From American Frontier to European Borders: Publishing French Translations of Mark Twain's Novels Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1884-1963)

Jenn, Ronald

doi:10.1353/bh.2006.0007

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…If, as Ronald Jenn has noted, "a polyphonic translation of a polyphonic text is in itself an ideological move," a monologic translation of a heteroglossic work is no less of an ideological effort. 72 As Bakhtin argued as well, 73 the process of cultural reaccentuation of an original may at times lead to its impoverishment, to the symbolic silencing of voices, or to the suppression of the "otherness" of the foreign culture or worldview. That is precisely what happens to Jim in Russian translations, as I will show next.…”

Section: Huck Finn and Jim Speak In Russian: Monologic Translations Of The Novel's Original Heteroglossiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…85 The imagined racial inferiority in Huck's perception of Jim so far in the novel is powerfully undermined as a result of this scene, and the boy feels "so mean [he] could almost kiss his foot to get him to take it back" … "It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a [N-word]-but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither. I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way" (71)(72). Both Russian versions-Daruzes's and Engelgardt's-recognize the significance of the moment, and try to capture linguistically the moral reversal of roles and the self-abasement encoded in the white boy's decision to apologize to the Black enslaved man properly: "я переломил себя и пошел унижаться перед негром" (I overcame myself and went to humble myself in front of the Negro) (88) in Durazes's version; and, even more openly so, in Engelgardt's: "я собрался в достаточной степени с духом, чтобы войти, в свою очередь, в шалаш и смиренно просить извинения у негра" (I collected my spirit enough so that I could, in my turn, enter the tent and most humbly ask the Negro for his forgiveness) (79).…”

Section: The Russian Jimmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Huck Finn’s Adventures in the Land of the Soviet People

Marinova¹

2021

Transnational American Studies

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In 1956, Alexander Kuznetsov, the Vice Chairman of the Soviet Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, commissioned a formal scholarly report on Mark Twain's reputation in the USSR in response to a letter from Bradley Kelley, of the Redding Times, around the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the Mark Twain Library in Redding, Connecticut. 1 Kuznetsov's goal was ambitious: he wanted to start building a bridge over the cultural and political divide separating the Soviet Union and America, and felt-with good reason-that Twain would serve that purpose better than anyone else. 2 In addition to being one of the best-selling American writers in the USSR, 3 Twain had tangible personal connections to Russia: He had visited and written about the country in The Innocents Abroad; he had been a friend of such famous Russian authors as Maxim Gorky, S. M. Stephnyak-Kravchinsky, and Ivan Turgenev; he had even had a Russian son-in-law. 4 Much more importantly, Twain's works had enjoyed immense popularity in Russia from the moment they had become available in Russian translations. His story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," was translated into Russian as early as 1872, and The Gilded Age immediately after its publication in America. 5 The first collection of Mark Twain's works, in eleven volumes, was published in Russia in 1896. A second edition came out in the year of Twain's death, and a complete collection in twenty-eight volumes appeared in 1911. 6 The prerevolutionary fascination with Twain and the Russian admiration for his satirical talents (he was often compared to Gogol in the press), only intensified after the emergence of the Soviet State, as his critical stance towards the realities of American life, his antiracist position, and his disdain for organized religion, made him extremely palatable to the new socialist government. 7 Between 1918 and the end of 1959, more than 10,926,000 copies of Mark Twain's books in twenty-five languages were

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Section: Huck Finn and Jim Speak In Russian: Monologic Translations Of The Novel's Original Heteroglossiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Russian Jimmentioning

confidence: 99%

Huck Finn’s Adventures in the Land of the Soviet People

Marinova¹

2021

Transnational American Studies

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Audience Attitude and Translation Reception

McAuley¹

2015

Babel

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This article proposes askopos-based analysis of the English translations of the eleventh century Japanese literary work,Genji monogatari(“The Tale of Genji”) as a means of understanding the basis for the translations’ differing receptions among their target audiences. The translations, by Suematsu Kenchō, Arthur Waley, Edward Seidensticker and Royall Tyler, are widely spaced chronologically, being published between 1888–2001, and were each produced with differing audiences and aims, thus making them a useful corpus for this analysis. In addition, all of the translators have written, with varying degrees of explicitness, about their motivations and purposes in conducting their translations. First, through an analysis of the translators’ writings, introductions, and individual circumstances, the article will demonstrate how theskoposfor each translation can be determined. Second, through an analysis and comparison of text excerpts, it will demonstrate how theskoposinfluenced the translation choices of the individual translators, with material being, for example, omitted, changed in psychological tone, or rendered more explicit, depending upon the individual translator’s overriding purpose in their work. Finally, through an analysis of the reviews of the various translations, it will consider the extent to which each translator was successful in achieving a positive and intended response to his translation in the target audience.

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Commercial considerations: A reason for retranslating — an exploration of the retranslation boom in the 1990s mainland China

Tian²

2014

Across Languages and Cultures

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This paper explores the reasons for the translation boom in the 1990s in mainland China. During this period translated literature flourished in China. Many translations were retranslations of the great classical works of world literature. The major reason for the prospering of retranslations in this period was commercial. After 1978, the year of political opening-up, the monotonous cultural life of the Chinese people was enriched and enthusiasm for reading classical literature reawakened. A surprisingly large readership emerged. Well-established publishers, such as People’s Literature Publishing House and Yilin Publishing House produced many high-quality translations of works included in the world’s literary canons, which fueled and strengthened people’s interest in reading literature. Due to a large market, re-translation and re-publication of foreign masters became a very lucrative business. Some publishers were unqualified for publishing foreign literature and they did not have foreign-language editors. However, in the hope of making a large profit, they began to publish poor-quality retranslations of literary masterworks, even though a canonical translation of the same work had been published by some other publishing house. As a result, the retranslation boom of the 1990s in mainland China became a bedlam.

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From American Frontier to European Borders: Publishing French Translations of Mark Twain's Novels Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1884-1963)

Cited by 4 publications

References 13 publications

Huck Finn’s Adventures in the Land of the Soviet People

Huck Finn’s Adventures in the Land of the Soviet People

Audience Attitude and Translation Reception

Commercial considerations: A reason for retranslating — an exploration of the retranslation boom in the 1990s mainland China

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