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MARIA TYMOCZKO
The Metonymics of
Translating
Marginalized Texts
T IS A CURIOUS FACT of contemporary literary studies that
very different branches of literary theory have converged on
the same insight: every telling is a retelling. In studies of folklore
and oral epic it is agreed that the content, form, and performance
patterns of any given song or tale all belong to established tradi-
tions that the teller or singer inherits and in turn passes on to suc-
ceeding tellers or singers. Albert Lord, following Milman Parry,
the framer of the theory of oral composition of epics such as the
Iliad, Beowulf, and La Chanson de Roland, has summarized suc-
cinctly, "the picture that emerges is not really one of conflict be-
tween preserver of tradition and creative artist; it is rather one of
the preservation of tradition by the constant re-creation of it. The
ideal is a true story well and truly retold" (Lord 29, cf. 99 ff.). Every
creation is a re-creation.
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COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
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MARGINALIZED TEXTS
that human beings are not very good at hearing new stories:
have the tendency to reinterpret them, to reshape them so t
they become versions of stories we already know, as Laura
Bohannan has epitomized with her now classic article about tell-
ing the story of Hamlet in West Africa. Having chosen Hamlet to tell
because she felt the story was "universal," Bohannan discovered in
the course of narration numerous fundamental incompatibilities
between the tale and the expectations of her audience. As any au-
dience will in a traditional oral culture, her listeners soon inter-
vened, "corrected" her narration, and adapted the tale to their
own context with the result that they were satisfied to have heard a
good story, only to leave Bohannan doubtful that it was "the same
story" after all.4 In general, cognitive science suggests that we tend
to assimilate new and unfamiliar information to patterns that are
already recognized and that have already become familiar, and
there is some evidence from studies of the brain that there is a
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COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
5 See, for example, Partha Mitter's discussion in 8-14, as well as sources cited.
The tendency to assimilate the unfamiliar to the familiar is a principal factor be-
hind the phenomenon of the simplification of complex and innovatory literary
models discussed by Itamar Even-Zohar (21-22). Edward Said observes, "It is per-
fectly natural for the human mind to resist the assault on it of untreated strange-
ness; therefore cultures have always been inclined to impose complete transforma-
tions on other cultures" (67); grids and codes are imposed "upon raw reality,
changing it from free-floating objects into units of knowledge" (67).
6 I am using myth in the broadest sense of "a traditional tale."
7 See, for example, Joseph Campbell's study of the archetypal patterns behind
hero tales, as well as Erich Neumann's treatment of archetypes related to narra-
tives about female figures.
8 On these issues see Lord chapter 5 and passim.
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sions.
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MARGINALIZED TEXTS
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either in its paradigmatic or its syntagmatic levels. See, for example, J.C. Catford
on these points.
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Works Cited
Bassnett, Susan and Andre Lefevere, eds. Translation, History and Culture. Lon-
don: Pinter, 1990.
Bauman, Richard and Charles L. Briggs. "Poetics and Performance as Critical Per-
spectives on Language and Social Life." Annual Review of Anthropology 19
(1990), 59-88.
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy
Tales. 1976. New York: Vintage-Random, 1977.
Bohannan, Laura. "Shakespeare in the Bush." Natural History 75.7 (1966): 28-33.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 1949. Bollingen Series 16.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Catford, J. C. A Linguistic Theory of Translation: An Essay in Applied Linguistics.
London: Oxford University Press, 1965.
Curtin,Jeremiah. Myths and Folk Tales oflreland. 1890. New York: Dover, 1975.
Delargy, James H. "The Gaelic Story-Teller." Proceedings of the British Academy 31
(1945): 3-46.
" Clearly the balance between source and receptor metonymies also changes
over time in the translation history of a text; cf. Bassnett and Lefevere 5.
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Foley, John Miles. "Reading the Oral Traditional Text: Aesthetics of Creation and
Response." Comparative Research on Oral Traditions: A Memorial for Milman
Parry. Ed.John Miles Foley. Columbus: Slavica, 1987. 185-212.
Gorlee, Dinda. Semiotics and the Problem of Translation. Alblasserdam: Kenters,
B.V., 1993.
Jones, Gwyn and Thomas Jones. Trans. The Mabinogion. 1949. New York: Dutton,
1963.
Lefevere, Andre. "Literary Theory and Translated Literature." The Art and Science
of Translation. Ed. Andre Lefevere and Kenneth David Jackson. Special issue of
Dispositio 7 (1982): 3-22.
---. "Mother Courage's Cucumbers: Text, System and Refraction in a Theory
of Literature." Modern Language Studies 12 (1982): 3-20.
---. Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London:
Routledge, 1992.
---. "Why Waste Our Time on Rewrites? The Trouble with Interpretation and
the Role of Rewriting in an Alternative Paradigm." The Manipulation of Litera-
ture: Studies in Literary Translation. Ed. Theo Hermans. New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1985. 215-43.
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