Functionalism, fidelity and creation in translation with a commented translation of the short story, 'La main de Dieu' by Pierre Karch.

摘要

The purpose of the present thesis paper is to provide a commented translation, From French to English, of the short story, La main de Dieu, by Pierre Karch. The paper consists of three chapters. In Chapter l, the author presents a theoretical review of literary translation over the course of history including the notions of fidelity in translation and the role of the translator as creator. In Chapter 2, the author focuses on the chosen methodology for the translation, that of the functionalist school. The functionalist methodology may be summarized as a three-stage process. In the first place, the translator reads and identifies the various stylistic effects of the original text, in essence the pertinent communicative information. Secondly, the translator reformulates this relevant information into the target language, not necessarily imitating the same structure or grammar of the original the primary goal is to communicate the effect or the function of the source language version. Finally, in a third stage, the translator verifies the target language version, first by comparing it to the original and then as a "stand-alone" work by checking it for accuracy and coherence in the target language. In Chapter 3, the author presents an analysis of the translation emphasizing the problematic issues and the manner in which they were treated. Of particular interest are the issues in translating register, irony, syntax and cultural references.