Problems involved in translating South African prose into Italian, with reference to N. Gordimer's Burger's daughter
Date
2014-12-17
Authors
Carusi, Maria Cristina
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Abstract
This study consists of three chapters of varying length dealing
with the- problem of literary translation from contemporary South
African English to modern Italian. Talcing as our model the recent
Gordimer novel Burger's Daughter (Jonathan Cape Ltd.., London, 1979),
we consider the various responsibilities of the literary translator,
detaching his problems from those of the commercial version of a
piece of prose, which require qualities of paraphrase, word to word
correspondence and accuracy at expense of style.
In our opening chapter we look at the extraordinary difference
between the educated literary reader's expectation when handling a
modern classic in the target language and this version's actual
treatment of the original language. We taice Capriolo's La figlia
fid Burger (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S. p . A . , Milanoj 197S) as the
model of an average* competent, professional exercise in South
African/Italian translation and we note that most of our criteria
are contravened or even ignored
In chapter II our study turns to a detailed listing of omissions,
adjustments, inaccuracies, misunderstandings, unresearched technical
points and plain imperfections of style and manner. In most cases
the study accounts for the imperfection or error and proceeds to
suggest not only why it arose, but also how it could be rectified.
Our criteria for improvement rest on categories of (a) stylistic
compensation for individual features of the original, (b) homogeneous
Hi
manner and (political equivalences.
In chapter III we offer a sample translation into Italian of four
selected pages of the text (original, pp. 353-356) in our own
hand, hoping thereby to establish tighter and more rigorous
categories for the rendition of this exemplary modern South African
Description
A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Arts,
University of the tfitwatersrand, Johannesburg, in
partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
Degree of Master of Arts in Translation.
Johannesburg, 1982