This study investigates the notion of “shifts” in Swahili literary translations within a wider context of communication and focuses on the translators’ role and goals, which shape and direct both the process and the product of translation. The study is intended to answer the broad question of why Swahili literary translations appear as refracted as they are hence, it is, an inquiry into the make-up of Swahili literary translations, as they exist in the target culture. Of key importance to this research is the broad view of translation as mediated inter-lingual communication. Based on such a view, this study proceeds on the general assumption that translation is a rewriting of an original text and as such it not only reflects a certain ideology and a poetics but also manipulates literature to function in society in a certain way (Lefevere, 2002, p. xi). The fundamental contention of this thesis is that since translation involves active intervention of translators through transformation rather than identity and similarity, research on the personal goals of translators is inevitable in order to explain ‘departure/shifts’ in the translations produced. Essentially, this research takes a target-oriented approach, which means that it answers questions about Swahili literary translations without reducing them to objects that are only explicable in terms of their source. Instead of viewing translations as bound to their source orientation and expect them to be as close as possible to the source texts, in both form and content, the present study explores the notion that translation is a process that involves decisions and choices of agents towards fulfillment of certain goals (Hermans, 1999, p. 39). On this basis, the study makes use of the descriptive target-oriented framework that contextualizes the activities of translation actors (agents) in functional terms, effectively countering the thinking that a translated text is or should be a mere reproduction of the source text. Consistent with these theoretical explorations, the empirical investigation corroborates the theoretical discussion by utilizing explanatory descriptive methods. The research findings of this investigation offer corroborative evidence that Swahili literary translations are complex artifacts at the intersection of process and skopos.

Aquesta tesi se centra en l'anàlisi comparativa i descriptiva de vint passatges irònics de les obres Unkenrufe (1992) i Im Krebsgang (2002) de Günter Grass i les seves respectives traduccions a l'anglès, el danès, el català i l'espanyol. Partint de la hipòtesi que totes les versions tendeixen a atenuar la ironia excepte les daneses –per raons de proximitat lingüisticocultural amb l'alemany– ens proposem assolir dos objectius: 1) explorar l'abast macroestructural d'aquesta suposada atenuació; i 2) fer dues propostes de classificació: d'estratègies d'ironia original i d'estratègies de traducció de la ironia. Amb aquests objectius a l'horitzó, en primer lloc emprem instruments de tipus narratològic per determinar el paper de la ironia en les obres originals, i seguidament duem a terme l'anàlisi comparativa i descriptiva dels passatges irònics mitjançant eines conceptuals semàntico-pragmàtiques. Els resultats de la investigació confirmen parcialment la hipòtesi inicial i aporten noves dades sobre la naturalesa de la ironia literària; el funcionament de la seva traducció; i el paper que hi juguen les restriccions lingüisticoculturals. / This dissertation presents the comparative and descriptive analysis of twenty ironic passages from Unkenrufe (1992) and Im Krebsgang (2002) by Günter Grass and their corresponding translations into English, Danish, Catalan and Spanish. Taking as a starting-point the hypothesis that irony will tend to be toned down in all the versions – except for the Danish ones, due to the linguistic and cultural proximity between Danish and German – the study has two objectives: 1) to explore the macrostructural impact of irony downtoning, and 2) to propose two classifications: one of original irony strategies, and one of translated irony strategies. With these objectives in mind, first we use narratological tools to determine the role played by irony in the original works, and then we use semantic-pragmatic tools to carry out a comparative and descriptive analysis of the ironic passages. The results of this study partially confirm the initial hypothesis and shed new light on the nature of literary irony, how its translation works, and the role played in it by linguistic and cultural constraints.

This study examined the translation of adjectival pre-modifiers (i.e. pre-modifying adjectives and pre-modifying participles) from English into Swedish. The selection of this topic and material was inspired by previous research on the increasing frequency of noun phrase pre-modification in English, contrasted with notions of Swedish-specific preferences for translating English pre-modifiers into different structures found in previous research and literature. Swedish tendencies included rendering English pre-modifiers as post-modification and the compounding of pre-modifying adjectives or participles with noun phrase heads to form Swedish compound nouns. The concept of translation shifts as labels for translation methods was used to classify translations of adjectival pre-modifiers, in addition to categorising the translation choices based on word class, rank and position. The study concluded that English adjectival pre-modifiers were overwhelmingly translated with formal correspondence (86%), i.e. as adjectival pre-modifiers. The other translation methods that were applied were used considerably less extensively; unit shifts and class shifts constituted 9% and 4% of all translation choices, respectively; omissions of the sense and meaning of the adjectival pre-modifier were found as the translation method for 1% of English adjectival pre-modifiers.  Unit shifts were found to result in a total of 8 different types of structural equivalents to adjectival pre-modifiers. In order of frequency, these were: prepositional phrase, first element of compound noun, extended attribute, pre-modifying prepositional phrase, verb phrase, first element of compound adverb, last element of compound participle and relative clause. Class shifts resulted in 3 categories of formally non-correspondent structures, namely adverb, noun and genitival attribute. The conclusions that could be drawn from the results were that the tendency for the Swedish translation of adjectival pre-modifiers to result in post-modification and compound nouns was small. A qualitative analysis showed that select examples of translations to formally correspondent equivalents were commonly motivated by considerations of readability to reduce sentence length and complexity. Examples of various category shifts were for the most part found to have been caused by the questionable idiomaticity of formally correspondent translation options.

This master's thesis consists of a Czech language translation and commentary for selected chapters of Dans l'enfer des tournantes, an autobiography by Samira Bellil, a French author of Algerian descent. The commentary is divided into two parts: a presentation of literature written by French authors of Maghrebi descent, the so-called beurs, the language they use in literature and reception of their works; and an analysis of the source text and its reception, the problems encountered during the process of translation and their solutions as well as the chosen translation method. Key words: Samira Bellil, autobiography, beurs, translation, translation analysis, translation method, translation problem, translation shift, suburbs of Paris

This theoretical and empirical interdisciplinary thesis examines censorship in cinematographic import to Czechoslovakia during the 1960s and 70s. Specifically we focus on English-spoken movies dubbed into Czech. The thesis summarizes existing theoretical research on the present topic and complements it with data acquired through interviews with contemporary witnesses. This information is then used for an analysis of two movies released to cinemas in Czechoslovakia during the researched period - The Entertainer (in Czech Komik, 1960) and Twelve Angry Men (in Czech Dvanáct rozhněvaných mužů, 1957). The thesis ends with a comparison of these two dubbings in their respective context and of the 1960s and 1970s from the perspective of the Czechoslovak dubbing. Finally, it offers several topics for further research.