Ambiguity translated for children
Andersen’s “Den standhaftige Tinsoldat” as a case in point
Cecilia Alvstad | University of Oslo
This article addresses ambiguity in translations for children. ‘Ambiguity’, here understood as something that allows for more than one interpretation, is supposed to be critical in translation for children as it clashes with some mediators’ ideas of what children’s literature is or ought to be. Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of “Den standhaftige Tinsoldat” [‘The steadfast tin soldier’] and a sample of twenty-four translations thereof (twelve into Swedish and twelve into Spanish) are used to explore different ways that ambiguity is translated for children. The objective is to determine if and how the tale’s ambiguities are manipulated in the various translations, and thus to initiate a theoretical discussion of ambiguity in translation for children. A difference is established between ‘textually resolvable’ and ‘textually irresolvable’ ambiguities and these two kinds of ambiguity are found to be treated differently in the analyzed sample of translations.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Andersen’s “Den standhaftige Tinsoldat”: A highly ambiguous narrative
- The twenty-four translations
- 1.Translations with both resolvable and irresolvable ambiguity
- 2.Resolvable translations
- 3.Unambiguous translations
- Final reflections
- Notes
-
References -
Hans Christian Andersen’s “Den standhaftige Tinsoldat” by name of translator, editor or publisher
Published online: 03 November 2008
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20.2.03alv
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20.2.03alv
References
Alvstad, Cecilia
Bettelheim, Bruno
Black, Max
Frongia, Terri
Hjørnager Pedersen, Viggo
Holbek, Bengt
Iser, Wolfgang
Joosen, Vanessa
Knowles, Murray and Kirsten Malmkjær
Krogh Hansen, Per and Marianne Wolff Lundholdt
Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin
Madsen, Annette
Popova, Yanna
Semino, Elena and Jonathan Culpeper
Weinreich, Torben
Zipes, Jack
Hans Christian Andersen’s “Den standhaftige Tinsoldat” by name of translator, editor or publisher
Adell, Alberto
Anderberg, Bengt
Asklund, Erik
Bernárdez, Enrique
Bordoy Luque, Salvador Fernández Romero
Bønning, Birgitte
Cardeñoso, Concha
Gunnarsson, Jakob
Hallqvist, Britt G.
Harris, Martin
Hersholt, Jean
[1949] http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/om_e.html. Access date 2007-08-03.
Holmberg, Åke
Kärnan
Lehmann, Edv
Martínez Vega, María Victoria Raebel, Guillermo
Nadal, Alfonso
Payarols, Francisco
1959 Cuentos completos. Barcelona. Illustrations by Vilhelm Pedersen and Lorenz Frölich. (Also available in electronic format at: http://www.hadaluna.com/ andersen/a-soldadito.htm. Access date 2005-12-06.)
Stjernquist, Astrid
Todolibro. No year of publication but available in Spanish bookshops
Cited by
Cited by 4 other publications
Alvstad, Cecilia
Dybiec-Gajer, Joanna
Giugliano, Marcello & Elia Hernández Socas
Linder, Daniel
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.