11

Textual genre and translation issues

It has become clear from the first half of this course that different STs require different strategic priorities. In deciding which textual variables to prioritize, the translator has always to ask: what is the purpose of the ST, and what is the purpose of the TT? These questions imply two others: what kind of text is the ST, and what kind of text should the TT be? The texts we have used as examples and in practicals all illustrate the importance of these questions in deciding a strategy. At issue here is a fundamental consideration in translation: all texts are defined in terms of genre. By genre we mean what Hymes calls a `type of communicative event' (quoted in Hervey 1992:199)Ðthat is, a category to which, in a given culture, a given text is seen to belong and within which the text is seen to share a type of communicative purpose with other texts. In this definition, the term also covers the traditionally identified genres of literature. The term text-type is often used in a similar sense to `genre'. If there is a difference, it is at most one of nuance: there is perhaps a danger that `type' has static connotations, which might lead students to overlook the element of purpose in the definable qualities of a text. We shall use `genre', because the element of `event' in its definition ensures that the definable qualities of a text are seen as dynamic, as together constituting an attempt to realize a communicative purpose.

Most texts belong to a genre or genres. Some innovative texts arguably do not, when they first appear: but even these are defined by contrast with genres to which they do not belong. Innovative texts aside, it can be said that any ST shares some of its properties with other texts of the same genre, and is perceived by an SL audience as being what it is on account of such genre-defining properties. Therefore, in order to assess the nature and purpose of the ST, the translator must have some sort of overview of genre-types in the source culture, and be familiar with the characteristics of relevant genres within those types.

What is true of SL texts is true of TL texts. Since the nature and the purpose of a given text imply one another, the translator has to be as familiar with targetculture genre-types and genres as with those of the source culture. Paying due attention to the nature and purpose of the TT guarantees a degree of TL bias which helps to prevent the excessive SL bias that so often defeats the purpose of the TT. In the `Blackpool' texts on p. 24, for example, the purpose of the ST is to

108 TEXTUAL GENRE AND TRANSLATION ISSUES

persuade the purchaser that she has bought wisely and should do so again. Presumably, the TT has the same purpose. But in fact, even where the TT is not unfaithful to literal meaning, it is unfaithful to the purpose of both ST and TT: in failing to prioritize TL connotative meanings and tonal registers in the pursuit of an appropriate commercial blarney, the translator has not produced a text in the TL genre of publicity leaflet, but what looks like a parody of English as spoken by foreigners a very different genre. This poor grasp of appropriate TL genre features is inseparable from an equally poor grasp of TL textual variables. The `Blackpool' text is an especially clear illustration of the fact that each implies the other.

Since translators need to consider these genre-related questions before translating a text, it is useful for them to have a framework of broad genretypes. This will help them to identify salient genre characteristics of the ST, and to check those of the TT they are producing. We are not going to attempt an exhaustive typology of genres; that would be too elaborate for our purposes. In determining the genre of a text, two essential factors need to considered. The first is the author's attitude to the treatment of the subject matter of the text. (We use `author' to denote the originator of the text, whether it is oral or written.) The second is the question of whether the text is an oral one or a written one.

SUBJECT MATTER

Subject matter in itself is not a useful criterion for describing genres, because the same subject matter can figure in very different genres. What is at issue is the author's attitude, implicit or explicit, to treatment of the subject matter. On this basis, we shall distinguish five broad categories of genre.

The first category is that of literary genres. Literary genres have subdivided and diversified very greatly over the centuries. There are innumerable sub-genres of poetry, fiction and drama, each with its characteristic style. However, all texts in this category have two essential features. First, they concern a world created autonomously in and through the texts themselves, and not controlled by the physical world outside. However close a literary text is to history or autobiography, it still approaches its subject matter by recreating experience in terms of a subjective, internal world, which is fundamentally perceived as fictive, for all its similarities to the world outside the text. Second, whatever other characteristics they have, and whatever their subject matter, literary texts contain features of expression, on any level of textual variables, that emphasize, modify or actually create features of content. A simple example of this is the Tabucchi text in Practical 6.1.

The second category comprises religious genres. In terms of the author's attitude, the subject matter of religious texts implies the existence of a spiritual world that is not fictive, but has its own external realities and truths. The author is understood not to be free to create the world that animates the subject matter, but to be merely instrumental in exploring it. This category has perhaps

THINKING ITALIAN TRANSLATION 109

diversified less than any of the others, but, certainly in the field of Christianity, it still has a wide range of styles, from Authorized Version to happy-clappy.

The third category comprises philosophical genres. These have as their subject matter a `world' of ideas. Pure mathematics is the best example of the kind of subject matter that defines philosophical genres. Even in the field of metaphysics, the author is understood not to be free to develop theoretical structures at will, but to be constrained by some standard of rationality. Philosophical genres have not proliferated as much as literary ones, but they are strikingly diverse nonetheless.

The fourth category is that of empirical genres. Genres in this category deal with the real world as it is experienced by observers. An empirical text is more or less informative, and it is understood to take an objective view of observable phenomena. Scientific, technological and many scholarly texts fall into this category. It therefore goes on diversifying into new sub-genres as new scientific and academic disciplines are created.

Finally, there is the category of persuasive genres. The essence of these is that they aim at making listeners or readers behave in prescribed or suggested ways. This aim can be pursued through various means: we are classifying in a single category the entire gamut of texts from instruction manuals, through laws, rules and regulations to propaganda leaflets and advertisements. The very many subgenres in this category have a common purpose, that of getting an audience to take a certain course of action, and perhaps explaining how to take it.

ORAL TEXTS AND WRITTEN TEXTS

Each of these five genre categories includes both oral and written texts. In truth, it is almost impossible not to distinguish an oral text as belonging to a discrete oral genre, and a written text as belonging to a discrete written genre, even where the texts share the same subject matter: the difference in medium generally entails a difference in attitude to treatment of the subject matter. Thus, a story told in a pub is in a different genre from a story printed in a magazine. A prayer on the Beatitudes, a talk on Gramsci, a tutorial explanation of quarksÐeach is in a different genre from any kind of written reflection on the topic. A complicating factor is that many oral genres also involve written texts: songs, plays, sermons, lectures, a salesman's patterÐall may be performed on the basis of a written text that is either read out, or spoken from memory, or used as the basis for improvisation. To get an idea of the significance of these factors for translation, it is helpful first to look at some of the specific characteristics of oral texts as distinct from written ones.

An oral text is in essence a fleeting and unrepeatable event. This has important implications. First, vocal utterance is usually accompanied by visual cues, such as gestures or facial expressions, that are secondary to it but do form part of the overall text and can play a role in creating its meaning. Prosodic features that operate on the sentential and discourse levels (see e.g. pp. 56±7, 68, 78±9) are

110 TEXTUAL GENRE AND TRANSLATION ISSUES

often reinforced by such visual cues. Second, on every level of textual variable, effective oral texts obey the `rules' of a spoken language first and foremost. In particular, an effective oral text avoids information overload, elaborate crossreferencing, excessive speed, and so on, because these can make the text hard to follow. In all these respects, what is true for oral STs is true for oral TTs as well.

A third implication of orality is the appearance of spontaneity that generally characterizes oral texts. This goes not only for impromptu conversation or narrative, but also for prepared texts, such as memorized lines in a play. Even in a speech or a lecture where the speaker sticks closely to a script, the delivery may imitate that of an unscripted text. Similarly, dramatized reading, recited verse and song lyrics, if well performed, can all give the audience a chance to enter into the illusion of spontaneous vocal utterance. An oral text is, in fact, always quite different in nature and impact from even the most closely corresponding written version.

An awareness of these properties of oral texts is a necessary startingpoint for translating an oral ST into an oral TT. Spoken communication has characteristics that are very much language-specific. Oral translation is not simply a matter of verbal transposition: the genre-related techniques of the target culture must be respected as well, including gestures, facial expressions, and so on. Translating a joke, for instance, will generally involve quite different genres from conference interpreting. Both, however, make it clear that an oral text in any genre is not only an utterance, but also a dramatic performance.

Another genre helps to highlight a second set of difficulties peculiar to oral translation. This is the genre of the song lyric. Assuming that the TT is to be sung to the same tune as the ST, there will be major translation problems on the phonic/graphic and prosodic levels as well as the grammatical level. We have seen that the phonic and prosodic properties of different languages are very different. This poses real problems in translating opera into English, as Michael Irwin points out:

A language prolific in short vowel-sounds, awkward consonantal clusters and sudden shifts of tempo does not lend itself easily to musical drama. No singer is likely to relish tackling a word such as `strengths' or `relapsed'. `To be or not to be' could be splendidly singable; `that is the question' would be taxing. Presumably Rodolfo was given the absurd phrase, `your tiny hand is frozen', because the natural adjective, `little', is a terrible throat-closer.

(Irwin 1996:96±7)

Clearly, anyone translating a lyric or libretto needs to understand the prosodic features not only of the SL, but also of the TL. On the phonic level, the songtranslator must pay attention to how vowels correspond with notes in the score: on certain musical notes, certain vowels are impossible to sing without distortion. Consonant clusters must also be attended to, not just so that the