Articulating black voices: linguistic analysis as a tool for translation in zora neale hurston’s “story in harlem slang”
Abstract: The notion that the content of a work of literature cannot be fully dissociated from its form is nowhere as true as in texts in which language is not only a medium but also an object of representation itself, as tends to be the case in minority literatures. Translating texts which subve...
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| Formato: | Artículo |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Departamento de Lenguas
2024
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| Acceso en línea: | https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/18482 |
| Aporte de: |
| Sumario: | Abstract:
The notion that the content of a work of literature cannot be fully dissociated from its form is
nowhere as true as in texts in which language is not only a medium but also an object of
representation itself, as tends to be the case in minority literatures. Translating texts which subvert
standard language is no easy task, as it demands faithfulness to a message that seems to be
intrinsically bound to the words on the page, with linguistic choices providing not only
narratological and characterization cues but also powerful assertions regarding the center of the
narrative. Translation decisions will be based on the artistic and sociopolitical effects of such
choices, which lie beyond the scope of linguistics. However, if we are to understand those effects, we must first look into the linguistic layer of the text. In this sense, sociolinguistics and descriptive
linguistics provide valuable tools for the type of reading that is necessary for translation, both by
allowing us to identify the dialect in question and by providing a reliable framework to establish
the reasons behind characters and narrators' use of language, all of which will need to be considered
when writing in the target language. In this paper, I explore these concepts by looking at African
American Vernacular English and illustrate the proposed instrumental reading by analyzing how
Zora Neale Hurston constructs black voices and positions a black narrative center in Story in
Harlem Slang. |
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