What's in a Name? Translating Proper Nouns from Chinese : Dorothy Tse's Jingtaumaau jyu jamngoksoeng neoihaai and its Italian Translation as a Case Study
Paoliello, Antonio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Data:	2023
Resum:	Contrary to what many might think, the translation of proper names - be they toponyms or anthroponyms - is not always straightforward and represents all but a minor issue, since these nouns often carry an explicit or implicit meaning. It is especially so in the case of the Chinese language: all native proper nouns - and many foreign ones as well - are written using sinograms which still retain their original meaning. Therefore, the translator of Chinese and Sinophone literature is expected to go through a rather scrupulous decision-making process that should start with the consideration of what the reader of the source text might infer from each proper name and should end with the best rendition in the target language. Through the analysis of a real-life case study, namely the novel Jingtaumaau jyu jamngoksoeng neoihaai (鷹頭貓與音樂箱女孩, 2020) by acclaimed Sinophone Hong Kong writer Dorothy Tse (謝曉虹, b. 1977) and its Italian translation (forthcoming), this presentation will examine the strategies used by the translator to render Sinophone proper names. In fact, apart from the usual hurdles that the translator from Chinese hasto overcome, translating Tse's debut novel into Italian presented additional challenges in reference to proper nouns: firstly, place and personal names in the novel refer to a fictional, made-up world which, however, carries an astonishing resemblance to Hong Kong, thus making them neither completely invented nor entirely real; secondly, since the author is a Cantonese speaker, the translator had to avoid the hindrance of Mandarin when choosing the best rendition for toponyms and anthroponyms. By presenting the 'behind-the-scenes' of the Italian version of Dorothy Tse's novel, I hope to not only point at the problems that the translation of proper names from Chinese to Italian poses, but also to suggest some possible solutions that could be applied to other Romance target languages such as Spanish and Catalan, for instance.
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Comunicació de congrés
Publicat a:	Congreso Internacional de la Asociación de Estudios de Àsia Oriental. Salamanca, 3r : 2023

17 p, 1.8 MB

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Documents de recerca > Documents dels grups de recerca de la UAB > Centres i grups de recerca (producció científica) > Arts i humanitats > Grup de recerca en Traducció del xinès al català/castellà (TXICC)
Contribucions a jornades i congressos > Presentacions