Intertextuality generates meaning:

the translation of allusions and quotations in

David Lodges Nice Work

Inge Boesewinkel, 3124126

Master Translation (English)
MA Thesis
Supervisor: Cees Koster
January 2010

Abbreviations
WwS Working with Structuralism
NW Nice Work
VW - Vakwerk
CB Culture Bumps

Table of contents

Introduction....................................................................................4
1. Intertextuality in Nice Work...........................................................7
1.1 Nice Work: a short summary.....................................................7
1.2 Theoretic aspects of intertextuality.............................................8
1.3 Intertextuality in Nice Work.....................................................11
1.3.1 Nice Work and the nineteenth century industrial novel...........12
1.3.2. Nice Works (industrial) mottoes........................................15
1.3.3. Allusions to Elizabeth Gaskells North & South......................18
1.3.4. Allusions to Howards End and Culture and Anarchy...............22
1.3.5. Allusions to Charles Dickenss Hard Times...........................26
1.3.6. Allusions to Charles Kingsleys Alton Locke..........................27
1.3.7 Allusions to Tennysons Locksley Hall-poems.........................28
1.3.8 Allusions to literary theory.................................................30
1.3.9 Local allusions from other sources.......................................36
2. Translating allusions....................................................................41
2.1 Theory.................................................................................41
2.1.1 Ritva Leppihalme..............................................................41
2.1.2. Basil Hatim and Ian Mason................................................45
2.1.3 Lawrence Venuti...............................................................47
2.1.4 Remarks on the translation of allusions by others..................50
2.1.5 Andrew Chesterman..........................................................51
2.2 Practice................................................................................52
2.2.1 Titular allusion to Culture and Anarchy.................................53
2.2.2 Unmarked allusion to Howards End.....................................55
2.2.3 Marked allusions...............................................................56
2.2.4 A (geographic) proper name allusion...................................58
2.2.5 Literary quotations............................................................61
2.2.6 Dead allusions..................................................................65
2.2.7 Modified Allusions.............................................................67
2.2.8 Active and passive allusions...............................................68
2.3 Concluding remarks................................................................72
3. Annotated translations................................................................75
3.1 Robyns lecture......................................................................75
3.2 Translation............................................................................75
3.3 Robyn visits the foundry.........................................................87
3.4 Translation............................................................................87
3.5 Final Words.........................................................................102
Used Works.................................................................................103
Appendices..................................................................................107

Introduction
David Lodges novel Nice Work (1988) humorously follows the
conventions of a campus satire and a nineteenth century industrial novel.
Lodge (1935) is well familiar with both the ins and outs of the academic
world as well as the nineteenth century novel. He taught English at the
University of Birmingham for seventeen years he was particularly noted
for his lectures on Victorian fiction - and now retains the title of Honorary
Professor of Modern English. He wrote his first novel The Picturegoers in
1960 and after having published three more novels his great success
came with the campus novel Changing Places (1975) for which he was
awarded the Hawthornden Prize. Later both Small World (1984) and Nice
Work (1988) were shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize and both
novels have been adapted for television. Apart from campus novels Lodge
has written several Roman Catholic novels and the more autobiographical
work Out of the Shelter. In total he boasts fifteen works of fiction, Deaf
Sentence (2008) is his most recent. Moreover, he has written eleven
works of non-fiction on literary theory and literature such as Language of
Fiction (1966), The Practice of Writing (1997) and his latest one The Year
of Henry James: The Story of a Novel (2006). Last but not least, Lodge
has written two plays and four adaptations for television among which
his own Nice Work.
According to Lodge Nice Work is not reality but an imitation of it,
not a slice of life but a statement about it (WwS, 154) and he makes this
statement by implementing a myriad of intertextual elements in his story.
He builds up his characters and storyline with the help of many allusions
and other forms of intertextuality. In Nice Work Robyn Penrose explains at
one point that novels are not simple and straightforward because
difficulty generates meaning (NW, 333). It is certainly true that the
relatively simple story becomes more meaningful when it is thoroughly
analysed, and because Lodges story achieves, above all, more meaning

through its intertextual layers Robyns phrase might be adapted into

intertextuality generates meaning.
Despite his popularity in England, only two of Lodges novels (How
Far Can You Go? and Nice Work) have been translated into Dutch. It is
difficult to say why this is, but it is certainly true that his elaborate use of
intertextuality poses a specific translation problem and a real challenge to
a translator of such novels. This thesis deals with the following umbrella
question: what are the specific translation problems a translator
encounters in the translation of Nice Work? This question can only be
answered with the help of several sub questions: How can the intertextual
elements in Nice Work be identified and which traces of intertextuality can
be found in Nice Work? What is the function of these fragments on micro
and macro level and is it possible to maintain this function in the Dutch
translation? Which translation methods are generally used to translate
intertextuality? Finally, what influence does a difference in status of the
architext in source culture and target culture have on the function of most
of the allusions in Nice Work?
Before the intertextuality-related translation problems in Nice Work
can be addressed, it is necessary to outline the scope of the various
allusions in the novel. The first chapter of this thesis is therefore about the
different types of intertextual allusions and in what terms they can be
described, which intertextual elements can be found in Nice Work, how
they can be identified and what the function of these allusions is.
Chapter two deals with possible translation strategies that can be
used in the translation of all the intertextual references in the novel. First,
existing strategies such as the method suggested by Ritva Leppihalme as
well as an overview of what Basil Hatim, Ian Mason and Lawrence Venuti
have written on the subject are examined. Attention will also be given to
Andrew Chestermans broadly applicable system of translation
transformations. Second, various translation options and its advantages
and disadvantages according to the described theories of several types of
allusions will be discussed.
5

Chapter three consists of an annotated translation of two extracts of

Nice Work in which intertextuality plays an important part.

1. Intertextuality in Nice Work

This chapter deals with many of the intertextual references Lodge has
used to build up his story line and characters in Nice Work, especially the
ones related to industrial novels and literary theory. Some of the local
allusions that are not related to these two topics will be left out of the list,
but they will be discussed in chapter two in combination with a possible
translation strategy.

1.1 Nice Work: a short summary

The two protagonists in Nice Work are Robyn Penrose and Vic Wilcox.
Robyn is a feminist who works at the University of Rummidge as a
temporary teacher specialised in courses on the Industrial Novel and
Womens Writing and Vic is a Managing Director at J. Pringle & Sons
Casting and General Engineering. The two would probably never have met
if it had not been for the Industry Year Shadow Scheme. Within this
framework someone from the university has to follow someone in the
industry around for one day a week during a term. The task of being Vics
shadow falls to Robyn. Grudgingly she goes to Pringles every Wednesday.
In spite of her being an expert in the field of the industrial novel, she
knows virtually nothing of industry and feels that the university is far
superior to an engineering firm like Pringle. Vic is also not looking forward
to having to drag someone like her around. When they meet, it is dislike
at first sight. First, all their prejudices are confirmed she is a superior
theorist and he is a brute pragmatist - but gradually they start to
appreciate each other. Vic even falls in love with her and when they are on
a business trip in Frankfurt they spend the night together. Vic expresses
his love for Robyn and she who does not believe in love shuns him
from that moment on. Vic sets up a counter Shadow Scheme which
enables him to act as Robyns shadow and gives him the opportunity to
spend time with her and dive into her world. After a while they reconcile.
7

In the end he and Robyn are such good friends that she lends him money
from her inheritance to start up his own firm. When Pringles is sold to
another company, Vic is made expendable because his bosses considered
his changed behaviour e.g. the days he spends at the university, his
initiative to remove posters of pin-ups from the work floor - eccentric.

1.2 Theoretic aspects of intertextuality

Intertextuality can take many forms and occur both on macro and micro
levels in a novel. It is important to distinguish between the original source
- the evoked text (Paul Claes calls this the architext) - and the new text
which contains elements of the older text or the alluding text (the
fenotext). According to Claes the intertextuality theory is based on the
fact that texts relate to each other because there are common grounds.
These grounds may be graphic, phonic, syntactic or semantic and result in
classes of texts (Claes, 83). Claes calls this phenomenon generic
intertextuality because it defines different genres, whereas specific
intertextuality is about elements of the fenotext referring to elements of
one specific architext. The most obvious form of specific intertextuality is
the direct quotation, which is in fact a graphic repetition from sources like
novels, poems or songs often presented together with extra-allusive
additions such as italic print or quotation marks. There are marked and
unmarked quotations, the latter being hardest to recognize because the
source is not mentioned. Another type of specific intertextuality is the
allusion, which might be seen as a non-graphic repetition of elements
(Koster, 142). Leppihalme states that allusion is more or less closely
related to such terms as reference, quotation or citation, borrowing (even
occasionally plagiarism) and the more complex intertextuality, as well as
punning and wordplay (for modified allusions); but precisely in what
relationship such terms stand to one another is seldom made clear (CB,
6). Weizman is of the same opinion: allusion has been used as a
portmanteau label for a large spectrum of phenomena, all having in

common the notion of reference to some extra-textual source (Weizman,

588). In this thesis, the term allusion is also used for virtually all
references to sources outside the text. Allusions may be explicit (overt) or
indirect (covert) and usually serve to enlarge upon or enhance a subject
(Abrams, 9). Authors deliberately choose to use such references to other
works. Usually, certain words or word combinations function as an
intertextual signal and are called the marker. Allusion-markers act like
proper names in that they denote unique individuals (source texts), but
they also tacitly specify the property(ies) belonging to the source texts
connotation relevant to the allusions meaning (Perri, 291). Such
indicators of intertextuality are a call for the reader to start making
associations with other sources and might be graphical (e.g. italics,
quotation marks), the use of another language, old or different spelling,
the use of indirect speech, a different style or the mentioning of an author
or title (Claes, 69). The latter could be an example of an overt allusion. In
some cases the whole allusion consists of merely a book title, these are
called titular allusions (Hebel, 144). Other allusions are more covert and
can only be recognized by erudite readers. Leppihalme sums up some
more parameters useful in recognizing allusions such as: length of a
phrase, non-standard spelling and syntax, deviations in style, rhythm and
rhyme, and phrases like they say (CB, 62-66).
Allusions can be local or structural (Koster, 142), the first term is
used when the allusion does not affect the fenotext as a whole but only
the part where it is used and there is only one link between fenotext and
architext, the second when the relationship between elements of the
fenotext is the same as the relationship between elements in the architext
and the fenotext as a whole is consequently affected. Claes uses more
distinctions. He speaks of lexical allusions such as synonyms or
definitions of a name or expression, textual allusions which point at
architexts as a whole, such as structural allusions which are created when
elements of the fenotext are related in the same way as elements of the
architext, iconic or metaphoric allusions which create a link between
9

architext and fenotext by means of comparison, indexical or metonymic

allusions which set up a link between architext and fenotext based on
causal, local or temporary connections and finally symbolic allusions
allusions that cause a reader to see a conventional relation between two
texts; usually the meaning of such a phrase is recognized, but the source
is not, therefore they may also be called dead allusions, e.g. everything
that is touched by a certain man is changed into gold; King Midas (Claes,
103-108). Allusions may be regular (prototypical allusions) or modified in
some way. The original text may be adapted by means of addition,
omission, substitution or repetition. Moreover, all these allusions can
either be constructive or destructive; they respectively confirm the
function of an architext in the fenotext or reject it (Claes, 58 ). Elda
Weizman states in Allusions and quotations as a translation problem that
the most prominent features of allusions are: (a) they evoke some prior
text; (b) they often do so implicitly; (c) they are integrated in the text so
as to add another layer of meaning to it (Weizman, 587). The first feature
is undoubtedly true, the second seems to be partly the case because there
are degrees of implicitness and explicitness and the last is a good way to
describe the function of an allusion in broad terms. Intertextuality
(allusions or quotations) can either be passive (weak) or active (strong).
It is strong when knowledge and belief systems beyond the text itself are
activated, to enrich the interpretation; it is weak, when internal ties within
the text itself are exploited to establish coherence and continuity
(Weizman 588). Hatim and Mason claim that reiteration of text items is
always motivated and that this form of passive intertextuality has to be
considered by the translator in terms of its overall function within the text
(Hatim & Mason, 124).
Both Leppihalme and Abrams define allusions as brief references.
The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions mainly consists of one-word allusions
like Kafkaesque or Oedipal. This is surprising, considering that - even
though allusions often are rather short, such as titular allusions - many
other allusions and quotations are as long as several lines. Consequently,
10

within the context of this study, allusions can both be short or longer
references.
Although it is important to be able to recognize intertextuality,
dealing with it is not just a matter of recognition, but of interpretation.
Ziva Ben-Porat defines four stages in the indentification and interpretation
of quotes: (a) recognition of the marker, (b) identification of the quoted
text, (c) adaptation of the original interpretation of the text as a result of
the interaction between both texts and (d) forming intertextual patterns
between both texts as a whole (Claes, 70). These four stages do not only
seem to apply to quotations, but to allusions and probably any type of
intertextuality as well. Logical as these stages may sound, they do not
guarantee that all readers will recognize markers, and even if they
recognize something unusual in the text they will not understand the
reference if they are not familiar with the architext. Leppihalme formulates
this problem as follows The words of the allusion function as a clue to the
meaning, but the meaning can usually be understood only if the receiver
can connect the clue with an earlier use of the same or similar words in
another source (CB, 4) and according to Robert Morace, the writer of The
Dialogic Novels of Malcolm Bradbury and David Lodge - in theory,
intertextuality leads to the infinite and uncontrollable play of meanings; in
practice [] it often degenerates into the study of specific, identifiable
sources (Morace, XVII).

1.3 Intertextuality in Nice Work

Perhaps not every allusion in Nice Work is a translation issue problem,
but, in order to give an overview of all types of intertextuality, the
translation problems they might pose and the suggested solutions that is
as complete as possible, it is necessary to discuss many examples. It is
very difficult to give a complete listing of all signs of intertextuality in Nice
Work, this list would be too long, and it is also impossible to guarantee

11

that all allusions will be recognized. Lodge has done his very best to
create an intertextual puzzle and it is all too easy to miss a piece.
On the surface the story is realistic and fairly uncomplicated, but
beneath this surface there is room for many extra interpretations as a
result of a whole web of intertextual references. As Robyn says: difficulty
generates meaning (NW, 333), Lodge, therefore, makes his story more
complicated by adding a whole network of allusions and thus creates more
meaning. In an interview with John Haffenden Lodge said the following
about his target group:
Yes, I obviously do write for an educated audience, and also for a peer group of
academics and novelists, but like all modern novelists from Henry James
onwards - I write layered fiction, so that it will make sense and give satisfaction
even on the surface level, while there are other levels of implication and
reference that are there to be discovered by those who have the interest or
motivation to do so (Haffenden, 160).

In other words; even though his books are written for educated readers,
readers with less education can also enjoy them and it is entirely up to the
reader which layers of meaning are discovered by means of intertextual
references.

1.3.1 Nice Work and the nineteenth century industrial novel

It is obvious that Nice Work is a campus novel and as such it echoes other
campus novels like Kingsley Amiss Lucky Jim and several novels by
Malcolm Bradbury as well as Lodges own Changing Places and Small
World. At the same time, Nice Work can be seen as a modern version of
an industrial novel because it echoes the plot of such novels and contains
many local and structural allusions to nineteenth century industrial novels.
Social novels or social problem novels were a kind of realist fiction that
originated from the eighteenth century, and became increasingly popular
in the nineteenth century as a reaction to the rapid industrialization. Sub-

12

genres of the social novel were the industrial novel - which dealt with
social and economic problems arising out of the Industrial Revolution and
in some cases described the nature of factory work (NW, 72) also called
the Condition of England Novel because [novels like this] addressed
themselves directly to the state of the nation (NW, 72-73) as Robyn
states in her lecture on the Industrial Novel in Nice Work. It was the
Victorian moral philosopher Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) who coined the
phrase Condition of England question in his essay Chartism (1839) and
in Past and Present (1843)1. He used it to refer to the changing moral,
political and economic state of the England during the Industrial
Revolution. In Chartism he wrote a feeling very generally exists that the
condition and disposition of the Working Classes is a rather ominous
matter at present; that something ought to be said, something ought to
be done, in regard to it. All writers of industrial novels discussed in this
thesis agreed with him and genuinely felt for the poor workers - except
perhaps Benjamin Disraeli who mainly seemed to use his novels as a
means of propaganda to further advance his political career (Cazamian,
183) but they all strived to give Carlyles theories a human face.
When Vic drives through the Dark Country in Nice Work - Darkshire
in North and South and the Black Country in real life which was given
this name because of the pall of smoke that hung over it in the heyday of
the Industrial Revolution, he thinks about the history of the area. He
knows a little of the history of this region, having done a prize-winning
project on it at school (NW, 31) after which he starts to sum up quite
1

The condition of England... is justly regarded as one of the most ominous, and one of
the strangest ever seen in this world. England is full of wealth, of multifarious produce,
supply for human want in every kind; yet England is dying of inanition. What an iniquity
of ways and means!
And we here, in modern England, exuberant with supply of all kinds, [are] besieged by
nothing if it be not by invisible enchantments... This successful industry of England, with
its plethoric wealth, has as yet made nobody rich; it is an enchanted wealth and belongs
yet to nobody. We might ask: which of us has it enriched? We can spend thousands
where we once spent hundreds; but can purchase nothing good with them. We have
sumptuous garnitures for our life, but have forgotten to live in the middle of them. It is
an enchanted wealth; no man of us can yet touch it. The class of men who feel that they
are truly better off by means of it, let them give us their name!
Thomas Carlyle, from Past and Present, Book 1, 1843

13

some facts and rather impressive for someone who never reads - and
cites two long quotes he apparently knows by heart. The first is from A
writer called Thomas Carlyle described it in 1824 as A frightful scene a
dense cloud of pestilential smoke hangs over it foreverand at night the
whole region becomes like a volcano spitting fire from a thousand tubes of
brick and the second from Charles Dickens who recorded travelling
through miles of cinder-paths and blazing furnaces and roaring steam
engines, and such a mass of dirt, gloom and misery as I never before
witnessed (NW, 32). It is interesting that these quotes are placed so close
to each other because not only did Dickens dedicate his industrial novel
Hard Times to Thomas Carlyle, but it also shows his influence throughout,
even the style showing Carlylean traces, as brisk, monosyllabic invocation
in the second person (Cazamian, 171). The first allusional quote is a
fragment from a passage2 of a letter Carlyle wrote to his brother
Alexander on 11 August 1824 which proves that Carlyle saw the
importance of industrial work; he was also convinced that the workers
were happy and yet the scene was frightful because the working
conditions were far from ideal. Lodge uses this quote firstly to illustrate
2

I was one day thro the iron and coal works of this neighbourhooda half-frightful
scene! A space perhaps 30 square miles to the north of us, covered over with furnaces,
rolling-mills, steam-engines and sooty men. A dense cloud of pestilential smoke hangs
over it forever, blackening even the grain that grows upon it; and at night the whole
region burns like a volcano spitting fire from a thousand tubes of brick. But oh the
wretched hundred and fifty thousand mortals that grind out their destiny there! In the
coal-mines they were literally naked, many of them, all but trousers; black as ravens;
plashing about among dripping caverns, or scrambling amid heaps of broken mineral;
and thirsting unquenchably for beer. In the iron-mills it was little better: blast-furnaces
were roaring like the voice of many whirlwinds all around; the fiery metal was hissing
thro' its moulds, or sparkling and spitting under hammers of a monstrous size, which fell
like so many little earthquakes. Here they were wheeling charred coals, breaking their
iron-stone, and tumbling all into their fiery pit; there they were turning and boring
cannon with a hideous shrieking noise such as the earth could hardly parallel; and thro'
the whole, half-naked demons pouring with sweat and besmeared with soot were
hurrying to and fro in their red nightcaps and sheet-iron breeches rolling or hammering
or squeezing their glowing metal as if it had been wax or dough. They also had a thirst
for ale. Yet on the whole I am told they are very happy: they make forty shillings or more
per week, and few of them will work on Mondays. It is in a spot like this that one sees
the sources of British power. The skill of man combining these coals and that iron-ore (till
forty years agoiron was smelted with charcoal only) has gathered three or four hundred
thousand human beings round this spot, who send the products of their industry to all
the ends of the Earth.

14

why the area is called the Dark Country and secondly, especially in
combination with the quote from Dickens, it might be seen as one of the
first references to the Condition of England novel. Readers will
immediately recognize the allusion because there are clear markers: the
name of the writer, the year in which it is written, and the italics and
quotation marks. There can also be little doubt about the message,
although the brief description can be placed in a slightly broader context
(see footnote). Yet, most readers will not be able to identify the architexts
without further research.

1.3.2. Nice Works (industrial) mottoes

Unmistakable references to the industrial novel are the two mottoes of the
book. The first motto Upon the midlands now the industrious muse doth
fall, The shires which we the heart of England well may call can be seen
as a kind of double allusion since the quote itself is a passage from The
Thirteenth Song of Michael Draytons topographical poem Poly-Olbion
(1612) which describes England and Wales, but George Eliot also used
these lines as the epigraph for the social novel Felix Holt the Radical
(1866). Interestingly enough, Eliot has altered the original version of the
passage slightly. Whereas Drayton speaks of only one shire
Warwickshire Eliot harkens to a plurality of shires; these shires together
comprise her native country of England. In essence, Eliot remakes this
poem about regional pride into something akin to a national anthem
(Lesjak, 95) and since Rummidge/Birmingham are situated in the
Midlands, the quote is very appropriate. Robyn Penrose alludes to this
passage in the title of her first book The Industrious Muse: Narrativity and
Contradiction in the Industrial Novel.
The second motto
Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are
as ignorant of each others habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were dwellers

15

in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a

different breeding, and fed by different food, and ordered by different manners
You speak of said Egremont hesitatingly.

is an excerpt from Benjamin Disraelis industrial novel Sybil; or, the Two
Nations (1845) which propagates social Toryism. The Two Nations are the
two radically dissimilar nations, as unlike as difference of race could make
them as Friedrich Engels calls the rich and the poor in The Condition of
the Working Class in England in 1844. Several other writers and critics
used the phrase. In Nice Work Robyn and Vic can be seen as two different
nations, as well as university and industry in general. Of course it is not so
much a matter of money here, but it is certainly true that there is virtually
no contact between people working or studying at a university and those
working in trade and industry, just like there is no understanding of each
others position or even the slightest interest in it.
Furthermore, Lodge prefaces each of the six sections of the novel
with an epigram from one of the novels Robyn cites or talks about in her
lecture on the industrial novel: Charlotte Brntes Shirley (part one and
six), North and South (part two and four), and Charles Dickenss Hard
Times (part three and five). Links cannot only be found between Nice
Work and the separate industrial novels, but also between these industrial
novels and their writers. The last book, for example, is dedicated to
Thomas Carlyle - whom Dickens greatly admired - and North and South
was published by Dickens in his magazine Household Words. Moreover, he
was the one who came up with the title. All these mottoes are taken from
Condition of England novels and either give information about the novel
as a whole or the part they belong to. The motto of the first part in
which the protagonists are elaborately introduced and make themselves
ready to go to work on a Monday morning warns the reader not to
expect anything like a romance but instead something real, cool and
solid [] as Monday morning. The second motto is an excerpt from North
and South in which the heroine of the story Margaret Hale sincerely

16

admits to the proud mother of factory master Mr. Thornton that she is not
in the least interested in warehouses or factories. In this part of Nice
Work Robyn visits Vic as part of the shadowing arrangement. Like
Margaret Hale, she is not interested in industry; she has merely agreed to
take part in this arrangement because she hopes that the university will
keep her on. The third part has the following motto from Hard Times:
People mutht be amuthed. They cant be alwayth a learning, nor yet they
cant be alwayth working. They ant made for it. This part is very short
and only describes some of Vics and Robyns spare time activities. The
motto to part four is another conversation from North and South, this time
between Margaret Hale and Mr. Thornton. They talk about strikes and he
is trying to make her see his point. In this part of Nice Work, Vic and
Robyn slowly start to get some insight in how the other sees and does
things; they even build up some respect for each other. Vics role in Nice
Work is comparable to the role of Mrs. Thornton and Mr. Thornton in North
and South in Claess terminology this might be called a metaphoric
allusion - and Margaret and Robyn both play the part of the girl from the
South who ends up in the industrial North. The motto of the fifth part
Some persons hold, he pursued, still hesitating, that there is a wisdom of the
Head, and that there is a wisdom of the Heart. I have not supposed it so; but, as
I have said, I mistrust myself now. I have supposed the head to be all-sufficient.
It may not be all-sufficient; how can I venture this morning to say it is!

is again from Hard Times. Mr. Gradgrind - Facts alone are wanted in life
(Dickens, 7) speaks to his daughter Louisa after she has discovered that
emotions play a role in life too. Robert Moore in Shirley, Mr. Thornton in
North and South and Vic in Nice Work all experience a similar change.
Pragmatic and sensible Vic rediscovers books and empathy and passion
for live as well as for a woman: Robyn. The final motto of Nice Work is
again from Shirley The story is told. I think I now see the judicious
reader putting on his spectacles to look for the moral. It would be an

17

insult to his sagacity to offer directions. I only say, God speed him in the
quest! This nearly seems to be Lodges message to the reader that it is
time to start unravelling the whole network of allusions. It is evident that
all these mottoes, as well as other references to industrial novels, indicate
that Lodges story is written in the tradition of the industrial novel. The
allusions do not merely refer to one industrial text, but to a whole genre;
this is no longer a case of specific, but of generic intertextuality.

1.3.3. Allusions to Elizabeth Gaskells North & South

A very clear example of an allusion to one specific industrial novel in Nice
Work is the plot line which bears many resemblances to the plot of
Elizabeth Gaskells North and South. In both novels the male protagonist
is a proponent of capitalism, risen from poverty and now a pragmatic
manager working at an industrial company, shows little interest in the
factory workers at first, meets with an attractive, intelligent and superiorfeeling female with views quite opposed to his and with whom he
eventually falls in love, gradually begins to understand her views, has
work-related problems and finally loses his job and social position but is
able to regain this position because the female protagonist lends him the
money she has inherited. As Robyn says in Nice Work: all the Victorian
novelist could offer as a solution to the problems of industrial capitalism
were: a legacy, a marriage, emigration or death (NW, 83). In this
pastiche of a nineteenth century industrial novel Lodge himself only offers
a legacy (although Robyn also nearly immigrates to America in order to
find a job); marriage is no longer a necessity in the 1980s. The allusive
parallel on the ideational level described above is an example of what
Claes calls a structural allusion, because not just one, but several
elements - both structural and local - in the fenotext are paralleled to
similar elements in the architext. Not all these elements are equally
challenging for a translator. In general, allusions on the ideational level,

18

which are not language-based, pose less of a translation problem than

local allusions like quotes or modified allusions.
On the ideational level, readers may encounter semi-allusions like
the following example in a dialogue between Mrs. Thornton and Margaret
and Vic and Robyn.
But reading is the opposite of work, said Vic. Its what you do when you come
home from work, to relax(NW, 334).

I have no doubt the classics are very desirable for people who have leisure. []
Classics may do very well for men who loiter away their lives in the country or in
colleges; but Milton men ought to have their thoughts and powers absorbed in
the work of to-day (Gaskell, 112).

These are allusions on the ideational level instead of on the linguistic level,
and consequently it is not a problem if a translator does not recognize the
parallel, nevertheless, the analogy is striking and semi-allusions like this
enhance the overall effect of the other allusions. Lodge has chosen to
foreground his allusions to North and South (as well as the other titles
used in the mottoes), but attentive readers will find many more
intertextual references to other sources under this surface.
Two more local allusions to North and South are discussed in the
following paragraphs. The first comprises the use of the rather uncommon
term knobstick. Robyn quotes in her lecture the following passage from
North and South (NW, 79-80):
And if I live in a factory town, I must speak factory language when I want it.
Why, mama, I could astonish you with a great many words you never heard in
your life. I dont believe you know what a knobstick is.
Not I, child. I only know it has a very vulgar sound; and I dont what to hear
you using it.

19

Robyn continues with the question I think we all know what a knobstick
is, metaphorically. After which the audience chuckles gleefully. Some
definitions of knobstick are: a derogatory term for use in most
situations, combination of knob and stick (Urban Dictionary) and one
who refuses to join, or withdraws from, a trade union, a strikebreaker
and a stick, cane or club, terminating in a knob; esp. such a stick or club
used as a weapon or missile; a knobkerrie (Free Dictionary), finally the
SOED adds the information that a knobstick is also called a blackleg
(archaic) which is a strikebreaker. Definitions of knob are: penis (coarse
slang) and stick a person: who is dull, perverse or antisocial (SOED),
complete the picture. In North and South knobstick is mainly used to refer
to the Irish workers who come to work at Marlborough Mill instead of the
striking Milton workers or local strikebreakers. It is vulgar is because the
language is considered unladylike. As Margaret says: 'Now, Mr. Thornton,
though "knobstick" has not a very pretty sound, is it not expressive?
Could I do without it, in speaking of the thing it represents? If using local
words is vulgar, I was very vulgar in the Forest,--was I not, mamma?'
(Gaskell, 233). In Nice Work the word is considered vulgar or rather
sexual by Robyns students because the slang word knob is recognized
in it. Later when Vic and Robyn spend the night together in Frankfurt she
says to him when he undresses My, what a knobstick and he asks her
why she calls it that, to which she responds Private joke (NW, 292). It is
interesting to see how Lodge uses the word in such a different context
than Gaskell uses it, and yet the allusion is perfectly clear because it is
such a marked term. If he had merely used knob, which would have the
same meaning in that context, there would have been no allusion. In this
second instance, Lodge does not only allude to North and South and
even when he does, it is not to the use of this particular word, which is
used differently, but because of the parallels with North and South in other
parts of Nice Work - but also to the first time he uses the term in Nice
Work. Hatim and Mason would call this passive intertextuality because

20

text items are reiterated. It might also be called intratextuality because

internal relations within the text are at stake here.
Another example of passive intertextuality in the novel is the
repetitive use of phallic or phallocentric. In her lecture Robyn tells her
students that It hardly needs to be pointed out that industrial capitalism
is phallocentric. The inventors, the engineers, the factory owners and
bankers [] were all men. The most commonplace metonymic index of
industry the factory chimney is also metaphorically a phallic symbol
(NW, 78). When Robyn who is always a great fan of non-penetrative
sex - and Vic are in Frankfurt she says to him Massage is a way of
making love. Its gentle, tender, non-phallic and Vic answers Im a
phallic sort of bloke (NW, 290). This dialogue illustrates the very
differences between Vic and Robyn: Vic is the typical male manager
working in the masculine industrial world whereas Robyn is the feminist
teacher of Womens Studies who lives and works in a more feminine world
where feelings and ideas play an important role. Lodge must deliberately
have chosen to use this marked term in the conversation instead of a
more neutral one because otherwise it would have evoked different
associations. It would not have referred back to Robyns lecture and her
explanation on the phallic symbol of the chimney and there would not
have been an allusion to Jacques Derridas articles on Phallocentrism as
well as Jacques Lacans phallocentric analysis. For Robyn, there is not
always a clear line between theory and reality as the following allusive
fragment proves. Robyn has an admirer and he wooed her with a heady
mixture of the latest postFreudian theoretical jargon and devastatingly
frank sexual propositions, so she was never quite sure whether it was
Lacans symbolic phallus he was referring to or his own real one (NW,
54). More information on Derrida and Lacan in relation to Nice Work can
be found in the next paragraph.

21

1.3.4. Allusions to Howards End and Culture and Anarchy

Lodge alludes to E.M. Forsters Howards End (1910) on several occasions.
Even though this is not a Condition of England novel in the strict sense,
it does deal with class struggle between an aristocratic family and a family
that earns its living through business and, as Robyn claims in her lecture,
the distinctive strain the Industrial Novel has contributed to English fiction
can be traced in the work of Lawrence and Forster, for instance (NW,
73). Lodge alludes to both novels in Nice Work. It is very well possible to
draw a parallel between Vic and Howards Ends Henry Wilcox and Robyn
and Margaret Schlegel. Vic and Henry share the same surname, which is
telling and can be seen as a straightforward structural allusion. However,
on the ideational level, the similarities go beyond this. Vic and Henry are
both hard-headed businessmen and about the same outlook on life and
they both believe in capitalism and the self-regulating-market, regardless
of the casualties it produces. Winston and Marshall call Vic and Henry
Wilcox fictional twins and their parent text is Arnolds portrait of
Englands ruling middle class in Culture and Anarchy, which Vic reads late
in Nice Work (Winston/Marshall, 11). Culture and Anarchy (1868) is a
series of essays written by poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold. This
collection is another typical Condition of England text. It is a perfect
example of a titular allusion that comes without any explanation. First of
all, the mere fact that Vic is reading a book will cause the reader to think
that he has developed intellectual interests similar to the ones Robyn has.
However, in order for this conclusion to be well-grounded, the reader must
have some knowledge about this source. Culture and Anarchy deals with
British Philistines Arnolds term for the ruling middle class. He also uses
the term in Essays in Criticism (1865): Philistine must have originally
meant, in the mind of those who invented the nickname, a strong,
dogged, unenlightened opponent of the chosen people, of the children of
the light (EC, 163). In Culture and Anarchy he elaborates more on
Philistines as well as on culture: [Culture] seeks to do away with classes;
to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current
22

everywhere; to make all men live in an atmosphere of sweetness and light

[...]". Arnold was, especially in his early writings, heavily influenced by
Thomas Carlyle. Even though Arnold stated that he had introduced the
term Philistine, it was first used by Thomas Carlyle as David DeLaura
proves in his article Arnold and Carlyle. A quite remarkable number of
the most familiar Arnoldian ideas and phrases in Culture and Anarchy and
other writings of the 1860s are seen to derive from specific passages in
Carlyles early essays (DeLaura, 117). Consequently, the titular allusion
to Culture and Anarchy does not only allude to Arnolds writings, but to
Carlyles writings as well. The reason why Lodge chose to let Vic read this
specific work is that the Philistines and the children of light might
stand for the two poles in Nice Work, respectively Vic (as well as Henry
Wilcox), the other managers at Pringles and by extension all pragmatic,
materialistic and machinery-worshipping middle-class people working in
the industry versus the enlightened Robyn and the other teachers and
students at the university who are more interested in ideas, in feelings
(NW, 115). Just like Arnold wants culture to do away with classes, Robyn
has visions of the university being used not just by students but by local
people as well It ought to be swarming with local people doing part-time
courses using the library, using the laboratories, going to lectures, going
to concerts, using the Sports Centre everything and We ought to get
rid of the security men and the barriers at the gates and let the people
in! (NW, 241). What happens is that a short titular allusion evokes an
enormous wealth of associations and clearly becomes part of the
intertextual web Lodge is weaving in Nice Work. An allusion like this
broadens the story and context of Lodges story and is linked to other
Condition of England allusions. And yet, despite all the associations an
academic reader might have by reading the title Culture and Anarchy, the
mere mentioning of the title can hardly be considered a translation
problem from the linguistic point of view; any problems are more likely to
be culture-bound. In chapter two of this thesis more attention is given to

23

the specific translation problems a translator might encounter in such

cases.
As mentioned above, Arnold saw culture as sweetness and light.
The culture-lacking Vic talks about lightless factories full of machines
because machines dont need light, machines are blind (NW, 125). The
use of the word light may or may not be allusive; it is hard to tell with
such an ordinary, unmarked word. When Robyn responds to Vic she,
ironically, uses an expression which certainly is an allusion - O brave new
world, where only the managing directors have jobs (NW, 126) - even if it
is a dead one. The allusion O brave new world can be considered dead
because it has become so common that people hardly realize it refers to
either Aldoux Huxleys futuristic novel Brave New World which deals with
the horrors of advanced industrialization or even to its original source,
namely Shakespeares The Tempest (O brave new world, That has such
people in't (act 5, sc. 1).
Another local allusion to Howards End - and by extension perhaps
again to Culture and Anarchy - can be identified when one of Robyns
students wearing a t-shirt with the text Only Connect enters her room at
the very moment she and Vic are reconciled and she offers him the money
of her legacy. The words are obviously very appropriate to the situation
between Vic and Robyn, but these two words are also the epigraph of
Howards End and play an important part in the whole story. When
Margaret Schlegel has accepted Henrys proposal she studies his
personality and finds out he is a man for whom only hard facts count and
who does not notice any subtleties. Mature as he was, she might yet be
able to help him to the building of the rainbow bridge that should connect
the prose in us with the passion (Forster, 183) and further on
She would only point out the salvation that was latent in his own soul, and in
the soul of every man. Only connect! That was the whole of the sermon. Only
connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will
be seen at its highest. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast

24

and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die (Forster, 183184).

Henry earns his money by doing business while Margaret is the sensitive,
intelligent woman and a member of an upper-class relatively rich family.
He is the prose, she is the passion and her personal motto is only
connect. The primary conflict of the novel is that he does not share her
motto and together they are not able to bridge the gap between them.
Robyn Penrose and Margaret Schlegel both have a bridge to gap between
them and a businessman. When Vic says Wont pay the rent, though, will
they ideas, feelings? (NW, 115) he speaks the kind of language Henry
would speak.
More echoes of Howards End can be found in dialogues in Nice
Work. Vic talks to Robyn about the importance of businessmen The
country depends on us [] we make things, things that werent there till
we made em (NW, 268-9). In Howards End Margaret defends the Wilcox
family by stating that If Wilcoxes hadnt worked and died in England for
thousands of years [] there would be no trains, no ships to carry us
literary people about in, no fields even (Forster, 171-172) and further in
the novel she says that they keep England going (Forster, 271).
Obviously, this might also be called a semi-allusion; the wording is not
identical even though the meaning is the same.
The typical Condition of England plot-line in Nice Work of a
womans indignation at an employers callous treatment of a vulnerable
worker is obviously borrowed from Howards End. Robyn informs Danny
Ram he will be made redundant just like Margaret Schlegel tells Leonard
Bast that the company he is working for will shortly go bankrupt and he
will lose his job. This is another allusion on the ideational level, but the
use of the word sentimental might probably not be considered an allusion
on the linguistic level because it is so ordinary. Henry Wilcox blames
Margaret for taking up a sentimental attitude over the poor []. As
civilization moves forward, the shoe is bound to pinch in places (Forster,

25

188). Vic speaks similar words to Robyn you cant afford to be

sentimental about a few men being laid off (NW, 215).

1.3.5. Allusions to Charles Dickenss Hard Times

Lodge does not only allude to Hard Times in his mottoes. Several more
references to this novel can be found in Nice Work. First of all, Robyn talks
about the novel in her lecture and gives a long quote from the novel
containing a dreary description of Coketown (NW, 76). Secondly, she
quotes Mr Sleary You muth have us, Thquire and People mutht be
amuthed (NW, 77). The latter also serves as part of the motto for the
third section of Nice Work. Robyn explains the meaning the alienation of
work under industrial capitalism can be overcome by an infusion of loving
kindness and imaginative play, represented by [] the circus (NW, 77).
The same goes for Robyns and Vics working life. Third, when Robyn
travels with Vic on a plane to Frankfurt she ponders about the importance
of manufacturing and a phrase from Hard Times she was apt to quote
with a certain derision in her lectures, but of which she had thought more
charitably lately, came into her mind: Tis aw a muddle (NW, 270). In
Hard Times, this phrase is uttered by the worker Stephen Blackpool who is
dying after he has fallen in a mine shaft. He is speaking to the woman he
loves, but whom he could not marry because he was already married,
which is part of the muddle, as well as the fact that he is a worker who did
not join the union but also refused to side with the master and was
consequently shunned by all. To be sure, there is far less mud in Robyns
muddle; she is merely pondering over the abstract question whether
technological progress is a good or a bad thing, a waste of resources or a
force liberating men and woman from servile labour. The allusion serves to
satirize Robyns tendency to lose herself in abstract ideas and theories and
fall back on comparisons with nineteenth century novels while she is at
the same time enjoying a comfortable life. This particular quotation is
hardly appropriate in her case, and yet she uses it seriously. She uses it

26

again slightly modified in the past tense - when she has read Charless
letter in which he tells her about his career change and also informs her
casually that he will be moving in with Debby. Her first reaction is You
shit, You utter shit, at the same time she has to admit there were
things in this letter which struck a nerve of reluctant assent, mixed up
with things she found false and obnoxious. T was all a muddle (NW,
315). This time, she ponders about her own personal muddle, which is
probably why the quotation is used more sincerely here and can therefore
not be seen as ironic. The first time this quotation was marked, this time it
is unmarked, probably because the reader is already familiar with it.
The separate term muddle is used once more in Nice Work, in a
different context and not by Robyn this time. During a discussion about
the ever expanding departments syllabus Rupert Sutcliffe says the
question is whether we have a system any more, or just a muddle. A
muddle this document will only exacerbate (NW, 351). Muddle is not a
very common term, therefore it seems that Lodge has deliberately chosen
to use this word here in order to refer back to the former usage of the
word in the novel. As a result, the use of the word here may be
considered as an example of passive intertextuality.

1.3.6. Allusions to Charles Kingsleys Alton Locke

In Nice Work Lodge also incorporated some references to Charles
Kingsleys industrial novel Alton Locke. Titular allusions can be found in
several instances. When Robyn packs her bag to go to work she takes with
her her much underlined and annotated copies of Shirley, Mary Barton,
North and South, Sybil, Alton Locke, Felix Holt, Hard Times (NW, 53), and
in her lecture she talks about the submission of the second Chartist
petition in 1848 which forms the background to Charles Kingsleys Alton
Locke(NW, 75). When Robyn winds up her lecture she explains how most
industrial novels end and in this context she talks about the character of
Alton Locke Alton Locke emigrates after his disillusionment with Chartism,

27

and dies shortly after (NW, 83). None of these allusions are a linguistic
challenge to the translator, but the next one is far more interesting. At one
point, Charles writes a letter to Robyn informing her of the fact that he
has determined upon a drastic change of career, that he has resigned from
Suffolk University and is becoming a merchant banker. His next line is
Have you done laughing? as Alton Locke says to his readers (NW, 3101). In the first chapter of Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet Kingsley describes
Lockes youth in monk-like seclusion and in the final lines Locke says Ay,
grim and real is the action and suffering which begins with my next page
Ay--laugh!--we tailors can quote poetry as well as make your courtdresses. Then the first line of chapter two is Have you done laughing!
Then I will tell you how the thing came to pass after which he starts
telling why he became a tailor at fifteen. Both in Lockes and Charless
case there is a drastic change in occupation and outlook on their future,
therefore the allusion is very appropriate and readers who are familiar
with Alton Lockes story will recognize the parallel. At the same time, there
are enormous differences between Charless and Lockes story: the latter
did not choose to become a tailor in a sweat shop at fifteen because he
thought it was such a terrific career move; he was forced to do so, against
his will, by circumstances. Charles however, chooses to become a
merchant banker at his own free will, because he can make more money
and because he has the feeling that as a university teacher, especially at
a place like Suffolk, he has been left behind by the tide of history,
stranded on the mudflats of an obsolete ideology (NW, 311). Charles has
very little in common with a worker in a nineteenth century industrial
novel; Lodge uses this ironic allusion to ridicule him.

1.3.7 Allusions to Tennysons Locksley Hall-poems

There are yet other writings Lodge alludes to, partly within the context of
the industrial revolution, namely two poems by Alfred Tennyson (18091892): Locksley Hall (1835) and Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886).
28

The first poem is about a soldier who passes his former home called
Locksley Hall where he spends some time to ponder on his childhood, his
lost love and his utopian visions of a new world order. The second is a
sequel in which Tennyson describes how Englands industrialised nature
has failed to fulfil the expectations of the earlier poem. One of Robyns
students reads her essay on the struggle of optimism and pessimism in
Tennysons verse aloud during a tutorial Vic also attends in his capacity as
Robyns shadow. Marion quotes Tennysons lines from Locksley Hall Let
the great world spin for ever, down the ringing grooves of change (NW,
336). Vic is alert enough to remark that train wheels do not run in
grooves, whereas tram wheels do. Robyn explains that Tennyson did mean
trains and she reads aloud a quotation from Tennyson from Longmans
Annotated edition with the explanation which is quoted fully in italics in
Nice Work. Robyn finally explains that the use of grooves is an aporia a
figure of undecidable ambiguity, irresolvable contradiction (NW, 337),
later she says that it derives from a Greek word meaning a pathless
path (NW, 338). When the students have left and Vic and Robyn talk
together he tells her he keeps on thinking about Frankfurt and that it must
have meant something to her. Her answer is: It was an aporia, a pathless
path. It led nowhere (NW, 341). This is another example of intratextuality
or passive intertextuality, just like the following example. Lodge uses
grooves twice in Nice Work. He does not only mention the grooves of
change, but earlier Vic says about Brian Everthorpe whom he is trying
to fire that he is stuck in old grooves (NW, 211). It is obvious that old
grooves and grooves of change mean the exact opposite.
Right before it, Vic quotes some lines from Locksley Hall he
considers appropriate Woman is the lesser man, and all thy passions,
matched with mine, Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto
wine (NW, 340). When Robyn meets Vic again he quotes some more
Tennyson, this time from Locksley Hall Sixty Years After In my life there
was a picture, she that clasped my neck had flown.

29

I was left within the shadow, witting on the wreck alone (NW, 356). Again
this allusional quote is used to illustrate how Vic feels about Robyn and to
prove his new eruditeness.
Altogether it is fair to say that there are many elements in Nice
Work that are either imitations of or allusions to local or structural aspects
of industrial novels or the genre as a whole. All these allusions together,
make sure the reader will see Nice Work as a modern industrial novel.
Within this framework, Lodge uses the contents of Robyns lecture with
all its references to industrial novels - as the basis for her own discovery
of the world of industry.

1.3.8 Allusions to literary theory

As mentioned before, Nice Work is not only a modern industrial novel, but
also a campus novel written to parody the university and its staff. These
two different worlds are personified by straight-talking pragmatic Vic
there is no such thing as a free lunch, win some, lose some and
theory-loving Robyn who herself doesnt believe in the concept of
character because it is a bourgeois myth, an illusion created to reinforce
the ideology of capitalism (NW, 39). There are more things Robyn does
not believe in, like love, about which she says there is no such thing. Its
a rhetorical device. Its a bourgeois fallacy (NW, 293). Bourgeois turns
out to be one of her favourite words when it comes to criticism. When she
tells Vic that Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are classics she first
explains they received that title because they are two of the greatest
novels of the nineteenth century, but a moment later she thinks by herself
that the very word classic was an instrument of bourgeois hegemony
(NW, 202). She also uses capitalism in the same way, like when the
narrator tells the reader that according to Robyn there is no such thing as
the self on which capitalism and the classic novel are founded that is to
say, a finite, unique soul or essence that constitutes a persons identity;
there is only a subject position in an infinite web of discourses (NW, 40).

30

Even though Robyn knows very little about the reality of capitalism or
industry, she calls the novelist a capitalist of the imagination who
invents a product which consumers didnt know they wanted until it is
made available after which is it manufactured and sold in competition with
makers of marginally differentiated products of the same kind (NW, 39).
She has read Freud, Marx, Kafka and Kierkegaard. When she did her PhD
in Cambridge she subscribed to journals like Poetique and Tel Quel to
know the latest thoughts of Roland Barthes and Julia Kristeva and she
forced her mind through the labyrinthine sentences of Jacques Lacan and
Jacques Derrida (NW, 46). This education shaped her and has lead to her
habit of quoting theorists and as a true teacher also give explanations of
these quotes in her conversations with others. When Lodge introduces
Robyn the narrator tells the reader that according to her
There is no such thing as an author, that is to say, one who originates a work of
fiction ab nihilo. Every text is a product of intertextuality, a tissue of allusions to
and citations of other texts; and, in the famous words of Jacques Derrida
(famous to people like Robyn, anyway), il ny a pas the hors-texte, there is
nothing outside the text. There are no origins, there is only production, and we
produce our selves in language. Not you are what you eat but you are what
you speak or, rather you are what speaks you, is the axiomatic basis of Robyns
philosophy, which she would call, if required to give it a name semiotic
materialism (NW, 40).

This self-reflexive passage refers to the role Nice Work plays in the
network of industrial novels and the works of many literary theorists.
Later in Nice Work Vic confronts Robyn when she tells him she does not
believe in individualistic love and he says, referring back to her own
quotes I thought there was always a slippage between the I that speaks
and the I that is spoken of (NW, 362). She tells him her old line that
there is nothing outside the text, but that Once you realize there is
nothing outside the text, you can begin to write it yourself (NW, 362).

31

Apart from the fact that it is striking how many things do not exist
according to Robyn, this fragment is a perfect example of Robyns style of
speech. She often alludes to one theory or another and constantly
describes reality in theoretic terms and the narrator of the novel does the
same when she is described. In the following fragment Lodge/the narrator
use a quote by D.H. Lawrence (The tragedy is when youve got sex in the
head instead of down where it belongs) as well as Ferdinand de
Saussures philosophy on signs to illustrate that Robyn and Charles are
more interested in theories and thoughts than in earthly things like sex. In
fact, they rather talk about it than have it.
What was left was sex in the head, as D.H. Lawrence called it. He had meant the
phrase pejoratively, of course, but to Robyn and Charles D.H. Lawrence was a
quant, rather absurd figure, and his fierce polemics did not disturb them. Where
else would the human subject have sex but in the head? Sexual desire was a
play of signifiers, an infinite deferment and displacement of anticipated pleasure
which the brute coupling of the signifieds temporarily interrupted (NW, 56-57).

When Robyn visits the Pringles foundry and sees a black worker
struggle in the heat, dust and stench, she does not just see him as a
working man; she sees them as the noble savage, the Negro in chains,
the archetype of exploited humanity quintessential victim of the capitalistimperialist-industrial system (NW, 133). Everything she knows about
Rousseaus noble savage and she might even be referring to John in
Brave New World, Caliban in The Tempest or Dickenss story The Noble
Savage - and the condition of the workers in the nineteenth century
industrial novels she is familiar with are blurred together and form a
theory-based picture in her head that stands in the way of taking things
as Vic calls at their face value (NW, 221). It also proves that the
language we use is never our own.
One of the most hilarious conversations in the book takes place
when Robyn and Charles are enjoying a Sunday together in her house.

32

They seriously converse with each other by quoting Lacan and asking each
other the meaning of the abstract quotes. Saussure and his signifier and
signified play a role in the conversation again, as well as the terms
metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche. In principle every conversation
might be seen as a product of intertextuality because every word, every
expression and just about any word-combination has been used before; in
fact this is how we learn a language: by listening to other people and by
reading other peoples texts, but most people do not consciously use other
peoples words, which is exactly what Robyn and Charles are doing, if they
are not dividing just about anything and everyone into metaphors and
metonymies. In order to make his point, Lodge needs three long allusive
quotations by Lacan (one of which contains a reference to Saussure), an
allusion to Nietzsche and one to Marx. Finally, Robyns theoretic analyses
of the foundry, Danny Ram and Vic give the passage metafictional
properties. Lodge believes that the primary value of literary theory is
serving the cause of better reading of texts (Morace 204) and the effect
of the various allusions to literary theory and Robyns theoretic analyses of
everything around her make the reader look at all that is described and
happens make the reader look through her eyes and apply the theory she
teaches.
Any good? she inquired, nodding at his book.
Not bad. Quite good on the de-centring of the subject, actually. You remember
that marvellous bit in Lacan? Charles read out a quotation: I think where I am
not, therefore I am where I think not I am not, wherever I am the plaything of
my thought; I think of what I am wherever I dont think I am thinking.
Marvellous, Robyn agreed.
Theres quite a good discussion of it in here.
Isnt that where Lacan says something interesting about realism?
Yes: This two-faced mystery is linked to the fact that the truth can be evoked
only in that dimension of alibi in which all realism in creative works takes its
virtue from metonymy.

33

Robyn frowned. What do you think it means, exactly? I mean, is truth being
used ironically?
Oh, I think so, yes. Its implied by the word alibi, surely? There is no truth, in
the absolute sense, no transcendental signified. Truth is just a rhetorical illusion,
a tissue of metonymies and metaphors, as Nietzsche said. It all goes back to
Nietzsche, really, as this chap points out.
Charles tapped the book on his lap. Listen. Lacan goes on: It is likewise linked
to this other fact that we accede to meaning only through the double twist of
metaphor when we have the unique key: the signifier and the signified of the
Saussurian formula are not at the same level, and man only deludes himself
when he believes that his true place is at their axis, which is nowhere.
But isnt he making a distinction between truth and meaning? Truth is to
meaning as metonymy is to metaphor.
How? It was Charles turn to frown.
Well, take Pringles, for example. []
You could represent the factory realistically by a set of metonymies dirt, noise,
heat and so on. But you can only grasp the meaning of the factory by a
metaphor. The place is like hell. The trouble with Wilcox is that he cant see that.
He has no metaphorical vision.
And what about Danny Ram? said Charles.
Oh, poor old Danny Ram, I dont suppose he has any metaphorical vision either,
otherwise he couldnt stick it. The factory to him is just another set of
metonymies and synecdoches: a lever he pulls, a pair of greasy overalls he
wears, a weekly pay packet. Thats the truth of his existence, but not the
meaning of it.
Which is ?
I just told you: hell. Alienation, if you want to put it in Marxist terms. (NW, 179)

Several references to Saussure can be found in Nice Work. The

following example is a relatively simple local allusion.
She freed it [the lock] with a patent squirt imported from Finland, and hastily
discontinued, called Superpiss. Charles had given it to her for a joke, suggesting
she use it as a visual aid to introduce Saussurean linguistics to first-year

34

undergraduates, holding the tube aloft to demonstrate that what is

onomatopoeia in one language community may be obscenity in another (NW,
96).

In the following example Robyn is discussing the universitys study

programme with other staff members and objects to just offering one
standard programme But repetition is death! Robyn cried. Difference is
life. Difference is the condition of meaning. Language is a system of
differences, as Saussure said (NW, 351). To get her opinion across, she
needs Saussures help.
Slowly, Robyn sees that not everyone is taken with theory as much
as she is and she asks Charles:
Doesnt it worry you that ninety-nine point nine per cent of the population
couldnt give a monkeys?
A what? said Charles?
A monkeys. It means you dont care a bit.
It means you dont give a monkeys fuck.
Does it? Said Robyn, with a snigger. I thought it was a monkeys nut. I should
have known fuck is much more poetic in Jakobsons terms the repetition of
the k as well as the first vowel in monkey No wonder Vic Wilcox looked
startled when I said it the other day. (NW, 217)

In spite of this, she automatically analyses a simple idiomatic expression

with the help of Jakobsons theory on the poetic function of language. It
seems that Lodge makes Robyn speak like this to expose academic
pretentiousness and satirize how academics behave and think. In an
interview Lodge talked about the role of the university: my attitude
towards the academy is not meant to destroy the institution but to remind
it that its interests are not all-absorbing and all-important, and that those
interests to some extend depend on the suppression of certain facts about
life of a low, physical, earthy kind (Haffenden, 167).

35

1.3.9 Local allusions from other sources

Nice Work also contains literary allusions to other sources than the ones
discussed above. The list below is far from complete, but does give a good
indication of the richness of Lodges web of intertextual references.
At the beginning of the novel Vic is reading a newspaper article
about a lightweight aluminium engine for a world-beating family car that
British Leyland is working on. Vic muses: When was the last time we
were supposed to have a worldbeating aluminium engine? The Hillman
Imp, right? Where are they now, the Hillman Imps of yesteryear? In the
scrapyards, every one, or nearly. And the Linwood plant a graveyard []
(NW, 25).Two allusions can be found here. First of all there is one to
Francois Villons poem Ou sont les neiges dantan? which D.G. Rosetti
has translated into Where are the snows of yesteryear? The allusion
marker here would be yesteryear, because the other words are much
more common. The second allusion is to Pete Seegers 1960s song Where
have all the flowers gone?, which also contains the lines Where have all
the soldiers gone? In the graveyards, everyone. Because Lodge does not
only use scrapyards, but also graveyard in the next line, the reference to
Seegers song becomes more obvious. The tenor of both sources is one of
nostalgia. Vic is nostalgic about Englands long lost days of industrial
success. Perhaps, there is also a kind of longing for the booming days of
the Industrial Revolution; when you take all the other references to
industrial novels into consideration this picture gets clearer.
When Robyn hears from Professor Swallow that the university will
not be able to keep her on and she will be unemployed in a year, she is
very disappointed. Swallow complains that his job is not so much fun
anymore; he gets to travel less to international conferences and often has
to give bad news to his staff as a result of all the government cuts.
All you do is give people bad news. And, as Shakespeare observed, the nature
of bad news infects the teller.

36

When it concerns the fool or coward. Robyn recklessly recites the next line from
Antony and Cleopatra, but fortunately Philip Swallow appears not to have heard
(NW, 65).

This is an example of a marked quotation. Lodge does not only mention

the writer, but the title of the source as well. Because Swallow is hard of
hearing, Robyn gets away with her unfriendly continuation of the
quotation.
Several days later, Robyn is driving towards Pringles for the first
time through mud and snow in less pretty parts of the city than were she
lives and works. First A line from D.H. Lawrence was it Women in Love
or Lady Chatterley? comes into Robyns head. She felt in a wave of
terror the grey, gritty hopelessness of it all (NW, 98), and a little later
when she is in a part of town where mostly people from the Caribbean live
How strange it is, strange and sad, to see all these tropical faces amid
the slush and dirty snow, the grey gritty hopelessness of an English
industrial city in the middle of winter (NW, 99). The first quote is clearly
marked: the writer is mentioned, the quote itself is in italics and two
possible sources are listed. Lodge must have known which of the two titles
was the source (Lady Chatterleys Lover3), but either wanted to play a
game with the reader, or considered it more realistic if Robyn did not have
an infallible memory. The quotation is part of Connies sad thoughts on the
Tevershall! That was Tevershall! Merrie England! Shakespeare's England!
No, but the England of today, as Connie had realized since she had come
to live in it. It was producing a new race of mankind, over-conscious
in the money and social and political side, on the spontaneous,
intuitive side dead, but dead. Half-corpses, all of them: but with a
terrible insistent consciousness in the other half. There was something
uncanny and underground about it all. It was an under-world. And quite
incalculable. How shall we understand the reactions in half-corpses?
When Connie saw the great lorries full of steel-workers from Sheffield,
weird, distorted smallish beings like men, off for an excursion to
Matlock, her bowels fainted and she thought: Ah God, what has man done
to man? What have the leaders of men been doing to their fellow men?
They have reduced them to less than humanness; and now there can be no
fellowship any more! It is just a nightmare.
3

She felt again in a wave of terror the grey, gritty hopelessness of it

all. With such creatures for the industrial masses, and the upper
classes as she knew them, there was no hope, no hope any more.

37

workers she sees. Robyn is not used to be surrounded by lower-class

people in less prosperous parts of the city and she wishes she were back
in her snug little house, tapping away on her word-processor, dissecting
the lexemes of some classic Victorian novel (NW, 98). What she sees has
little to do with the grey, gritty hopelessness of the situation of the steel
workers around 1928, but is simply less pleasant than what she normally
sees. By means of the allusion, Lodge shows how privileged Robyn is. The
second reference to Lawrences fragment is a slightly modified allusion.
This time, Lodge did not use italics or mark the allusion in any other way,
but readers can easily recognize it because the other one was used only
one page ago.
When Vic shows Robyn Pringles foundry, she is shocked and has to
think of the satanic mills of the Industrial Revolution (NW, 121) which is
an allusion to Blake's poem And did those feet in ancient time 4 in the
preface to Milton (1804). The poem implies that Jesus, who paid England
a short visit, briefly created a heaven in hellish, industrial England. It was
inspired by Albion Flour Mills, a factory not far from Blakes home and was
adopted by its workers as a Socialist hymn. Robyn does not only see
Pringles foundry and the people working there, she sees workers who
have been enslaved in horrible conditions for nearly two hundred years
4

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England's mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?
Bring
Bring
Bring
Bring

me
me
me
me

my
my
my
my

bow of burning gold!

arrows of desire!
spear! O clouds, unfold!
chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

38

and when she steps on the factory floor she feels more than ever like
Dante in the Inferno (NW, 128). The satanic mills is a clear example of
an unmarked allusion. If a reader is not familiar with this specific work by
William Blake, the allusion is simply not noticed. On several other
occasions Robyn falls back on the hell metaphor to describe the foundry
and its inmates: the noise is described as a demonic cacophony (NW,
121), she finds it hard to say whether the workers are devils or the
damned in a mediaeval painting of hell (NW, 128), the Sikh workers
look like demons in an old fresco (NW, 130) and the term inferno is
used twice, in the example above and in industrial inferno (NW, 146).
Furthermore, she calls the place a Pandemonium (NW, 130). This term
was first coined by John Milton in Paradise Lost5 from the Greek pan and
daimonium (lesser god) to describe hell. In modern English it also refers
to a centre of vice or wickedness or (a place or state of) confusion and
uproar (SOED). This might be called a dead allusion because knowledge
of the source is not required to understand the meaning. The whole series
of references to hell would be called a thread of passive intertextuality
which serves to establish continuity of sense by Hatim and Mason
(Hatim & Mason, 124). The use of the satanic mills might on the one
hand be considered a link in this string of passive intertextuality, but when
taken separately it might be seen as active intertextuality because this
particular allusion activates knowledge beyond Nice Work. Last but not
least, Robyn calls Pringles as a whole a cultural heart of darkness (NW,
141), which more or less fits in the list of references to hell and is at the
same time an allusion to Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness. Like Conrads
Congo, Pringles is full of dark-skinned people slaving in an uncivilized
terrible place.
The following allusion is partly marked; the writer is mentioned, but
not the source.

Pandemonium, the high capital of Satan and his peers (book 1, 1.748)

39

The snow was general all over Rummidge, she mused, playing variations
on a famous passage by James Joyce to divert herself. It was falling on every
part of the dark, sprawling conurbation, on the concrete motorways, and the
treeless industrial estates, falling softly upon the lawns of the University campus
and, further westward, upon the dark mutinous waters of the RummidgeWallsbury Canal (NW, 143).

The architext of this modified allusion is part 6 of the last paragraph of

James Joyces story The Dead (Dubliners, 1914). Robyn attends a meeting
at Pringles and is bored with it, at the same time she is still shocked from
her visit to the foundry and she muses that, just like in Joyces story, the
snow that falls makes everyone equal. It falls everywhere, on the pretty
university parks as well as on the industrial area where Pringles is located
and everything starts to look the same. The allusion is metaphoric
because the situation in both stories is similar.
Most of the time Robyn views the world through memories of works
of literature she has studied, especially at the beginning of the story. The
allusions enhance this effect. Later, she and Vic adopt more and more of
each others vocabulary when they evolve as characters. In the next
chapter, possible translation strategies for several kinds of allusions will be
discussed.

Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on
every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of
Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was
falling too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay
buried (Joyce, 159/160).

40

2. Translating allusions
2.1 Theory
2.1.1 Ritva Leppihalme
Only one person has written a whole book Culture Bumps (1997) - on
and has produced complete schemes on the translation of allusions: Ritva
Leppihalme. She gives the term allusion a slightly extended meaning in
her study: all preformed linguistic material in either its original or a
modified form, and of proper-names, to convey often implicit meaning
(CB, 3). Unlike Claes, she does not distinguish between quotations and
allusions. She focuses less on allusions as literary phenomenons and more
on them as translation problems requiring problem solving. Ideally,
allusions should not become culture bumps in translated texts. Leppihalme
uses Carol M. Archers term culture bump to refer to a situation where
the reader of a target text has a problem understanding a source-cultural
allusion (CB, 4).
According to Leppihalme, the basic translation process consists of
the following three stages that need to be completed by the translator: (1)
analysis of the ST and of the translation task in question; (2) problemsolving; and (3) reverbalisation (CB, 19). Even though some allusions are
transcultural because they have connotations in both the target and the
source culture, translators usually have to bear in mind that TT readers
have a different cognitive environment from ST readers, therefore
translators have to decide whether the implicit part of the message needs
to be explicated in the TT (CB, 20). In this process, translators fulfil the
role of cultural mediators, because they have to decide which allusions
need special attention. Leppihalme claims that for the translator the form
allusions take is much less crucial than their function (CB, 55). This
function parody or irony for example must always be maintained in
the translation. She gives two potential strategies for allusions. One for

41

proper-name allusions, and one for what she calls key-phrase allusions, by
which she means allusions containing no proper name (CB, 10) that are
generally quite short. Most allusions discussed into this thesis belong to
the second group. Both groups can be divided in regular and modified
allusions.
In the case of dead allusions Leppihalme is of the opinion that it
might be wiser to treat them as idioms because the connection with the
source is no longer relevant.

Model for the translation of proper name allusions

42

Model for the translation of key-phrase allusions

43

According to Leppihalme, the best option for key-phrase allusions is

to use a standard translation that already exists (option A in the scheme
above). Sometimes slight changes are required to make the standard
translation blend in. In the case of unmarked and uncommon allusions or
quotations, it may also possible to add the name of the writer or even the
title of the source in the translation in certain cases or to add external
marking (C) either in the form of extra-allusive elements like quotation
marks or italics. It is not always necessary to do this, because even if
readers will probably not recognize the source of the allusion, translators
might chose to use an existing translation of a classic and even though the
meaning is not special, the (poetic) style and word order might be and will
give the text a more literary character. Translators can also chose for
internal marking (option E) and with the help of for example a standard
translation this effect might be transferred to and even enhanced in the
TT. She considers the replacement of a SL allusion by a TL-specific allusion
(F) seldom an effective alternative since the latter disturbs the desired
illusion in translation that TL readers are able to experience a foreign
world despite the language barrier (CB, 118). The reduction of an allusion
to sense (option G) does not lead to very creative allusions. Leppihalme
thinks that this strategy could be considered for instance for brief
allusions to slogans in domestic politics, local advertising campaigns and
the like, which would mean little or nothing to the TL audience (CB, 120).
Furthermore, allusions can be omitted (I) in the TT if the loss caused by it
is negligible in the context and if the alternative is what Leppihalme calls a
culture bump: an element in the text that is so strange and unexpected
for the reader that on the one hand it gets more attention than it deserves
and on the other that it gets the wrong attention because the reader does
not understand the function or meaning of this text element. Finally, there
is the possibility of the re-creation of an allusion. This re-creation would
have to convey as much of the meaning and the feeling-tone of the
allusion in context as possible (CB, 122). The new allusion would also

44

have to resemble the work of the author. The decision to opt for one
strategy or another ultimately depends on factors like genre, text type,
function of TT, intended audience, context, etc. and Leppihalme is
convinced that global strategies which the translator makes initially,
regarding the translation task as a whole, will clearly affect local
strategies too (CB, 125). Leppihalme finishes her argument with the
remark that there should be more knowledge of crucial differences
between ST and TT audiences.

2.1.2. Basil Hatim and Ian Mason

Basil Hatim and Ian Mason have never specialized themselves in
intertextuality nor did they produce a translation model as complete as
Ritva Leppihalme, but in Discourse and the Translator (1990) they have
devoted a chapter to the subject called Intertextuality and Intentionality.
This chapter deals both with intertextuality in general and its translation.
They refer to allusion in the context of a broad semiotic view of
intertextuality. It is seen as a dynamic process based on how we relate
textual occurrences to each other and recognize them as signs which
evoke whole areas of our previous textual experience (Hatim & Mason,
120). Unfortunately, most of the examples used are not literary, yet the
presented theory is so broad it can be used for all kinds of texts.
Hatim and Mason thoroughly explain the difference between active
and passive intertextuality (see paragraph 1.2 of this thesis). They also
use Beaugrandes and Dresslers term mediation which is said to be the
extend to which one feeds ones current beliefs and goals into the model
of the communicative situation (Hatim & Mason, 127). Consequently,
mediation is greater when the distance between architext and fenotext is
great (through factors such as the passage of time), and smaller in the
case of quotes or allusions to well-known texts. They claim that the notion
of mediation is important to a translator because he or she has to realize
what degree of mediation is involved in a certain translation.
45

They also introduce the term intertextual space, which is the area
being traversed by a sign from the architext to the fenotext. According to
Hatim and Mason it is in this space that the semiotic value attaching to
the sign is modified in order to adjust it to its new environment and, in the
process, act upon it (Hatim & Mason, 129).
Hatim and Mason also state that in the translation process there is
not only a source language (SL) fenotext, but also a target language (TL)
fenotext as well as an SL architext and a TL architext. All this information
together can be summarized in the following scheme (Hatim & Mason,
134).

Intertextual reference from ST to TT7

Furthermore, when it comes to an inter-semiotic translation of
intertextual references, Hatim and Mason suggest that the following
overview might form the basis and give the right hierarchic order of which
aspects should be dealt first.

The terminology is slightly adapted to make this scheme match better with the rest of
this thesis. Hatim and Mason use respectively host text, pre-text and signal for fenotext,
architext and marker.
7

46

1. Retain semiotic status (the relation between the sign and other signs in
the text)
2. Retain intentionality the function of the marker
3. Retain linguistic devices which uphold coherence
4. Preserve, if possible, the informational (denotative) status
5. Preserve, if possible, the extra-linguistic status e.g. the genre
(Hatim & Mason, 136)

Finally, the translator [] will also make adjustments in the light of

the fact that different groups of text users bring different knowledge and
belief systems to their processing of texts (Hatim & Mason, 137).

2.1.3 Lawrence Venuti

Venutis recent article Translation, Intertextuality, Interpretation shows
that he is of the opinion that translation involves three sets of intertextual
relations: (1) those between the foreign text (source text) and other
texts, (2) those between the foreign text and the translation and (3) those
between the translation and other texts (Venuti, 158). These relations are
not sharply distinguished. A translator tries to establish an intertextual
relation in the translation by reproducing an architext in the target text
through direct quotation or imitation of its graphemes and sound, lexicon
and syntax, style and discourse (Venuti, 165) - in order to recreate a
form of intertextuality in the source text and maintain equivalence to it.
However, Venuti does not only consider intertextuality as a verbal
relation, but as an interpretation that plays havoc with equivalence and
leaves unaltered neither the foreign text nor the translating culture
(Venuti, 158). Venuti claims that since translating is fundamentally a
decontextualizing process intertextual relations established by and within
the source text are rarely recreated in the translation because the
translator dismantles, rearranges and finally displaces the chain of foreign
signifiers (Venuti, 159). The translation process is decontextualizing

47

because three foreign-language contexts are lost: the intratextual context,

the intertextual and interdiscursive context and the context of reception.
The first refers to the linguistic patterns and discursive structures within
the text, the second to both relations to pre-existing texts (architexts) and
relations to pre-existing forms and themes, and the third to the various
types of media giving attention to the text and ranges from paratexts to
reviews to adaptations. As a result of the decontextualizing process,
Venuti is convinced that a translation can never be equivalent to a source
text because this notion would ignore the loss of contexts in any
translation. A close rendering of intertextual relations may create a
semantic correspondence, but will not incorporate the specific cultural
significance of a foreign intertext (Venuti, 159). This significance does not
only depend on denotative meanings of words and phrases, but also on
form, resemblances among foreign linguistic features, graphemic and
acoustic, lexical and syntactic, stylistic and discursive. To compensate for
the loss of intertextuality, a translator might rely on paratextual devices
like footnotes, but Venuti does not like this option because the
translators work ceases to be translating and becomes commentary
(Venuti, 159). Compensation for the loss of foreign intertextuality might
cause the translator to undermine the intertextual relations that create an
equivalence between the source text and the translation. (162)
Venuti does not only state the source text is decontextualized; he
also says it is recontextualized because it is situated in different patterns
of language use, in different cultural values, different literary traditions,
different social institutions and often a different historical moment (Venuti,
162). Consequently, a translated text does not only undergo formal and
semantic losses, but also exorbitant gain: the linguistic forms and cultural
values that constitute the text are replaced by textual effects that exceed
a lexicographical equivalence and work only in the translating language
and culture (Venuti, 162). Thus, in the vision of Venuti, a translation
communicates only one particular interpretation of the source text. The
translator inscribes this interpretation by applying interpretants that may
48

either be formal or thematic. The first includes a concept of (semantic)

equivalence or a concept of style (a distinctive lexicon or syntax related to
a genre or discourse). The second are codes: specific ideas, beliefs and
representations; a discourse in the sense of a relatively coherent body of
concepts, problems, and arguments; or a particular interpretation of the
foreign text that has been articulated independently in commentary
(Venuti, 163). According to Venuti, it is the translators application of
interpretants that recontextualizes the source text; foreign intertextual
relations are replaced by a receiving intertext with relations to the target
language and culture which are built into the translation. Often,
translators apply interpretants unconsciously.
Venuti claims that intertextual relations established by translations
are not merely interpretive, but interrogative in the sense that they
inscribe meanings and values that invite a critical understanding of the
quoted or imitated texts, even the cultural traditions and social institutions
in which those texts are positioned, while simultaneously inviting the
reader to understand the foreign text on the basis of texts, traditions, and
institutions specific to the target culture (Venuti, 165).
By recontextualization the source texts linguistic and cultural
differences are enhanced rather than resolved and interpretation is always
interrogative. Translators are not always in full control; sometimes, the
interrogative force of his interpretations must be considered an
unanticipated consequence of the allusions they created, (Venuti, 168).
Because intertextuality is central to the production and reception of
translations, Venuti suggests a more translation-oriented reading in order
to recognize intertextual relations. Yet, the possibility of translating most
foreign allusions with any completeness or precision is so limited as to be
virtually nonexistent. They are usually replaced by analogous but
ultimately different intertextual relations in the target language. Allusions
created in a translation, allow readers of the target text to understand
them. It also results in a disjunction between the source text and the

49

target text as well as a proliferation of linguistic and cultural differences

that are interpretive and can be read as interrogative (Venuti, 172).

2.1.4 Remarks on the translation of allusions by others

There are few extensive works on the translation of intertextuality.
However, sometimes shorter texts or even single remarks on the subject
can be found. Peter Newmark says for example one does not want to
bother the reader of any type of text with opaque transcriptions of little
importance (Newmark, 147). Therefore, he recommends that peripheral
allusions are omitted or given an approximate translation or cultural
equivalent.
Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins outline the following three-step
translation process. The translators first problem is to recognize an
allusion in the ST. The second is to understand the allusive meaning and
the third is to convey the force of the allusion in the TT ideally by using
an appropriate allusive meaning based on a saying or quotation in the TL
(Hervey & Higgins, 107). According to them, translators face a real
challenge when there is no parallel to an allusion in the TL culture. The
solution is usually to compensate by some other means for the absence of
a suitable solution (Hervey & Higgins, 109). Means of compensation are
for example tonal register and affective meaning.
In her article The Translators Intertextual Baggage Eleonora
Federici proposes that in the case of culture-bound terms, idiomatic
expressions and references to lesser-known social, historical and
geographical facts, the translator can decide to add a glossary or to insert
footnotes in order to highlight those intertextual references which are not
so clear for the target reader (Federici, 153). However, this does not
seem to be a solution that will be used often, since it does not result in a
text that will be easily readable. Like Venuti, Federici also claims that an
allusion can acquire a different value in its new context (the translation)
than in its original context. Theories on the translation of allusions should

50

therefore not only focus on the possible untranslatability of cultural

elements, but also on the different interpretations of translatable elements
in a new context (Federici, 154). What is interesting is that allusions in a
translation may cause readers to think of different architexts (texts in the
target culture) than the allusions in the source text, Venuti calls this
recontextualization. Intertextuality in source and target text can be quite
different. Because the translators intertextual baggage plays a role here.
Some allusions might be recognized and retained in the translation; others
will consciously be omitted or are reproduced. Consequently, the
translation contains different intertextual elements than the source text.
Moreover, the readers intertextual baggage also plays a part, just like the
translators choices which influence the readers perception of the text in
the target culture.

2.1.5 Andrew Chesterman

In Memes of Translation (1997) Andrew Chesterman describes ten
syntactic, ten semantic and ten pragmatic translation transformations.
Below an overview is given.
Syntactic changes
G1: Literal translation
G2: Loan, calque
G3: Transposition
G4: Unit shift
G5: Phrase structure change
G6: Clause structure change
G7: Sentence structure change
G8: Cohesion change
G9: Level shift
G10: Scheme change

Semantic changes
S1: Synonymy
S2: Antonymy
S3: Hyponymy
S4: Converses
S5: Abstraction change
S6: Distribution change
S7: Emphasis change
S8: Paraphrase
S9: Trope change
S10: Other semantic

Pragmatic changes
Pr1: Cultural filtering
Pr2: Explicitness change
Pr3: Information change
Pr4: Interpersonal change
Pr5: Illocutionary change
Pr6: Coherence change
Pr7:Partial translation
Pr8: Visibility change
Pr9: Transediting
Pr10: Other pragmatic

changes

changes

These translation changes which can be used in the case of but are not
limited to intertextuality - are very useful when trying to discover what
strategies might work in which instances. However, they are especially

51

useful in describing the change after the translation has been made. In
the next section of this chapter, several examples of translations of
allusions and quotations will be discussed with the help of Chestermans
and Leppihalmes translation models as well as Hatims and Masons
theories.

2.2 Practice
Below, several examples of allusions and quotations in Nice Work and
some possible translations are discussed. Even though most of these
allusions are local, they are often embedded in a network of intertextual
relations to one specific source, including structural allusions. The latter
may not be a translation problem because they are not language-based,
but knowledge about all the allusions to one source does help the
translator in finding the best option. This chapter describes the translation
of local allusions with or without little context. In the next chapter,
attention will be given to longer texts and allusions are translated in their
full context.
Nice Work has been translated into Dutch by Harry Pallemans which
resulted in Vakwerk (1990). In many cases, his translation is also
evaluated in the examples below.

2.2.1 Titular allusion to Culture and Anarchy

In Nice Work many titles of English canonical works can be found. By
giving Robyn the profession of a university teacher, Lodge created the
perfect excuse to scatter these titles about. Robyns lecture, various
tutorials, assignments and personal interests form a logical context in
which such titles can be embedded. Some of these titles, like the ones in
Robyns lecture, come with additional information about the author,
content, historical background and even a personal opinion. Other titles,
like Culture and Anarchy, are merely mentioned, as the following

52

examples show.
Ive read more in the last few weeks than in all the years since I left school, he
said. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and Daniel Deronda. Well, half of Daniel
Deronda. This bloke- he took a paperback edition of Matthew Arnolds Culture
and Anarchy, assigned for a tutorial that afternoon, from his pocket, and waved
it in the air and Tennyson (NW, 356).
She had forgotten all about Vic, and was, for an instant, surprised to find him
hunched in a chair by the window, reading Culture and Anarchy by the grey rainy
light (NW, 361).

Harry Pallemans did not translate the title Culture and Anarchy in
Vakwerk.
Ik heb de laatste paar weken meer gelezen dan in alle jaren sinds ik van school
af ben, zei hij. Jane Eyre en Wuthering Heights en Daniel Deronda. Nou ja,
Daniel Deronda dan voor de helft. Deze vent- hij haalde een paperbackuitgave
van Matthew Arnolds Culture and Anarchy, waar die middag een werkgroep over
was, uit zijn zak en zwaaide ermee en Tennyson (NW, 303).
Ze was Vic helemaal vergeten en was heel even verrast dat ze hem
ineengedoken in een stoel bij het raam aantrof, waar hij Culture and Anarchy zat
te lezen bij het grauwe licht van de regenachtige dag (VW, 308).

This makes sense, considering that the work has never been translated
into Dutch. Consequently, a translated title would not refer to an existing
book and would not easily function as an allusion. At the same time, the
allusion might be lost anyway, because it seems more likely that an
English reader recognizes the title and has some associations with it, than
a Dutch reader. Readers may recognize the title as a marker though, and
may look up additional information on the internet. Obviously, the
problems connected to the rendering of this title in a Dutch translation are

53

 as is the case with many intertextual references - not of a linguistic, but

of a cultural nature. If a reader does not recognize the title and does not
try to find out what it refers to, parts of the intertextual and intratextual
level of the novel are lost to him. Moreover, the following line about Vic
Wilcox I thought you couldnt stand him? I thought he was a bully, a
philistine and a male chauvinist? (NW, 294) is not seen as another part of
the intertextual puzzle or an intratextual reference to either Culture and
Anarchy (the word philistine would be the marker here), or Howards End
because, like any philistine, both Vic and Henry Wilcox lack culture.
Instead, this line would have a much smaller context and would just be
about Vic Wilcox. The latter is the case with Pallemanss translation of this
line Ik dacht dat het een dwingeland was, een ploert, een sexist (VW,
249). Because the marked term philistine is not used, the linguistic
reference to Arnolds work has disappeared. However, on the ideational
and interdiscursive level, readers might still recognize a parallel to
Arnolds or E.M. Forsters works, especially when they have noticed other
parallels before. In any case, it would not have been easy for a Dutch
translator to use the singular word filistijn without a capital. Filistijnen
or Filistijn refers to a people who occupied the southern coast of Canaan
in the Bible. Even though their origin is debated, in the Hebrew Bible the
Philistines are often seen as opponents of the Israelites. In the nineteenth
and early twentieth century, British writers often used Philistine as a
synonym for Palestine. In the Dutch expression naar de filistijnen gaan,
filistijnen - without the capital - is used in a metaphorical sense and
means be done for. Originally, it must have meant going to people
without (Christian) religion; after all, Palestinians are Muslims. Thomas
Carlyle and Matthew Arnold were familiar with the German term Philister
from Heinrich Heines works and introduced the English version Philistine,
which had little to do with the Biblean Philistines, and everything with
unenlightened people. If Culture and Anarchy had ever been translated
into Dutch, we would perhaps also have used the term in this sense. Since
this is not the case, the word has a different connotation and does not
54

incorporate the specific cultural significance of the English term.

2.2.2 Unmarked allusion to Howards End

On page 381 of Nice Work Marion wears a T-shirt with the text ONLY
CONNECT at the very moment that Vic and Robyn make peace and she
gives him a loan. These words are the epigram to Howards End and can
also be found in the story itself. This local allusion in Nice Work does not
stand on its own. If it were the only allusion to Howards End, it might
have been difficult to recognize, but because it is one allusion in a whole
series of allusions, most of them structural ones, the chance that it will be
recognized is greater because readers already may have the link between
Nice Work and Howards End at the back of their minds. Knowledge about
the other allusions to the latter might help translators to understand the
impact and function of this specific allusion and decide which translation is
best. In the case of this allusion, mediation is rather great, because the
architext is much older than the fenotext. Readers without knowledge of
this architext might see the words as symbolic, but would miss the
allusion. The allusion is not marked in the sense that a source or writer
are revealed, the only possible marking would be the capitals, but these
might also be used because the text on the T-shirt is in capitals. For the
Dutch translation of this allusion, it is possible to apply Leppihalmes
scheme for the translation of key-phrase allusions. According to
Leppihalme, a translator must use the standard translation when it exists.
In this case, the existing translation of Erik van Domburg Scipio (1992)
Sla een brug could be used. Pallemans did not translate the words van
Domburg Scipios translation did not exist yet, or any other, but he could
easily have translated the words himself, as he did in many other
instances. The untranslated allusion is interrogative in the sense that it
invites the reader to show a critical understanding of the architext. It is
hard to say whether the chances of recognition of this allusion are greater
when it is translated or not. Not all English readers will recognize an

55

unmarked local allusion like this, and regardless of the language it is

rendered in, the same probably goes for Dutch readers. Finally, the lines
might simply be left untranslated because people often wear T-shirts with
English texts on them these days.

2.2.3 Marked allusions

When Vic is waiting outside Robyns door to be her shadow, Philip Swallow
says to when she arrives Ah, there you are. I discovered your shadow
outside your door, alone and palely loitering (NW, 331). In this case, the
quotation marks function obviously as an allusion marker. For longer
quotations, Lodge uses both italics and quotation marks, but since this is
only an allusion consisting of a part of a line, he merely uses quotation
marks. Swallow alludes to the first and last strophe of the poem La Belle
Dame Sans Merci (1820) by John Keats8. In this poem a weary knight
sitting in a barren landscape is enthralled by a beautiful fairy-like woman.
She takes him to her elfin grot and he is lulled to sleep there and he
dreams of pale kings and princesses and pale warriors who cry la belle
dame sans merci, only to wake up deserted on the cold hill side again.
Obviously, Robyn would be the lady without mercy who takes Vic to her
grot/room to enchant him, so this can be seen as an ironic metaphoric
allusion. There is an existing translation of this poem by Peter Verstegen
and the line relevant here is een bleek en eenzaam zwerveling
(Verstegen, 94). This translation would work very well in the whole
sentence Ik ontdekte je schaduw bij je deur, een bleek en eenzaam
zwerveling. Both the quotation marks and the use of the uncommon term
zwerveling could function as allusion markers. Pallemans has not used
8

First strophe

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

56

this existing translation, but instead translated the phrase himself by

eenzaam en bleekjes talmend (VW, 281). Like in the English source text,
the quotation marks serve as allusion markers, but if no existing
translation is used, it would be very difficult for a reader to discover the
source of the phrase. Even if this was an existing translation, the reader
might find it difficult to recognize it; he may for example have read the
other translation. The advantage of the English source text is that there is
often only one version of the architext as opposed to a number of
different translations in the source text - although there are actually two
versions of this poem, but the differences are very small.
Another example of a (partly) marked allusion is the following: A
line from D.H. Lawrence was it Women in Love or Lady Chatterley?
comes into Robyns head. She felt in a wave of terror the grey, gritty
hopelessness of it all (NW, 98). The name of the writer, two possible
source titles, italics and quotation marks function as allusion markers. A
little bit further in the text Robyn says to herself How strange it is,
strange and sad, to see all these tropical faces amid the slush and dirty
snow, the grey gritty hopelessness of an English industrial city in the
middle of winter (NW, 99). This time, the allusion is not marked, because
the reader can easily see the similarities between the first quotation and
the second allusion. By alluding to a formerly used quotation, Lodge also
creates passive intertextuality (see paragraph 2.2.8). A little research
shows that the quotation is from Lady Chatterleys Lover and not from
Women in Love. The existing translation by J.A. Sandfort, which is still the
most recent one zij voelde opnieuw in een golf van schrik de grauwe,
verbeten hopeloosheid van dit alles (Lawrence, 156) would according to
Leppihalme be the best option. However, the reason why an English
reader would recognize the quote, even without Lodges information about
source and writer, is probably because of the specific word combination
with the unexpected gritty and the alliteration in grey, gritty. In the
Dutch translation, there is no alliteration and the uncommon gritty is
translated by the very common and neutral term hopeloos. Nevertheless,
57

due to Lodges added information, it would be clear to everyone that this

is an allusion. Pallemans chose for the following translation Met een golf
van ontzetting voelde ze de algehele grauwe, gruizige hopeloosheid (VW,
81). Again, he does not use the existing translation but makes his own. It
does contain the previously mentioned alliteration and he translates
gritty with the similarly unusual and semantically equivalent gruizige.
This seems to be a rather successful translation, although it is not an
existing one people might recognize. Perhaps a weak spot in Leppihalmes
translation scheme has been found: it ignores the possibility that a
standard translation is not up to current standards. Obviously, Pallemans
uses the same translation partly again in the following line Wat is het
vreemd, vreemd en triest, om al deze tropische gezichten tussen de
smerige sneeuwbrij te zien, de grauwe, gruizige hopeloosheid van een
Engelse industriestad midden in de winter (VW, 82), which he should do
to keep the intratextual link intact.

2.2.4 A (geographic) proper name allusion

The geographic proper name allusion Dark Country (NW, 31) was seen
as descriptive by Pallemans and translated accordingly. The Dark Country
a combination of the existing term Black Country and North and
Souths Darkshire (Gaskell, 36) is called de Donkere Landstreek (VW,
26) in Vakwerk. By way of comparison, in her translation of North and
South, Akkie de Jong has not translated the name Darkshire. Pallemanss
decision to translate the name seems unexpected since Midlands (VW,
27) is for example not translated except in the first motto where upon
the midlands now the industrious muse may fall is translated by Midden
in het land is de nijvere muze nu gezeten. Pallemans probably considered
it necessary to translate Dark Country because, a little further in the text,
there is a connection between the dark skinned foreigners living in the
Dark Country and the geographical name. Nowadays the Dark Country is
not noticeably darker than its neighbouring city and foreign visitors think

58

that the region gets its name [] from the complexions of so many of its
inhabitants (NW, 32) and in Pallemans translation: Vandaag de dag is de
Donkere Landstreek niet waarneembaar donkerder dan de naburige stad
(VW, 27). Pallemans may have been afraid that the link between the dark
complexion of the inhabitants and the word dark in the name would not
be clear to everyone. Consequently, this intratextual reference is
maintained, but the intertextual reference to North and South is partly
lost. Another argument for translating this proper name might be that it is
not just a (fictional) name, but also a description of a situation. In
Leppihalmes scheme for the translation of proper name allusions she
states that if the name is familiar, retention is the best option, but if this is
not the case and a suitable replacement name is available, the name
might be substituted by such an item. Dark Country could probably be
retained, because the English words are so simple most people will
understand them. Yet, if a translator would decide to substitute it, what
would be the ideal substitutive term? Pallemanss Donkere Landstreek
does not sound familiar in Dutch. We do use terms like Modderland or
Waterland, so perhaps Donkerland would be an option. It turns out
though, that this term is a bit problematic for two reasons: (a) the land is
not made of darkness, instead the darkness it is the consequence of the
actions that took place there and (b) an additional and undesired allusion
would be created since Donkerland is a term used in the translation of
works by J.R.R. Tolkien and is a part of middle-earth. Furthermore, in
2007 Victor Crebolders novel Donkerland about child pornography was
published. Donkerland would consequently not be the ideal translation,
but let us, by way of experiment, look at the consequences if the term
would be used in the translation. It would have a certain semantic
correspondence with Dark Country, but it would have a totally different
(literary) context. Instead of the allusion to North and South, there would
be an allusion to Tolkiens middle-earth and even to a bad world in which
an awful thing like child pornography takes place. As a result, the foreign
text would not merely be decontextualized, but recontextualized as Venuti
59

would say and according to Hatims and Masons theory the words in the
translation get their own TL architext. The question is, is this the right new
context? The answer would probably be no.
Let us assume that Donkerland is rejected because the
connotations and newly created allusions are not fitting, and another
translation is required. What are the other options? A term like het
Groene Hart might be useful, because groene is also an adjective and
hart refers to the heart of the Netherlands and Rummidge and its
surroundings are also situated in the heart of England, or the Midlands.
Yet groene is a positive, and donkere a negative term. When a
translator uses a name to refer to an industrial and polluted landscape
that is similar to the one used to refer to pretty scenery, this might create
a friction between the readers expectations and the actual message that is
being conveyed. At the same time, the use of the word hart does not
seem out of place because in the first motto of Felix Holt the shires which
we the heart of England may call are mentioned, and later in the novel
Robyn thinks of Rummidge sprawled darkly and densely in the heart of
England (NW, 306). Therefore, by using hart a kind of passive
intertextuality would be created. In short, het Donkere Hart would have
its advantages and its disadvantages. Which recontextualizing process
would take place if a translator would use this term? There is for example
a book called (in translation) In het donkere hart van Afrika (2004) by
Marcus Stevens, Karen Armstrong wrote Het donkere hart van de
Zuidzee (2004),

and according to certain scientists there is a black hole

in the Milky Way which is called het zwarte hart van de Melkweg
(Ducastel). The first two titles are geographical terms, although they are
no proper names but descriptive and even commentary words. The first
title probably also refers to a colonial past as well as Joseph Conrads
Heart of Darkness and the Dutch translation Hart der Duisternis, which is
not unwelcome considering the intratextual reference to dark-skinned
inhabitants. Hopping from association to association, the foreign text is
again recontexualized and new allusions are created. As a result, the
60

foreign intertextual relations are replaced by a receiving intertext and the

translator achieves this by the application of interpretants (Venuti, 163).
The decision not to translate Dark Country would be defensible
since existing geographical names although this one does not actually
exist, it does resemble existing names - are often not translated and the
English word dark is so easy to understand that extra help in the
semantic field should also not be necessary. Nevertheless, the translation
het Donkere Hart seems to be a name that is richer in allusions in the
source language and culture and that is as a result more telling.

2.2.5 Literary quotations

At one point in Nice Work Robyn and Charles are having a very humorous
conversation which clearly illustrates that they just like everyone else to
a certain extent use language that echoes other peoples words. In this
case, a large part of the conversation consists of direct quotes.
Charles read out a quotation: I think where I am not, therefore I am where I
think not I am not, wherever I am the plaything of my thought; I think of what
I am wherever I dont think I am thinking.
Marvelous, Robyn agreed.
Theres quite a good discussion of it in here.
Isnt that where Lacan says something interesting about realism?
Yes: This two-faced mystery is linked to the fact that the truth can be evoked
only in that dimension of alibi in which all realism in creative works takes its
virtue from metonomy.
Robyn frowned. What do you think it means, exactly? I mean, is truth being
used ironically?
Oh, I think so, yes. Its implied by the word alibi, surely? There is no truth, in
the absolute sense , no transcendental signified. Truth is just a rhetorical illusion,
a tissue of metonymies and metaphors, as Nietzsche said. It all goes back to
Nietzsche, really, as this chap points out.

61

Charles tapped the book on his lap. Listen. Lacan goes on: It is likewise linked
to this other fact that we accede to meaning only through the double twist of
metaphor when we have the unique key: the signifier and the signified of the
Saussurian formula are not at the same level, and man only deludes himself
when he believes that his true place is at their axis, which is nowhere.
But isnt he making a distinction between truth and meaning? Truth is to
meaning as metonomy is to metaphor.
(NW, 177-178).

These three quotations are clearly marked; Lodge literally says Charles
read out a quotation (NW, 177), the quotations are presented in italics
and between quotation marks and the name of the writer is also specified.
The only information lacking is the source these quotes are coming from.
Ideally, a translator renders direct quotations by existing
translations. Unfortunately, this is not possible in this case, because even
though most of Lacans works are available in English, they have not been
translated into Dutch. The only option left for a translator, is to translate
these passages him or herself. While Lacans own works are not available
in Dutch, some sources by others about him are available and might give
a translator an indication to what kind of vocabulary is needed here and
which expressions are used, and perhaps even some quotes may be
found. Lacan also refers to the signifier and the signified of the
Saussurian formula about which quite a lot has been written in Dutch in
works on literary theory. The status and the cultural significance of works
like this should be more or less the same in England and in the
Netherlands; they are not canonical works, but material used by
specialists in literary theory. Leppihalme would call this a transcultural
allusion. In Nice Work Lodge also often refers to Saussures theory. If the
informational status of the quotations is not clear, it might help to find the
English language (or the French) sources of the quotes in order to be able
to read their contexts. Omitting the quotations is not possible because
they form a vital part of the conversation and not translating them would
therefore not work in this conversation. In the context, the main thing is
62

that readers know that these are - rather abstract quotations and that
the meaning is conveyed. Few readers have such specialized knowledge
that they would actually recognize the specific phrasing of the quotes. As
long as the humorous effect of the intertexts is maintained in the
translation, it is successful.
I have tried to find Dutch translations of books on Lacan, but there
are but few. The search of translations of quotes in books about Lacan or
philosophical magazines would be a long one. An author like Filip Buekens
is not very helpful. He uses many quotes by Lacan and others in Jacques
Lacan: proefvlucht in het luchtledige (2006), but they are all in English or
French. My last resort were my own words. This is my translation of the
first quotation in Robyns and Charless conversation: Ik denk waar ik
niet ben, daarom ben ik waar ik niet denkik ben niet, waar ik de speelbal
van mijn gedachten ben; ik denk aan wat ik ben, waar ik niet denk dat ik
aan het denken ben, which does not differ too much from Pallemans
translation: Ik denk waar ik niet ben, dus ben ik waar ik niet denk Waar
ik de speelbal van mijn gedachten ben, daar ben ik niet; waar ik niet denk
dat ik denk, daar denk ik aan wat ik ben (VW, 149).
My translation of the third quote in the conversation was made in
the same way, except that I was able to find the term dualistische
metafoor in Taal en verlangen: Lacans theorie van de psychoanalyse
(1975) by Antoine Mooij.
Het is allemaal bovendien verbonden met het andere feit dat we alleen door het
dualisme van de metafoor betekenis kunnen vinden wanneer we de unieke
sleutel in handen hebben: de betekenaar en het betekende uit de Saussuriaanse
formule bevinden zich niet op het zelfde niveau en de mens misleidt zichzelf
alleen maar als hij gelooft dat hij thuishoort op de middenlijn tussen die twee,
die niet bestaat. (My own translation)

63

The translation below is made by Pallemans. The main difference lies in

the translation of the double twist of the metaphor. Perhaps he used
another source, but that is impossible to know.
Evenzo is het verbonden met het andere feit dat we alleen voor de dubbele
draai van de metafoor betekenis vinden wanneer we de enige sleutel hebben: de
betekenaar en het betekende van de Saussuriaanse formule liggen niet op
hetzelfde niveau, en de mens misleidt zichzelf slechts alsl hij meent dat zijn ware
plaats op de aslijn tussen die twee is, die niet bestaat (VW, 150).

In some cases, translators do not translate certain quotes or

epigraphs when these are placed separately from the rest of the story.
Even though Pallemans chose to translate them, the two epigraphs to Nice
Work from Felix Holt and Sybil could for example be left untranslated.
Architext Sybil has never been translated into Dutch and the only
translation ever made of architext Felix Holt dates back from 1867 and
does not contain a translation or mentioning of the motto from PolyOlbion. Since Draytons Poly-Olbion has also never been translated into
Dutch, it is certain that no existing translation could be used here.
Whether the quotations are in Dutch or in English might be of little
consequence as the chance that Dutch readers have read or know these
sources is quite small.

2.2.6 Dead allusions

In everyday language allusions are often used that are no longer
recognized as such, which is why they are called dead allusions. An
example of such an allusion in Nice Work is He had seen the writing on
the wall (NW, 45). This phrase originates from the Bible book of Daniel,
but it is used so often, that it has become a common idiomatic expression.
In Dutch we use the phrase het teken aan de wand, which can be found
in Dutch translations of the same Bible book. This example has both in
Dutch and in English - become so common that it hardly seems worth
64

discussing it, but there are less clear cases. In this context Leppihalme
uses the term dying allusions because it is not always clear whether the
allusions still partly exist or not. The following allusion might be seen as
dead or dying, or might perhaps still be alive. Allusions like this are
usually totally unmarked. This might be an indication that the writer did
not intend there to be an allusion here. American academic life is red in
tooth and claw (NW, 360). This is a much-quoted phrase from Canto 56
of Alfred Lord Tennysons poem In Memoriam A.H.H. (1849) 9. The
expression tooth and claw already existed in Tennysons day judging by
the following line "Hereupon, the beasts, enraged at the humbug, fell
upon him tooth and claw" (The Phrase Finder), which featured in The
Hagerstown Mail in March 1837 and was slightly adapted by Tennyson.
The phrase cannot be found in the SOED as a fixed expression, whereas
the writing on the wall can be found there, including the source, which
might be seen as another indication that this allusion is not quite dead,
whereas the writing on the wall is. According to Leppihalmes key-phrase
allusion scheme dead or dying allusions should be treated like idioms, and
Hatim and Mason are of the opinion that the writers intentionality has to
be retained. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether Lodge intended this to be
an unmarked local allusion or just an idiomatic expression. Pallemans has
followed Leppihalmes method for dead allusions in his translation In
Amerika moet je in het universitaire leven flink van je af kunnen bijten
(VW, 307). The image is somewhat weaker, but by using bijten for tooth
the image is more or less present in the translation. Just like in Lodges
sentence, there are no allusion markers here and the idiomatic expression
used is nothing more than idiomatic. There does not seem to be any great
loss though; the function of the dying allusion in the source text is not
such, that it needs to be rendered at any price. In the architext it is
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek'd against his creed
9

65

described that nature is red in tooth and claw, and since nature is
compared to American academic life (or more specifically academic life at
Euphoria State University) this allusion if it is not dying could be seen
as a metaphoric allusion, and the simple comparison hardly adds any new
insights to the story.
Because Lodge plays so much with intertextuality, he might have
used the allusion (dead or not) on purpose. After all, he could have opted
for a more neutral expression that was only idiomatic. Since Tennysons In
Memoriam is such a long poem, not many people would know the lines by
heart, although a much quoted expression like the one being discussed
here would be known to more people, if not always in relation to its
source. Supposing the allusion is used intentionally and should be
retained, the existing translation by Rudy Bremer Kaken en klauwen rood
van t bloed could serve. In Dutch, the image is even stronger than in
English because not just the colour red, but also the substance blood is
specifically mentioned. The translation Amerikaanse academici hebben
kaken en klauwen rood van t bloed would perhaps be over the top. The
apostrophe before the t might serve as an allusion marker, and possibly a
few readers would recognize the allusion. Semantically though, the
sentence does not benefit from this forced use of the existing translation.
In spite of the rather complicated intertextual web, Nice Work is a story
written in fluent, relatively simple prose. It seems that a translator should
also make sure the translation is written in the same style and sentences
like Amerikaanse academici hebben kaken en klauwen rood van t bloed
might attract too much attention and form something of a (culture) bumb
and stand in the way of fluent prose.

2.2.7 Modified Allusions

Apart from quotations and short (quotation-like) allusions, Lodge has also
embedded modified allusions in his text, for example the long allusion to
Joyces The Dead (see chapter one, paragraph 1.3.9, and chapter three,
paragraph 3.4). Shorter examples can also be found, such as the

66

unmarked allusion Life was short, criticism long (NW, 215). This is an
adaptation of Hippocratess Latin line Ars longa, vita brevis or the
English translation Life is short, art is long. Robyns art consists mainly
of criticism, either of herself or others, and she is hindered in her work by
the Shadow Scheme. In other words: she is running short of time, while
at the same time There were always so many books, so many articles in
so many journals, waiting to be read, digested, distilled and synthesized
with all the other books and articles she had read, digested, distilled and
synthesized (NW, 215). Van Dale uses the Dutch expression de kunst is
lang, het leven kort. In Vakwerk, Pallemans uses the following
translation: Het leven was kort, en literaire critici waren lang van stof
(VW, 181). In this sentence, the allusion is less clear than in the English
source text, because Lodge only changed one word, while Pallemans did
not just use long but introduced another idiomatic expression lang van
stof zijn. Moreover, he did not merely use criticism but the critics.
Andrew Chesterman would call this transformation an abstraction
change (S5). The relatively abstract phrase criticism is long is changed
in the more concrete personification de critici waren lang van stof. Even
though this is semantically a correct translation, the allusion has become
less apparent. Because the English language allows more vagueness in
expressions than the Dutch language, this might not be totally
unexpected. However, if even a dictionary like Van Dale uses the rather
vague expression de kunst is lang, then why would it not be possible to
use de kritiek is lang in the translation? Either way, the intertext will only
be recognized by people who have studied literary theory. An allusion like
this is not so easily recontextualized, because it seems to have the same
status (and associations) in the English as in the Dutch culture.

2.2.8 Active and passive allusions

Lodge often makes use of both active and what Hatim and Mason call
passive intertextuality which is called intratextuality by Venuti. One

67

example of this is the use of the quotation Tis aw a muddle (NW, 270),
later slightly modified as T was all a muddle (NW, 315) and finally the
separate word muddle (NW, 351) because the universitys syllabus is
considered a mess. It cannot be a coincidence that Lodge uses nearly the
same allusion twice and later uses it again when another synonym would
semantically have worked just as well. It must have been his intention to
do so and according to Hatim and Mason both the semiotic status and the
intentionality of the allusion have to be retained. A translator should first
find a good translation for the first (active) allusion like an existing
translation that fits and secondly, re-use the translation of muddle in
the two following links in the thread of passive intertextuality. If a
translator fails to do so and uses two or even three different translations
for muddle, the semiotic status of the sign might be retained, but the
writers intentionality is not and the thread of passive intertextuality in the
translation of the fenotext is broken. A good translation for muddle would
be warboel and this is also the word used in the translation of the
architext Hard Times. Pallemans also uses this term three times; first
Het is n grote warboel (VW, 227), later Het was n grote warboel
(NW, 266) and finally, De vraag is of we nog een system hebben, of
alleen maar een warboel (VW, 300) and consequently managed to
maintain the passive intertextuality. Yet, his translation of the first active
allusion and, as a result of the other two allusions as well, might not be
entirely successful. In the source text there are other allusion markers
beside the title of the source10 and the fairly predictably quotation marks
and italics, namely an apostrophe before the t. Lodge never uses
apostrophes like this in the rest of his text and aw instead of all which
can hardly be considered a common way of speech. Even if Lodge had not
informed the reader about the name of the writer, the reader would have
little trouble recognizing this as an allusion, even if he or she would not
know the source immediately. In Pallemanss translation such allusion
A phrase from Hard Times she was apt to quote with a certain derision in her lectures,
but of which she had thought more charitably lately, came into her mind: T is aw a
muddle (NW, 270).
10

68

markers cannot be found, but the italics and quotation marks are
maintained and, especially because Hard Times is mentioned, the reader
knows that an allusion is made here. However, the expression used is so
common, that if the title of the source had not been mentioned and the
italics and quotation marks would not have been there, few readers would
have recognized the allusion. The fact that Lodge often makes several
allusions to the same architext - there have also been other allusions to
Hard Times would perhaps have helped the attentive reader. According
to Leppihalmes translation scheme the best option for the translation of
an allusion, if it is not a dead allusion, is to use the existing standard
translation. In this case, the standard translation Wat een warboel
(Dickens, 179) does not seem to be a better option than Pallemanss
rendering because it is again an all too common expression without any
specific allusion markers and the unusual speech patterns present in Hard
Times have disappeared in the translation. Leppihalme further suggests
adding external marking, but that hardly seems necessary when the title
of the architext is already mentioned. The next step in finding a good
translation for a key-phrase allusion is adding internal marking. In this
case, it could be possible to find equivalents for the English allusion
markers. Is it possible to use an apostrophe in Dutch? Yes, t is could for
example be used and by adding another unusual speech characteristic like
ene instead of een, it would seem that the English allusion is translated
faithfully by T is ene grote warboel. The disadvantage would be that this
is not a phrase from an existing translation, which could be seen as an
obstacle to its functioning as an allusion. However, the existing translation
that, according to Leppihalme, should be used does not seem to be ideal
in this case because it must be very old; it was done during a time that it
was more common to make dialect and other ways of alternate speech
disappear in translation. In spite of the fact that the existing translation is
not perfect, it seems that all five of Hatims and Masons rules have been
followed.
A second example of passive intertextuality in Nice Work is found on
69

page 217 where Robyn uses the expression to give a monkeys (the bold
print was added).
[]doesnt it worry you that ninety-nine point nine per cent of the population
couldnt give a monkeys?
A what? said Charles.
A monkeys. It means you dont care a bit.
It means you dont give a monkeys fuck.
Does it? Said Robyn, with a snigger. I thought it was a monkeys nut. I should
have known fuck is much more poetic in Jakobsons terms the
repetition of the k as well as the first vowel in monkey No wonder
Vic Wilcox looked startled when I said it the other day. (NW, 217)

[] zit jij er niet mee dat dat negenennegentig komma negen procent van de
bevolking geen mieter interesseert?
Geen wat? zei Charles.
Geen mieter. Helemaal niets, betekent dat.
Geen sodemieter, betekent dat.
Ja? zei Robyn giechelend. Ik dacht dat het een verbastering van meter was
Geen wonder dat Vic Wilcox zo geschokt keek toen ik het laatst een keer zei.
(VW, 183)

One of the most striking things about the translation is not the translation
of monkeys, but the omission of a large part of a sentence, including a
reference to Jakobsons theory on the poetic function of language (the
lines in bold) and the use of his name. The Dutch translation is also not
entirely successful because the full expression would be dat het . voor
geen meter interesseert or dat het geen mieter interesseert.
Pallemans left out voor and as a result his sentence is grammatically
incorrect, whereas the English sentence is not. The consequence of
Pallemanss choice for a one-word instead of a two-word translation of the
negative expression is that it is impossible for him to maintain the
reference to Jakobson theory on the poetic function of language, which is

70

one piece of a whole series of references and allusions to literary theory. If

he had opted for a two-word translation, the reference and proper name
could also have been part of the translation. The following translation
proves this.
[] zit jij er niet mee dat het negenennegentig komma negen procent van de
bevolking zal roesten?
Zal wat? zei Charles.
Zal roesten. Dat betekent dat het ze niets kan schelen.
Dat betekent dat het hen aan hun reet zal roesten.
Echt waar? zei Robyn giechelend. Ik dacht dat de uitdrukking was aan hun
achterwerk roesten. Ik had het kunnen weten, reet is veel potischer volgens
Jakobson; de herhaling van de r en de klinkers lijken ook op elkaar. Geen
wonder dat Vic Wilcox zo geschokt keek toen ik het laatst een keer zei.
(My own translation)

It is interesting to see that, even though this translation seems to be more

about wordplay than intertextuality, the consequences are related to
intertextuality. Jakobsons proper name can be maintained in the
translation because this is what Leppihalme would call a transcultural sign.
Later Robyn uses the expression again, and this time the full version
is used. While talking to Charles on the phone she retorts in response to
his suggestion that she is jealous of the money Debbie makes I dont give
a monkeys fuck how much money she makes (NW, 261). This is where
the passive allusion can be recognized. Just like in the first example, the
translator should here also use the same translation twice in order to
maintain the passive intertextuality. In Pallemans translation Het kan me
geen sodemieter schelen hoeveel geld ze verdient (VW, 219), he does not
fail to do this.

2.3 Concluding remarks

71

In translating Nice Work, the translation problems a translator encounters

are mostly related to intertextuality. With the help of the theory and
vocabulary introduced by Paul Claes, Ritva Leppihalme, Elda Weizman and
Hatim and Mason, it was possible to come to a theoretic approach of
intertextual references which might help translators (and readers) to
identify allusions and quotations, to recognize the various types of
allusions and see their possible functions. Unfortunately, it is not possible
to produce a theoretic model that enables translators to recognize all
allusions, because each person has a different frame of reference and
even erudite translators and readers might miss certain allusions because
they are not familiar with a certain architext or event. I can also not
guarantee that I have recognized all allusions. If allusions go unrecognized
they will, like dead allusions, dissapear in the translation and the phrases
will be translated as if they are idiomatic phrases. Even though unmarked
allusions may be hidden in the text, many of them can be identified with
the help of external or internal markings. Ritva Leppihalme has produced
two straightforward models that can be used in the translation of proper
name and key-phrase allusions. Although these models seem to aim
mainly at short allusions, they have proved to be rather usefull in many
cases. Perhaps a translator does not need Leppihalmes key-phrase model
to decide to use an existing translation, yet many translators like Harry
Pallemans fail to do so, and treating dead allusions like an idiom, adding
external or internal marking explicitizing the translation -, or recreating
them, are also very usefull suggestions. Leppihalme has designed
concrete models. Hatim and Mason have attempted to do the same, but
their concrete guidelines are so broad it is less easy to apply them. What
both researchers have done, is create a kind of hierarchy; indicate which
characteristics of the allusions foremostely have to be maintained in the
translation. One part of the theory of Hatim and Mason which turned out
to be very useful was the section on passive intertextuality. Even though it
did not give concrete remarks on translation, it did give me more insight
in how Lodge used, and re-used, certain allusions and quotations.
72

Lawrence Venuti is not concerned with practical translation models. His

theory shows that translation is a decontextualizing process and that the
translation of intertextual elements leads to a recontextualized translation.
First, because the status of the architext is different in source and target
culture, and second, because specific phrasings refer to different contexts
in source and target culture. Andrew Chestermans general theory on
translation changes did not prove to be as useful as the ones discussed
above.
My research has also shown that Harry Pallemans in many cases
opted for different translations than I - taking into account the theories of
Leppihalme, Hatim & Mason and Venuti - would have done. He never used
existing translations. In some cases these may not have been available,
but in others they were. In one case grey, gritty and grauwe, gruizigePallemans own translation turned out to be better than the existing one,
but in many other cases he diminished the allusive qualities of pre-formed
linguistic material by producing a translation of his own. He never
translated titular allusions. Some titles, like Culture and Anarchy, have
never been translated, others, like Hard Times, several times. Especially if
a translator uses fragments of an existing translation, it seems logical that
he also uses the title of the translation, but Pallemans chose for his own
translations and untranslated titles. He left the T-shirt text Only Connect
and allusion to Howards End untranslated. In this instance he, as mostly,
did not use an existing translation, but he also did not translate the words
himself. You would expect that he also opted for leaving the fictional
geographic name Dark Country untranslated, but this time he did
translate the name, not entirely successful, by Donkere Landstreek.
Perhaps he did not have enough time to search for architexts and existing
translations. Yet, it seems that he did not decide beforehand how he would
deal with the intertextual elements, but simply did what he considered
necessary in each seperate instance without forming any basic ideas on
how to render intertextuality in the source text.

73

In the following pages two parts of Nice Work are translated. The
examples discussed earlier consisted of mere fragments, the next chapter
contains longer pieces of annotated translation and shows how allusions
function in their full context.

74

3. Annotated translations
3.1 Robyns lecture
After Vic and Robyn have been introduced at the beginning of the story,
Lodge alternately describes Vics and Robyns morning. Robyn starts her
working day at the university by giving a lecture on the Victorian industrial
novel. Only the text dedicated to this lecture is translated below, the parts
about Vic are left out. This lecture is important for various reasons. It
gives information about several industrial novels as well as their historical
background. The lecture does not merely seem to be intended for the
fictional students in the novel, but also for actual readers of Nice Work.
Lodge uses Robyns lecture to describe the content and function of some
industrial novels. This information proves to be a kind of introduction to
the rest of Nice Work and gives information on some structural and local
allusions readers might discover later. The framework of the lecture also
enables Lodge to insert several literal quotations from industrial novels to
which he can later refer.

3.2 Translation
Chapter 3, page 70
De klok van de universiteit slaat elf uur, de slagen overlappen die van alle
ander klokken, ver weg en dichtbij. In heel Rummidge en omgeving zijn
mensen aan het werk of niet, al naar gelang de situatie.
Robyn Penrose baant zich via gangen en trappen propvol met studenten
een weg naar collegezaal A. Ze gaan voor haar uiteen, als golven voor de
boeg van een statig schip. Ze glimlacht naar diegenen die ze herkent.

75

Sommigen lopen achter haar aan en volgen haar naar de collegezaal,

zodat het lijkt of ze als een vrouwelijke rattenvanger van
Hamelen11 een kleine stoet aan het leiden is. Onder n arm draagt ze
haar map met aantekeningen en onder de ander een stapel boeken
waaruit ze illustratieve voorbeelden wil gaan voorlezen. Geen enkele
jongeman biedt aan deze last van haar over te nemen. Een dergelijke
hoffelijkheid is ook niet meer in de mode. Robyn zou dergelijk gedrag zelf
op ideologische gronden verwerpen en de andere studenten zouden het
misschien kruiperig hebben gevonden.

Page 71, botom

Robyn ordent haar aantekeningen op de lessenaar terwijl ze wacht tot de
laatkomers zijn gaan zitten. De collegezaal resoneert als een trommel het
geroezemoes van ruim honderd studenten die allemaal tegelijk zo druk
aan het praten zijn, dat het lijkt of ze zojuist zijn vrijgelaten uit eenzame
opsluiting. Ze tikt op de tafel met de achterkant van een pen en schraapt
haar keel. Plotseling verstomt de zaal en honderd gezichten wenden zich
naar haar toe - nieuwsgierig, vol verwachting, nors, apathisch als lege
schalen die spoedig gevuld zullen worden. Het gezicht van Marion Russell
ontbreekt en Robyn kan een haar onwaardig vleugje wrevel niet
onderdrukken bij deze uiting van ondankbaarheid.
Tussen 1840 en 1860 zegt Robyn, verscheen enkele romans in Engeland
die bepaalde aspecten met elkaar gemeen hebben. Raymond Williams 12
11

The Pied Piper or Rattenvanger van Hamelen is a fairy tale known in both the

English and the Dutch culture and can therefore be considered a transcultural
allusion.
12

This proper name simply has to be retained because it was this expert who

called the novels industrial novels. This is a fact and both the reader and the
students in Nice Work learn this fact.

76

noemde ze industrile romans omdat de sociale en economische

problemen die voortkwamen uit de industrile revolutie erin beschreven
werden evenals in enkele gevallen de aard van fabriekswerk. In hun eigen
tijd werden ze vaak toestand van Engeland-romans genoemd omdat ze
de staat van het land als onderwerp hadden. Het zijn romans waarin de
hoofdpersonen niet alleen de in die tijd actuele sociale en economische
problemen bespreken, maar waarin ze ook verliefd worden of juist het
gevoel van verliefdheid verliezen, trouwen en kinderen krijgen, carrire
maken, veel geld verdienen of verliezen en al die andere dingen doen die
gewoon zijn voor personages in relatief conventionele romans. De
industrile roman zorgde voor een specifieke invloed op de Engelse
literatuur die ook in de moderne periode zijn uitwerking had hij is in het
werk van Lawrence and Forster13 bijvoorbeeld aanwezig. Maar het is niet
verrassend dat dit type roman voor het eerst opkwam tijdens wat in de
geschiedenis de hongerige jaren veertig is gaan heten.
In het vijfde decennium van de negentiende eeuw had de
industrile revolutie de traditionele structuur van de Engelse maatschappij
volledig ontwricht; het had slechts enkelen rijkdom gebracht en velen
misre. De keuterboeren, beroofd van hun bestaan doordat eind
achttiende en begin negentiende eeuw alle gemeenschapsgrond privbezit
werd, stroomden in groten getale naar de steden van de Midlands en het
noorden waar de laissez faire economie hen dwong om lange dagen te
maken onder slechte omstandigheden voor een miserabel loon en ervoor
zorgde dat ze hun baan verloren zodra de markt inzakte.
De pogingen van de arbeiders om hun belangen te verdedigen door
vakbonden te vormen werden door de werkgevers uit alle macht
gedwarsboomd. Nog vuriger tegenwerking ondervonden ze toen ze
politieke vertegenwoordiging probeerden te krijgen door middel van de
chartistische beweging.
Robyn kijkt op van haar aantekeningen en laat haar blik over haar
publiek glijden. Sommige van hen zijn druk bezig al haar woorden op te
13

Lodge specifically mentions these two names of writers he will later allude to.

77

schrijven, anderen kijken haar vorsend aan terwijl ze op de achterkant

van hun pen kauwen en diegenen die er in het begin al verveeld uitzagen
staren nu afwezig uit het raam of zijn ijverig hun initialen in de
collegebanken aan het krassen.
In het handvest van de chartisten stond de eis tot kiesrecht voor
alle mannen. Zelfs deze extreme radicalen konden zich de mogelijkheid
van kiesrecht voor alle vrouwen niet voorstellen.
Alle studenten, zelfs zij die uit het raam staren, reageren hierop. Ze
glimlachen en knikken of kreunen en sissen op een instemmende manier.
Dit is wat ze verwachten van Robyn Penrose en zelfs de rugbyspelers op
de achterste rij zouden een beetje teleurgesteld zijn als ze niet af en toe
met een dergelijke observatie op de proppen was gekomen.
Page 74, botom
Er waren twee climactische momenten in de geschiedenis van het
chartisme. En ervan was het indienen van een miljoenen handtekeningen
bevattende petitie bij het parlement in 1839. De afwijzing hiervan leidde
tot een reeks stakingen, demonstraties en onderdrukkende maatregelen
door de regering. Dit vormt de achtergrond van Elizabeth Gaskells 14 roman
Mary Barton en Benjamin Disraelis15 Sybil. Het tweede moment was het
indienen van een tweede monsterpetitie in 1848. Dit gegeven vormt de
achtergrond van Charles Kingsleys16 Alton Locke. 1848 was een jaar
14

Mrs Gaskell is translated with Elizabeth Gaskell because that is how we would

put it in Dutch. Mevrouw Gaskell sounds very archaic.

15

The first name is added here to create some symmetry. Lodge had used

Gaskells and Disraelis full names in the epigraphs, which is probably why he did
not consider it necessary to use them again. However, both names are more
common in England than in the Netherlands, all the more reason to use the full
names in the translation.
16

Lodge had used Gaskells and Disraelis full names in the epigraphs, and in this

lecture only their surnames whereas Charles Kingsleys name is not mentioned in
the epigraphs but used in full in the lecture. Lodge will later allude to the

78

waarin in heel Europa revoluties plaatsvonden en veel mensen in Engeland

waren bang dat het chartisme ook een revolutie in Engeland zou
veroorzaken, of erger nog, een terreur. Ieder beetje strijdlust van de
arbeiders wordt in de literatuur van die tijd weergegeven als een
bedreiging voor de sociale orde. Dit is ook het geval bij Charlotte Bronts
Shirley (1849). Hoewel het verhaal zich afspeelt tijdens de napoleontische
oorlogen, worden de rellen van de Luddites dusdanig behandeld dat er
duidelijk sprake is van verkapte kritiek op recentere gebeurtenissen.
Page 76
Meneer Gradgrind belichaamt in Moeilijke tijden17 de ziel van het
industrile kapitalisme zoals Dickens dit zag. Hij hangt de utilitaire filosofie
aan. Hij minacht emoties en verbeeldingskracht en gelooft alleen in feiten.
De roman laat onder meer zien wat de vreselijke gevolgen van deze
filosofie zijn voor meneer Gradgrinds eigen kinderen: Tom wordt een dief
en Louisa pleegt bijna overspel, evenals op de levens van de arbeiders in
het stadje Coketown, dat gevormd is naar zijn denkbeelden; een sombere
plek met:
vele straten, de een precies gelijkend op de ander en vele smalle die
ng meer op elkaar leken en bewoond werden door mensen die k
allen op elkaar leken, allen op het zelfde uur naar buiten en naar
binnen gingen, met het zelfde geluid van hun voetstappen op de
zelfde straatstenen om het zelfde werk te gaan doen en voor wie

mentioned works of all these three writers. He uses Robyns lecture as an

introduction to coming allusions and the information he allows Robyn to give to
the reader is useful later.
17

Considering that the long existing Dutch translation of Hard Times is used for

the translation of a fairly long quotation on this same page, it seems logical to
use the title of this translation instead of the English title.

79

iedere dag de zelfde was als die van gisteren en morgen en ieder jaar
het zelfde als het voorgaande en het komende18.
Tegenover deze vervreemde, zich steeds herhalende manier van leven
staat het circus een gemeenschap vol spontaniteit, gulheid en creatieve
verbeelding. We mten er zijn, edele heer, zegt de lispelende
circusbaas, meneer Sleary, tegen Gradgrind. De mensch moet zijn
pleziertje hebben19. Het is Sissy20, de door Gradgrind geadopteerde en
18

This literal quotation from Hard Times is, according to Leppihalmes model,

replaced by the existing Dutch translation on page 20 of Moeilijke Tijden. The

text seems to fit because the style is rather old-fashioned, yet does not contain
any striking aspects such as the disappearance of dialect in the translation.
19

These two short quotations from Hard Times can again for consistencys sake

be translated by existing translations from Moeilijke Tijden. There are three

translations of Hard Times in Dutch: Slechte tijden by C.M. Mensing (1873),
Moeilijke tijden by G.J. Werumeus Buning-Ensink (1925) and the most recent
one Zware tijden by Eugne Dabekaussen and Tilly Maters (2009). The last one
was not available to me when I was working on this translation, so I used the
translation by Werumeus Buning-Ensink. Page 194 of this translation contains the
line We moeten er zijn, edele heer. Because Lodge has marked the quotations
by the use of italics, the emphasised moeten would not stand out anymore, and
is replaced by mten to make sure the stress is maintained. The second
quotation is used twice in Hard Times and there are two different translations in
Moeilijke Tijden. The first is Het menschdom wil op de een of andere manier
geamuscheerd worden (page 32) and the second De mensch moet zijn
pleziertje hebben (on page 194 together with the other citation). The latter is
used here because the length of the phrase resembles the English more and
because it is used in combination with the first quotation. The archaic spelling of
mensch serves as an extra allusion marker because it indicates that the
intertext is much older than the rest perhaps it can even be seen as a register
switch - and it creates a sibilant, just like in the source text.
20

Cissy is used in the architext, but Sissy is used in the translation of the

architext. Normally, the original name would be used in the translation, but once
the choice is made to use the translation of the architext, it seems best to be

80

geminachte dochter van de kunstrijder, die de reddende kracht in zijn

leven blijkt te zijn. De boodschap van de roman is duidelijk: de
vervreemding die ontstaat door werken onder het industrile kapitalisme
kan overwonnen worden door liefdevolle aandacht en fantasierijk spel,
gesymboliseerd door Sissy en het circus.
Robyn pauzeert even om de haastig schrijvende studenten de kans
te geven hun achterstand in te halen en om bovendien meer nadruk te
leggen op haar volgende zin: Natuurlijk is een dergelijke uitleg volkomen
ontoereikend. Dickens eigen ideologische positie zit vol
tegenstrijdigheden.'
De studenten die alles hebben zitten opschrijven kijken nu met een
grimas naar Robyn Penrose op, alsof ze zich bekocht voelen. Ze leggen
hun pen neer en doen wat vingergymnastiek als ze pauzeert en haar
aantekeningen ordent voor het volgende deel van haar uiteenzetting.
Page 78
Het is interessant dat zoveel industrile romans door vrouwen geschreven
zijn. In hun werk krijgen de ideologische tegenstellingen binnen de
liberaal-humanistische houding van de middenklasse ten opzichte van de
industrile revolutie een duidelijk seksueel karakter.
Bij het vallen van het woord seksueel gaat er een vlaagje interesse
door de rijen van stille luisteraars. Degenen die aan het dagdromen of hun
initialen in de bank aan het krassen waren gaan rechtop zitten. Degenen
die aantekeningen aan het maken waren, gaan hier nog fanatieker mee
door. Er klinkt geen gekuch, gesnuif of voetgeschuifel meer. Als Robyn
verder gaat, wordt het geluid van haar stem alleen af en toe onderbroken
door het geluid van een vol A-viertje dat haastig van het collegeblok wordt
losgescheurd.
Het behoeft nauwelijks toelichting dat het industrile kapitalisme
fallocentrisch is. De uitvinders, de ingenieurs, de fabriekseigenaren en de
consistent.

81

bankiers die het systeem van middelen voorzagen en in stand hielden,

waren allemaal mannen. De meest voorkomende metonymische
aanduiding van de industrie de fabrieksschoorsteen is metaforisch
gezien ook een fallisch symbool. Het karakteristieke industrile
landschaps- of stadsbeeld in negentiende eeuwse literatuur hoge
schoorstenen die de hemel insteken en zwarte rookwolken uitbraken,
gebouwen die schudden door het ritmische gedreun van machtige
machines, de trein die onstuitbaar door het passieve platteland voortraast
is doordrenkt van manlijke seksualiteit van het dominerende en
destructieve soort.
De industrie had dan ook een complexe aantrekkingskracht op
schrijfsters. Op het bewuste niveau stond ze voor het andere 21, het
vreemde, de mannelijke wereld van de arbeid, waarin zij niet
thuishoorden. Ik heb het nu natuurlijk over vrouwen uit de middenklasse,
want alle schrijfsters in deze periode kwamen per definitie uit deze klasse.
Op het onbewuste niveau vertegenwoordigde de industrie hun verlangen
om hun eigen castratie ongedaan te maken, hun eigen gevoel van gebrek.
Enkele studenten kijken op bij het woord castratie, net zo onder de
indruk van de beheerste waardigheid waarmee Robyn het woord
uitspreekt als ze zouden zijn van de behendigheid waarmee een kapper
een vlijmscherp scheermes hanteert.
Dit is duidelijk te zien in Elizabeth Gaskells Noord en Zuid22. In deze
roman is Margaret, de voorname jonge heldin uit het zuiden van
Engeland, wegens de verslechterde situatie van haar vader gedwongen
om te gaan wonen in Milton, een stad die erg op Manchester lijkt, waar zij
in contact komt met een plaatselijke fabriekseigenaar die Thornton heet.
Hij is een onvervalste kapitalist die heilig gelooft in de wet van vraag en
aanbod. Wanneer de zaken slecht gaan en de lonen laag zijn, is hij totaal
21

A term used by experts in literary theory as well as in psychology such as

Georges Lacan and Saussure (again).

22

Again (like in the case of Moeilijke Tijden) the title of the translation is used,

also because parts of this existing translation are used further on in the novel.

82

niet begaan met de arbeiders, en zelf vraagt hij ook niet om medelijden
wanneer hij failliet dreigt te gaan. In eerste instantie vindt Margaret
Thorntons harde manier van zakendoen weerzinwekkend, maar wanneer
een staking uit de hand loopt, handelt ze impulsief om zijn leven te
redden en laat ze op die manier zien dat ze zich onbewust tot hem
aangetrokken voelt en dat ze instinctief trouw blijft aan haar eigen klasse.
Margaret raakt bevriend met enkele arbeiders en betuigt hen haar
medeleven wegens hun moeilijke omstandigheden, maar als het puntje bij
het paaltje komt, staat ze aan de kant van de baas. Margarets interesse in
het fabrieksleven en de productieprocessen die haar moeder vies en
afstotelijk vindt is een plaatsvervangende manifestatie van haar niet
onderkende erotische gevoelens voor Thornton. Dit wordt heel duidelijk in
een gesprek tussen Margaret en haar moeder, die klaagt dat Margaret
steeds meer fabrieksslang gebruikt. Ze antwoordt:
En als ik in een fabrieksstad woon, moet ik fabriekstaal spreken wanneer ik die
nodig heb. Ach, mama, ik zou u versteld kunnen doen staan van heel wat
woorden die u nog nooit in uw leven hebt gehoord. Ik geloof niet dat u weet wat
een knots23 is.
23

This term from North and South does not stand on its own. This first use of it

forms the beginning of a thread of passive intertextuality/intratextuality. Later in

the novel Robyn says to Vic My, what a knobstick, and he answers with Why do
you call it that?, Private joke. (NW, 292)
Knobstick stands in the North and South context for strike breaker, and knob
means penis, the result is a kind of wordplay. In Dutch knots literally means
knobstick, a club or bludgeon, and it also means something really big, what it
does not mean is strikebreaker. This is the reason why Akkie de Jong has used
several translations for knobstick in Noord en Zuid where one sufficed in North
and South. She used for example knots, later knuppels (which can mean a club
or a stupid person), onderkruipers (which can mean strikebreaker, but lacks the
sexual connotation) and the explicit neutral term stakingsbreker. In the
fragment of North and South Lodge uses in Nice Work, it does not really matter
what knobstick means, as long as the word in the translation refers to something

83

Ik niet, kind. Ik weet alleen dat het een heel vulgaire klank heeft en ik wil niet
horen dat je het gebruikt. 24

Robyn kijkt op van haar exemplaar van Noord en Zuid waaruit ze

deze passage heeft voorgelezen en bekijkt haar publiek onderzoekend met
haar koele, grijsgroene ogen. Ik denk dat we allemaal wel weten wat een
knots is, metaforisch gezien.
Haar publiek gniffelt vrolijk en de balpennen racen sneller dan ooit
over de A-viertjes.
Page 82
De schrijvers van de industrile romans waren nooit in staat om in hun
boeken een oplossing te vinden voor de ideologische tegenstellingen die
inherent waren aan hun eigen positie in de maatschappij. Op hetzelfde
moment dat zij over deze problemen aan het schrijven waren, schreven
Marx en Engels hun invloedrijke teksten waarin de politieke oplossingen
uiteengezet werden. Maar de auteurs hadden nog nooit van Marx en
industrial or related to the workers and something sexual, the most important
function (the wordplay) is maintained by the use of knots. Luckily, Lodge only
uses the word twice and it never specifically has to mean strikebreaker, which is
why Harry Pallemans gets away with pijpstaak (VW, 66) and knots also works
just fine. At the same time, the denotative as well as the connotative meanings
of the Dutch term differs from the English term and consequently the allusion is
somewhat different. English readers see a reference to capitalism in the
industrial North where strikes took place and strikebreakers were despised like
in the eighties in England- whereas Dutch readers see a word which has nothing
to do with strikes or industry; in the Middle Ages people fought with knotsen,
but there is no reference to Gaskells novel through this specific word. Venuti
might call this recontextualization. Yet, readers know about the reference
because Lodge has mentioned the title of the work and if they have read the
architext, they might see the bigger picture, including strikebreakers.
24

Source of this existing translation: Noord en Zuid, page 379-380.

84

Engels gehoord en als ze wel van hen en hun ideen hadden gehoord,
waren ze waarschijnlijk met afschuw vervuld geweest omdat ze hierin een
bedreiging voor hun eigen positie zagen. Al hun wanhoop bij de aanblik
van de misre en uitbuiting die het industrile kapitalisme veroorzaakte
ten spijt, waren de schrijvers zelf in zekere zin ook kapitalisten, want ze
profiteerden van een zeer commercile vorm van literaire productie.
De campusklok slaat twaalf uur en de gedempte tonen zijn ook in de
collegezaal hoorbaar. De studenten schuiven rusteloos op hun stoelen,
ritselen met hun papieren en doen de dop op hun pen. De spiralen van
multomappen klappen dicht met knallen die op pistoolschoten lijken.
Robyn rondt snel haar verhaal af.
Omdat ze niet in staat waren een politieke oplossing te bedenken
voor de sociale problemen die ze in hun boeken beschreven, konden de
auteurs van industrile romans slechts narratieve uitwegen bedenken voor
de persoonlijke dilemmas van hun personages. En deze narratieve
oplossingen zijn steevast negatief of probleemontwijkend. De sterfscene in
Moeilijke Tijden van de geslachtofferde arbeider Stephen Blackpool is
omgeven door een aureool van heiligheid. In Mary Barton gaat de heldin
uit de arbeidersklasse samen met haar man naar de kolonin om daar een
nieuw leven op te bouwen. Kingsleys Alton Locke emigreert nadat hij
gedesillusioneerd is in het chartisme en sterft kort hierna. In Sybil blijkt
dat de arme heldin eigenlijk een erfgename is waardoor ze in staat is om
haar sympathieke aristocratische geliefde te trouwen zonder dat het
klassensysteem geweld wordt aangedaan en de liefdesverhalen in Shirley
en Noord en Zuid komen tot een goed einde door soortgelijke gelukkige
toevalligheden. Hoewel de heldin in George Eliots Felix Holt haar erfenis
afwijst, doet ze dit alleen maar om de man van wie ze houdt te kunnen
trouwen. Het komt er dus op neer dat victoriaanse schrijvers als oplossing
voor de problemen die voortkwamen uit het industrile kapitalisme niet

85

meer konden bedenken dan een erfenis25, een huwelijk, emigratie of de

dood.

25

Robyn explains here what happens in the classic industrial novel, and the same

will happen in the modern industrial novel Nice Work. Robyn inherits money, like
Margaret in North and South she gives the money to a man she cares for and Vic
tries to marry her, but does not succeed. Lodge established a parallel on content
level. A structural allusion like this is not a challenge for a translator.

86

3.3 Robyn visits the foundry

In chapter three of part two Vic shows Robyn around the foundry. As a
kind of tourist Robyn wanders around this part of Pringles all the time
feeling as if she has become a character in an industrial novel like North
and South; Margaret Hale was no less shocked when she visitited
Marlborough Mills for the first time. In these pages Lodge both imitates
and parodies the nineteenth century industrial novels by means of
structural and local allusions. The translation below focusses on those
parts of Robyns visit with interesting intertextual references, therefore not
the whole chapter is translated, but only those fragments relevant to this
thesis.

3.4 Translation
Page 120
En, wat vond je26 ervan? wilde Vic ongeveer een uur later weten toen ze
weer terug waren in zijn kantoor na wat hij een vluchtige inspectie van de
werkplaats had genoemd.
Robyn zeeg neer op een stoel. Ik vond het verschrikkelijk27, zei ze.
Verschrikkelijk? Hij fronste zijn wenkbrauwen. Hoezo
verschrikkelijk?
Het lawaai. Het vuil. Het stompzinnige, lopendebandwerk. Het
alles eigenlijk. Dat mannen genoegen moeten nemen met zulke
mensonterende omstandigheden -
26

After the first introductions it seems that the politer u is not used anymore.

27

On these and the following pages (all describing Robyns negative feelings

about factorywork) Lodge alluded to North and South on the ideational level.
Robyns feelings parallel those of Margaret who really do[es] not find much
pleasure in going over manufactories (NW, 91 and Gaskell, 96). These words are
also part of the epigraph to this part of Nice Work. Because it is the idea that
important here and not the specific wording, the translation of this allusion does
not pose any difficulties to a translator.

87

Ho eens even -
Vrouwen ook. Dat waren toch vrouwen die ik zag? Ze herinnerde
zich vaag dat ze in sommige gedeeltes van de wezens fabriek zij aan zij
met mannen had zien werken die een bruine huidskleur en enigszins
vrouwelijk vormen hadden, maar overigens geslachtsloos waren in hun
vaalbruine, vieze overalls en broeken.
We hebben er een paar in dienst. Ik dacht dat je een voorstander
was van gelijkheid?
Niet van gelijkheid van onderdrukking.
Onderdrukking? Hij lachte hard en spottend. We dwingen niemand
om hier te werken, hoor. Op iedere advertentie voor ongeschoold werk
komen honderd sollicitanten af meer dan honderd. Die vrouwen zijn blij
dat ze hier mogen werken ga het ze maar vragen als je me niet gelooft.
Robyn zweeg. Ze voelde zich verward, aangeslagen, en uitgeput
door de vele indrukken die haar zintuigen het afgelopen uur hadden
moeten verwerken. Voor n keer in haar leven wist ze niet wat ze moest
zeggen en was ze onzeker over haar eigen argumenten. Ze was er altijd
van overtuigd geweest dat werkeloosheid slecht was, een Thatcheriaans
wapen tegen de arbeidersklasse, maar als dit wel werk hebben was, dan
waren mensen misschien wel beter af zonder werk. Maar al dat lawaai,
zei ze weer. Al dat vuil!
Gieterijen zijn altijd vies. Metaal is lawaaierig spul om mee te
werken. Wat had je dan verwacht?
Wat had ze eigenlijk verwacht? In ieder geval niet iets dat zo veel
leek op Blakes werkplaatsen van de duivel28 uit de eerste periode van de
28

It seems there is no existing translation of William Blakes Milton and its

preface with the poem And did those feet in ancient time. The word mills might
perhaps be seen as an allusion marker in English because these days a more
neutral term like factory or plant would be used instead. In other times, for
example in North and South, mills was used more often not merely to refer to a
machine but to several machines in a building or a factory. The explanation of
the early Industrial Revolution may also be seen as an allusion marker and

88

industrile revolutie. Robyns beeld van een moderne fabriek was

voornamelijk gebaseerd op beelden uit TV-reclames en documentaires:
vakkundig gemonteerde stukken film vol felgekleurde machines en
probleemloos voortrollende lopende banden, bemand door kordate werklui
in schone overalls die onder begeleiding van muziek van Mozart
automotoren of transistorradios maakten. Bij Pringles was bijna geen
kleur te bekennen, geen schone overal te zien en in plaats van Mozart
reference to the times described in Blakes poem. The translation werkplaatsen
van de duivel seems appopriate here. First of all there is no existing translation,
so a new one has to be made. Secondly, even though this is hardly an allusion
to Blakes poem, it is a familiar idiomatic expression not just in religious (in a
literal sense) but also in more worldly discussions (in a metaphorical sense). The
expression is used in several contexts in various Dutch texts. Werkplaats van de
duivel is for example the title of a book about the Second World War. The
unmarked allusion in the source text has been replaced by an idiomatic
expression in the target text with a similar literal and metaphorical meaning, the
only difference is that there is no allusion to Blakes poem, or rather, that the
translation is simply not an allusion.
Another option would be explicitizing or marking the allusion in the
translation. Even though Lodge himself has not opted for so like Blakes satanic
mills, a translator might add the name of the writer. The problem is that in the
Dutch translation you cannot refer to the original phrase in the original source, or
even to an existing translation, all a translator can do is link a new and possible
translation of the original phrase to the name Blake. Readers will never recognize
the specific wording as an allusion, all they might do is recognize the content in
combination with the name Blake if they are familiar with the original poem or if
they recognize the allusion from other works. In Martin Cruz Smiths Rose the
same allusion is marked with the name of the writer, inverted commas and the
capitalized s Blake also uses: When Blake wrote of dark Satanic mills []
(Smith, 31). In the case of often-used allusions like this, the intertextual relation
is not necessarily allusion - source text, but might also be allusion - other work
containing the same allusion. Consequently, not only the status of the source
text determines the recognition factor of an allusion in both source and target
culture, but the rate at which an allusion is used and in the target culture

89

weerklonk er een nimmer afnemende, doofmakende, demonische

kakofonie29. Ook had ze niet kunnen begrijpen wat er nou eigenlijk gaande
was. Het leek wel of de activiteiten in de fabriek niet volgens een bepaalde
logica of met een bepaald doel verliepen. Individuen of kleine groepjes
mannen werkten aan verschillende taken die schijnbaar niet gerelateerd
waren. Onderdelen waren overal op de fabrieksvloer opgestapeld alsof het
hier een bergzolder betrof. Alles op deze plek leek te zijn ontworpen voor
productie, echter niet voor de productie van goederen voor de
buitenwereld, maar van ellende voor degenen die hier opgesloten 30 zaten.
Wat Wilcox de machinewerkplaats noemde, had geleken op een
gevangenis, en de gieterij was net de hel31.
Page 125
In Robyns ogen was er iets bovennatuurlijks, iets bijna obsceens,
aan de plotselinge, heftige maar toch gecontroleerde bewegingen van de
machine die naar voren sprong en zich weer terugtrok als een of ander
how these are translated, as well. Lodge has used this allusion rather casually,
and a translator might do the same. However, because the English text has the
advantage of the specific wording of the original phrase - which may perhaps be
considered as an allusion marker in itself - translators might compensate the lack
of this in the translation by adding external marking to this non-transcultural
allusion.
29

In a place that reminds Robyn of the satanic mills of the industrial revolution

she hears a demonic cacophony. The latter is another link in the string of passive
intertextuality that enhances the overall picture of the foundry as hell. As long as
the translator makes sure to use a term like demonic in the target language as
well to create a link with the satanic mills, there are no specific translation
problems since this is not an allusion in the traditional sense.
30

The foundry may be hell, but the machine shop is a prison, and the workers are

inmates. This is not an allusion, but another part of Robyns metaphoric vision
and passive intertextuality.
31

The next link in the string of passive intertextuality describing the foundry as

hell.

90

stalen reptiel dat zijn prooi aan het verschalken was of dat met een
passief vrouwtje paarde.
Op een dag, zei Wilcox, zullen er lichtloze32 fabrieken zijn die vol
staan met zulke machines.
Waarom lichtloos?
Machines hebben geen licht nodig. Machines zijn blind. Wanneer je
eenmaal een volledig gecomputeriseerde fabriek hebt gebouwd, kun je het
licht uitdoen, de deur sluiten en haar alleen laten om motoren of
stofzuigers of wat dan ook te laten maken, helemaal zelf in het donker.
Vierentwintig uur per dag.
Wat een griezelig idee.
In de Verenigde Staten bestaan ze al. En in Scandinavi.
En de uitvoerend directeur? Zal hij ook een computer zijn die in een
donker kantoor zit?
Wilcox dacht serieus over de vraag na. Nee, computers kunnen niet
nadenken. Er zal altijd een man moeten zijn die de leiding heeft, in ieder
geval n man die bepaalt wat er geproduceerd moet worden en hoe.
Maar deze banen hij gebaarde met zijn hoofd in de richting van de rijen
werkbanken zullen niet langer bestaan. Deze machine hier doet nu het
werk dat vorig jaar door twaalf mensen werd gedaan.
O, heerlijke nieuwe wereld33, zei Robyn, waarin alleen de
directeuren nog een baan hebben.
32

This might very well be an allusion to (or at the very least an echoe of) the

theories of Matthew Arnold who saw culture as sweetness and light. This is the
opposite, factories are per definition culture-lacking environments, and the
people working in them are usually also not very much enlightened in Robyns
sense. For the translation it has no consequences if the allusion goes unnoticed,
because the word light is so ordinary.
33

This might perhaps be considered a dead allusion, therefore an idiomatic

expression like lang leve de vooruitgang might work. Yet, Huxleys novel is
translated in Dutch and the title of the translation of this novel which is probably
just as well-known in England as in the Netherlands works even better because
the allusion is maintained in the translation.

91

Deze keer ontging haar ironie Wilcox niet. Ik beleef er geen

genoegen aan om mensen te ontslaan, zei hij, maar we zitten in een
lastig parket. Als we niet moderniseren, kunnen we de concurrentie niet
meer aan en moeten we mensen ontslaan, en als we wel moderniseren,
moeten we mensen ontslaan omdat we ze niet meer nodig hebben.
Wat we zouden moeten doen is meer geld besteden om mensen
voor te bereiden op creatieve manieren van vrijetijdsbesteding, zei Robyn.
Zoals vrouwenstudies?
Bijvoorbeeld.
Mannen werken graag. Het is gek, maar het is echt zo. Ze mogen er
dan iedere maandagochtend over klagen, ze mogen dan ijveren voor
kortere werkdagen en meer vakantiedagen, maar voor hun zelfrespect
hebben ze het nodig om te werken.
Dat is alleen maar omdat ze zo geconditioneerd zijn. Mensen
zouden best kunnen wennen aan een leven zonder werk.
Zou jij dat kunnen? Ik dacht dat jij plezier beleefde aan je werk.
Dat is wat anders.
Waarom?
Nou, mijn werk is leuk. Het is zinvol. Het is lonend. En dan heb ik
het niet over geld. Zelfs als het niet betaald werd, zou het nog de moeite
waard zijn om het te doen. En de omstandigheden zijn ook behoorlijk
niet zoals hier. Ze zwiepte haar arm in het rond in een gebaar dat de met
oliedampen bezwangerde atmosfeer, het gebrul van de machines, het
geknars van metaal, het gepiep van elektrische steekwagens en de
algehele vuile, versleten lelijkheid34 omvatte.
34

There are parallels between the worn, soiled ugliness of everything and D.H.

Lawrences phrase the grey, gritty hopelessnes of it all (NW, 98). It is hard to
say whether Lodge intended this to be an allusion or not, but there certainly is an
echo. A translator can maintain the parallelism in the translation by re-using the
form of the former translation. Lodge does not use alliteration here, but it is so
easy to do it in the translation that an extra echo of Lawrences line is created
(on the condition of course that the translation of Lawrences line also contains

92

Als je dit al heftig vindt, maak dan je borst maar nat voor de
gieterij, zei Wilcox met een grimmig lachje en zette er de pas in met zijn
fanatieke terrirsloopje.
Ondanks deze waarschuwing was Robyn niet voorbereid op de schok van
de gieterij. Ze staken nog een binnenplaats over waar de skeletten van
verouderde machines in elkaar gedoken roest lagen te bloeden in de
dekens van sneeuw die hen bedekten, en gingen een groot gebouw binnen
met een hoog gewelfd dak dat schuilging in het duister. In deze ruimte
weerklonk het meest barbaarse kabaal35 dat Robyn ooit gehoord had. Haar
eerste reactie was het bedekken van haar oren, maar ze realiseerde zich
al snel dat het daar echt niet stiller van zou worden en ze liet haar handen
weer zakken. De vloer was bedekt met een zwarte substantie die op roet
leek, maar die onder de zolen van haar laarzen knarste als zand. De lucht
stonk naar zwavel36 en hars en een fijne motregen van zwart stof viel
vanuit het dak op hun hoofden neer. Hier en daar gloeide er een
vervaarlijk rood waar de deurtjes van de ovens open stonden en in de
verste hoek van het gebouw sijpelde iets dat er uitzag als een stroompje
gesmolten lava door een gebogen goot van het dak naar de vloer. In het
dak zelf zaten op bepaalde plekken gaten en gesmolten sneeuw droop op
de vloer en verspreidde zich tot modderige plasjes. Het was een plek met
extreme temperaturen: het ene moment rilde je in de ijzige tocht uit een
of ander gat in de buitenmuur, het andere moment voelde je de
beangstigend hete adem van een oven in je gezicht. Overal zag je een
onbeschrijflijke bende, viezigheid en wanorde. Afgedankte gietstukken,
alliteration like Pallemanss translation Met een golf van ontzetting voelde ze de
algehele grauwe, gruizige hopeloosheid (VW, 81)).
35

Barbaric noise is in fact a synonymic expression of demonic cacophony and can

also be seen as passive intertextuality.

36

The air reeked with a sulphurous, resinous smell (NW, 127). Sulphurous has

two meanings zwavel and duivels. The second meaning is a nice bonus in
English that fits nicely in Robyns metaphorical vision of the foundry as well as
the string of passive intertextuality that constitutes it, but in Dutch only one
meaning is possible.

93

kapot gereedschap, lege vaten en oude stukken ijzer en hout lagen her en
der in het rond. Alles wekte een indruk van gemproviseerdheid en
willekeur, alsof de werknemers nieuwe machines hadden gebouwd op de
plek waar ze toen toevallig stonden, direct naast de wrakstukken van de
oude. Je kon je niet voorstellen dat er ook maar iets uit deze plek kon
voortkomen dat schoon en nieuw was en functioneerde. In Robyns ogen
leek alles wat ze zag nog het meeste op een middeleeuws schilderij van
de hel37, hoewel het moeilijk te zeggen was of de arbeiders meer op
duivels38 of op verdoemden leken. De meeste van hen, zag ze, kwamen uit
Azi of de Caraben, in tegenstelling tot de machinewerkplaats waar de
meerderheid blank was.
Wilcox leidde haar via een uitgesleten stalen wenteltrap naar een
geprefabriceerd kantoor dat op hoge palen in het midden van het gebouw
stond, en stelde haar voor aan Tom Rigby, de bedrijfsleider, die haar n
keer van top tot teen bekeek en vervolgens negeerde. Rigbys jonge
assistent beschouwde haar met meer interesse, maar ging al snel op in
een discussie over productieschemas. Robyn keek het kantoor rond. Ze
had nog nooit een ruimte gezien die er zo troosteloos en akelig uitzag. Het
meubilair was vuil en beschadigd en paste niet bij elkaar. Het linoleum op
de vloer was versleten en gescheurd, de ramen waren bedekt met een
bijna ondoorzichtige laag vuil en de muren zagen eruit alsof ze nooit meer
geschilderd waren sinds het gebouw was neergezet. Tl-buizen verlichtten
meedogenloos en tot in detail ieder gebrek. Het enige beetje kleur in dit
grauwe decor kwam voor rekening van de onvermijdelijke pin-up op de
muur boven het bureau van Rigbys jonge assistent: de kalender van vorig
jaar, de maand december voorop, die een grijnzend topless model
uitgedost in bontlaarzen en een met hermelijn versierd bikinibroekje liet
zien. Afgezien van haar was de computer, waar de drie serieus pratende
mannen overheen gebogen stonden, het enige andere voorwerp in de
ruimte dat er niet oud en afgedankt uitzag.
37

Repetition of hell.

38

Devils: passive intertextuality.

94

Verveeld stapte ze naar buiten op een stalen galerij van waaraf je de

hele fabriek kon overzien. Ze bestudeerde alles wat er gaande was en
voelde zich meer dan ooit als Dante in de Hel39. De ruimte was vergeven
van de herrie, rook, stank en vlammen. Figuren in overalls met
veiligheidsbrillen, maskers, helmen of tulbanden op bewogen zich
langzaam door het satanische40 halfduister of stonden gebogen over hun
raadselachtige taken naast ovens en machines.
Hier, Tom zei dat je deze op moest doen.
Wilcox was naast haar opgedoken. Hij duwde een blauwe plastic
veiligheidshelm met een transparant vizier in haar handen. En jij dan?
vroeg ze, toen ze hem opdeed. Hij haalde zijn schouders op en schudde
zijn hoofd. Hij had niet eens een jas of overall aan om zijn nette pak te
beschermen. Waarschijnlijk een soort macho-trots. De baas moet er
onaantastbaar uitzien.
Bezoekers moeten een helm op, zei Tom Rigby. Wij zijn
verantwoordelijk, weet je.
Een keihard alarmsignaal ging klaaglijk gillend af en deed Robyn
schrikken.
Rigby grinnikte: Dat is de KW, hij doet het weer.
Wat was ermee aan de hand? zei Wilcox.
Iets met een klep, denk ik. Laat haar de machine maar zien. Hij
wees met zijn hoofd in Robyns richting. Een mooi gezicht, de KW,
wanneer ze op volle toeren draait.
39

Dante in the Inferno. The name Dante can simply be maintained in Dutch

because it can be seen as a transcultural allusion with the same status in the
English as in the Dutch culture. In Dutch translations of Dantes La Divina
Comedia the book Inferno is called Hel, therefore, even though the word
inferno also exists in Dutch, it seems better to use the term used in existing
translations of Dantes work. Hel is capitalized to indicate that the word refers to
the title of a book.
40

Tweede keer: sulphurous, dit keer niet letterlijk maar figuurlijk waarschijnlijk,

pass. Int, versterking eerdere verwijzingen naar de hel en de vlammen

(furnaces)

95

Wat is een KW? vroeg Robyn.

Een Kunkel Wagner automatische vorminstallatie41 zei Wilcox.
De trots van de baas, zei Rigby. Pas een paar weken geleden
genstalleerd. Laat haar eens zien, zei hij weer tegen Wilcox.
Alles op zn tijd, zei Wilcox. Eerst de modelmakerij42.
De modelmakerij was een oase van relatieve rust en kalmte en leek
wel wat op een ambachtelijke werkplaats, een plek waar timmerlieden de
houten vormen maakten die gebruikt werden in de eerste fase van het
gietproced. Hierna zag ze mannen zandvormen maken, eerst met de
hand, en later met machines die eruitzagen als gigantische wafelijzers.
Hier zag ze ook voor het eerst vrouwen zij aan zij met mannen werken, ze
tilden de zwaar uitziende en naar hars ruikende gietstukken van de
machines en stapelden ze op wagentjes. Ze luisterde niet-begrijpend naar
Wilcox technische uitleg over de onderkast, de bovenkast 43, kernbakken
en vormkasten. Nu gaan we een kijkje nemen bij de koelkoepeloven 44,
schreeuwde hij. Kijk waar je loopt.
De koelkoepeloven bleek een soort gigantische ketel te zijn die hoog
in een hoek van het gebouw stond waar ze eerder iets naar beneden had
zien druppelen dat eruit zag als vulkanische lava. Ze vullen hem continu
met lagen houtskool en ijzer - schroot en ruwijzer en kalksteen en
houden het vuur gaande door zuurstofrijke lucht toe te dienen. Het ijzer
smelt, neemt de juiste hoeveelheid koolstof uit de houtskool op en
stroomt door het kraangat. Hij leidde haar nog een stalen wenteltrap op
met uitgesleten en gedeukte traptreden over gemproviseerde
loopbruggen en gammele galerijen, alsmaar hoger totdat ze gehurkt zaten
naast de bron van al het gesmolten metaal. De gloeiende stroom liep door
41

Source: http://www.quel.nl/Toeleveranciers/gieterij-neede/14605

42

Source: http://www.angelfire.com/ca/vlietstra/ep.html

43

Drag and cope: onderkast/ondervorm and bovenkast/bovenvorm. Source:

http://www.alexdenouden.nl/artikelen2/vormkasten.htm
44

Source: http://www.tecdic.com/index.php?

zoekterm=koelkoepeloven&page=searchresults

96

een simpele goot, slechts een meter van Robyns schoenneuzen

verwijderd. Het leek of ze zich op het allerhoogste puntje van het
pandemonium45 bevond, donker en heet, en de twee ineengedoken Sikhs
die hun witte oogballen lieten rollen en hun tanden in haar richting bloot
grijnsden terwijl ze schijnbaar zonder reden met stalen staven in het
gesmolten metaal roerden, zagen eruit als duivels 46 op een oude fresco.
De situatie was zo bizar, zo anders dan haar gewoonlijke omgeving,
dat ze in de ongemakken en het gevaar een soort vreugde kon vinden. Zo
zouden ontdekkingsreizigers in een afgelegen en barbaars47 land zich
voelen, dacht ze. Ze bedacht wat haar collegas en de studenten op deze
woensdagochtend zouden doen serieuze discussies voeren over de
gedichten van John Donne, de romans van Jane Austen of de kenmerken
van het modernisme waarschijnlijk, in ruimten met centrale verwarming
en vloerbedekking. Ze dacht aan Charles op de universiteit van Suffolk die
college gaf, misschien wel over romantische landschapsgedichten,
gellustreerd door dias. Penny Black zou nog meer statistische gegevens
over vrouwenmishandeling in de westelijke Midlands op haar computer
invoeren en Robyns moeder zou een koffieochtendje voor een of ander
goed doel georganiseerd hebben in haar zitkamer met gordijnen van
Liberty-stof en uitzicht op zee. Wat zouden ze wel niet denken als ze haar
nu konden zien?
Page 140

45

Pandemonium may be considered a dead allusion to Miltons Paradise Lost and

is part of the string of passive intertextuality. Since the word also exists in Dutch
and has the exact same meaning, the translation is not a problem. Paradise Lost
is less well-known in the Netherlands, but the word is really a dead allusion,
therefore, according to Leppihalmes theory, it is most of all necesarry to
translate the meaning and not the allusion.
46

Demons: passive intertextuality.

47

Barbarous: passive intertextuality.

97

Robyn voelde haar benen plotseling slap worden toen de adrenaline

uit haar weg stroomde en ging zitten. Wilcox, die fronsend de
vertrekkende figuur van Everthorpe had nagekeken, draaide zich om en
glimlachte bijna. Dat was grappig, zei hij.
Ben je het dan met me eens?
Ik denk dat we onszelf er belachelijk mee maken.
Ik doelde op het principe. De exploitatie van vrouwenlichamen.
Zelf heb ik weinig tijd voor dat soort dingen, zei Wilcox. Maar
sommige mannen worden nooit volwassen.
Je zou er iets aan kunnen doen48, zei Robyn. Jij bent de baas. Je
zou het ophangen van pin-ups in de fabriek kunnen verbieden.
Dat kan ik doen, maar ik zou stapelgek zijn. Het laatste waar ik
behoefte aan heb, is een wilde staking wegens pin-ups.
Je zou op zijn minst een voorbeeld kunnen stellen. Er hangt een van
die naaktkalenders in de kamer van je secretaresse.
Echt? Wilcox leek oprecht verrast te zijn. Hij sprong op van zijn
draaistoel en ging naar de aangrenzende kamer. Een moment later kwam
hij terug en krabde nadenkend aan zijn kin. Gek, dat was me nog nooit
opgevallen. Gresham Pumps heeft hem ons gegeven.
Ga je hem nu dan weghalen?
Shirley49 zegt dat de inkoper van Gresham het leuk vindt hem te
zien hangen wanneer hij hier is. We moeten het de inkopers naar de zin
maken.
Robyn gooide minachtend haar hoofd achterover. Ze was
teleurgesteld nu ze eenmaal de mogelijkheid had gezien om terug te

48

Structural allusion to North and South. Margaret also tries to change Thorntons

behaviour, just like Robyn is trying to do with Vic. In both cases the women
consider their own morals superior. Again, the parallel lies in the idea and not the
specific formulation, so the translator does not experience difficulties.
49

You can see this as an allusion to Charlotte Brontes Shirley, but there are no

consequences for the translation.

98

keren van deze expeditie naar dit hart der duisternis50 van de beschaving
met een mooie prestatie op haar conto waarover ze had kunnen vertellen
aan Charles en Penny Black.
Wilcox deed enkele lampen boven de vergadertafel aan de andere
kant van de kamer aan. Hij ging naar het raam, waar het daglicht al aan
het verdwijnen was, en keek tussen de verticale lamellen door. Het
sneeuwt weer. Misschien moest je maar vast gaan. De wegen zullen
moeilijk begaanbaar zijn.
Het is pas half drie, zei Robyn. Ik dacht dat ik geacht werd de hele
dag bij jou door te brengen.
Wat jij wilt, zei hij schouderophalend. Maar ik waarschuw je, ik
maak lange dagen.
Terwijl Robyn aarzelde, vulde het kantoor zich met mannen in
kleurloze pakken met saaie dassen en de vale huidskleur die kenmerkend
leek te zijn voor iedereen die in de fabriek werkte. Ze kwamen bedeesd
binnen, knikten respectvol naar Wilcox en keken schuins naar Robyn. Ze
gingen aan de tafel zitten en haalden pakjes sigaretten, aanstekers en
rekenmachines uit hun zakken en stalden deze objecten nauwkeurig voor
zich op tafel uit alsof dit het nodige materieel was voor een of ander spel
dat ze weldra zouden gaan spelen.
Waar zal ik gaan zitten? zei Robyn.
Waar je maar wilt, zei Wilcox.
Robyn nam een stoel tegenover Wilcox, aan het andere einde van de
tafel. Dit is doctor Penrose van de universiteit van Rummidge, zei hij.
Alsof ze toestemming hadden gekregen om haar aan te staren, draaiden
50

This is an allusion to Conrads Heart of Darkness. It is not difficult to maintain

it, because the Dutch title Hart der duisternis is a literal one and fits,
semantically, very well into the sentence. Pallemanss translation Haar expeditie
naar het donkere hart van deze culturele jungle (VW, 118), no longer alludes to
Conrads work. The darkness is the opposite of , and consequently might be
seen as a reference to, the light of culture and learning(NW, 216), which might
in turn be seen as an indirect allusion to Arnolds Culture and Anarchy.

99

alle mannen tegelijkertijd hun hoofd naar Robyn toe. Ik neem aan dat
jullie wel gehoord hebben over het jaar van de industrie. En jullie weten
vast ook wel wat een schaduw doet. Nou, doctor Penrose is mijn schaduw
in het kader van het jaar van de industrie. Hij keek de tafel rond alsof hij
de mannen uitdaagde om te gaan lachen. Niemand lachte echter. Hij legde
vluchtig uit wat het schaduwproject inhield en besloot met doe maar net
alsof ze er niet is.
Zodra de vergadering begonnen was, schenen ze hiermee geen
enkel probleem te hebben. Het onderwerp was verspilling. Wilcox begon
met aan te geven dat het percentage producten dat door hun eigen
inspecteurs werd afgekeurd op vijf procent lag, wat hij veel te hoog vond,
en dat nog een extra procent door kopers werd teruggegeven. Hij noemde
verschillende mogelijke oorzaken defecte machines, een slordige
afwerking, onvoldoende supervisie, ontoereikende laboratoriumtesten en
vroeg aan ieder afdelingshoofd om de voornaamste oorzaak van
verspilling op hun eigen afdeling te noemen. Robyn vond het moeilijk om
het gesprek te volgen. De managers bedienden zich van een cryptisch
taalgebruik vol met toespelingen en technisch jargon waar ze weinig van
begreep. De onmelodieuze keelklanken van hun accent stompten haar
gehoor af en de rook van hun sigaretten deed pijn aan haar ogen. Ze
raakte verveeld en staarde uit het raam naar het vervagende winterse
daglicht en de sneeuwvlokken die dwarrelend neervielen. Het sneeuwde in
heel Rummidge51, mijmerde ze, terwijl ze een variatie bedacht op de
51

This metaphoric (modified) allusion can be translated with the help of the

existing translation of James Joyces The Dead by Rein Bloem (2004).

Ja, de kranten hadden gelijk: het sneeuwde in heel Ierland. Het viel op de heel
donkere vlakt, op de boomloze heuvels, het viel zacht over het veen van Allen
en, verder westwaards, viel het zacht in de donkere opstandige golven van de
Shannon. Het viel ook op heel het eenzame kerkhof op de heuvel waar Michael
Furey begraven lag. De sneeuw lag dicht opeen gewaaid tegen de gekromde
kruisen en grafstenen, op de punten van het kleine hek, op de kale
doornstruiken. Zijn ziel ebde langzaam weg, toen hij het zachtjes hoorde
sneeuwen door het heelal en zachtjes hoorde sneeuwen als daalde hun laatste

100

beroemde52 passage van James Joyce53 om zichzelf te amuseren. Het viel

op ieder gedeelte van de donkere, uitgestrekte agglomeratie, op de
betonnen snelwegen en de boomloze industrieterreinen, het viel zachtjes
op de lanen van de universiteitscampus en, verder westwaards, op het
donkere, driftig stromende water van het Rummidge-Wallsburykanaal.
Toen luisterde ze plotseling weer aandachtig.
Ze hadden het over een machine die steeds vastliep.

3.5 Final Words

In this chapter I have translated two sections of Nice Work according to
the previously described theories as well as my own ideas. In the
annotated translations parts of Leppihalmes key-phrase model were often
used, especially the parts about dead allusions, using existing translations
and adding external markings like the name of the writer of the architext.
It also turned out that not only the status of the architext, but also the

einde neer, over de levenden en de doden (Joyce, 197). The marker in the
source text is the use of the name James Joyce and the description a famous
passage as well as the expression was general all over which is much more
marked than for example was lying all over. In the Dutch translation in heel is
a much more neutral expression which cannot function as a marker, but since the
name Joyce is also mentioned, the allusion may be recognized all the same.
52

This famous passage might be slighly less famous in the Netherlands, still the

text is part of many literature courses and because the name of the writer is
explicitly mentioned, readers could easily find out which passage is meant here.
53

Lodge does provide the reader with the name of the writer, but he witholds

where the passage comes from.

101

number of times an allusion is used in all kinds of works play a role in the
recognition process of allusions in the target culture.
Allusions have a double function: on the one hand they partly build
up the meaning of the fenotext, on the other hand they connect this
meaning of the fenotext with the meaning of the architext. It should
always be the translators aim that as much of these functions which in
the case of Nice Work are often related to parody as possible are
maintained in the translation. Yet, no model can tell a translator when
exactly he or she has to add external marking to compensate for a less
well-known architext in the source than in the target culture and exactly
determining the status of an architext is also not an easy task. Therefore,
it seems that the translation of allusions and quotations (like all
translation) is not an exact business, but requires constant adaptation to
the situation at hand and as much knowledge of canonical works as
possible.

102

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107