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Thesis (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis re-evaluates the writing of seminal Afrikaans modernist Etienne Leroux from a South African English perspective. The present author's new translation of Leroux's prizewinning novel Sewe Dae by die Silbersteins (1962) is the focal point of an enquiry into how “rewriting”, in translation theorist André Lefevere's coinage, has shaped the reception of Leroux's work outside the Afrikaans literary system. It is shown from a literary-historiographical viewpoint that translation played a crucial role in Leroux's rise to international prominence and subsequent eclipse. It is demonstrated that Leroux's standing within the English literary system rests predominantly on extant translations of his novels, without taking into account the cyclical quality of his fiction, especially the overarching nine-novel cycle – the basis of Leroux's renown in Afrikaans. The distortions produced by this fact are critiqued. In particular, the received idea of Leroux as an apolitical obscurantist is challenged, the work of J.C. Kannemeyer especially showing that Leroux's politics and art were much more integral and radical than previously (mis)understood. A case is made for Leroux's re-evaluation as a seminal contributor to modern South African fiction comparable to J.M. Coetzee, and for the production of fresh translations of his work to facilitate this re-evaluation. A detailed account of the translation process behind the present author's new translation of Sewe Dae by die Silbersteins follows. A series of close readings compares this new translation to the first translation by Charles Eglington (1964), shows how Eglington's translation obscured certain textual strategies vital to a full comprehension of Leroux's text, examines the difficulties inherent in restoring them, and argues for the new translation's success therein. A mise au point in which insights yielded by this process feed back into an assessment of Leroux's relevance today concludes the thesis. Leroux's technique is shown to have immunised his texts against the desuetude into which time-bound “committed” literature often falls. In particular, Sewe Dae by die Silbersteins, or its new translation, emerges as a satirical anatomisation of subjectivity under late modern capitalism entirely in tune with contemporary cultural representations of apartheid as metaphor for global capitalism. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis word die skryfwerk van die hoog-aangeskrewe Afrikaanse modernis Etienne Leroux vanuit 'n Suid-Afrikaans-Engelse oogpunt in heraanskouing geneem. Die kandidaat se nuwe vertaling van Leroux se beroemde roman, Sewe dae by die Silbersteins (1962 ), word as uitgangpunt gebruik vir vrae oor hoe Leroux se werk “herskryf” is deur kritici en vertalers. In verband hiermee word die vertaal-teoris André Lefevere se werk gebruik om die ontvangs van Leroux se werk buite die Afrikaanse literêre-sisteem in oënskou te neem. Uit n literêr-historiografiese standpunt word bewys dat vertaling 'n sleutel-rol in Leroux se internasionale beroemdheid en sy daaropvolgende verdwyning gespeel het. Leroux se status binne die Engelse literêre-stelsel berus tans hoofsaaklik op bestaande vertalings van sy romans, wat beperk in omvang en gehalte is. Leroux se “Engelse” reputasie neem as gevolg hiervan glad nie die sikliese eienskappe van sy fiksie in ag nie, bowenal sy oorkoepelende siklus van nege romans, wat die grondslag van Leroux se roem in Afrikaans vorm. Verskeie misvattings wat uit hierdie toestand voortspruit – veral die gedagte dat Leroux se skryfwerk apolities en “duister” is – word bevraagteken. Vernaamlik die werk van J. C. Kannemeyer wys daarop dat Leroux se kuns baie meer integraal en radikaal is as wat dit blyk binne die wanvoorstelling daarvan in Suid-Afrikaanse kritiek in Engels. ‘n Pleidooi word gemaak vir ‘n herwaardering van Leroux as 'n sentrale figuur in moderne Suid-Afrikaanse fiksie, vergelykbaar selfs met J.M. Coetzee. Verder word gepleit vir die behoefte aan nuwe vertalings van Leroux se werk, om sodoende 'n deeglike herwaardering moontlik te maak. Daarna volg 'n bespreking van die vertalingsproses van die kandidaat se nuwe vertaling van Sewe dae by die Silbersteins. 'n Reeks noukeurige beskouings wat die nuwe vertaling met die bestaande vertaling (Charles Eglington, 1964) vergelyk, wys daarop dat Eglington se vertaling kerneienskappe van Leroux se teks effektief verdoesel. Hierdie eienskappe, word aangevoer, is noodsaaklik vir 'n deeglike begrip van Leroux se teks. Die kandidaat bied ‘n wye analise oor hierdie eienskappe aan en voer ook aan dat sy nuwe vertaling die wese van Leroux se roman in ere herstel. Die tesis sluit af met 'n mise au point waarin die insigte wat bereik is deur die vertalingsproses voorgestel word as stof tot nadenke oor Leroux se belangrikheid in vandag se leefwêreld. Daar word vervolgens ook bewys dat Leroux se werk bestand is teen die onbruik waarin tydgebonde littérature engagée dikwels verval. Veral Sewe dae by die Silbersteins, en die nuwe vertaling wat hier aangebied word, bied 'n satiriese beskouing van subjektiwiteit onder apartheid-kapitalisme wat strook met huidige voorstellings van apartheid as metafoor vir globale kapitalisme.

Throughout the earlier part of the nineteenth century Vergil, Homer and Horace dominated the teaching in public schools. At Eton a boy would go through the odes two or three times at least, and would be expected to memorise them all. The handing down of interleaved texts and an unimaginative adherence to traditional systems of 'calling up' boys exempted the idle from industry or cerebration; at the same time, the knowledge of Horace acquired by a tolerably conscientious boy would probably need little enlargement to satisfy Oxford examiners, at least till the late 'fifties, though in Cambridge some familiarity with Bentley's edition would probably be required. Horace's metres were analysed by James Tate with some skill, but his paper received little attention, and most copies of Latin lyrics shew only a rudimentary knowledge of the demands of metre and vocabulary. The level at which the discussion of Horace was carried on throughout the century is demonstrated by articles in the Quarterly Review by James Hannay, novelist and essayist v in October 1333, and by Arthur Palmer, editor of the Satires, in October 1894. Horace's character is conflated from references in his works accepted with exaggerated credulity; even when the ladies of the odes are declared not to have had a real existence, Horace's attitude towards them is still discussed. Palmer and his contemporaries read and discussed the Horatian scholarship produced on the continent; Verrall and Sellar contributed to it; but new interpretations had little effect on the 'cult'. In the 'seventies William Cyples wrote two articles on Horace, in the first and most important of which he argues that the odes are virtuoso literary performances and have no basis in foot or factual morality. The articles are worth recalling for their energy, freshness and originality. By providing a contrast they reveal the general narrowness of contemporary Horatian discussion and the possibility of worshipping Horace without conforming to the cult. The characteristics of Horace and his poetry most popularly pondered are illustrated in many essays, reviews and prefaces to translations. The themes vary less than the distribution of emphasis among them. Horace's politics, philosophy and religion were discussed at much the same length as his preference for town or country. Most of his admirers supposed him to prefer the country. Disagreement was rather as to the relative importance of Horace's references to himself than as to their objective truth. Comparisons with Burns and Béranger, and with Thackeray, characterise the Horace of the nineteenth century as he usually appeared. The question of how best to translate Horace was widely debated. The flaccid 'Augustan' octosyllables of Francis were imitated by lesser translators early in the century, but they also gave rise to more self-consciously 'classical' attempts which endeavoured to demonstrate the foreign qualities of Horace's poetry. Others at the same time strove after 'popular' effects and English poetry. Every position between the two extremes is represented. Conspicuous among the 'alienists' were those who tried to write Englian verse in classical metres; some anxious to produce a more Horatian Horace, others simply using him as a conveniently fertile source of metrical variety. The difficulty of writing classical verses in English is obviously due to the different natures of Latin and English prosody. Unfortunately no analysis of the structure and dynamics of English verse has ever achieved universal acceptance. The nineteenth century experimenters encountered an additional difficulty in that they rarely agreed with one another as to how Latin verses ought to be read. The dispute was carried on with great liveliness and some ingenious solutions were suggested. Others contented themselves with forming or adapting verses on English 'rules' to serve the special needs of Horace. The first to attract much attention was Francis Newman, who set out to translate Horace in 1853 on principles similar to those which he later brought to his Iliad. In his translation of Horace the qualities which he hoped to convey were terseness and a strict adherence to the stanzaic economy of the originals. He employed rhymeless stanzas made up of iambic or trochaic lines, but fell short of elegance. Occasional successes are surrounded by passages clumsy, obscure and bizarre. His anxiety to instruct is emphasized by his decision to present the odes in a possible chronological order. The educational advantage of this scheme with reference to the 'historical' odes is self-evident, but since Newman refused to regard the 'literary houris' as fictitious, he fell into some confusion in his attempts to ascertain the order of Horace's amours. His notes on the odes sometimes reflect very strikingly his preoccupation with the political and social morality of his own times. Seven years later Theodore Martin published a complete translation of the odes. He was a prolific translator, and his Horatian activities extend from the appearance of a few versions in 1845 to a translation of Horace's complete works, accompanied by a lengthy critical biography in 1881. His aims were almost precisely opposite to those of Newman, whose translation, though it probably did not provoke Martin's, was there subject to some gentle mockery. Martin's versions are fluent and facile, recalling both to his hostile and his favourable critics the ballads of Tom Moore. They are unusual in so far as they present the odes as coherent wholes, rather than as sets of stanzas uncertainly related. The results may be a more than usually comprehensible English poem, but the intention of Horace is necessarily often distorted. The evolution of Martin's Horace over the next twenty years is influenced by the suggestions of critics, the rivalry of Conington's translation, and the translator's increasing social and literary eminence; it became something of a popular classic, a position challenged only by Conington. Conington's version which appeared in 1863, was more austere and more calculated to appeal to scholarly critics. Like Martin's it was executed in accepted English rhyming metres; like Newman's it presents, for the most part, only one English equivalent for each Latin metre. It appears that Conington took to translation as a deliberate attempt to resolve the tension between the lure of philological abstraction and a desire for a wider field of human contact. On a simple level the translation reflects this. Bven if not eminently representative of Horace, Conington's versions are more classical than Martin's: if they are rarely brilliant, they are as rarely offensive. All succeeding nineteenth century translations were liable to comparison with Conington's and it was highly praised by Quiller Couch and by Housman. Lord Lytton's translation, published in 1869, probably owed the critical attention it received largely to the fame of the author. It was undertaken originally for therapeutic purposes when Lytton's matrimonial infelicity erupted spectacularly into publicity. It has been justly described as the moat ambitious of failures in this field. Attempting to produce a version more classical than Conington's, Lytton chose, like Newman, to employ rhymeless metres; on the other hand, he allowed himself a greater degree of freedom in using more than one representative for the sapphic and the alcaic. His metres are sometimes difficult to read and probably seemed stranger to his contemporaries than they do now. By compromising Lytton failed to satisfy both those who looked for pleasant English verses and those who hoped for more servile classical approximations. As a piece of literature Gladstone's translation of Horace, executed in his eighty-fourth year, has little to recommend it either on the grounds of success or of novelty.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This comparative study investigates the English translations of China’s first novel, Sanguo yanyi. The focus is firstly on describing the factors that affect the production of each of the translations and secondly on identifying and determining the approaches and strategies used by the two translators. The primary objective of the study is to gain a better understanding of literary translation between two distinctly different languages by objectively describing and analyzing the factors relevant to the production of the two translations. The secondary objective is to evaluate the two translations by using the functionalist approach to translation. To this end, the study determines which of the two translations better serves the purpose of providing South African students of Chinese with insight into and appreciation of some aspects of Chinese culture which would enhance their Chinese studies. The key theories and models that are introduced and applied are Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), which was mainly established by Gideon Toury in the 1980s and the Functionalist Approach, which was established by Vermeer and Reiss also in the 1980s and further developed by Nord. DTS focuses on pragmatic aspects, such as social, cultural and communicative practices instead of only on linguistic units. Within this framework, decisionmaking processes and translational norms of the two translators of Sanguo yanyi are examined. Three representative chapters of the source text and their translations are selected as the focus of the investigation. Furthermore, a description of the entire translation process is provided – from the translators’ original planning and agents acting as patrons of the project to the approaches and strategies that the translators are considered to have adopted in the process of translating. Within Functionalism the function of the target text in the target culture determines which aspects of the source text should be transferred to the target text. From this theoretical approach the findings regarding the translation strategies and processes in the translations of Sanguo yanyi are used to ultimately determine the extent to which the translators succeed in conveying the collective memory of some of the cultural-historical issues in China to the target texts, while at the same time making the texts accessible to Western (South African) students. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studie word daar ’n vergelykende ondersoek na twee Engelse vertalings van China se eerste roman, Sanguo yanyi, onderneem. Daar word eerstens gefokus op ’n beskrywing van die faktore wat die produksie van elk van die vertalings beïnvloed en daarna word die benaderings en strategieë geïdentifiseer wat deur die twee vertalers gebruik is. Die primêre doel van die studie is om ’n beter begrip van literêre vertaling tussen twee beduidend verskillende tale te verkry deur die faktore wat ’n rol in die betrokke vertaalprosesse speel op ’n objektiewe wyse te beskryf en te ondersoek. As sekondêre doelstelling word die twee vertalings binne die raamwerk van die funksionalistiese benadering tot vertaling geëvalueer. Daar word naamlik ondersoek watter een van die vertalings die beste slaag in die doel om aan Suid-Afrikaanse studente ’n dieper insig in en groter waardering vir sekere aspekte van die Chinese kultuur te verskaf ten einde hulle studie van die Chinese taal aan te vul. Die belangrikste teorieë en modelle wat gebruik word, is deskriptiewe vertaalstudie (DTS), wat as navorsingsrigting binne vertaling hoofsaaklik deur Gideon Toury in die tagtigerjare gevestig is, en funksionalisme, wat ook in die tagtigerjare deur Vermeer en Reiss ontwikkel is en later deur Nord uitgebrei is. DTS fokus op pragmatiese aspekte soos sosiale, kulturele en kommunikatiewe praktyke eerder as bloot op linguistiese eenhede, en die besluitnemingsprosesse en vertaalnorme van die twee vertalers van Sanguo yanyi word binne hierdie raamwerk ondersoek. Drie verteenwoordigende hoofstukke van die bronteks en hulle vertalings word as die fokus van die ondersoek gebruik. Verder kom ’n bespreking van die vertaalprosesse in die geheel aan bod – vanaf die vertalers se aanvanklike beplanning en agente wat as patronate van die projek optree tot die resepsie en invloed van die doeltekste in die Engelssprekende wêreld. Binne die funksionalisme bepaal die funksie van die doelteks binne die doelkultuur watter aspekte van die bronteks na die doelteks oorgedra word. Vanuit hierdie teoretiese benadering word die bevindinge rakende die vertaalstrategieë en –prosesse in die vertalings van Sanguo yanyi gebruik om uiteindelik te bepaal in watter mate die vertalers daarin slaag om die herinnering aan kultuurhistoriese kwessies in China in die doeltekste behoue te laat bly en die tekste terselfdertyd vir Westerse (Suid-Afrikaanse) studente toeganklik te maak.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English

This thesis explores the first English translations of Molière's works published between 1663 and 1732 by writers that include John Dryden, Edward Ravenscroft, Aphra Behn, and Henry Fielding. It challenges the idea that the translators straightforwardly plagiarized the French plays and instead argues that their work demonstrates engagement with the dramatic impact and satirical drive of the source texts. It asks how far the process of anglicization required careful examination of the plays' initial French national context. The first part of the thesis presents three fundamental angles of interrogation addressing how the translators dealt with the form of the dramatic works according to theoretical and practical principles. It considers translators' responses to conventions of plot formation, translation methods, and prosody. The chapters are underpinned by comparative assessments of contextual theoretical writings in French and English in order to examine the plays in the light of the evolving theatrical tastes and literary practices occasioned by cross-Channel communication. The second part takes an alternative approach to assessing the earliest translations of Molière. Its four chapters are based on close analysis of culturally significant lexical terms which evoke comically contentious social themes. This enquiry charts the changes in translation-choices over the decades covered by the thesis corpus. The themes addressed, however, were relevant throughout the period in both France and England: marital discord caused by anxieties surrounding cuckoldry and gallantry, the problems of zealous religious ostentation, the dubious professional standing of medical practitioners, and bourgeois social pretension. This part assesses how the key terms in translation were chosen to resonate within the new semantic fields in English, a target language which was coming into close contact with new French terms.

Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis offers the first English translation of Eduardo De Filippo’s last play, Gli esami non finiscono mai (1973). It analyzes the play in the context of the dramatist’s career and describes the philosophical shift that took place in Eduardo’s dialectic as he progressed from a post-war, neorealist drama like Napoli milionaria! toward the existential reflections present in his last play. Unlike previous studies, this work concentrates on Eduardo’s philosophical journey from neorealism to existential query and identifies the factors that influenced his thinking process. To this end, I have evaluated the plays most relevant to the development of his philosophy and the socio-political context in which they were written. The influence of the Neapolitan traditional dialect theater, along with that of Luigi Pirandello, his American contemporaries, Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neill, and William Shakespeare, is also examined. Important social issues that directly affected the author, such as the struggle in Italy for the legalization of divorce and the plight of children born out of wedlock, are highlighted to illustrate how they contributed to the disillusionment and pessimism present in Eduardo’s last play. From the rather hopeful ending of Napoli milionaria! Eduardo was reduced at the end of his life to sheer desperation in Gli esami non finiscono mai. Italy had changed but it had not moved on. By focusing on the playwright’s final play, this thesis offers a new perspective on a twentieth century dramatist who is much more complex than is commonly acknowledged. De Filippo is revealed as a dramatist who transcended the Neapolitan comic theatrical traditions he sprang from and created a theater of political and social engagement that endures today.