality, and the politics of alterity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Meng, Lingzi. 2019. Gender in literary translation. A corpus-based study of the English Translations of Chenzhong De Chibang. Shanghai: Springer. Nakamura, Momoko, 2014. Gender, language and ideology. A genealogy of Japanese women’s language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Rosdahl, Jamilla. 2017. Sculpting the woman—Muscularity, power and the problem with femininity. Oxford: Peter Lang. Simon, Sherry. 1996. Gender in translation: Cultural identity and the politics of transmission. London: Routledge. von Flotow, Luise. 2004. Translation and gender: Translating in the “era of feminism.” Shanghai: Foreign Language Education Press.

Electronic Sources Newman, Charlotte. 2010. The handmaid’s tale by Margaret Atwood, The Guardian, 26 September. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/sep/26/the-handmaids-tale-margaretatwood (accessed 21/7/2021)

Texts Atwood, Margaret. 1985. The handmaid’s tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Atwood, Margaret. 1990. Η ιστορία της πορφυρής δούλης. Μετφρ. Παύλος Μάτεσσις. Αθήνα: Εστία. Atwood, Margaret. 2018. Η ιστορία της θεραπαινίδας. Μετφρ. Αύγουστος Κορτώ. Αθήνα: υχογιός.

Revolution and Oppression in Russian/Greek Versions of Animal Farm Aikaterini Gavra

Abstract The paper examines the portrayal of two central topics in George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm (1945), namely, ‘oppression’ and ‘revolution’. It focuses on Old Major’s speech, who is the wisest and oldest of the animals. He unites the farm against humans inspiring the animals’ rebellion. The aim of the study is to contrast the Russian (1989) and Greek (2005) target versions of Old Major’s speech, where references to oppression and revolution peak. The study intends to highlight differences in the way the target versions shape oppression and revolution and to account for these differences in terms of pragmatic theoretical concepts. Findings show that oppression and revolution are more vividly shaped in the Russian target version than in the Greek one, along with pessimism for the farm’s current situation, enforced implications of hard work and exhaustion, collective awareness and optimistic prospects of a revolution. Multilingual respondents answered questionnaires to confirm the findings of data analysis. A criterion governing translator behaviour is assumed to be translators’ awareness of ST relevance to the target environment. The research offers insight into narratives in target cultural environments and enriches cross-cultural understanding of variation in relational patterns. Keywords Animal Farm · Oppression · Revolution · Russian/Greek · Translation

1 Introduction “Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.” (Animal Farm George Orwell 1945: 6)

This is how Old Major initiates his speech, in addressing the animals, in the novel Animal Farm. George Orwell (1945) aimed to convey a political message against totalitarianism through allegory (Albloly, Salih and Nour 2019). Even though the story of the novel is set on a farm, Orwell managed to depict the last years of Imperial Russia and the first years of the Soviet Union, the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and A. Gavra (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_15

227

228

A. Gavra

Stalin’s regime (Pelpuo, Bakuuro and Tuurosong 2018). According to Orwell, the book reflects the events that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then to the Stalinist period of the Soviet Union (Dag 2016 online). Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Stalin and hostile to Stalinist Moscow. The novel was prohibited in the Soviet Union and was published for the first time in Russian in 1988, the latest years of the Soviet Union (ibid). Its themes are still relevant today, vividly reflecting the impartial moments of any society and the fundamental laws of human nature. Two of the most important themes in the novel are ‘oppression’ and ‘revolution’. In the novel, animals live on Manor farm under the rule of a cruel farmer. Old Major, the wisest and oldest of the animals unites the farm against the humans. Driving the humans out, the animals form their own society based upon democratic principles. Animals are expected to follow the seven tenets of Animalism and treat others equally. Life on the farm for the animals is physically demanding, but there is plenty of food and life is good. However, the pigs have complete control over the Farm’s government and the peace will be short lived. Animals lose their freedoms and are unable to challenge the pigs’ authority. Slowly over time, pigs show such cruelty to other animals, that makes them indistinguishable from the human dictators they overthrew. This study examines how ‘oppression’ and ‘revolution’, central themes in the novel, build up, and the question arises how translators will transfer the revolutionary impetus through target discourse. The study addresses the following questions: (1) are there differences between the Greek and Russian target versions, in the way they shape oppression and revolution? (2) why may these types of differences occur? The research offers insight into translator socio-historical awareness as a parameter affecting mediator behaviour.

2 Literature Review and Methodology Pragmatic studies often focus on inferences in meaning-making. The role of inference in communication is to allow the listener to successfully identify aspects of intended meaning (Horn and Ward 2004). Pragmatic inference determines an utterance’s semantic content and results in various kinds of meaning contextualizations at the lexical level (Grygiel 2016). Regarding pragmatic equivalence, Baker (2011) claims, that the translator needs to work out implied meanings in translation in order to get the ST message across, along with the source speaker’s intention (Alwazna 2017). The study will highlight shifts in pragmatic meaning which shape oppression and revolution in the Russian and Greek target versions. Literary pragmaticists are not mainly concerned with linguistic interaction between the characters portrayed in literary texts, but ‘between the real writers as speakers of literature and their real readers or listeners’ (Sell 1995: 30–36). Thus, a point of interest may be how mediators may treat the themes of oppression and revolution, and what (contextual information) could possibly make certain options in/appropriate in a target version. The study makes use of tenets of Relevance Theory

Revolution and Oppression …

229

to account for translator behaviour at certain points of the novel. It suggests that target versions have registered the mediators’ respective perception of ‘contextual information’, which made them shape target versions accordingly. Translators seem to be concerned with maximizing relevance, produce stimuli which attract readers’ attention, prompting retrieval of certain contextual assumptions and pointing towards an intended conclusion, as anticipated in Relevance Theory: The universal cognitive tendency to maximise relevance makes it possible, at least to some extent, to predict and manipulate the mental states of others. Knowing of your tendency to pick out the most relevant stimuli in your environment and process them so as to maximise their relevance, I may be able to produce a stimulus which is likely to attract your attention, to prompt the retrieval of certain contextual assumptions and to point you towards an intended conclusion. (Wilson and Sperber 2004/2006: 254)

As mentioned, the data set derives from George Orwell’s novel and a Russian and Greek translation of it, by Larisa Bespalova (1989) and Katerina Christodoulou (2005), respectively. The study presents excerpts from the novel, showing how oppression and revolution may travel through translation. The whole of Old Major’s speech in chapter 1 is a warning to the animals about their future on the farm, if they do not react. Old Major’s intention is to raise awareness of the oppression, namely, that animals suffer. Old Major’s speech is an argumentative type of discourse influential enough to trigger the rebellion earlier than anticipated. One way to approach the research questions is to examine in which target text, Russian or Greek, the translator more effectively shapes the dramatic conditions on the farm, i.e. hard work, exhaustion, human threat, on the one hand, and on the other, the upcoming rebellion. To confirm findings, the study distributed a questionnaire to 11 respondents aged 20 to 40, who speak all three languages, Greek, English and Russian. The questionnaire asked four questions, in which participants had to choose a preferred translated version of a small extract, and then justify their answer. They were given a week to fill in the questionnaire anonymously, and everybody responded.

3 Presentation of the Data One of the novel’s most impressive accomplishments is portrayal of the figures of oppressed animals. It demonstrates how the inability or unwillingness to question authority condemns the working class to tolerating oppression. Animals resort to revolution, as their last hope to freedom. Like all popular revolutions, the uprising in Animal Farm develops out of a hope for a better future, in which farm animals can enjoy the fruits of their own labour without the overbearing rule of humans. Before and during the revolution, all animals are committed to the idea of universal equality. However, as soon as the pigs took power and became dominant on the farm, they forgot all values for which they fought at the risk of their lives. High ideals that fueled the revolution gradually gave way to individual interest. Although overthrowing the human oppressor, Mr. Jones with a democratic coalition of animals quickly gave way to the consolidation of power

230

A. Gavra

among the pigs. The expulsion of Mr. Jones created a power vacuum, to be occupied by the next oppressor. Oppression pervades the whole of Orwell’s work, but there are scenes in the novel, where fear, anxiety and uncertainty of the animals are more prevalent. The study selects one main scene, Old Major’s speech (chapter one), where oppression peaks and revolution comes as an answer. As a wise and persuasive pig, Old Major urges the animals to plan the rebellion. He reminds them of humans’ exploitation of them, emphasizes people’s selfishness, aiming at convincing the animals that the only way out is rebellion. He dies three days after delivering the speech but the animals, motivated by this speech, set to work immediately to organize the Rebellion. The language of political campaigns is often shaped by rhetoric, persuasion strategies, propaganda, metaphor, euphemism, parallelism, jingles and slogans (Aduradola and Ojukwu 2013). All these techniques seem to appear in Old Major’s speech. Both translators are concerned with highlighting the theme of oppression in the target versions as the following example shows, where the ST item human race becomes TT human yoke in both versions. In the following passage Old Major urges animals to rebel, in order to overthrow Mr. Jones, who represents the whole human race. Both Russian and Greek target versions favour yoke, instead of race, to enforce the implication of oppression against animals (van Dijk 2010). ST RU GR

Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! Pabotat den i noq, ne wad cil, i cvepgnyt ldckoe igo! BT. Work day and night, sparing no effort, and overthrow the human yoke! ´ Tι αλλo, απ´o τo να παλšψoυμε μšρα και νχτα, ´ με την ψυχη´ και τo ´ ´ ζυγ´o! κoρμ´ι μας, για ν απoτιναξoυμε τoν ανθρωπινo BT. What else, than to fight day and night, with our soul and body, to shake off the human yoke!

However, a contrastive analysis of the two target versions tends to show that the Russian target text enforces the animals’ agony, shapes the continuous threat they are in and the animals’ pessimism about their tragic living conditions more effectively. The Russian version also broadens the social gap between animals and humans, and heightens the optimistic prospect of the revolution, their expectations of a better future and the importance of solidarity in fighting for the common cause. The pragmatic implications following from expressions, which make the difference in the portrayal of oppression/revolution, are a collective awareness in the Russian target text, implications of hard work and exhaustion which are heightened in the Russian version, pessimistic expectations about the future are made explicit in Russian, there is a higher awareness of the us-them distinction, along with enforced optimistic implications/inferences about the revolution. What follows presents instances of variation with respect to a rendition of the above implications in the target versions, in Old Major’s speech, which appear rather systematically in the respective target versions:

Revolution and Oppression …

231

3.1 Higher Awareness of the Us-Them Distinction In example 1, Old Major talks about Mr. Jones, the farm owner, as the representative of the human race. The Russian version highlights us vs. them distinction (see over us), which raises collective awareness of the oppressed. ST1 RU GR

Yet he is lord of all the animals. Bce tak, i tem ne menee on vlactvyet nad nami. BT. This is how it is, and yet he rules over us. αρ´oλ’ αυτα´ ε´ιναι o αϕšντης o´ λων των ζωων. ´ BT. Nevertheless, he is the master of all animals.

The feature activates the conflictive frame of the story more clearly and perhaps foreshadows the climax.

3.2 Pessimistic Expectations About the Future In example 2, Old Major talks about death, which is unavoidable for each and every animal in the farm. The future of each animal is predestined, because Mr. Jones breeds animals, in order to kill them one day and use their meat. Old Major provokes negative feelings in animals, in order to urge them to rebellion. This is probably why he targets them directly (Grainger and Mill 2016), through the all of you item, vs. the Greek item all of us, which assumes more solidarity on his part. The collocation terrible end further evokes pessimism. ST2 RU

GR

To that horror we all must come—cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone. Bcex vac—kopov, cvine, kyp, ovec, vcex-vcex det tot ctpaxny konec. BT. All of you—cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, all-all, this terrible end awaits. ´ Aυτη´ τη ϕρ´ικη θα τη νιωσoυμε ´ o´ λoι, αγελαδες, γoυρoνια, ´ κ´oτες, πρ´oβατα, o´ λoι μας. BT. We will all feel this horror, cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, all of us.

In example 3, Old Major once more reminds animals that their life is nothing more than misery and slavery. The Russian target text has the additional phrase and we cannot get away from this [misery and slavery], which is a pessimistic evaluation, and one bringing up the need for escaping the situation, which the other version does not bring up. It is as if the Russian text more eloquently creates awareness of the inescapable, the prospect of a revolution. The Russian target text also highlights collective awareness, through we. ST3 RU

The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth. Hiweta i pabctvo—vot qto takoe izn ivotnyx, i ot togo nam nikyda ne yti.

232

A. Gavra

GR

BT. Poverty and slavery are what an animal life is, and we cannot get away from this. ´ αυτη´ ε´ιναι η H ζωη´ τoυ κυλα´ μšσα στην δυστυχ´ια και την σκλαβια: ´ καθαρη´ αληθεια. BT. His life flows in misery and slavery: this is the pure truth.

In example 4, Old Major suggests that even if animals work hard, they own nothing but their bare skin. In the Russian target text, Old Major’s speech seems to be more direct, with the rhetorical question. ST4 RU GR

… and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin. … a qto y nac ect?—niqego, kpome cvoe xkypy. BT. … but what do we have?— nothing but our skin. ´ ´ περισσ´oτερo απ´o τo τoμαρι ´ … και o´ μως δεν ανηκει σε κανšναν μας κατι τoυ. BT. and yet none of us owns anything more than his/her skin.

3.3 Implications of Hard Work and Exhaustion In examples 5–7, Old Major focuses on the exhausting rhythms of everyday life. He argues that animals live to work without resting or being adequately rewarded for their labour. In the Russian target text, the use of metaphors creates more cruel implications of animal suffering and oppression. The Russian translator portrays oppression more vividly, than the Greek one does. ST5

RU

GR

ST6 RU

We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength… My povlemc na cvet, my polyqaem povno ctolko kopma, qtoby ne ymepet c goloda, a paboqi ckot ewe i iznypt paboto, poka ne vymyt iz nego vce coki… BT. We come into the world, we get just enough food so as not to die of hunger and the working cattle is also exhausted with work until they squeeze all the juices out of it... ´ εννι´oμαστε, μας δ´ινoυν τ´oση τρoϕη´ o´ ση χρειαζεται για να μην μας ´ ´ μας εξαντλoν ´ στη δoυλεια… βγει η ψυχη, BT. We get born and they give us as much food as to keep us alive, they exhaust us at work… No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. Het takogo ivotnogo v Anglii, kotopoe ne pacppoctiloc by c docygom i padoct izni, edva emy ctyknet god. BT. There is no such animal in England that would not say goodbye to leisure and joyful life, as soon as he turns a year.

Revolution and Oppression …

GR

233

Kανšνα ζωo ´ στην Aγγλ´ια δεν γνωρισε ´ χαρα´ η´ ξεκoραση ´ μετα´ τoν πρωτo ´ ´ τoυ. χρ´oνo της ζωης BT. No animal in England experienced joy or rest after the first year of its life.

Old Major’s speech sounds like a political campaign, aiming at convincing the audience to fight against tyrant Mr. Jones. In example 7, Old Major addresses animals with the rhetorical question Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? The Russian collocation drag out this miserable existence conveys a stronger existential agony resulting from the oppressive situation they experience. ST7 RU GR

Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Poqemy e togda my vlaqim to alkoe cywectvovanie? BT. Why, then, do we drag out this miserable existence? ´ ´ ιατ´ι, λoιπ´oν, συνεχ´ιζoυμε να ζoμε ´ κατω απ´o αυτšς τις αθλιες ´ συνθηκες; BT. So why do we continue to live under these miserable conditions?

Likewise, the Russian version creates stronger implications of oppression and suffering by mentioning the woes (poverty and powerlessness) which animals will manage to avoid with the uprising, whereas in the English and Greek versions the woes are only implied, because the focus is on what will be achieved if they rebel. ST8 RU

GR

Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free. Ecli ckinyt qeloveka, nikto ne bydet ppicvaivat plody naxego tpyda. Hazavtpa e my ocvobodimc ot niwety i becppavi. BT. If man is thrown off, no one will appropriate the fruits of our labour. Tomorrow we will be free from poverty and powerlessness. ´ ´ τανει να απαλλαγoμε ´ απ´o τoν ανθρωπo και oι κ´oπoι τoυ μ´oχθoυ μας θα ε´ιναι δικo´ι μας. Mπoρoμε ´ σχεδ´oν σε μ´ια νχτα ´ να γ´ινoυμε πλoσιoι ´ και ελεθερoι. ´ BT. It is enough to get rid of man and the efforts of our toil will be ours. We can become rich and free in almost one night.

3.4 Solidarity and Directness Old Major encourages animals to rebel against humans. Rebellion is based on teamwork, which is made more explicit in the Russian version, with the possessive adjective our appearing twice, in example 9, whereas in Greek it appears once, and not at all in the ST: the intention in the Russian TT is to highlight that a common enemy requires collaboration and solidarity. ST9

And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle.

234

A. Gavra

RU

I da bydet naxe edinctvo v bopbe, naxe tovapiwectvo nepyximo! BT. And may there be our unity in the struggle, our indestructible partnership! ´ ´ τα ζωα ´ Kαι αναμεσα σε εμας ´ ας υπαρξει απ´oλυτη oμ´oνoια, απ´oλυτη συντρoϕικ´oτητα στoν αγωνα ´ μας. BT. And between us, animals, let there be absolute unity, absolute companionship in our struggle.

GR

See also our skin in the Russian version, in example 4. Collective awareness is raised in the Russian translation. In his study on Russian collectivism, Vlachoutsicos (1997) mentions that the Russian collectivist value system is an enduring feature of Russian life which predates communism and which persists as a potent social force in the post-Communist era. It has passed into the consciousness of the Russian people, their way of thinking as societal value. Old Major has a strong vision of a socialist utopia. He warns animals what is wrong and what is right for them to do, giving them useful advice on how to behave when they gain power against humans. The Russian version of example 10 uses imperatives, which assume directness and urgency. The Greek target option we must never get to the point of being like him does not seem to carry the force of direct advice. ST10 RU

GR

And remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him. Pomnite take: v bopbe ppotiv qeloveka ne ypodobltec emy. BT. Remember also: in the struggle against a man, do not become like him. ´ ´ Kαι να θυμαστε επ´ισης στoν αγωνα ´ μας δεν πρšπει πoτš να ϕτασoυμε ´ στo σημε´ιo να τoυ μoιασoυμε. BT. And also remember in our struggle we must never get to the point of being like them.

The same holds for example 11, where the Russian version is more direct, with the negated imperative. ST11 RU GR

No argument must lead you astray. He date yvleq ceb c pyti bopby nikakimi dovodami. BT. Don’t let yourselves be led astray by any kind of argument. ´ Kανšνα επιχε´ιρημα δεν πρšπει να σας παραπλανησει. BT. No argument should deceive you.

In/directness is a pragmatic variable cross-culturally (Grainger and Mills 2016) which seems to vary between the two target versions, shaping a more urgent situation in the Russian version. In/directness is a phenomenon dealt with in im/politeness theory, it regulates the interpersonal distance between speaker-addressee, with certain features (e.g. expressiveness [as in the case of connoting solidarity, example 9] or advice-giving [through imperatives, examples 10 and 11]) signalling enhanced directness.

Revolution and Oppression …

235

4 The Respondents’ View The questionnaire aimed at assessing the relative impact of the two versions on trilingual speakers of English-Greek-Russian. It comprised 4 questions, concerning oppression and revolution. The section presents the results of the questionnaire for each question separately. Eleven respondents were given translation extracts and were asked questions like (1) Which translation is more communicative? Please, justify your answer, (2) Which target version paints a higher threat awareness? Please, justify your answer, (3) Why do you think the Russian translator may have avoided to translate tyranny of the people in Russian and instead used item ‘oppression’ (“gnet”)? (4) Which of the translations is more optimistic about the future of the revolution? Please, justify your answer (see appendix). In the first question Which translation is more powerful in shaping oppression and revolution? seven out of eleven participants chose the Russian target text, while only four out of eleven participants seemed to identify the Greek target text as more powerful. The majority of respondents, who picked the Russian translated version pointed to This is how it is, and yet he rules over us, and explained that the phrase rules over us ‘created the implication of being exploited more clearly’ (Fig. 1). In the second question, Which target version paints a higher threat awareness? seven out of eleven participants answered that the threat sounds higher in the Russian version, while four out of eleven respondents chose the Greek translation. The majority of respondents, who considered the threat to be higher in the Russian translation attributed the view to the reiteration of all: All of you - cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, all-all, this terrible end awaits. One respondent pointed out that the Russian target text is more direct. The personal pronoun you (direct address) seems to suggest that the threat is very powerful. Only one respondent argued that the threat sounds higher in Greek because Old Major explicitly sides with the sufferers (through the we-inclusive option) in order to urge animals to unite against humans. This enforces the implication that the situation is tragic and that they have to rebel (Fig. 2). The third question was Why do you think the Russian translator avoids translating tyranny into Russian and instead uses oppression? The question intended to bring up connotations which the item tyranny may carry in the target language, which may be making the term inappropriate in Russian. Respondents explained, that potentially Fig. 1 Results of the question Which translation is more powerful in shaping oppression and revolution?

8 6 4 2 0 Russian TT

Greek TT

236 Fig. 2 Results of the question Which target version paints a higher threat awareness?

A. Gavra

8 6 4 2 0 Russian TT

Greek TT

historical reasons urged the Russian translator to make this choice: ‘By avoiding tyranny the translator avoids direct evaluation and criticism of political regimes’, ‘Given the historical context and vulnerability of the Russian authorities to criticism, this example sounds like an act of self-censorship’, ‘Oppression gives a sense of objectivity to the translation’ and ‘the Russian translation does not want to awaken memories of the past’ or that ‘[t]yranny is a form of state power, and they wouldn’t mean to be offensive’. Other participants argued that ‘perhaps the translator uses an archaic Russian item oppression since tyranny is an archaic Greek word’. Another respondent thought that the oppression item is more appropriate, ‘because the Russian state has not experienced tyranny but only monarchy’. In the fourth and last question, Which translation is more optimistic about the future of the revolution? seven out of eleven participants chose the Russian version and only two chose the Greek one. Two participants argued that both target versions seem optimistic. Respondents who chose the Russian target text as the most ‘revolutionary’ claimed that the optimism follows from items like indestructible, in phrases like may there be our unity in the struggle, our indestructible partnership, which function as moral boosters and helps would-be fighters envisage a positive outcome of the revolution. The two participants, who reckoned the Greek target text to be more optimistic about the future of the revolution justified their view on the grounds of absoluteness emanating from the And between us animals let there be absolute unity, absolute companionship in our struggle, in addition to our ‘shows that teamwork will help them achieve their goal’ (Fig. 3).

5 Discussion The purpose of the research was (a) to trace differences between the Russian and Greek target versions of Old Major’s speech, in the way they shape oppression and revolution, and (b) to suggest why these types of differences may occur. Findings show that the Russian target text shapes the living conditions of animals differently,

Revolution and Oppression … Fig. 3 Results of the question Which translation is more optimistic about the future of the revolution?

237

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Russian TT

Greek TT

both translations

enforcing negative emotions—agony, horror and threat. The Greek version of Old Major’s speech is rather close to the original, but it does not exceed the Russian target text in intensity. The Russian text appears to be more aware of the oppression in the farm and has had a stronger impact on trilingual respondents. The question arises as to what made the Russian version more impactful vs. the selected Greek version.1 On the assumption that ‘the search for relevance is a basic feature of human cognition, which communicators may exploit’ (Wilson and Sperber 2004/2006: 251), the study suggests that the ‘intensity’ of the Russian version relates to the translator’s awareness that George Orwell’s novel was written as a satire against Stalinism, i.e. it was relevant to the target environment, which the source version was written for. The ‘contextual implication’2 that Orwell’s novel was targeting the target political system is assumed to explain why the Russian version (1992) is relatively more expressive at points, e.g. it assumes higher threat awareness, is more optimistic about the future of the revolution but renders tyranny as oppression (rather than the straightforward Russian equivalent, because it may carry awkward connotations and may be offensive). The two versions seem to differ in relative degrees of expressiveness at points, as anticipated in Relevance Theory, which highlights degrees of relevance: Relevance theory claims that what makes an input worth picking out from the mass of competing stimuli is not just that it is relevant, but that it is more relevant than any alternative input available to us at that time. Intuitively, other things being equal, the more worthwhile conclusions achieved by processing an input, the more relevant it will be. In relevancetheoretic terms, other things being equal, the greater the positive cognitive effects achieved by processing an input, the greater its relevance will be. (Wilson and Sperber 2004/2006: 252, emphasis added)

The study used pragmatic considerations, i.e. tenets of Relevance Theory to account for shifts observed between the Russian and Greek translations of George Orwell’s novella. It suggests that the shifts are justified on the grounds of the mediator’s perception of the degree of relevance the novel bears towards the respective 1

Quite a few translations have appeared on the Greek market between 1951 and—at least—2007. ‘[A] conclusion deducible from the input and the context together, but from neither input nor context alone’ (ibid).

2

238

A. Gavra

target environments, and times. Relevance in the Russian publication also seems to be enhanced by the year of publication of the target version, namely when the target version finally appeared on the Russian market after being banned for some decades. The year of the Russian publication seems to add to the relevance of the text in its target environment. The Greek version, by contrast, may be expected to be relatively less powerful, in that the text has been on the Greek market since 1951 and the selected Greek version for this study is one of the late appearances of the publication on the Greek market. Although the theme of oppression is universal, the fact that it was written as an allegory against Stalin’s regime makes it relatively less relevant for Greek.

Appendix Questionnaire The following questionnaire draws on G. Orwell’s novel Animal Farm and particularly on Old Major’s speech. In the novel, animals live on the Manor farm under the rule of a cruel farmer. Old Major, the wisest and oldest of the animals unites the farm against the humans. The animals may form their own society based upon democratic principles. However, the pigs have complete control over Animal Farm’s government and animals lose their freedoms. Slowly, over time, pigs become indistinguishable from the human dictators they overthrew. Please, answer the following questions: 1)

Old Major, as a wise and persuasive pig, inspires the animals’ rebellion in his speech. Which translation is more powerful and impactful? Please, justify your answer. ST GR RU

2)

Yet he is lord of all the animals. αρ´oλ’ αυτα´ ε´ιναι o αϕšντης o´ λων των ζωων. ´ BT. Nevertheless, he is the master of all animals. Bce tak, i tem ne menee on vlactvyet nad nami. BT.This is how it is, and yet he rules over us.

In his speech Old Major reminds animals of the tragic situation, provoking negative feelings, in order to urge them to rebellion. In which translated version is the threat presented higher? Please, justify your answer. ST GR

RU

To that horror we all must come—cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone. ´ Aυτη´ τη ϕρ´ικη θα τη νιωσoυμε ´ o´ λoι, αγελαδες, γoυρoνια, ´ κ´oτες, πρ´oβατα, o´ λoι μας. BT. We will all feel this horror, cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, all of us. Bcex vac—kopov, cvine, kyp, ovec, vcex-vcex det tot ctpaxny konec.

Revolution and Oppression …

239

BT. All of you—cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, all-all, this terrible end awaits. 3)

Humans is the reason why animals face cruelty. Why do you think Russian translator may avoid the word tyranny in Russian and instead uses oppression (“gnet”)? ST GR RU

4)

All the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? ´ ´ Oλες μας oι συμϕoρšς πηγαζoυν απ´o την τυρανν´ια των ανθρωπων. ´ BT. All our misfortunes stem from the tyranny of the people. Ppiqina naxix bed—gnet lde? BT. The cause of our troubles is oppression of people?

Rebellion is based on teamwork, as Old Major highlights in his speech. Which of the translations, Greek or Russian, is more optimistic about the future of revolution? Please, justify your answer. ST GR

RU

And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. ´ ´ τα ζωα ´ Kαι αναμεσα σε εμας ´ ας υπαρξει απ´oλυτη oμ´oνoια, απ´oλυτη συντρoϕικ´oτητα στoν αγωνα ´ μας. BT. And between us animals let there be absolute unity, absolute companionship in our struggle. I da bydet naxe edinctvo v bopbe, naxe tovapiwectvo nepyximo! BT. And may there be our unity in the struggle, our indestructible partnership!

References Aduradola, Remi R., and Chris C. Ojukwu. 2013. Language of political campaigns and politics in Nigeria. Canadian Social Science 9 (3): 104–116. Alwazna, Rafat Y. 2017. Pragmatic aspect of translation: The interpretation-based inference and its implications for translation. AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies 1 (4): 35–51. Albloly, Amir Mohammed, and Hala Salih Mohammed. Nour. 2019. The portrayal of political symbolism in george orwell writings: With reference to “animal farm” and “nineteen eighty-four.” The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Invention 6 (9): 5642–5648. Baker, Mona. 2011. In other words a course book on translation. London: Routledge. Grainger, Karen and Sara Mills. 2016. Directness and indirectness across cultures. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Grygiel, Marcin. 2016. The role of pragmatic inferencing in causing semantic change. Anuari De Filologia. Estudis De Lingaνstica 6: 115–130. Horn, R. Laurence and Ward, Gregory, eds. 2004/2006. Handbook of pragmatics. MA, USA: Blackwell.

240

A. Gavra

Pelpuo, Rashid Hassan, Justine Bakuuro, and Damasus Tuurosong. 2018. Literature and politics – A review of George Orwell’s animal farm and Chinua Achebe’s a man of the people. International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research 6 (2): 1–26. Sell, Roger. 1995. Literary pragmatics. London: Routledge. van Dijk, Teun A. 2010. The pragmatics of literary communication. University of Amsterdam. Vlachoutsikos, Charalambos. 1997. Russian collectivism: An invisible fist in the transformation process of Russia. ELIAMEP 8: 1–73. Wilson, Deirdre and Dan Sperber. 2004/2006. Relevance theory, in L. R. Horn and Gregory Ward, eds. The handbook of pragmatics, 607–632. MA, USA: Blackwell.

Electronic sources Dag, O. 2016. George Orwell: The freedom of the press. The Times Literary Supplement, 15 September 1972. Web. 15 November 2016. https://orwell.ru/library/novels/Animal_Farm/english/efp_go (accessed 13 August 2021). How effective is Old Major’s speech: Animal Farm Essay. 16 May 2018. https://www.bartleby. com/essay/How-effective-is-Old-Majors-speech-Animal-P3CAHN4KTJ (accessed 3 December 2020).

Texts Orwell, George. [1945] 1946. Animal farm. USA: New American Library. Opyll, Dopd. 1992. Ckotny dvop. [Animal farm] Mockva: TEPPA. Oργoυελ, Tζωρτζ. 2005. H ϕ αρμα ´ τ ων ζ ωων. ´ [Animal farm] Aθηνα: ´ ραμματα. ´

Ideological Perspectives in Translated Museum Discourses Eleftherios Antoniou

Abstract The research focuses on translation as a tool for analyzing ideological narratives found in the Russian and English versions of two museum websites, namely, The ‘Bunker 42’ Museum of Cold War in Moscow and The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. Critical Discourse Analysis and the discourse historical approach (Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis, The Critical Study of Language, Routledge, London, 1995; Wodak and Meyer (eds), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, Sage, London, 2001) have been instrumental in identifying discursive manifestations of ideologies in museum contexts. The approach examines linguistic features in texts and the social, political, and historical contexts of text production and reception. The data sets, selected in 2020 for the purposes of the study, comprised a source text of 1,965 words translated into English (another 2,413 words). They show how translators favour intended meaning, through discoursal choices and lexical item selection, disseminating intended historical narratives, which are aligned with the ideological transition of societies. The study shows that the English translations are ‘westernized’ versions of the source slavo-centric Russian discourses, manifesting that the ‘iron curtain between East and West’ has been drawn, regardless of substantial ideological shifts traced in Russian and English translated museum discourses. Keywords Westernizing translation · CDA · Museum website · Historical narratives

1 Introduction Museums are important collections of ideological symbols and establish a special communication with visitors, which also has a legitimizing role. Rather than being neutral organizations, they are active social participants with educational and aesthetic roles. The American Association of Museums, in developing a nationwide E. Antoniou (B) National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0_16

241

242

E. Antoniou

museum accreditation programme, defines a museum as ‘an organized and permanent non-profit institution, essentially educational or aesthetic in purpose’ (Alexander and Alexander, 2008: 2) and a medium which sets up a conversation with the visitor (Falk and Dierking 2000: 51): ‘All communication media (television, film, radio, magazines, newspapers, books, museum exhibitions or programs, the Internet, etc.) represent a socially mediated form of culturally specific conversation between the producers of that medium and the user’. The very exhibition design in museums is viewed as a mediation process (Roppola 2012) by museum specialists and, I would assume, translated discourse in museum sites is another type of mediated experience. If a central visit motivation to museums is education and introspection (Falk 2009), mediated experiences through translation have also a crucial role to play. Translation can be a discourse-converting process ensuring intended meaning-making which perpetuates ideological perspectives among (would-be) followers. The study focuses on translation as a tool for analyzing ideological narratives in the Russian and English versions of two museum website discourses, namely, The ‘Bunker 42’ Museum of Cold War in Moscow and The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. The texts implement two distinct culture projects which refer to the same historical period, World War II and the Cold War Era, demonstrating the workings of ideology through discourse. ‘Bunker 42’ (henceforth M1) is the only museum in the world dedicated to the Cold War between the USSR and the USA. It is also a unique military facility of historic significance, located 65 m below ground level and is open to visitors. The bunker is situated in the centre of Moscow, near the Taganskaya (Tagancka) Metro Station. The bunker was designed as a shelter for Joseph Stalin and other senior Soviet officials, in case of nuclear weapon attack. It could accommodate approximately 600 people, who could work in the complex for 30 days without assistance from the outside world, thanks to storage of food and medicine, an air recycling system, and diesel generators. Workers would commute to the facility by way of the Taganskaya metro station, on special trains that ran at night. The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia (henceforth M2) is a state accredited private museum, founded in 1993, in Riga, Latvia. The museum’s collections tell the story of three ‘occupations’ that Latvia experienced over the last century: the so-called first and the second Soviet occupation,1 and also the German occupation. There are numerous historical documents, photographs and objects about the policies of the occupation powers in Latvia, mementos left by those imprisoned and deported that bear witness to the terror inflicted on the people of Latvia; it exhibits instances of the life and culture of Latvians in exile during the occupation, evidence of popular resistance against the foreign powers, guerrilla fights and national resistance group activities.

1

The official Russian position is that the country was united with the Soviet Union.

Ideological Perspectives in Translated Museum Discourses

243

2 Museum Discourse, Ideology and Translation Museum discourse could be a uniquely hybridized type of text comprising features of tourism, advertising and marketing genres. Since museums include an abundance of domains, ‘they animate linguistic, communicative and social practices depending on specific factors such as the location of the sites, the socio-economic and ideological impact on the local communities etc.’. (Sabatini 2015: 105). Approaching a museum, is an act of historical significance, as Nabokov (1972) suggests: ‘When we concentrate on a material object, whatever its situation, the very act of attention may lead to our involuntarily sinking into the history of that object’ (ibid: 4). Museums may disseminate intended social narratives. They are organizations rather closely held and tightly monitored, especially when it comes to public and public-funded private museums, although several museum exhibitions staged over the past 30 years have pricked the ideological sensibilities of ‘ruling class authority’ (Coffee 2006). Public and state-funded private museums have played a crucial role since the end of the eighteenth-century serving ‘as keepers of the nation’s spiritual life and guardians of the most evolved and civilized culture of which the human spirit is capable’ (Duncan 2004/2018: 255–256). Museums are very successful in exercising ideological control over visitors, by presenting an intended narrative (Coffee 2006). Another opportunity for disseminating narratives is through translation. Translators disseminate (or resist) a museum’s relative position or may highlight their ideological credo (Roho Lopez and Ramos Caro 2014). The intriguing question here is if (and to what extent) museums interfere with translation practice to disseminate the ideology of the institution, even if expressed subconsciously (Munday 2007). The present study examines the impact of the institution’s ideological agenda on museum translated discourses.

3 Literature Review Fairclough (1995) argues that ‘critical analysis aims to produce interpretations and explanations of areas of social life which both identify the causes of social wrongs and produce knowledge which could (in the right conditions) contribute to righting or mitigating them’ (ibid: 8). The central theoretical framework in this paper is critical discourse theory and the discourse historical approach (Fairclough 1995; Wodak 2001) which focus on the textual and discursive manifestations of ideologies and in their specific linguistic realizations at lexical and grammatical levels. These approaches mediate between linguistic structures in a text and the social, political, and historical contexts of text production and reception. Munday (2007) examined how ideology, in its many facets, may be conveyed textually through translation and how analysis drawing on monolingual traditions (such as critical discourse analysis and systemic-functional analysis) may benefit from bilingual data in detecting and classifying ideological shifts. Critical discourse

244

E. Antoniou

analysis, which explores questions of power in discourse, may be highly operative in investigating ideological and discursive issues in translation (Sichani and Hadian 2017). Scholars (e.g. Galzada-Pérez 2003) have examined the role of ideology in translation. Aslani and Salmani (2015) focussed on translating news media utilizing Fairclough’s (1995) critical discourse analysis assumptions claiming that ideologies reside in texts. Karaki and Abbadi (2017) traced variation in ideological perceptions, attitudes, relative power and status between Arabic and English communities showing considerable deviations from source texts. Coffee (2006) explored two museum discourses and a historical site in the United States, with respect to their social narratives. He shed light on the social and political narratives that permeate the programme and decisions of these institutions, demonstrating the varying ideological purposes of the museums. Museum discourses have prompted a recharged enthusiasm for the examination of the genre. Both linguists dealing with translation and museum practitioners have had a keen interest in studying bilingual production in museum contexts. For instance, Rázusová (2013), who focussed on understanding features of current museum discourses drawing on British and Eastern Slovakian museums, illustrates the need for an interactional museum providing the visitor with interpretive texts.

4 Methodology The study compiled two parallel data sets from the above museums to trace how the workings of power are manifested through their translated discourses into English. The M1 (Moscow) museum data set comprised a Russian source text of 1,100 words translated into English (another 1,342 words). The M2 (Latvia) museum data set comprised a Russian translation of the Lettish source text (871 words) and an English version of it (1,073 words). Furthermore, a small-scale quantitative study was conducted with the ‘AntCoc’ corpus analysis software for concordances, for further investigating differences in word count between the Russian and English data sets. The study considered variables which may have affected translation decisionmaking in the two museums. It attempted a comparative investigation of a few narratives which play out in the texts, for instance, how the narrative of patriotism is perceived in the parallel versions. The study first investigated the issue in the source (Russian) and target (English) version of The ‘Bunker 42’ Museum of Cold War and then contrasted the two translated versions (Russian and English) of the source Lettish text of the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. Table 1 shows the data set Table 1 Data types (ST: source text, TT: target text)

‘Bunker 42’ Museum of Cold Occupation Museum of Latvia War (M1) (M2) ST Russian

TT English

TTa Russian

TTb English

Ideological Perspectives in Translated Museum Discourses

245

the study draws on. The question to be asked is to what extent certain narratives (e.g. a pro-soviet sentiment or a feeling of nostalgia of Russian-speaking people living in the Russian Federation and in Latvia) emerge in the museum texts, making the workings of ideology visible through translation.

5 Presentation and Analysis of the Empirical Data The STa/TTa data set, drawn from the M1 website, mostly provides historical data and tourism-oriented information. The M2 data set (TTb_1 and TTb_2) focuses on the ideological and cultural identity of the Russian-speaking minority living in Latvia. The question arises how historical data are presented in the Russian and English version of the ‘Bunker 42’ Museum of Cold War (5.1) and how the Russian-speaking minority is portrayed in the Occupation Museum of Latvia (5.2). The ∅ sign means that an item is missing from a text fragment.

5.1 The ‘Bunker 42’ Museum of Cold War ST1a

TT1a

Uvaaemye dpyz! Ppedlagaem vam pocetit ynikalny obekt—edinctvenny v mipe podzemny bynkep, pacpoloenny na glybine 65 metpov pod zemle, coxpanivxic i fynkcionipywi kak myze i po cegodnxni den. Bynkep-42—to foppoct i gopdoct naxe Podiny, kotopy nec boevoe deypctvo v camom cepdce ctpany na ppotenii 30 let. Ogpomnye podzemnye plowadi i neobyqna apxitektypa pozvolt ppovodit individyalnye i gpyppovye kckypcii po odnomy iz nekogda zacekpeqennyx voennyx obektov CCCP […]. BT. Dear friends! We invite you to visit a unique place—the only underground bunker in the world, located at a depth of 65 meters underground, preserved and functioning as a museum to this day. Bunker-42 is an outpost and pride of our Motherland, which had been on combat duty at the heart of the country for 30 years. Huge underground spaces and unusual architecture allow you to conduct individual and group tours of one of the once secret military facilities of the USSR. […] Dear friends! We are pleased to offer you a very unique underground facility. The only declassified military object in Russia, which locates at a depth of 65 meters under the ground in the center of Moscow, as an anti-nuclear bunker. The underground facility includes: Cold War Interactive Museum, conference rooms, banquet halls, and a restaurant, fully-equipped with state

246

E. Antoniou

of the art technical and lighting facilities as well as audio visual equipment for multipurpose use. Furthermore, we strongly recommend you our interactive games and quests. Enormous underground area and unique architecture of Bunker-42 allow you to organize leisure activities for every taste: individual and group excursions at the territory of secret military base of the USSR, […]. You are always welcome to “Bunker-42 Taganka”! The ST1a item Bunker-42 is an outpost and pride of our Motherland, which has been on combat duty in the heart of the country for 30 years is not present in TT1a, and TT1a items The only one declassified military object in Russia and You are always welcome to ‘Bunker-42 Taganka’! do not appear in ST1a. ST1a is highlighting the ideological significance of the Homeland (pride of our Motherland in the heart of the country) heightening the patriotic feeling and historical memory of the Russian people. TT1a is mostly aiming at the mainstream English-speaking visitor who, in addition to exhibits related to the history of the area and the country, is likely to be attracted by leisure tourism advertisements (You are always welcome to “Bunker-42 Taganka”!). The only declassified military object in Russia acts like an ‘intriguing excerpt’ arousing curiosity about a country whose history had been presented in the West in a biassed manner, during the historical period of the Cold War. As mentioned, the ‘Taganka’ item (a Moscow district) is not present in ST1a, but was added to the translated version. ST2a

TT2a

Ppoektipovanie coopyeni naqaloc v xode povleni v CXA novogo vida opyi maccovogo popaeni—atomno bomby. B cvzi c tim covetckie yq nye polyqili zadanie ot Iocifa Ctalina, lidepa Covetckogo Coza: v kpatqaxie cpoki cozdat cobctvenny atomny bomby i pazpabotat metody zawity ot novogo opyi. BT. The design of the building began during the appearance in the United States of a new type of weapon of mass destruction—the atomic bomb. In this regard, Soviet scientists received a task from Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union: in the shortest possible time to create their own atomic bomb and develop methods of protection against new weapons. Right after the USA invented a new weapon of mass destruction—the nuclear bomb, the USSR government decided to protect themselves by creating not only a bunker, but their very own bomb. Joseph Stalin was quite clear and strict in his ideas, thus, USSR scientists were obligated to develop a nuclear bomb, as well as, come up with methods of protection from it, in very short time.

Stalin’s identity is shaped differently in the two texts: ST2a identifies him as the leader of the Soviet Union, while TT2a shapes him as strict and quite clear in his ideas, a man of power who can force people and who assigned scientists the task to speed up the bunker construction. ST3a

Paboty po cozdani bynkepa velic lyqximi cpecialictami yppavleni «Metpoctpo» nactowimi ctalinckimi tempami.

Ideological Perspectives in Translated Museum Discourses

TT3a

247

BT: Works on the creation of the bunker were carried out by the best specialists of the Metrostroy Department at a real Stalin’s pace. The Bunker was built by the best specialists of the “Metrostroy” company with increased speed.

The item at a real Stalin’s pace does not appear in TT3a. We assume that in the name of rapid industrialization during the Soviet times, the job was meant to be done with discipline and efficiency in time management. ST4a

TT4a

«Patpiot—qelovek, lbwi cvoe oteqectvo, ppedanny cvoemy napody, gotovy na eptvy i covepxawi podvigi vo im cvoe podiny». H.M. Kapamzin. Lbov k cvoemy Oteqectvy nevozmona bez znani ictopii Poccii i CCCP. Pockolky voppoc patpiotiqeckogo vocpitani vletc Globalnym, on paccmatpivaetc na Gocydapctvennom ypovne. BT. “A patriot is a person who loves the Fatherland, is devoted to his people, is ready to make sacrifices and perform feats in the name of his homeland.” Nikolay Karamzin. Love for the Fatherland is impossible without knowledge of the history of Russia and the USSR. Since the issue of patriotic education is Global, it is considered at a State level. Love to your homeland is not possible without knowledge of the history of Russia and the USSR. Since the question of patriotic education is global, it is considered at the state level.

Russian historian Nikolay Karamzin’s quote on patriotism is absent from TT4a, evidently because it assumes background knowledge which English readers may lack or because the English audience may have a diversified opinion about the political figure which the museum would not like to commit itself to. The source and target versions of the museum register different perceptions of the historical figure of Joseph Stalin. As suggested, museums are among the media which may disseminate ‘collective frames of perception, called social representations […] which help societies to consciousness and reification of social norms’ (Meyer 2001: 21).

5.2 The Museum of Occupation of Latvia As suggested, the museum aims at educating the public about the 51-year period in the twentieth century when Latvia was successively occupied by the USSR in 1940–1941, then by Nazi Germany in 1941–1944, and then again by the USSR in 1944–1991, therefore it is not expected to have a pro-Soviet perspective.

248

E. Antoniou

Example 5 refers to the Russians living in Latvia. The Russian translation refers to the minority as belonging to a hybrid of Latvian and Russian ethnicity, whereas the English translation refers to a hybrid mixture of Latvian and Russian identities: the assumption is that ethnicity is a more permanent feature of people’s representation, whereas identity is a more fluid notion of representing the minority. TT5b_1

TT5b_2

Potomy camoidentifikaci pycckozyqnyx v Latvii vletc clonym gibpidom latyxcko i pyccko nacionalnocti. BT. Therefore, the self-identification of Russian speakers in Latvia is a complex hybrid of Latvian and Russian ethnicity. Russian speaking identity in Latvia is therefore a complex, hybrid mixture of Latvian and Russian identities.

In other words, it is as if the Russian ethnicity is threatened by the Russian translation of the extract, whereas identity in the English translation does not threaten one’s ethnicity. It is as if the Russian translation seeks to forcefully domesticate the Russian minority into the Latvian context, as if they intend to create ‘more Latvian than Russian-dedicated’ generations in the future. Example 6 also refers to the Russian minority in Latvia, whom the Russian state attempts to reach out to, evidently for strengthening their Russian roots. The English translation presents the Russians compatriots abroad in quotation marks, perhaps doubting their ‘compatriot’ identity. Also, the item Russian speakers in the English translation highlights the fact that these people have Russian as L1 and perhaps Lettish as L2, which may also contradict the narrative of assimilation. TT6b_1

TT6b_2

B poclednie gody Pocci ppikladyvaet bolxe ycili dl doctieni cvoix cooteqectvennikov za pybeom. Pocci ne tolko ctapaetc cozdat bolee tecnye otnoxeni medy Poccie i cvoimi cooteqectvennikami, no i oclabit ix identifikaci c to ctpano, gde oni ppoivat. BT. In recent years, Russia has put more efforts to reach its compatriots abroad. Russia is not only trying to create closer relations between Russia and its compatriots, but also to weaken their identification with the country where they live. In recent years, the Russian state has intensified its efforts to reach out to its ‘compatriots abroad’. Not only does Russia attempt to create closer ties between Russia and Russian compatriots, it also tries to weaken identification with the states where Russian speakers live.

Likewise, recurrence of Russian highlights the presence of the Russian minority in Latvia, whereas the pronoun they in the Russian translation does not allow their Russian identity to reverberate in discourse. Example 7 portrays the Baltic States and the West as too liberal and Russophobic and suggests that if the Russian Federation reaches out to their compatriots, this may hinder the Russian-speaking population from integrating into the Latvian society.

Ideological Perspectives in Translated Museum Discourses

TT7b_1

TT7b_2

249

He ydivlet, qto ctpany Baltii, Ukpaina i Zapad v celom otobpaatc kak vpagi tix cennocte. ti ctpany ppepodnoctc kak faxictckie, kyltypno nepolnocennye, clixkom libepalnye, pycofobckie, ppezipawie ictopi i kyltypy Poccii. Potomy poccicka politika cooteqectvennikov nappavlena na to, qtoby ne dopyctit integpacii pycckozyqnyx v latyxckoe obwectvo. BT. No wonder the Baltic States, Ukraine and the West in general appear as enemies of these values. These countries are portrayed as fascist, culturally inferior, too liberal, Russophobic, despising the history and culture of Russia. Therefore, the Russian compatriot policy is intended to prevent the integration of Russian speakers in Latvian society. Unsurprisingly, the Baltic states, Ukraine and ‘the west’ in general, are depicted as the enemies of these Russian values. These states are ‘fascistic’, culturally deprived, overly permissive, and have distain for Russian history and culture. Compatriot policies therefore attempt to prevent the Latvianisation of Russian speakers.

The Russian translation rather addresses the Russian-speaking population in Latvia and thus uses the term Russophobic: the assumption is that the -phobic items side with and are in favour of the item which the -phobic suffix combines with,2 it is rather in support of the entity which is excluded. Besides the term integration in to prevent the integration of Russian speakers in Latvian society carries the positive value of ‘adjustment’, as if the Russian-speaking people have the option or the opportunity to integrate themselves in the Latvian society. By contrast, the English version which addresses the rest of the world, can afford to talk about Latvianisation. The item to prevent the Latvianisation of Russian speakers does not necessarily carry a positive gloss. Latvianisation may even connote the loss of an identity, which Russian speakers would not enjoy. It is as if the Russian translation addressing the Russian-speaking population in Latvia attempts to tone down the implication of a ‘conflict’, which the English version may be highlighting, perhaps for making the situation more interesting. In discussing transformation through museum design, Wood and Latham (2014: 117) suggest that ‘museum professionals must be thoughtful about creating conditions that will make that experience meaningful and memorable’ and the first maxim they refer to asks the following questions: ‘What generates intrigue or interest? What makes people curious? What draws people in? How do you create an evocative moment?’. Conflict seems to be one of those situations which construct evocative experiences. Another sign which may tally with the contrast-highlighting intention in English, is perhaps the reverberation of Russian through Russian values in English, which in the Russian version appears as these values. The Russian version only strictly refers to the Russian speakers in Latvian society (the remnants of Soviet and postSoviet past). Latvia seems to be making every effort to make giant leaps towards its European perspective, leaving behind ideologies of the past. 2

Claustrophobic is a person who has an irrational fear of confined places.

250

E. Antoniou

Example 8 discusses how the Russian-speaking population in Latvia feels about their identity, namely, that they are interested in learning Lettish but are not willing to lose their Russian language. Two points of contrast seem meaningful, the first is Russian speakers feel culturally superior to Russians in Russia vs. Russian speakers in Latvia have a sense of cultural superiority over their Russian counterparts. My understanding is that feel culturally superior signals a firmer belief about their superiority that the item has a sense of allows. The Russian translation seems to boost their self-esteem over the Russians more actively than the English version does, and does not allow negative connotations about the Russian Federation to survive, as manifested through the special country: Many people consider Russia a foreign and special country vs. Russia is also considered by many to be a foreign and strange country. The English version creates a conflictual frame again by assuming that the sense of cultural superiority may be less prominently felt, but then again, it uses the item strange country which allows more negative and alien connotations than the special country of the Russian version. TT8b_1

TT8b_2

Xot bolxa qact pycckozyqnyx cqitaet, qto vano vyyqit latyxcki zyk, i cqitat Latvi cvoim domom, dokazatelctva podtvepdat, qto oni ne elat potept cvo pyccky kyltypny identiqnoct. Potomy coxpanenie pycckogo zyka – glavna zabota pycckozyqnyx. Odnako, ix politiqeckie cvzi c Poccicko Fedepacie dovolno clabye. B Latvii mnogie pycckozyqnye owywat kyltypnoe ppevocxodctvo nad pycckimi v Poccii. Oni gopdtc tem, qto oni – evpopecy i cqitat ceb bolee civilizovannymi. Mnogie Pocci cqitat qyo i ocobenno ctpano. Potomy identifikaci c poccicko kyltypo nelz cqitat dokazatelctvom poddepki politiki Pytina i Poccii. BT. Although most Russian speakers believe that it is important to learn Latvian and consider Latvia their home, the evidence confirms that they do not want to lose their Russian cultural identity. Therefore, preserving the Russian language is the main concern of Russian speakers. However, their political ties with the Russian Federation are rather weak. In Latvia, many Russian speakers feel culturally superior to Russians in Russia. They are proud to be Europeans and consider themselves more civilized. Many people consider Russia a foreign and special country. Therefore, identification with Russian culture cannot be considered proof of support for Putin’s and Russia’s policy. The evidence suggests that, while a majority of Russian speakers think it is important to learn Latvian, and consider Latvia their home, they do

Ideological Perspectives in Translated Museum Discourses

251

not want to lose their Russian cultural identity. This is why the Russian language remains a key concern for many Russian speakers. Politically, however, ties with the Russian Federation are relatively weak. Many Russian speakers in Latvia have a sense of cultural superiority over their Russian counterparts, demonstrating pride in their more ‘European’ and ‘civilised’ existence. Russia is also considered by many to be a foreign and strange country. Cultural identification with Russia should therefore not be considered as synonymous with support for President Putin and Russia’s political programmes. Example 9 highlights another ideological shift between the two translations, in saying that when the locals did not obey the rules of Nazi occupation, it applied repressive policies. The Russian translation opts for the item people who did not observe the rules of occupation vs. the English option people who had failed to observe the rules of the occupation regime. The difference seems to lie in that the English option assumes inability of the locals to reach the desirable standard of obeying the Nazis (as if obeying was the appropriate behaviour), whereas the Russian translation leaves the resistance implication open (namely that locals may have made a conscious decision not to obey the Nazis). TT9b_1

TT9b_2

Bo vpem nemecko okkypacii peppeccivna politika byla nappavlena ppotiv pacovyx vpagov, politiqeckix ppotivnikov i lde, ne cobldawix okkypacionnye popdki. Opganizovanny nacictami c yqactiem mectnyx itele Xolokoct ynec izni 70,000 mectnyx i okolo 20,000 inoctpannyx evpeev. BT. During the German occupation, repressive policies were directed against racial enemies, political opponents, and people who did not observe the rules of occupation. Organized by the Nazis with the participation of local residents, the Holocaust claimed the lives of 70,000 local and about 20,000 foreign Jews. The German occupation power’s repressive policy in Latvia was directed against the enemies of the race, political rivals and people who had failed to observe the rules of the occupation regime. In the Holocaust, organized by the Nazis and implemented with the help of the local population, approximately 70,000 local and 20,000 foreign Jews were massacred in Latvia.

Likewise, the English item with the help of the local population more explicitly activates the conflictual frame of a civil war situation which tallies with the massacre of the Jews option. By contrast the Russian translation opts for the item with the participation of local residents which tones down a civil war implication. It degrades and weakens the active role of Latvian Nazi collaborators (Zake 2010) during the German Occupation of Latvia and thus does not revive tensions between Latvian and Russian-speaking communities living in the country for decades. The Russianspeaking minority consists ~ 25% of the population (CIA World Factbook).

252

E. Antoniou

6 Discussion of the Results Wodak (2001) suggested that ‘[i]deology, for CDA, is seen as an important aspect of establishing and maintaining unequal power relations. CL takes a particular interest in the ways in which language mediates ideology in a variety of social institutions’ (2001: 10). The study critically examined the (translated) discourse of two institutions to investigate how language can mediate ideology. Results showed the workings of power through museum texts. The study made use of museum translated discourses referring to the same period and showed that they expressed different ideological perspectives. Even the same museum seems to have used diverging ideologies and power relations in their Russian and English translated versions. Museums in the Eastern bloc countries have had a particular role to play. The project National Museums in a Changing Europe (EuNaMus study) seems to assume strong connections forged between museums and national disintegration movements that both helped to bring about, and were accelerated by, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1988–1991. Coffee (2006) argues that the public museums and exhibitions are elaborate mechanisms for ideological control. In Eastern Europe, and especially in the ex-Soviet republics of the Baltic region, reconstructed ideological approaches of patriotism have emerged along with the reinvention of old nations. Narratives have been rewritten in order to produce the new national realities. By contrast, the cold war museum displays texts about Stalin, where he appears as a leader and a progressive workaholic reformer in the source text, whereas in the English translation, he appears as an oppressor. The intended ideologies to be expressed in the museum, reinforce modern capitalist society, which is the same social system that formed the modern view on museums. The museum discourses of both M1 and M2 websites ‘established, maintained, enacted and transformed’ (Fairclough 1995: 26) relations of power in diverse ways, in line with the transformation and transition of societies in which they emerged. TTs are also differentiated in order to attract tourist interest, but also to view the historical and cultural events through a more ‘westernized’ prism. A more ‘universal’ patriotic spirit emerges when commemorating the Soviet defeat of Nazism during WWII, in M1 texts, a more ‘introvert’ patriotic spirit emerges in M2, drawing on the national self-consciousness of the Latvian State. The M1 and M2 museum websites showcase a ‘reproduction of dominance’ (van Dijk 1993) in contemporary societies which often requires justification or legitimation. Ideology is a shared cognitive network, across and between different groups, encompassing norms and values of a culture (van Dijk 2002), for example, the Russian-speaking Latvians who cannot integrate in the Latvian society.

Ideological Perspectives in Translated Museum Discourses

253

References Alexander, Edward P. and Mary Alexander. 2008. Museums in motion, an introduction to the history and functions of museum. Plymouth: AltaMira Press (A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc). Aslani, Mahdi, and Bahloul Salmani. 2015. Ideology and translation: A critical discourse analysis approach towards the representation of political news in translation. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature 4 (3): 80–88. Coffee, Kevin. 2006. Museums and the agency of ideology: Three recent examples. Curator, the Museum Journal 49 (4): 435–448. Fairclough, Norman. 1995. Critical discourse analysis, the critical study of language. London: Routledge. Falk, John H. 2009. Identity and the museum visitor experience. London: Routledge. Falk, John H. and Lynn D. Dierking. 2000. Learning from museums visitor experiences and the making of meaning. New York/Oxford: AltaMira Press (A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc). Galzada-Pérez, Maria, ed. 2003. Apropos of ideology: Translation studies on ideology-ideologies in translation studies. London: Routledge. Duncan, Carol. 2004/2018. From princely gallery to the public art museum: The Louvre Museum and the National Gallery London. In Preziosi, Donald and Claire Farago, eds. Grasping the World: The Idea of the Museum, 250–277. London: Routledge. Karaki, Muddather Jameel, and Abu and Abbadi, Renad. 2017. Ideological shifts in political translation. International Journal of Philosophy 1 (1): 120–132. Munday, Jeremy. 2007. Translation and ideology. The Translator 13 (2): 195–217. Nabokov, Vladimir. 1972. Transparent Things. U.S.: McGraw-Hill Companies. Rázusová, Magdaléna. 2013. Introduction to museum discourse. In Alena Kaˇcmárová, ed. English Matters IV, Presov: Prešovská univerzita v Prešove. Rojo López,Ana Mª and Marina Ramos Caro. 2014. The impact of translator’s ideology on the translation process, Special issue 09 ‘Minding translation’, Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación (MonTI), 247–271. Roppola, Tiina. 2012. Designing for the museum visitor experience. London: Routledge. Sabatini, Federico. 2015. Language, knowledge and community in museum discourse: Tate and GAM. ESP across Cultures 12: 105–126. Sichani, Shabnam Karimian, and Bahram Hadian. 2017. Translation and critical discourse analysis: Contribution of applying CDA in analysis of translated texts. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research 4 (8): 88–95. Dijk, Van, and A. Teun. 1993. Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society 4 (2): 249–283. Dijk, Van, and A. Teun. 2002. Political discourse and ideology. Doxa Comunicación Revista Interdisciplinar De Estudios De Comunicación y Ciencias Sociales 1: 207–225. Wodak, Ruth. 2001. What CDA is about - a summary of its history, important concepts and its developments. In Methods of critical discourse analysis, ed. Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer, 1–13. London: Sage. Wood, Elizabeth, and Kiersten F. Latham. 2014. The objects of experience transforming visitorobject encounters in museums. Walnut Creek CA: Left Coast Press Inc. Zake, Ieva. 2010. ‘The Secret Nazi Network’ and post-WWII Latvian Émigres in the United States. Journal of Baltic Studies 41 (1): 91–117.

254

E. Antoniou

Electronic sources CIA World Factbook, On Latvia’s Ethnography and International Disputes, https://www.cia.gov/ the-world-factbook/countries/latvia/#transnational-issues (accessed January 2, 2021). Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, Official website of the http://okupacijasmuzejs.lv/en/ (accessed November 4, 2020). Museum of the Cold War in Moscow, Russia, Official website of the http://bunker42.com/eng/ (accessed November 4, 2020)

Name Index

A Abbadi, Renad, 244 Aduradola, Remi R., 230 Ahmed, Tanveer, 16 Aixelá, Javier Franco, 187 Alafuzova, Elena, 29 Albloly, Amir Mohammed, 227 Alexander, Edward P., 242 Alexander, Mary, 242 Alwan, H., 128 Alwazna, Rafat Y., 228 Anderson-Cartlett, Celia, 185 Annin, I., 59 Antoniou, Eleftherios, 241 Apter, D.E., 29 Aragay, M., 148, 149 Arundale, R.B., 121 Aslani, Mahdi, 244 Austin, J.L., 34, 60, 63

B Ba˘gırlar, B., 159 Baker, Mona, 1, 38, 228 Bakuuro, Justine, 228 Bamberg, M., 46, 115 Bannikova, A.D., 30 Beardwood, R., 168 Beattie, James, 195 Bennett, M.Y., 128, 131 Bergelson, M., 60 Bernthal, James Carl David, 43, 48, 51 Blas Arroyo, J.L., 107 Blitvich, Pilar Garcés-Conejos, 2, 121 Bloom, Harold, 95, 96

Borisova, Tatiana, 1 Borrow, N., 127 Bousfield, D., 96, 129, 149, 151 Brearly, H., 213 Brewer, Marilynn B., 44, 45, 115, 116, 121 Brown, P., 2, 59, 64, 140, 149

C Calotychos, V., 114 Cap, P., 30 Carroll, S., 32 Chiaro, Delia, 196 Clarke, A., 139 Coffee, Kevin, 243, 244, 252 Connell, J., 204 Cronin, Michael, 224 Culpeper, J., 2, 77, 78, 80, 83, 84, 89, 96–98, 100, 103, 106, 107, 117, 129, 140, 149–155, 158, 159 Curado, Alejandro, 15

D Dag, O., 228 Dann, Graham, 19 De Fina, A., 30, 46, 115 Degani, M., 30, 38 Delanty, Gerard, 17, 18 Desilla, Luisa, 1 Diamond, E., 128 Dierking, Lynn D., 242 Dimitrakakis, Constantinos, 147 Dimitroulia, Titika, 1 Dranitsa, A.A., 60

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0

255

256 Duncan, Carol, 243 Dybiec-Gajer, J., 184

E Edwards, Patricia, 15 Eelen, Gino, 2 Egorova, O.A., 30 Ellenberger, K., 168 Engle, C., 168 Ergun, Emek, 217 Esslin, M., 127

F Fairclough, I., 30 Fairclough, Norman, 29, 30, 243, 244, 252 Falk, John H., 242 Fanga, Debin, 17 Farhangmehr, Minoo, 16 Fernandes, Lincoln, 186 Fong, K., 121 Foucault, M., 77, 81, 89, 221 Franzosi, R., 30 Frey, A., 168 Frith, S., 204 Fusari, Sabrina, 15

G Galzada-Pérez, María, 1, 244 Gao, Baojun, 17 Gardner, W., 115, 116, 121 Garfias, Robert, 204 Gavra, Aikaterini, 227 Gavrilova, M.V., 30 Gee, James Paul, 44 Gibson, C., 204 Gkofa, P., 207 Goldman, Karen S., 204 Gotti, Maurizio, 15 Goulas, Giorgos, 76 Goutsos, Dionysis, 1 Grainger, Karen, 2, 231, 234 Grandage, S., 149 Gregory, M., 32 Gruesser, J., 76 Grygiel, Marcin, 228 Gunesch, Konrad, 18

H Hadian, Bahram, 244 Hallett, Richard, 15

Name Index Hampden-Turner, C.M., 168, 179 Hans-Heino, Ewers, 185 Hardaker, C., 97, 98, 107 Hatim, B., 1, 32 Haugh, M., 2, 117, 140 Hecht, Jennifer, 204 Held, David, 17 Hill, J., 76 Hofstede, G.H., 14, 16, 24, 59, 196 Hofstede, G.J., 14, 16, 24, 59 Holden, Andrew, 14 Holliday, Adrian, 1 Hollindale, Peter, 184 Holtgraves, T., 128, 140 Horn, L., 60, 205, 228 Horta, Paulo Lemos, 17 House, Juliane, 1 Hughes, Lauren, 204 Hydén, M., 129, 149 Hynes, J., 128

I Iliadi, P.L.L., 59 Inghilleri, M., 89 Ivanova, I.V., 30 Ivolgina, A.I., 30 Izadpanah, S., 64 Izmir, S., 148

J Jaffe, A., 114 Jaworski, Adam, 15

K Kádár, Dániel Z., 2, 140 Kang, Doo Syen, 17 Kaniklidou, Th., 30 Kaplan-Weinger, Judith, 15 Karaki, Muddather Jameel Abu, 244 Karamanolis, G., 175 Karantzis, Konstantinos, 203 Kasi, V., 89 Kecskes, Istvan, 1 Kefala, Stavroula, 15, 17, 19 Kennedy, J.G., 75, 76 Khorosheva, N.V., 30 Kienpointner, M., 96, 107 King, Helen, 222 Klein, H., 148, 149 Korolkova, Svetlana, 13 Koutsoumpogera, Aspasia, 217

Name Index Kramer, P., 128 Kreydt, T., 168 Kutter, A., 30 Kyriakou, Konstantina, 75

L Larina, T.V., 59 Larkosh, Christopher, 224 Larsen, Jonas, 23 Latham, Kiersten F., 249 Lathey, Gillian, 185, 191 Lee, Newton, 204 Lester, Neal A., 204, 209 Levinson, S., 2, 59, 64, 140, 149 Lewis, Richard D., 196 Limbach, Gwendolyn, 211 Lim, Choon Yeoh, 188 Liu, Shan, 17 Li, Xiangge, 17 Locher, Miriam, 2, 6, 96 Loizos, P., 213 Luyckx, K., 44, 115

M Macdonell, K., 168 Madej, Krystina, 204 Mak, James, 14 Malamatidou, Sofia, 13 Mambrol, N., 168 Mar, R.A., 121 Martin, J.N., 116, 121 Mason, I., 1, 32 Mastin, Teresa, 17 Mavrelos, N., 76 Mazower, M., 114 McCarthy, M.M., 61, 65 McCoy, R.C., 175 McGehee, Nancy, 14 McIntyre, D., 129 Meier, A.J., 59, 60 Mei, M., 96 Melikidou, Elina, 13 Meng, Lingzi, 217, 219, 223 Meyer, M., 30, 247 Mills, Sara, 2, 231, 234 Minkov, M., 14, 16, 24, 59 Monforte, E., 148, 149 Morell, T., 119 Mostoufi, K., 133 Mouratidis, Haris, 16 Mukhortov, D.S., 31

257 Mullin, J.B., 121 Munday, Jeremy, 1, 243 Muslat, A., 114

N Nakamura, Momoko, 221 Nakayama, T., 116, 121 Nevala, M., 96 Norden, Martin F., 204, 205 Nour, Mohammed, 227 Novozhilova, Anna, 13

O Oittinen, Ritta, 185 Ojukwu, Chris C., 230 Okulska, U., 30

P Papataxiarchis, E., 213 Parshina, O.N., 30 Pelpuo, Rashid Hassan, 228 Peterman, G.W., 207 Pinsky, M.I., 206 Pöchhacker, F., 30, 32 Poe, E.A., 75–77 Posch, C., 30 Preston, David, 16 Priestman, Martin, 44 Pritchard, Annette, 15 Puurtinen, Tiina, 185, 187

R Ramos Caro, Marina, 243 Rázusová, Magdaléna, 244 Rena-Rozier, E., 96 Reshetarova, I.V., 30 Ritchie, L.D., 31 Robbins, Bruce, 17 Rojo López, Ana M., 243 Roppola, Tiina, 242 Rosdahl, Jamilla, 221 Rowland, Susan, 43–45

S Sabatini, Federico, 243 Sadok, J., 31 Saldanha, G., 89 Salih, Hala, 227 Salmani, Bahloul, 244

258 Sarafi, Athina, 127 Schauer, G., 96 Schiffrin, D., 46, 115 Schmutzer, A.J., 207 Schwartz, S., 44, 115, 120, 121 Searle, J.R., 60 Sedikides, Constantine, 44, 45 Sedykh, A.P., 30 Sell, Roger, 228 Serano, J., 205 Shirchkova, A.V., 30 Shoham, Aviv, 16 Shovgenin, Alexander, 13 Shovgenina, Yevgenia, 13 Sichani, Shabnam Karimian, 244 Sidiropoulou, Maria, 1 Sidiropoulou, M., 1, 6, 19, 84, 129, 140, 168, 179, 211 Sierz, A., 147–149, 153, 155 Sifianou, M., 2, 5, 47, 51, 61, 121, 130, 132, 136, 140 Simon, Sherry, 217, 218 Sinkeviciute, V., 98 Skrempou, Natalia, 30 Smyrli, Charikleia, 43 Smyslov, S.L., 30 Snell-Hornby, Mary, 185 Soares, Ana Maria, 16 Spencer-Oatey, H., 2, 115, 120, 121 Sperber, Dan, 229, 237 Stableford, B., 76 Stamou, Anastasia, 185 Sulaiman, Zain, 25 Swain, Byrne Margaret, 14, 16, 18, 22 Szerzynski, Bronislaw, 18

T Tatton, H., 61 Terkourafi, Marina, 2 Thomson-Wohlgemuth, Gabriele, 187 Tipton, Rebecca, 1 Tracy, K., 96, 100 Trantas, Georgios E., 207 Trishchenko, T.A., 30 Trompenaars, F., 168, 179 Tsakona, Villy, 52, 184 Tuurosong, Damasus, 228 Tymoczko, Maria, 43, 187 Tzanakari, V., 89

Name Index U Urry, John, 18, 23

V Valdeón, Roberto A., 6 Vandaele, Jeroen, 195, 196 van der Bom, Isabelle, 2 Van Dijk, Teun A., 5, 29, 30, 230, 252 Vangelisti, A.L., 115 Vargish, T., 96 Vasileiadis, Athanasios, 167 Velikoredchanina, L.A., 30 Venuti, Lawrence, 195 Vignoles, V., 44, 115 Vlachou, Marina-Sofia, 113 Vlachoutsikos, Charalambos, 234 Volchenko, Svitlana, 57 von Flotow, Luise, 6, 217, 219, 223

W Walker, I.M., 76 Ward, G., 60, 205, 228 Watson, M., 95 Watts, Richard J., 2 Way, C., 168 Wee, Lionel, 188 Weissbrod, Rachel, 190 Wenger, Etienne, 1 Wichmann, A., 149 Wierzbicka, A., 140 Wilson, Deirdre, 229, 237 Wilson, Rita, 25 Wodak, Ruth, 30, 243, 252 Wong, Jock, 188 Wood, Elizabeth, 249 Woodside, G. Arch, 15

Y Ya˘giz, O., 64 Young, S.L., 115

Z Zacharia, Sofia-Konstantina, 95 Zhang, Zhan, 183 Zimmerman, B., 76 Zozaya, P., 148, 149

Subject Index

A Age, 5 Aggression, 3–5 masked aggression, 134 Animation, 6 animation films, 203 Audio-visual material, 32

C Childness, 5, 184, 186, 195–197 Children’s films, 204 Collective programming of the mind, 16 Comedy of menace, 5 Communicative preferences, 14, 17 Conceptual metaphor of WAR, 31, 36, 38 Conflictive frames, 51 Connotations, 82, 235, 250 Constructionist intention, 1 Coronavirus outbreak, 31, 33, 37 Cosmopolitanism, 14, 17, 18, 22, 24 cosmopolitan identity, 23 cosmopolitan practice, 18 COVID-19 pandemic, 31 Critical Discourse Analysis, 30 Cultural dimensions, 14, 16 cultural relativism, 59, 66 Cultural dynamics, 24

D Data experimental, 2, 61, 64 naturalistic, 45

Destination promoter(s), 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 24, 25 Destiny and fortune, 167, 175 destiny awareness, 176 Dimensions of communication, 16 Diminutives, 132, 140 Directness/indirectness, 62, 63 Disney film songs, 203, 204 Domesticating approach, 186, 187 Dubbed Disney films, 204

E Emic approach, 193 Emotion, 96 emotional response, 190

F Face, 59 Female characters, 219 identities, 217 positions, 222 representations, 223 Fictional/nonnon-/fiction translation, 52 texts, 2, 3 Formality, 34, 35, 38

G Gender identities, 6, 95 gender roles, 204, 211

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 M. Sidiropoulou and T. Borisova (eds.), Multilingual Routes in Translation, New Frontiers in Translation Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0440-0

259

260 H Honorifics, 58, 63 Humour, 5, 129, 184 humorous, 51 humorously exaggerated, 213 humour practices, 52

I Identity construction/formation, 24, 36, 44, 45, 114 collective level of, 49, 52 political leader’s, 39 Ideographs, 189 Ideological agenda, 243 narratives, 242 tendencies, 89 Impersonal constructions, 20, 21, 24, 33, 34 Impoliteness, 4, 5, 77–79, 81, 83, 85, 87–89, 96–98, 100, 103–107, 150 negative, 155 positive, strategy, 155 Intercultural variation, 2, 3 Interlocutors’ attitudes, 59 Internalized rules, 1 Interpersonal constructions, 4 distance, 2–4, 33, 34, 37, 38, 65, 66, 78, 83–85, 131, 135, 140, 142 dynamics, 2, 127 interpersonal aspect of identity, 119 interpersonal proximity/distance, 58, 63, 87, 129 Interpreting, 3, 4, 30 interpreters’ techniques, 30 Involvement of the speaker, 34

L Lower tenor, 57

M Mental illness/instability, 76–79, 81, 82, 85–89 Mocking attitude, 82 Museum, 3, 6 American Association of Museums, 241

N National Theatre of Northern Greece, 106

Subject Index O Offensiveness, 3–5, 69, 81, 98, 99, 105–107 offensive remarks, 153 Otherness, 49, 51 P Performative verbs, 34, 38 Politeness, positive, 61, 64 negative, strategy, 117 positive and negative, devices, 129 Power distance, 14, 16–17, 20–22, 24, 25 high, 39 Pragmatic phenomena cross-culturally, 1, 2, 58 pragmatic inferences, 114 R Racial discrimination, 186 Reception, audience, 52, 114 Relational dynamics, 3, 4, 58, 59, 61, 63, 64, 66, 129, 130, 132, 133, 141 relational proximity, 46 Religious hints, 208 Renegotiation, 44 Retranslation, 1 Rhyming, 184, 192 Romanticism, 76 Russian readership, 22 Russian 24/7 English-language news channel, 32 S Self-determination, 179 Self-representation, 23 levels of self-representation, 115 Signs of specificity, 48 Social class, 95–98, 103, 106, 107 Social factors, 114 Societal tensions, 4 performative, 38 societal norms, 38 speech act, 4 speech act performance, 57–61, 63, 65 T Theatre genre, 5 in-yer-face theatre, 150 theatrical adaptation, 106 Threatening, 127 direct threat, 152, 237 threatened, 141

Subject Index Tianjin Foreign Studies University, 193 Tourism, 3, 4, 13–15, 17–19, 22–25 tourism and leisure studies, 14 Tourist consumers, 4 Transliteration, 189 Trilingual respondents, 43, 51 TV-interpreting, 31

U Us-them distinction, 207

261 V Variable(s), 1, 2, 4, 5 pragmatic, 141 Variation, 30, 32, 39 cross-cultural variation, 57, 60, 63, 65 intracultural variation, 60, 122

W Wordplay, 5 wordplay and sound-play, 196