Friday in Finnish: A character’s and (re)translators’ voices in six Finnish retranslations of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe

Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov
University of Helsinki
Abstract

This article is based on a case study of intra- and extratextual voices in six different Finnish retranslations of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Voice is understood here as the set of textual cues characterizing a subjective or collective identity in a text. The author focuses on what is special about voice in retranslation and how intratextual (a character’s voice) and extratextual voices (translators’ and publishers’ voices) might be related in retranslation. The analysis indicates that a character’s voice as a whole can reflect the retranslator’s voice and the purpose of his/her translation. In addition, translators’ voices can recirculate in retranslation, but they do not necessarily do so if the purpose of the translation, the translator’s choice of source texts, or translation ethics prevents this.

Keywords:
Table of contents

The many Pandora myths […] lend emphasis not to the impossibility of translation, but the impossibility of putting a stop to endless retranslation, in short, show us the serial nature of translation: there are always more translations, retranslations.

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