Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications by Munday Jeremy

Author:Munday, Jeremy
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-317-43139-8
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Case study

The text for this case study is the first in the hugely successful Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling5 and its translations into Italian (Harry Potter e la pietra filosofale6) and Spanish (Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal7). Following Toury’s three-phase methodology, we shall:

(1) place the TTs in their TT cultural systems;

(2) ‘map’ TT segments onto the ST equivalents;

(3) attempt to draw some generalizations regarding the translation strategies employed and the norms at work.

Comparing two translations of the same ST, even though they are into different TLs, allows some triangulation of findings and helps to avoid jumping to conclusions based on a single isolated study, as Lambert and van Gorp warned.

(1) Both the Italian and Spanish TTs are presented and accepted as translations, the translators’ names and the original titles being published on the copyright pages. The Italian also has the translator’s name on the title page. Both TTs are direct translations from English. Even though both target cultures have strong native children’s literature traditions themselves, the decision to select this book for translation is not surprising given its huge success in the UK and the USA where it became the best-selling book in the country among both adults and children.

The fact that the Spanish and Italian books are translations is not stressed, however. The blurb on the back cover of the Spanish TT, for example, quotes comments from reviews in the UK and Italy and emphasizes the book’s relevance to ‘all children of all ages’. The Italian TT also incorporates illustrations by an Italian illustrator, Serena Riglietti, cited along with the translator on the title page, where the book is described as a romanzo (novel). The use of this word indicates the way in which the book is marketed as adult literature in Italy. There is a strong suggestion, therefore, that the Spanish and Italian publishers were prepared to make modifications, even perhaps including a modification of the genre, in order to ensure its full acceptability, including to more sophisticated adult readers.

(2) The TTs are full translations of the ST with no major additions, omissions or footnotes. The choice of ST–TT segments to examine is ad hoc in Toury’s model. In the case of Harry Potter, one of the most striking features of the book (and indeed of much children’s literature) concerns the names of characters and elements related to the school of magic and sorcery of which Harry Potter is a pupil. The school itself has the sonorous and Anglo-Saxon sounding name of Hogwarts. Along the old English boarding school model, it is divided into houses with suggestive names such as Slytherin, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. The names of the characters are similarly sonorous and suggestive: Hagrid, Hedwig, Snape, Draco Malfoy, Argus Filch and the headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

The two TTs deal with these names in very different ways. The Spanish TT, almost without exception, retains these names in the translation, although the first time Draco Malfoy appears, the translator adds an explanation of his name in brackets: ‘Draco (dragón) Malfoy’.

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