Divided into five chapters, the thesis analyzes the translation into French of Black English as represented in Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The method, mainly text-oriented, that is to say turning away from the sociological approach, offers a semiotic reading of the text, both original and translated (Chapter 1). This semiotic approach considers the text as a significant mosaic. Thus, it brings out not only the motivation of the different textual elements, but also the coherence cementing them. The analysis of the original text (Chapter 2) shows that the subversive aesthetic and ideological function of Black English is provided by Jim's characterization and his discursive and narrative programs. William-Little Hughes's translation (1886), as well a Claire Laury's (1979) and Rene and Yolande Surleau's (1950), reverse the subversive project of the source-text through an organized system of textual transformations (additions, omissions, shifts) and produce a stereotyped version of Jim's character, his speech, also simplified and reduced, becoming the expression of this characterization (Chapter 3). Poles apart from these three texts, the French versions written by Suzanne Netillard (1948), Andre Bay (1961), Lucienne Molitor (1963), Jean La Graviere (1979) and Helene Costes (1980) display translation projects which reactivate the original system in which Jim had a multidimensional characterization (Chapter 4). Yet, despite the efficient options chosen by certain translators on the material level, Jim's speech in French does not convey a Black identity in the way Black English does in the original text. A modified and literary version of creolized French is suggested as a possible option for translating this sociolect (Chapter 5).

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on July 19, 2010). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Susan C. Shepherd, Frederick J. DiCamilla, Stephen L. Fox. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-50).

No description available.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Research on Harriet Jacobs' slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl exploded after 1981, when Professor Jean Fagin Yellin discovered textual evidence for refuting then-current claims that Lydia Maria Child was the author of this engrossing story. Child was indeed the book's editor, but Yellin discovered letters from Jacobs among the papers of abolitionist Amy Post that proved that the ex-slave was the author of her own narrative. Though the research this discovery engendered has been quite extensive, especially regarding the narrative's close adherence to the conventions of a sentimental novel, very few scholars have attempted to deal with a feature relatively unique to Jacobs" narrative: the use of African American English (AAE) in representing the speech of a number of her characters. Nor has any scholar exclusively focused on the authenticity of her representation of AAE. This paper, a first step in such an effort, demonstrates that Jacobs' use conforms to features found by linguists in their studies of contemporary AAE and Early Black English (EBE).