122 Systems theories
CASE STUDY
blurb
on the back cover of the Spanish TT, for example, quotes comments
from reviews in the UK and Italy and emphasizes the book's relevance
to 'all children of all ages'. The Italian TT also incorporates
illustrations by an Italian illustrator, Serna Riglietti, cited
along with the translator on the title page, where the book is
described as a romanzo
'novel'.
The use of this word indicates the way in which the book is marketed
as adult literature in Italy. There is a strong suggestion,
therefore, that the Spanish and Italian publishers are prepared
to make modifications, even perhaps including a modification of
the genre, in order to ensure its full acceptability, including
to more sophisticated adult
readers. 2 The TTs are full translations of the ST with no major additions, omissions or footnotes. The choice of ST-TT pairs to examine is ad hoc in Toury's model. In the case of Harry Potter, one of the most striking features of the book (and indeed of much children's literature) concerns the names of characters and elements related to the school of magic and sorcery of which Harry Potter is a pupil. The school itself has the sonorous and Anglo-Saxon sounding name of Hogivarts. Along the old British grammar school model, it is divided into houses with suggestive names such as Slytherin, Qryffindor and Ravenclaw. The names of the characters are similarly sonorous and suggestive: Hagrid, Hedwig, Snape, Draco Malfoy, Argus Filch and the headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
The two TTs deal with these names in very different ways. The Spanish TT, almost without exception, retains these names in the translation, although the first time Draco Malfoy appears, the translator adds an explanation of his name in brackets: 'Draco (dragon) Malfoy'. On the other hand, the Italian TT, although transferring some of the names such as Hogwarts, Hagrid and Hedu>ig directly into the TT, makes an attempt at translating the sense of others: Sfytherin is Serpeverde, Ravenclaw is Pec-oranera, Snape is Piton, Argus Filch is Argus Qazzd and so on. Where the sound of the name is more important and where the original would be difficult for the TT readers to pronounce (as happens with Qryffindor) the Italian translator adapts (in this case to Qrifondoro). She goes further with the headmaster's name: he becomes Albus Silente, and one of his titles, Supreme Mugwamp, is rendered by the colloquial and humorous supremo Pezzo Qrosso. Even though this is not a neologism, it is markedly different from the neutral and formal Spanish jefe supremo.
Names of crucial features of life in the school - such as the ball-game Quidditch and the term Muggles for non-magicians - are retained in Spanish, although italicized to emphasize their foreignness. In Italian, Quid-ditch is retained, but Muggles is replaced by the neologism Babbani. Some of the most playful names are those of the authors in the list of textbooks which the children receive before the start of term. Typical is 'Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling'. The Spanish does not change the author's name, while the Italian attempts to suggest the play on words
with Adalbert Incant. Even more imaginatively, the Italian TT changes the author's name in 'The Dark Forces by Quentin Trimble' to Dante Trem-ante, using the rhyme of the Italian, the sense of tremante ('trembling') and, of course, the allusion to Dante and his inferno. 3 From these findings certain generalizations can be proposed concerning the translation norms that have been in operation: the Spanish adopts an ST-oriented translation strategy, retaining the lexical items of the English original, even when this means that the TT reader will encounter pronunciation problems and/or not understand the allusion; the Italian adopts a TT-oriented translation strategy, modifying many of the names to create new humorous sound patterns, plays on words and illusions. One amusing play on words is the name of the Italian translator, given on the title page as Marina Astrologo.
This descriptive comparison of two translations suggests that different norms are at work in the two target cultures (or at least in the translations). It also provides research questions that can be addressed in future studies: Do translations of modern children's literature into Spanish generally tend to reinforce ST lexical patterns? Does translation strategy depend on the translator, the publisher, the SL? Do translations of this literature into Italian usually demonstrate a TL orientation? If so, does this suggest that Italian culture gives central position to its own culture, forcing imports to adapt to it? How has this varied over time? Do other genres show the same trend?
Discussion of case study
The advantages of Toury's methodology are that an attempt is made to place translation within its target-culture context, it is relatively simple to carry out, and it is replicable. Other studies can then follow up the findings and a better picture can gradually be formed about the translation of the genre of modern children's literature, the way this has varied over the years, the translation strategies into Italian and Spanish, their relation to what might have been assumed to be the more dominant English culture, and so on. A framework has thus been set up enabling researchers from almost any background to contribute in a meaningful way to our knowledge of translation. Nevertheless, some objections could be raised. The choice of ST-TT coupled pairs is still far from systematic. While the study of the translation of proper names produces interesting findings and names might be expected to be the most culturally bound items, this does not necessarily mean that the overall translation strategy is the same. It may well be preferable, as suggested by Holmes, to develop a check-list of features to examine, even if that list is not as comprehensive as some of the taxonomies we reviewed in chapters 4 and 5. The placing within the target-culture context is also inevitably limited. Focus could be shifted to look more deeply at the interaction between