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Article published In:
Target
Vol. 16:2 (2004) ► pp.227–252

Repetition and signification

A study of textual accountability and perlocutionary effect in literary translation

| City University of Hong Kong

The paper begins with an overview of the relevance of functional/text linguistics, skopos theory, and the cultural-studies approach to the study of (literary) translation. It then examines the textual significance of leitmotifs as ‘vertical translation units’, since both are found to be related to repetitions of a rank-free text element in formulating a network of signification. In leitmotif-conscious translating, it argues, the accountability between the source and target texts can be observed at this level of textual network, while the translation, as a literary text, may induce different perlocutionary effects when functioning in a different cultural milieu.

Keywords: vertical translation unit, leitmotif, functional linguistics, text linguistics, literariness, partisan literature, speech act theory, intention, artistic effect, discourse awareness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.What kind of linguistics?
  • 3.Why (not) literary texts and literary translation?
  • 4.Leitmotif as VTU in literary translation: The mapping of a textual network
  • 5.Operation of leitmotif as VTU: Some case examples
    • 5.1From Chinese translations of John Galsworthy’s The apple tree
    • 5.2From Chinese translations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The great Gatsby
  • 6.Discussion: Textual network, effect, and apurposiveness of literary translating
    • 6.1Accountability for the network of signification: Leitmotif as VTU
    • 6.2The apurposiveness of artistic creation: From illocutionary to perlocutionary
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 October 2005
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.16.2.03zhu
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