Translation under Negotiation. The Textual Interplay of Translators and Editors in Contemporary Finnish Shakespeare Translation

Abstract

The present thesis concentrates on the significance of the textual interplay of translators and editors in the context of an editing process relating to a contemporary project of translating Shakespeare’s dramatic works into Finnish. The project (2004–2013) was commissioned by WSOY, a major publishing house in Finland. The study set out to explore how the interplay during the editing process affects the translations and, more importantly, how the status of the play and the translator govern this interplay. The interplay was approached in terms of negotiation, which emphasises the significance of power, authority and compromise.

The primary material consists of the manuscripts of four contemporary Finnish translations of Shakespeare’s tragedies and the final versions of these plays published between 2004 and 2009. The manuscripts also contain the handwritten comments made by two in-house copyeditors and one external consultant. Each of these tragedies was translated by a different translator, and these four translators were divided into established and non-established according to their experience as Finnish Shakespeare translators. Similarly, the four plays were divided into canonised and non-canonised according to their position in the Finnish literary/theatrical system. All manuscripts represent the first full drafts which served as the basis for the published versions.

The interplay of the translators and editors was analysed by tracing the remnants of their textual interaction with the aid of a comparative textual analysis. The analysis consisted of three distinct stages, during which the negotiation strategies of the translators and editors were determined and described, and the interplay of these strategies and the significance thereof was assessed. The analysis was conducted within a varied theoretical framework, the overarching point of view being André Lefevere’s systems-oriented idea of translation as rewriting and a process controlled by various control factors and governed by various constraints. This thesis defined the agents taking part in the editing process in terms of professionals and patronage, and the interplay between the agents as setting and negotiating various constraints. The negotiation strategies of the editors were defined in terms of the concept of normative expectations deriving from Descriptive Translation Studies, and those of the translators in terms of habitus deriving from Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology.

The findings suggest that the interplay between the agents is mostly affected by the status of the translator. The established translators have more power in the negotiations than the non- established translators, and their own voice is stronger in relation to the voices of the editors.