"Do you ever stop talking?" : A comparative analysis of idiolects in Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue and its Finnish translation Punaista, valkoista ja kuninkaansinistä
Nurminen, Noora (2024-05-23)
"Do you ever stop talking?" : A comparative analysis of idiolects in Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue and its Finnish translation Punaista, valkoista ja kuninkaansinistä
(23.05.2024)
Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
avoin
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on:
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2024061150143
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2024061150143
Tiivistelmä
The subject of this thesis is the translation of idiolects in Casey McQuiston’s 2019 novel Red, White & Royal Blue, translated into Finnish by Johanna Auranheimo with the name Punaista, valkoista ja kuninkaansinistä (2022). Idiolect refers, in this context, to a literary character’s individual linguistic variety in dialogue, more specifically recurring features that are used as characterisation cues. The aim of the study is to examine how lexical idiolectal features in the novel are translated into Finnish, and how the translation impacts characterisation.
The theoretical background for the thesis draws on studies in fictional characterisation, literary dialogue and the translation of fictional speech varieties. The most important authors for the formation of theory were Culpeper (2001) and Eder et. al (2010) with their works on characterisation, Page ([1973] 1988) and Hatim and Mason (1990, 1997) on literary dialogue and idiolects, and Berezowski (1997) and Rosa (2012, 2013) on the translation of non-standard speech. As for Finnish studies on literary dialogue and its translation, Nevalainen (2003), Tiittula and Nuolijärvi (2013) and Koivisto and Nykänen (2013) are referred to.
The material for this thesis consists of 123 lines of direct speech selected from dialogues between the main characters of the novel, Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry. The lines were categorised according to the ‘speaking’ character, after which the idiolectal lexis in them was classified into three categories: swearwords and vulgar slang, regional features and recurring words and phrases. The analysis is qualitative and comparative, examining features from the source text and comparing them to their translated equivalents. The translation strategies were partly based on Berezowski’s (1997) classification of strategies used in translation of dialects, namely colloquialisation and neutralisation. Three additional strategies – equivalent translation, omission and recategorization – were named.
The results indicate that, in spite of equivalent translation being the most prevalent strategy, the translator has not preserved idiolectal features in either their recurrence or uniqueness to a certain character. As the speech presentation of the characters becomes less individualised in translation, the indirect characterisation provided by the dialogue is reduced. Further studies are required to discover how well the findings of this thesis correspond to other Finnish translations of literary idiolects.
The theoretical background for the thesis draws on studies in fictional characterisation, literary dialogue and the translation of fictional speech varieties. The most important authors for the formation of theory were Culpeper (2001) and Eder et. al (2010) with their works on characterisation, Page ([1973] 1988) and Hatim and Mason (1990, 1997) on literary dialogue and idiolects, and Berezowski (1997) and Rosa (2012, 2013) on the translation of non-standard speech. As for Finnish studies on literary dialogue and its translation, Nevalainen (2003), Tiittula and Nuolijärvi (2013) and Koivisto and Nykänen (2013) are referred to.
The material for this thesis consists of 123 lines of direct speech selected from dialogues between the main characters of the novel, Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry. The lines were categorised according to the ‘speaking’ character, after which the idiolectal lexis in them was classified into three categories: swearwords and vulgar slang, regional features and recurring words and phrases. The analysis is qualitative and comparative, examining features from the source text and comparing them to their translated equivalents. The translation strategies were partly based on Berezowski’s (1997) classification of strategies used in translation of dialects, namely colloquialisation and neutralisation. Three additional strategies – equivalent translation, omission and recategorization – were named.
The results indicate that, in spite of equivalent translation being the most prevalent strategy, the translator has not preserved idiolectal features in either their recurrence or uniqueness to a certain character. As the speech presentation of the characters becomes less individualised in translation, the indirect characterisation provided by the dialogue is reduced. Further studies are required to discover how well the findings of this thesis correspond to other Finnish translations of literary idiolects.