Bosseaux, C.I.A.; (2004) Translation and narration: A corpus-based study of French translations of two novels by Virginia Woolf. Doctoral thesis , University of London.

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Abstract

Narratology does not usually distinguish between original and translated fiction and narratologicai models do not pay any attention to the translator as a discursive subject. Since the 1990's, the visibility of translators in translated narrative texts has been increasingly discussed and researchers like Schiavi (1996) and Hermans (1996) introduced the concept of the translator's voice, which attempts to recognise the 'other' voice in translation, i.e. the presence of the translator. Corpus-based studies have also focused on recurrent features of translated language (see, for example. Baker 1993, Kenny 2001; Laviosa 1997; Olohan and Baker 2000), and corpus techniques and tools are being employed to identify the translators' 'style' in their translations (Baker 2000). The present thesis seeks to explore the nature of the translator's discursive presence by investigating certain narratologicai aspects of the relation between originals and translations. Until recently comparative analysis between originals and their translations have mainly relied on manual examinations; the present study will demonstrate that corpus-based translation studies and its tools can gready facilitate and sharpen the process of comparison. My work uses a parallel corpus composed of two English novels and their French translations; Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse (1927) and its three translations (Promenade au Phare, 1929, translated by Michel Lanoire; Voyage au Phare, 1993, by Magali Merle; Vers le Phare, 1996, by Francoise Pellan), and The Waves (1931), and its two translations (Les leagues, 1937, translated by Marguerite Yourcenar and Les agues, 1993, translated by Cecile Wajsbrot). The relevant texts have been scanned and put in machine-readable form and I study them using corpus-analysis tools and techniques (WordSmith Tools, Multiconcord). My investigation is particularly concerned with the potential problems involved in the translation of linguisdc features that constitute the notion of point of view, i.e. deixis, modality, transitivity and free indirect discourse, and seeks to determine whether and how the translator's choices affect the transfer of narratologicai structures.

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