How Does it Feel? Point of View in Translation. The Case of Virginia Woolf into French

Charlotte BOSSEAUX, How Does it Feel? Point of View in Translation. The Case of Virginia Woolf into French, Amsterdam / New York, Rodopi (Approaches to Translation Studies), 2007, 247 p.
ISBN 978-90-420-2202-7


SUMMARY

Narratology is concerned with the study of narratives; but surprisingly it does not usually distinguish between original and translated texts. This lack of distinction is regrettable. In recent years the visibility of translations and translators has become a widely discussed topic in Translation Studies; yet the issue of translating a novel’s point of view has remained relatively unexplored. It seems crucial to ask how far a translator’s choices affect the novel’s point of view, and whether characters or narrators come across similarly in originals and translations.

This book addresses exactly these questions. It proposes a method by which it becomes possible to investigate how the point of view of a work of fiction is created in an original and adapted in translation. It shows that there are potential problems involved in the translation of linguistic features that constitute point of view (deixis, modality, transitivity and free indirect discourse) and that this has an impact on the way works are translated.

Traditionally, comparative analysis of originals and their translations have relied on manual examinations; this book demonstrates that corpus-based tools can greatly facilitate and sharpen the process of comparison. The method is demonstrated using Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse (1927) and The Waves (1931), and their French translations.


CONTENTS

Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter One: Narrative Point of View and Translation
Chapter Two: The Different Categories of Point of View
Chapter Three: Methodological Tools and Framework
Chapter Four: Virginia Woolf, a Case in Point
Chapter Five: The Model Demonstrated Case-Study One: To the Lighthouse
Chapter Six: The Model Demonstrated Case-Study Two: The Waves
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index