Narratology and translation

Abstract

In their explorations of narrative, many narratologists distinguish between the narrated (the situations and events presented), the narrating (the way these situations and events are presented), and the concrete manifestation of narrated and narrating in a particular medium (linguistic, say, pictorial, balletic) or a particular form thereof (English or French, film or painting, classical or modern). By and large, narratologists focus on the narrated and the narrating rather than on the medium of manifestation. Still, they are not unaware of, nor insensitive to, the effects that specific means of expression can have on narratives and, more particularly, on their transpositions (from prose to canvas, from stage to screen) or on their translations (from English to French, for instance, and vice versa). Taking as examples a variety of fictional texts by Stendhal, George Eliot, Anne Garréta, Ernest Hemingway, and others, the article discusses some of the effects that translation’s inevitable nonequivalences, variances, or paraphrases have on narrating and narrated features. More specifically, it uses translation to revisit these features, to reconsider their basicness, centrality or indispensability, and to reassess the narratological models they bring about.

Translation of Narrative Voice and Reproduction of a Simulated Storytelling Mode

“…Although the complexity and the underlying relationship between different levels and types of voices remain evasive, the present study hopes to provide inspiration for further research into the interaction between the textual voice and the extratextual voice. In terms of the interdisciplinary combination of narratology and translation studies, although voice has become “the most studied category from the angle of translation and its troubles” (Prince, 2014, p. 24), it is still worthwhile to conduct further research on the relationship between translation of different narrative aspects and their corresponding stylistic effects at the textual level.…”

“…Voice has been most studied from the angle of translation (Prince, 2014, p. 24). Scholars introduce the concept of voice not only from such adjacent disciplines as linguistics and literary studies, but also from other social sciences like sociology and communication studies.…”

Narration and translation

“…Tapping into a corpus of texts in which translation is part of the story, Prince touches upon the thematic, narrative and metanarrative functions of fictional translation, which ‘n’a guère été étudié de façon générale par la critique’ (2011: 558). 5 In a recent essay in this journal (Prince, 2014), he broadens his narratological approach to translation and explores the narrative effects of a work’s migration from one language to the other.…”