The ethics of semantic shifts in literary translation: A comparative analysis case study of Beauchemin's 'Le Matou' and its English and Spanish versions, 'The Alley Cat' and 'Gatuperios' (Yves Beauchemin).

摘要

Examining the relevant socio-politico-economic background and using as a framework Susem-Sarajeva's multiple-unit comparative analysis model and incorporating Leuven-Zwart's translation-shift terminology, this case study seeks to demonstrate how the English rendering of Yves Beauchemin's Le Matou exhibits significant oppositional shifts. These shifts see the target text neutralizing potentially offensive source-text elements (with respect to Jewish characters) and transforming narrational neutrality into subjectively coloured renderings (with regard to French Canadians and indépendantistes). Such shifts, which I view as manifestations of “sanitization” and “reverse xenophobia”, respectively, are important to study because they result in a wholly different presentation of two related key elements in the source text. These elements are mistrust—manifested in anti-Semitism—of non-fellow francophone Quebecers seen as helping to thwart the majority's collective aspirations, and a people's will to be autonomous politically and economically. Such textual changes raise serious questions about central translation issues of equivalence, the translator's duty to convey the essence of the author's message to the receiving-culture readership, and the ethics of semantic shifts in a literary translation. I argue that The Alley Cat, compared with Gatuperios, the Spanish translation, cannot be considered—in its entirety—an authentic representation of the original and therefore should be viewed as an adapted version of the source text and labeled accordingly.