This BA thesis is a quantitative research on the micro- and macrostrategies used in the Dutch and Flemish song translations of the movie Tangled (2010) to determine whether the translators were...Show moreThis BA thesis is a quantitative research on the micro- and macrostrategies used in the Dutch and Flemish song translations of the movie Tangled (2010) to determine whether the translators were more source-oriented or target-oriented. Quantitative research based on Schjoldager‘s et.al (2008) theory of micro- and macrostrategies has been done on three songs. It was determined that the Dutch translator was more target-oriented, while the Flemish translator was more source-oriented. Furthermore, it was determined that further research should be done on other Dutch and Flemish song translations to give a conclusively give an answer to the question whether this is a general statement about Dutch and Flemish song translators.Show less
According to Michał Borodo (2015) Comic Translation is an “under-investigated topic” (p. 22), and even more so when we approach the topic of broken English in Comic Translation. For this reason,...Show moreAccording to Michał Borodo (2015) Comic Translation is an “under-investigated topic” (p. 22), and even more so when we approach the topic of broken English in Comic Translation. For this reason, this thesis examines whether different levels and functions of broken English can be identified within a comic, and which translation strategies and procedures should be applied in order to maintain in the target text the source text’s broken English level and function. In order to arrive to any significant conclusion regarding the level of broken English, a scale of levels has been designed based on the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2018a; 2018b) and ACTFL (ACTFL, 2018) scales. Moreover, two sub-questions have been formulated in order to gauge the function of broken English within the narrative. Also, the translation strategies and procedures coined by Newmark (1988), Vinay and Darbelnet (1995; 2008), and Venuti (2008b) have been compiled into a customised list containing the relevant strategies and procedures tied with the restrictions encountered in Comic Translation. These three models have been applied to the broken English of the Russian gangsters in Hawkeye (Fraction, 2013), Vladek in Maus (Spiegelman, 2003), and Yoda in Star Wars (Aaron, 2018). The gangsters’ broken English is characterised by its excessive use of the cultural expression “bro”, which becomes the object of the hero’s mockery. Gangsters are found to speak broken English as spoken by speakers of the lowest level of the scale of broken English. On the other hand, Vladek’s and Yoda’s broken English is characterised by their eccentric word order, which seems to be in tune with the role they play within their story. According to the scale of levels of broken English devised in this thesis, Yoda speaks according to the highest level on the scale, whereas Vladek’s level of broken English can be found in between the levels of Yoda and the Russian gangsters. Lastly, I have found that for each translation strategy, three different translation procedures occur most frequently and can be said to be characteristic of this strategy; the oblique translation strategy is characterised by the use of the procedures economy, semantic translation, and communicative translation, while usage of the procedures compensation, economy, and free translation characterise the foreignisation strategy.Show less
This thesis describes the development of Yiddish theatre which evolved in Eastern Europe and later moved to the United States of America as large groups of Eastern European Jews began to move to...Show moreThis thesis describes the development of Yiddish theatre which evolved in Eastern Europe and later moved to the United States of America as large groups of Eastern European Jews began to move to the United States in the 1880s and 1890s. American-Jewish authors and playwrights used the high status of Western canonical writers – mainly Shakespeare – in order to introduce their immigrant audiences to the new culture of their homeland. One of these playwrights was Joseph Bovshover, who published a translation of The Merchant of Venice in 1899. In it, he replaced many of the references to the classical mythology or to the Christian religion with Jewish concepts, in order to familiarise the readers with the play. He also applied a translation strategy of transference of references to Venetian culture in to create a sense of authenticity. In his translation he wrote a preface in which he described his appreciation of Shakespeare’s work and especially of Shylock as a tragic hero. This change of depiction was typical of Jewish adaptations of The Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock was consistently depicted as a tragic hero rather than a villain. Bovshover attempted to find a balance between presenting the audience with an authentic Shakespeare translation while at the same time allowing the audience to relate itself to the characters in the play. He did this by transferring the references to Venetian culture literally into Yiddish, while adapting most of the references to Christianity to the Jewish context from which the audience came.Show less
In 1986, Zohar Shavit claimed in her Poetics of Children’s Literature that children’s literature’s position may cause translators to neglect the beauty and structure of a source text and focus more...Show moreIn 1986, Zohar Shavit claimed in her Poetics of Children’s Literature that children’s literature’s position may cause translators to neglect the beauty and structure of a source text and focus more on the readability of the target text. According to Shavit, the lower position of children’s literature leads to the fact that a translator of children’s literature is permitted to take greater liberties in a translation, leading to what Antoine Berman would call a “textual deformation”. Among translators and translation theorists, disagreement exists on whether staying close to the source text, which would lead to a foreignizing effect, or bringing the text to the reader, creating a domesticating effect, is the most desirable strategy. Lawrence Venuti and Antoine Berman are strongly in favor of foreignizing translations, and do not deem the readability of a translation as most important, but instead advocate exposing the reader to foreign concepts from the source text and language. In order to test Zohar Shavit’s claim that children’s literature is translated rather freely and link it to Lawrence Venuti’s accusation that Anglo-American translations are predominately domesticating, I will analyze six children’s books and their translations by means of a selected number of Antoine Berman’s deforming tendencies, i.e. rationalization, expansion, clarification, and the destruction of expressions and idioms.Show less
The aim of this thesis is to compare the Dutch and Italian translations of the songs from the Disney movie Frozen (2013). The field of song translation, and musical song translation in particular,...Show moreThe aim of this thesis is to compare the Dutch and Italian translations of the songs from the Disney movie Frozen (2013). The field of song translation, and musical song translation in particular, has been underdeveloped and underresearched compared to other areas in translation. For this reason, the author decided to compare the translations of the original English songs, focusing on elements such as word count, grammar, humour, use of abstract vs concrete language, exaggeration and culture. This thesis first examines the research and studies done on the subject of song translation over the years. In a second stage, the lyrics from the original movie are compared to the Dutch and Italian translations, with special focus on the elements listed above. The results of the author’s research show that the Dutch translation is truer to the original English source text, whereas the Italian translation differs in areas such as concrete language, humour and word count. The author recommends further research on multiple other musicals, and the comparison between English, Dutch and Italian translation of the musical songs in particular, in order to be able to fully support this conclusion.Show less
This thesis explores the translation choices that have been made in the dubbing of the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The original film was approved for...Show moreThis thesis explores the translation choices that have been made in the dubbing of the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The original film was approved for audiences of 12 years and older. In the Netherlands, a Dutch spoken version was released which was approved for 6 years and older. Establishing whether the dubbed version of the film uses simpler language in order to cater for a younger audience than the original version, was done by comparing commonly used procedures in both the field of audiovisual translation and translation of children's literature. Translation theories by Mieke Desmet, B.J. Epstein, Frederic Chaume and Irene Ranzato form the foundation of the theoretical background.Show less
In light of the Cultural Turn of translation studies, this case study focusses on the role of the translator; specifically on the possible connection between ideological manipulation (Lefevere) of...Show moreIn light of the Cultural Turn of translation studies, this case study focusses on the role of the translator; specifically on the possible connection between ideological manipulation (Lefevere) of the source text and the visibility of the translator (Venuti) in the target text. Though the hypothesis suggests such a connection, discourse analysis did not show any evident results.Show less
In this thesis, the main question was whether Dutch native speakers preferred a free or a literal translation. Both translators, students of the MA Translation in Theory and Practice at Leiden...Show moreIn this thesis, the main question was whether Dutch native speakers preferred a free or a literal translation. Both translators, students of the MA Translation in Theory and Practice at Leiden university, and a sample of a Dutch audience were asked about this directly and in an indirect manner. It seemed that their preference did not match, but a closer look at the outcome revealed that both the students and the Dutch audience preferred a more literal translation over a free one.Show less
This thesis tries to answer the question of what constitutes ‘good’ translation in order to help translators (and translator students) gain insight into the various academic perspectives on the...Show moreThis thesis tries to answer the question of what constitutes ‘good’ translation in order to help translators (and translator students) gain insight into the various academic perspectives on the nature of a high-quality translated text. It seeks this answer by way of examining the work of renowned translation theorists from across the five perspectives found in Translation Studies. The distinction and definitions of these perspectives are made by Hurtado Albir (1994) in his work Perspectivas de los Estudios Sobre Traducción. This thesis uses Ordóñez-Lopez’ (2008) English translations of these definitions. The five perspectives are named as follows: the Philosophical and Hermeneutic perspective, the Textual perspective, the Communicative and Socio-cultural perspective, the Cognitive perspective,and the Linguistic perspective. Each perspective approaches the field of Translation Studies in a different manner, which is the cause for many different interpretations and idea regarding translation practice. As this thesis seeks to unite opinions from across the academic field, and a number of perspectives only deal with written texts, multimodal translation will only lightly be touched upon. It will be shown that no more than three aspects are shared by more than one perspective, and none are shared by all.Show less
