Original scientific paper

Literary anthroponyms and translation challenges

Vanda Mikšić ; University of Zadar
Barbara Vodanović ; University of Zadar

Abstract

In the frame of studying and interpreting literary works, the characters' names often play an important place, as specific linguistic signs that flow over into a symbolic-poetic space. The name as a linguistic sign enters the communication process, and the information transmitted by means of semic features from the conceptual to the lexical level are a part of the potential word (fr. parole potentielle) that precedes each use. Moreover, referring to Gutschmid (1987: 492), Benedicta Windt (2005: 46–47) considers that the literary onomastician cannot be limited to describing and explaining each particular name, but should study the entire structure of the so-called "onomastic landscape" within a work. When it comes to the proper nouns, not only linguists and philosophers of language have divergent points of view, but it also represents a mine of challenges for the translation theorists (cf. Ballard 2001, Salmon 2006) who, by examining the possibilities of transferring it to the target language-culture, contribute to a better understanding both of the formal features of the proper noun as a linguistic sign and of its relationship with the referent regarding the context, in other words of its status within the source and the target culture (society). In our contribution we propose to examine translation approaches to anthroponyms which are actualized within a certain literary context, as well as the role that its initial, potential status plays in its re-actualization in the target language-culture. For this purpose, we will take some examples from Raymond Queneau’s work Les fleurs bleues.

Keywords

anthroponym; (re)actualization; translation; Queneau; Les Fleurs bleues

Hrčak ID:

233563

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/233563

Publication date:

5.2.2020.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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