La traducción del dialecto literarioun estudio de tres versiones españolas de The loneliness of the long distance runner, de Alan Sillitoe

Abstract

This dissertation conducts a critical survey of existing research on the translation of Literary Dialect (LD) and applies the findings of that survey to the study of three different Spanish translations of British author Alan Sillitoe's collection of short stories The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (TLLDR, 1959). Understood as 'an author's attempt to represent in writing a speech that is restricted regionally, socially, or both' (Ives 1971/1949: 146), LD is used in fiction for rendering the speech of characters that use non-standard dialects, thus establishing a contrast with other characters' speech and, especially, the narrator's discourse (generally but not always written in the standard variety of the language in question). That different varieties of the same language may coexist within a single text poses obvious questions for the theory and practice of translation (Azevedo 1998: 28). This dissertation explores those questions as they are formulated by Translation Studies scholars; it also studies both dialect and LD from the perspectives of Linguistics and Literary Studies, so as to provide a clear delineation of what is at stake in the debate over the translation of LD. This theoretico-critical approach is balanced with an attention to actual translation practice as exemplified by all three Spanish versions of TLLDR, rendered as La soledad del corredor de fondo by Baldomero Porta Gou (1962), Mariano Antolín Rato (1981) and Mercedes Cebrián (2014). The dissertation begins with an Introduction containing a preliminary approach to the issues raised by the translation of LD. Chapter 1 deals with dialect in the context of linguistic variation, with references to dialectal and situational variation. Chapter 2 focuses on LD and includes an introduction to fictional speech, a historical overview of LD in English and American literature, a comprehensive discussion of LD and a description of dialect representation techniques. Chapter 3 provides a survey of the translation of LD that addresses a series of recurrent themes (unstranslatability, loss of meaning), theoretical constructs (connotation, equivalence, normalization, growing standardization) and practical procedures (compensation, translation strategies). Chapter 4 contextualises Alan Sillitoe's work against the backdrop of post-war British fiction. Chapter 5 describes the LD used in TLLDR with reference to the dialect of English spoken in the East Midlands of England, where the stories in TLLDR are set. Chapter 6 gathers information on the Spanish translations of TLLDR, with specific details on the making of Rato and Cebrián's versions provided by both translators (as well as Cebrián's editor) . Finally, Chapter 7 draws on the insights gained in previous chapters in order to design a method for studying LD translation strategies. This method is subsequently applied to the Spanish translations of a comprehensive set of segments from TLLDR where LD is used. The dissertation results show that scholarly views on the translation of LD are normally expressed in connection with a number of recurrent claims, namely that translating LD may be as complex as to constitute an exemplary case of untranslatability; that connotative meanings associated to the Source-Language (SL) LD are usually irretrievably lost when translated into the Target Language (TL); and that using TL dialects for reproducing SL LD may not be an appropriate strategy. Also shown is the tendency to use triadic models in order to classify the main strategies for translating LD. These models normally contemplate (1) the use of the standard variety of the SL; (2) that of TL dialect features; and (3) that of TL colloquialisms and/or slang. Recourse to triadic models may be accompanied by assertions that strategy (1) is widespread, whereas (2) is a virtually marginal option and (3) a slightly more frequent one. These insights are largely confirmed by the survey of TLLDR translations into Spanish, where use of standard Spanish is proved to be overwhelming; TL colloquialisms are only occasionally used in the three translations, whereas there is no clear use of TL dialect features in any of them.