Peritexts in the Finnish Translations of Three Works by Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle : a Diachronic Approach
Holopainen, Jenna (2018-06-25)
Peritexts in the Finnish Translations of Three Works by Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle : a Diachronic Approach
Holopainen, Jenna
(25.06.2018)
Tätä artikkelia/julkaisua ei ole tallennettu UTUPubiin. Julkaisun tiedoissa voi kuitenkin olla linkki toisaalle tallennettuun artikkeliin / julkaisuun.
Turun yliopisto
Tiivistelmä
In this study, the aim is to provide an overview of the peritextual elements in three detective fiction novels by Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle translated into Finnish, and to examine the diachronic changes in them. In addition, translators’ visibility in the peritexts of the works will be discussed. The corpus consists of all available editions of Finnish translations of Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) and Murder on the Orient Express (1934) and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of The Baskervilles (1901–1902); in total, the corpus consists of thirty-nine Finnish editions of the works. The peritextual elements discussed and analyzed in the study include the format and series, the cover and its appendages, book advertisements and prefaces and postfaces.
The theoretical background consists of Gerard Genette’s theory on paratexts as well as translation scholars’ theories regarding translators’ visibility in paratexts. The study provides a descriptive analysis on the peritexts in the corpus. It was discovered that the peritextual elements that have changed the most diachronically consist of the information provided on the back covers, the location of the translator’s name and the presence of prefaces and postfaces. Prefaces and postfaces are only present in seven editions, out of which three are written by translators; the first preface dates to 1977. All prefaces and postfaces fulfil Genette’s functions of informing and recommending, and translators’ prefaces also fulfilled Rodica Dimitriu’s explanatory, normative/prescriptive and informative/descriptive functions. Translators’ visibility has also increased in the corpus in the past decades and in the retranslations from 2010s, translator’s visibility is at its highest.
The theoretical background consists of Gerard Genette’s theory on paratexts as well as translation scholars’ theories regarding translators’ visibility in paratexts. The study provides a descriptive analysis on the peritexts in the corpus. It was discovered that the peritextual elements that have changed the most diachronically consist of the information provided on the back covers, the location of the translator’s name and the presence of prefaces and postfaces. Prefaces and postfaces are only present in seven editions, out of which three are written by translators; the first preface dates to 1977. All prefaces and postfaces fulfil Genette’s functions of informing and recommending, and translators’ prefaces also fulfilled Rodica Dimitriu’s explanatory, normative/prescriptive and informative/descriptive functions. Translators’ visibility has also increased in the corpus in the past decades and in the retranslations from 2010s, translator’s visibility is at its highest.