BBrriigghhaamm YYoouunngg UUnniivveerrssiittyy BBYYUU SScchhoollaarrssAArrcchhiivvee Theses and Dissertations 2005-03-10 TThhee TTrraannssllaattoorr''ss ((IInn))vviissiibbiilliittyy iinn AAnnnn PPaattcchheetttt''ss BBeell CCaannttoo Amy Dawn Glauser Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons BBYYUU SScchhoollaarrssAArrcchhiivvee CCiittaattiioonn Glauser, Amy Dawn, "The Translator's (In)visibility in Ann Patchett's Bel Canto" (2005). Theses and Dissertations. 246. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/246 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. THE TRANSLATOR’S (IN)VISIBILITY IN ANN PATCHETT’S BEL CANTO by Amy Glauser Bankhead A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of English Brigham Young University April 2005 Copyright © 2005 Amy Glauser Bankhead All Rights Reserved BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY GRADUATE COMMITTEE APPROVAL of a thesis submitted by Amy Glauser Bankhead This thesis has been read by each member of the following graduate committee and by majority vote has been found to be satisfactory. _____________________ ____________________________________ Date Trenton L.Hickman, Chair _____________________ ____________________________________ Date Aaron C. Eastley, Reader _____________________ ____________________________________ Date Phillip A. Snyder, Reader _____________________ ____________________________________ Date Trenton L. Hickman, Graduate Advisor _____________________ ____________________________________ Date Jesse S. Crisler, Associate Chair for Graduate Studies BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY As chair of the candidate’s graduate committee, I have read the thesis of Amy Glauser Bankhead in its final form and have found that (1) its format, citations, and bibliographical style are consistent and acceptable and fulfill university and department style requirements, (2) its illustrative materials including figures, tables and charts are in place; and (3) the final manuscript is satisfactory to the graduate committee and is ready for submission to the university library. ________________________ ____________________________________ Date Trenton L. Hickman Chair, Graduate Committee Accepted for the Department _________________________________ Nicholas Mason Graduate Coordinator Accepted for the College _________________________________ Van C. Gessel Dean, College of Humanities ABSTRACT THE TRANSLATOR’S (IN)VISIBILITY IN ANN PATCHETT’S BEL CANTO Amy Glauser Bankhead Department of English Master of Arts Transferring words and ideas from one language to another has always been a puzzling and difficult matter for those involved in it. For centuries, English-speakers and translators have dealt with these difficulties by enforcing, through professional codes of ethics and through publishing contracts, what Lawrence Venuti calls “the translator’s invisibility,” as chronicled in his book by the same name. By evaluating translation solely on the transparency and fluency of the target language translation (that is, by making a translation not seem like a translation), English translators and audiences assured that translators remained faithful to original authors’ intents, or so they thought. Contemporary linguistic theory, namely poststructuralism, has changed the way we think about language and has suggested that meaning is created just as much in the mind of the audience as in the hands of the author. Translation adds a third locus—that of the translator—in the creation of meaning, and many contemporary translation scholars promote a recognition of the inevitable intervention of translators. Ann Patchett’s 2001 award-winning novel Bel Canto explores the way translation functions in contemporary global society. Through the microcosm of the novel, the main character, a professional translator named Gen, suggests that the acceleration of globalization that has contributed to the recent increase of translation and translation studies has also made the idea of the translator’s invisibility obsolete. Instead, he finds that the linguistic awareness of his audience allows him a visibility for which his professional translation training has left him poorly equipped. To deal with his visibility, Gen must find new ways of creating responsibility in his audience and better ways to achieve ethical translation. Unlike Venuti’s framework of translators who must one- sidedly demand attention and force breaks in tradition, Bel Canto suggests a cooperative re-evaluation of tradition that cautiously assesses translation strategies in terms of both the translator and the audience. In the spirit of global communication, Bel Canto presents translation as a multi-dimensional communicative situation that, with deliberate changes in the promotion of ethics, can enable international understanding and serve as an example of productive evaluation of tradition. vii Table of Contents Section 1. Problems of Translation.....................................................................................1 Translation within Literature..........................................................................................1 History of Translation Studies........................................................................................2 Current Interest in Translation........................................................................................5 Ethical Concerns in Translation....................................................................................23 Section 2. The Position of Professional Translators.........................................................26 Portrait of Professional Translators..............................................................................26 Professional Translators’ Concerns..............................................................................28 Professional Translator Training in Bel Canto.............................................................33 The Translator’s Visibility............................................................................................38 Upholding Translation Codes.......................................................................................43 Section 3. Changing Expectations for Translation...........................................................48 Transparent and Domestic Translation in Bel Canto....................................................48 Gen’s Discomfort with Visibility.................................................................................55 Gen Embraces Visibility...............................................................................................59 Section 4. Ethical Visibility..............................................................................................61 The Underappreciated Translator.................................................................................61 Invitations to Visibility.................................................................................................72 Traditional Ethical Codes vs. New Visibility...............................................................78 Section 5. Implications.....................................................................................................84 Organic Changes for Translators..................................................................................85 Translation as a Tool for Contemporary Writers..........................................................90 Translation as an Example of Effective Self-Evaluation..............................................92 Works Cited......................................................................................................................97 1 Section 1. Problems of Translation Translation within Literature In the introduction to his book Translation and Globalization, Michael Cronin explains the importance of his scholarship by explaining that translation and translation studies are “so important to contemporary self-understanding” (1) because “any active sense of global citizenship must involve translation as a core element” (6). He argues that because translation cannot be reduced to binaries or one-to-one equivalencies, it is the perfect lens with which to study globalization. While he endorses translation studies, however, he expresses frustration that so much of translation scholarship is based on literary translation, when non-literary translation is by far the more common kind of translation. He laments that “As a teacher of translation and [. . .] translation studies, I have been struck time and again by the marked predominance of literary topics in dissertation and thesis work” (2). He then advocates that more attention be paid to non- literary translation, and that the ivory tower of academic translation consider the thousands of professional translators who don’t work with literature. In that spirit of expanding translation studies’ focus on translated literature to include other aspects of translation, but perhaps in a way that Cronin didn’t anticipate, my thesis focuses on non- literary translation within literature, specifically in Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Combining a study of the ethical codes and professional statutes of non-literary translators with an inquiry into the theories and practices of literature in translation, I explore how one writer treats the topic of translation within her novel and how that might expand current thought about translation.