sbornĺk pracĺ filozofické fakulty
brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae
universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno
studies in english volume thirty-three sborník prací
filozofické fakulty
brněnské univerzity
ročník lvi
řada anglistická s č 13
series anglica
brno studies in english
£
2007
masarykova univerzita v brně masarykova univerzita v brně 2007
citace spffbu s 13 = bse 33 2007
isbn issn 1211 1791
brno studies in english
2007
editor-in-chief mgr jan chovanec ph d editorial board doc mgr milada franková csc m a doc phdr ludmila urbanová csc prof phdr josef hladký csc phdr jana chamonikolasová ph d mgr kateřina prajznerová ph d mgr pavel drábek ph d phdr tomáš pospíšil ph d ing et mgr jiří rambousek
reviewers mgr pavel drábek ph d doc mgr milada franková csc m a phdr jana chamonikolasová ph d michael matthew kaylor ph d phdr renata povolná ph d mgr kateřina prajznerová ph d ing et mgr jiří rambousek phdr thomas donaldson sparling b a doc phdr ludmila urbanová csc sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
contents
linguistics
martin adam on semantic determinacy of dialogues within the framework of written religious discourse 9
jan chovanec the role of nationality contrasts in the discursive construction of an ingroup member the woodward case in the telegraph 27
renata kamenická defining explicitation in translation 45
naděžda kudrnáčová caused motion events as complex structures 59
gabriela miššíková pragmatic dimensions in stylistic analysis 73
olga dontcheva-navratilova style markers of resolutions clause patterns and verb complementation 91
peter newmark a new theory of translation 101
literary and cultural studies
sabine coelsch-foisner and johannes coelsch visitor attractions space and dramaturgy 115
jiří flajšar the predicament of jewish american poetry 127
zuzana fonioková the selective narrator construction of the past in kazuo ishiguro’s an artist of the floating world 133
martina horáková alternative hi stories in stolen generation and residential school narratives reading indigenous life writings by doris pilkington and shirley sterling 143
tomáš kačer i am britannia the spirit of our age ” time shifting as a study of the idea of progress in tom stoppard’s arcadia and shelagh stephenson’s an experiment with an air pump 157
kateřina kotačková václav renč and the influence of otokar fischer on his work 169
tomáš pospíšil sam and me masala and double happiness multicultural experience in canadian film of the early 1990s 185
reviews
martina vránová kaylor michael matthew secreted desires the major uranians hopkins pater and wilde brno masaryk university 2006 497 pp 199
kateřina prajznerová michal peprník topos lesa v americké literatuře the topos of the forest in american literature brno host 2005 252 pp 201
milada franková zdeněk stříbrný proud času stati o shakespearovi the flow of time essays on shakespeare praha karolinum 2005 407 pp 201 sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
martin adam on semantic determinacy of dialogues within the framework of written religious discourse
1 introduction
the paper draws on the results obtained in research carried out in the field of the theory of functional sentence perspective fsp for several years i have been investigating the process of the establishment development and function of the thematic and the rhematic layers within a text and the place of fsp within the study of discourse and text linguistics in general in my recent writings see above all adam 2005 and 2006 i have presented the idea of higher levels of text paragraphs or chapters functioning as distributional macrofields it seems that such a macro-structural approach may reveal among other things essential syntactic-stylistic characteristics of a text the research has predominantly dealt with the text material of primary writ-
ten religious discourse see below as offered by the old and the new testa-
ments of the bible the biblical texts have proved to be suitable for the purpo-
se of the research in fsp and thus have supplied a syntactically rich source for discourse analysis studies most notably firbas 1992 and 1995 svoboda 1983 adam 2004 and 2006 and chamonikolasová & adam 2005 especially the later studies published by firbas dealt with a number of old and new testament texts firbas made it clear in his studies that such text material represents a source of written discourse on narrative dialogic and poetic texts manifesting numerous remarkable language phenomena both generally linguistic and text-specific let me recall by means of illustration his treatise on the establishment and the func-
tion of the dynamic-semantic layers of luke 2 1 20 firbas 1995 the case study in linear modification discussing the translation of the book of revelation 21 6b firbas 1996 or his congenial interpretation of psalm 91 based exclusively on fsp firbas 1989 apart from its linguistic value the bible is particularly inte-
resting thanks to its canonical and thus fixed character and a variety of translati-
ons that are available 10 martin adam
for the purpose of my investigation the new international version of the bible niv will be used the niv translation is widely quoted and represents by far the most popular translation nowadays besides only marginal discrepancies have been detected within the functional perspective of the english bible translations that are available for instance in the parallel survey of biblical translations offe-
red in kohlenberger 1997 for further details on the comparison and the differen-
ces described see adam 2000 37 50 2 focus of the paper
the aim of the present paper is to explore the domain of primary written religious discourse specifically dialogues from the new testament in terms of semantic in determinacy using tools offered above all by the arsenal of fsp the pre-
liminary fsp analysis will be followed by a discussion of the lexical and seman-
tic means of expression typical of the discourse type under examination finally conclusions will be drawn in regards to the semantic character of the text type 3 religious discourse
the primary religious discourse covers the area of religious texts that were writ-
ten for the original purpose to serve the believers members of a religious com-
munity as a source of worship material ghadessy 1988 the primary christian religious discourse is the bible the old and the new testaments are the most varied and universal basis for christian teaching interpretation church tradition theolog-
ical doctrines as well as practical everyday guidelines another example of primary religious discourse is different kinds of prayer and other liturgical texts originally written for the primary goal of christian faith to worship god the present study is concerned with the field of primary religious discourse only by contrast we can speak of secondary religious discourse i e writings commenting on further discussing or interpreting the primary religious texts among the secondary ones there are for instance biblical commentaries i e a distinct genre of theological literature interpreting the scriptures or oral ser-
mons delivered in a church they actually build on the base formed by the origi-
nally religious” texts and develop them in a certain way this sphere will not be discussed in the article as has already been mentioned it is primarily the members of a religious com-
munity who are the participants of the communication within religious discourse logically enough it is they who use the language of religion to express their general as well as particular ideas and beliefs i agree with webster when he says that those who congregate together in a religious group are expected to agree on those usage rules governing the appropriate use of a group’s technical vocabulary and style of expression” ghadessy 1988 87 11on semantic determinacy of dialogues
4 semantic in determinacy theoretical background
4 1 spoken discourse
in her article on authentic english conversation urbanová discusses semantic indeterminacy as one of the most typical features of english informal conver-
sation claiming that semantic indeterminacy is an interpretation of the reality based on belief rather than knowledge it is a verbalisation of modality” urba-
nová 2001 53 in her view from the perspective of discourse functions the language of con-
versation is predominantly characterized by its interactional expressive emo-
tive interpersonal social expressive function” urbanová 1991 134 urbanová goes on to present the following aspects of semantic determinacy indirectness a modification of the illocutionary force of a certain speech act” impersonality a manifestation of indeterminacy with regard to speaker-hearer identity” backgrounding of the speaker attenuation an intentional weakening of the illocutionary force of the utterance” e g positive and negative politeness accentuation a modification of the illocutionary force resulting in the reinfor-
cement of utterance meaning” and vagueness an expression of approximation tentativeness and lack of precision” a semantic phenomenon operating on the level of the word urbanová 2001 53 54 4 2 discourse of biblical dialogues
it will be necessary to throw some light on the genre of biblical dialogues there are two essential reasons for that firstly biblical dialogues represent a somewhat specific discourse that apparently stands between typically spoken and typically written discourses they are recorded in a written form hence sometimes ‘script-
ed dialogues’ however they were primarily spoken as genuine conversational texts secondly as biblical dialogues create a substantial part of most writings of the bible they serve as a mediator of crucial theological values it follows that it is important to treat dialogic texts of the bible as a sub-genre sui generis as to the style and mode the biblical dialogue differs in many respects from the biblical narrative it comprises records of direct speech of two or more parti-
cipants and the setting of the scene or reporting sentences occur in the text just to a limited degree the development and the tension of the story are carried predo-
minantly by the power of direct speech it differs however from what is usually referred to as genuine authentic conversation see e g urbanová 1988 i e a natural spoken form of dialogue happening at a certain location and at a certain time in the case of the scriptures it is not possible to speak of genuine conver-
sation implementing usually informal language the core of which is depicted by crystal as the most fundamental and pervasive means of conducting human affairs” crystal 1987 116 the dialogues in the scriptures have to be treated as dialogues with their origin in writing 12 martin adam
furthermore in contrast to the narrative the dialogic texts do not contribute much to the development of the story via narration but they are suitable for treat-
ment of abstract issues such as explaining various concepts or ideas in the scope of the four gospels for instance this is the primary function whenever a theolo-
gical problem occurs the narration stops and conversation takes over it is usually jesus who talks to someone but in some dialogues jesus is absent to use the fsp terminology and to depict another phenomenon typical of a dia-
logue let me say the following the dialogic text may be analysed either as a who-
le or it may be treated as a set of two or more utterances of individual speakers separately in other words each of the participants of the conversation may be restricted to one particular fsp analysis of course both the lines should not be artificially separated and must be regarded as one dialogue consisting of a set of interwoven reactions the split might be however functional for the purpose of tracing the individual dynamic-semantic strings 1
as has been noted above the present paper is going to deal with one aspect of discourse characteristics namely with the question of semantic in determinacy going back to what urbanová says about semantic indeterminacy of the language of conversation let me state the following hypothesis as the text material that is to be examined biblical dialogues falls into the category of primarily written texts the degree of its semantic indeterminacy should logically be different from that of genuine english conversation 5 biblical dialogues fsp analysis
in this section two different extracts taken from the new testament will be ex-
plored and discussed both of them are found in the opening chapters of the gos-
pel according to st john before each interpretation a brief introduction of the textual context will be provided due to space limitations the texts in full will not be presented here for that purpose the reader is referred to adam 2006 83 84 in the scope of this study only complete charts of fsp analyses will be used to illustrate the discussion 2
5 1 jesus teaches nicodemus john 3 1 18 this story is recorded in the gospel according to st john and represents one of the first occasions when jesus explains his teaching to a non-christian he speaks to nicodemus a pharisee who is a member of the jewish ruling council doug-
las 182 664 nicodemus is confronted with jesus’ teaching and at the same time faces difficulties in comprehending the metaphors jesus is using jonge 1970 337 the discussion concerns one of the essential concepts of christian faith ‘new birth’ the fallen man when converting to christ and receiving his mercy needs to be ‘born again’ ringwald defines the new birth as a radical act of the holy spirit on the sinful human nature leading to a renewed approach 13on semantic determinacy of dialogues
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15on semantic determinacy of dialogues
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towards the world and following god” ringwald 1975 176 in the dialogue of john 3 1 18 this theological principle is explored by jesus and presented to nicodemus below fig 1 is the chart offering the functional analysis of the passage under discussion first of all the dynamic-semantic string of ‘jesus’ will be explored nicode-
mus is assuring him that the jewish council is aware of him being ‘a teacher who has come from god’ 3a’ only god ‘could perform the miraculous signs ’ 3b jesus takes the opportunity and explains ‘no one can see the kingdom of god unless he is born again’ 4b the same principle is recalled in 6b repetition is used throughout the whole passage the table below illustrates the repetitive tendency within the text under examination the chart contains a list of elements recurring in the distributional fields 4 8 and the frequency of their recurrence figure 2 key words of john 3 1 18
key words number of occurrences
born again birth 7
god 7
believe 6
spirit 4
son of man 4
no one 4
whoever everyone 4
heaven ly 3
the truth 3
obviously the passage in fact two distributional fields only is especially dense in expressions referring to the theology of jesus’ teaching logically enough some of the notions are close to each other semantically and so the issue is viewed from several different angles the concept of eternal life is referred to for instance as entering the kingdom of god” or new birth” in this respect we may observe the same approach to the explored topic everything is examined from several perspectives exemplified and gradually clarified for one concept several specifying attributes are used at different stages of the discussion the question-answer conversation is held in an unambiguous straightforward man-
ner it is worth noting that it is not only the lexical content that contributes to the persuasive power of the passage the same forceful tendency is reflected in whole syntactic structures it seems that certain patterns of sentence types are repeated on purpose ‘i tell you the truth’ the very same clause appears in 4a 6a and 8c 17on semantic determinacy of dialogues
‘no one can see enter the kingdom of god unless he is born again’ 4b 6b ‘everyone whoever who believes in him’ 8l 8m’’ 8p 8q ‘flesh gives birth to flesh’ 6c ‘the spirit gives birth to spirit’ 6d let me come back to the establishment and the role of the dynamic-semantic layers of the passage the following chart describes the inner development of the rheme-proper rhpr string and speaks of a high degree of dynamic-semantic homogeneity the enumerated rhematic elements convey the basic message of the story rhpr the truth 4a → the kingdom of god unless born again 4b → the truth 6a → the kingdom of god unless born of water and the spirit 6b → to spirit 6d → so it is with everyone born of the spirit 6i → the truth 8c → what we know 8d → what we have seen 8e → our testimony 8f → of earthly things 8g → you do not believe 8h → of heavenly things 8i’ → into heaven 8j → everyone who believes in him eternal life 8l → god gave his one and only son 8m’ → eternal life 8m’’’ → not to condemn the world 8n → to save the world through him 8o → in the name of god’s one and only son 8q’ to sum up the biblical dialogue seems to be strikingly different from what we label as genuine face-to-face conversation in the case of the new testament conversation we deal with a more-or-less stylized text though deriving from a real dialogue it is recorded with the aim to persuade one of the most obvious concerns of the author is undoubtedly to persuade the reader that his values are the right ones one can hardly think of a more open and direct presentation of beliefs than those recorded in the passage under examination 3
5 2 john the baptist denies being the christ john 1 19 28 the dialogue of john 1 19 28 introduces one of the crucial characters of the new testament john the baptist theologians agree that he is the last old testa-
ment prophet and that his role was to prepare the way for the messiah and to ini-
tiate jesus’ ministry in public” brownlee 1958 33 it was john the baptist that started baptising people including jesus himself and so he was considered incor-
rectly the coming messiah john the baptist however denies being the christ =messiah several times douglas 1982 383 384 one of these occasions is recorded in this passage the fsp analysis as offered by the chart shows the semantic-syntactic structure of the passage first of all i will explore the notional track of ‘john the baptist’ the elements are written in bold print in the chart the notion of john the baptist enters 18 martin adam
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28 20 martin adam
the rh-layer in the form of an sp-element ‘john’s testimony’ 1 john was asked whether he was the messiah by the jewish priests and he confesses that he is not the christ 3a the jews however keep asking him many more similar questions investigating his identity and activities john provides them with explanations and announces that the real saviour is coming and is much greater than him ‘i am not worthy to untie the thongs of his sandals’ 11c’’ before the scene and the dialogue reach their culmination in john’s prophetic statement he touches on the issue of baptism in 10 and 11 for details see e g brownlee 1958 33ff from the point of view of functional syntax it can be said that the dynamic-
semantic string of ‘john the baptist’ follows a simple pattern within ten basic distributional fields of the dialogue there are four almost identical sentence structures i will present those in the sequence they appear in the course of the communication ‘i am not the christ’ 3a ‘i am not ’ elijah 5a 4
‘i am the voice of one calling in the desert ’ 9a ‘i am not worthy to untie the thongs of his sandals ’ 11c’’ john the baptist declares four times he is not the christ three times by a negative reference 3a 5a 11c’’ in one case by means of a positive statement 9a all the four structures follow the same syntactic structure i am complement at first sight the repetitive use of this simple structure might seem monotonous and se-
mantically weak but the opposite is true it is highly functional the simplicity of the structure and its repetition contribute to the clarity of the message conveyed the pattern used in the utterances of john the baptist in this passage evokes the analogical structures of jesus christ see the previous section if the dynamic-semantic string of john the baptist is extracted a simplified outline of the conversation comes forward as usual only the rhpr-elements are included rhpr john’s testimony 1 → to confess 21 → not the christ 3a → am not 5a → no 7 → the voice of one calling in the desert 9a → make straight way for the lord 9b → one you do not know 11b → the one who comes after me 11c’ → whose sandals i am not worthy to untie 11c’’ i will now turn my attention towards the dynamic-semantic string of the jewish lead-
ers who represent the other participant of the conversation the elements involved are italicised in the chart in harmony with the preceding gospel passage under analysis the role of the priests is reduced to that of asking questions and investigating into the topic in the case of this text john 1 19 28 there are altogether seven questions all of them are uttered by the religious leaders who try hard to find out about john’s real identity being confused they enumerate possible answers in this respect their 21on semantic determinacy of dialogues
questions may even anticipate the potential questions and doubts of the readers the typical question pattern is obvious also from the following outline of rhpr- and dth-
elements of the dynamic-semantic string of the priests rhpr dth who 4a → elijah 4b → the prophet 6 → who 8a → give us an answer 8b → what about yourself 8c → why 10a → not the christ nor elijah nor the prophet 10a’ it is also worth noting that the notional homogeneity is not manifested only in the rhematic layer as demonstrated by all the rhpr outlines above a special se-
mantic structure may be observed also within the transitional layer tr examin-
ing the tr-layer in the chart the question-answer pattern is found to be employed in the area of the verbs as well figure 4 the question-answer pattern in the transition
dynamic-semantic string transitional elements
john the baptist
confessed 3 said 5 answered 6 replied 9 11 jewish leaders
asked 4 said 8 questioned 10 6 biblical dialogues summary
as is apparent from the outlines of the two passages the rhpr-elements indeed communicate the core of the message there are however some other aspects that deserve a more thorough commentary the first aspect has already been mentioned repetition by means of recur-
rence the author succeeds in presenting the message in a lucid manner the key notions such as salvation worship life etc are repeated many times in the dia-
logues of the gospels and so the lexical density or saturation of the theological terms is considerably high the passages are equipped with a limited range of expressions of the same kind that recur throughout the whole text frequently the words related predominantly to the vocabulary of christian theology monothe-
matic content form a substantial part of the text the purpose is clear the role of the text is to present a christian concept to people and to convince them that it is the appropriate way for their lives it actually seems that in the sub-genre of dialogue the degree of persuasion is even higher than in narrative or poetic texts on details see adam 2006 46 47 and 55 56 22 martin adam
another feature typical of the dialogues recorded in the gospel is their explicit-
ness all points in the discussion are made openly and explicitly there is hardly any attempt to hide things the participants of the conversation do not play with words but get down directly to the issue this method may be considered as un-
natural and too persuasive but it depicts the very nature of the biblical message by means of emphasising and continuous clarifying the text provides the reader with a clear picture of theological concepts in the gospel the texts usually explore the topic of salvation from several different angles the passages under examination show a high degree of lexico-
semantic diversity for instance jesus uses a number of explanatory illustrati-
ons to make his ideas clear water food and harvest within a few verses only exceptionally a term is clarified by means of just one simile or metaphor several times jesus is referred to as god who redeems people messiah christ saviour lord in other words a hypertheme the message could be expressed as it were in one or two sentences nevertheless to avoid misunderstanding the author treats the topic in a thorough and exhaustive manner it will be consistent to say that the purpose of religious writing including the dialogue is naturally connected with ideology carter and nash define ideology as a socially and politically dominant set of values and beliefs which are con-
structed in all texts especially in and through language” carter and nash 1990 21 in their study they sub-divide their with respect to style and ideology into the interested writer” and the interested reader” domains writers are concer-
ned in varying degrees with first of all persuading readers to pick up the text and to read it second they are concerned with prompting readers to act in accordance with a set of behaviours” carter and nash 1990 50 51 the reader on the other hand should be challenged to take over and accept the values also in the case of biblical dialogues the linguistic means serve as a vehicle for communicating the message carter and nash speak of the fact that ideology is encoded in the lin-
guistic organisation of the text” carter and nash 1990 59 apart from the tools described above e g repetition there is a whole range of methods applied let me remind the reader at least of the extreme explicitness and emotional appeal 7 conclusions
as has been anticipated the character of religious communication derives from one of its principal purposes to present ideology explicitly and to persuade the potential reader the primary task of biblical texts is to offer christian doctrines in a clear way to strengthen the faith of the believers to provide a source of in-
formation on different issues of theology and last but not least to convince the readers whether believers or non-believers of the veracity of the christian principles presented the fsp analysis of the biblical dialogues indicates that there is actually a who-
le range of stylistic properties that may be related to the stylised character of reli-
23on semantic determinacy of dialogues
gious texts even if recorded according to actual utterances the biblical dialogues manifest qualities of stylised conversation at the same time in other words whereas the primary aim of genuine conversation is human communication the language of the bible may be in many ways viewed as a counterpart to authentic conversation its principal task is to present religious beliefs and to persuade the readers this is not to say that there is no overlap between the two discourses one should rather speak of opposite tendencies resulting from different motivations from the point of view of grammar the stylized primarily scripted non-genui-
ne dialogues seem to differ from non-scripted dialogues at the syntactic level i e in the complexity of sentences and as chamonikolasová points out also at the prosodic level in the structure of the tone unit cf chamonikolasová 2007 in connection to the ideological character of the biblical dialogue as reflected in the dynamic-semantic analysis it will be beneficial to recall the question-
answer pattern typically adjacency pairs found throughout all the analysed dialogues it is always the layman who asks questions such as nicodemus or the leaders whereas the teacher jesus john the baptist keeps explaining different issues and offers answers it seems that the form of dialogue allows the author to present a theological concept most effectively using the devices of repetition emphasis and dense semantic-syntactic patterns he manages to introduce the idea explicitly and fulfils thus the primary purpose of communication urbanová in her article on authentic english conversation claims that a genui-
ne informal dialogue displays a certain set of characteristics she labels them under the heading of semantic indeterminacy the concept includes the following features indirectness impersonality attenuation accentuation and vagueness urbanová 2001 52 55 within the new testament dialogues on the contrary an almost opposite tendency may be observed the texts lack the above men-
tioned indeterminacy qualities and are in their nature direct rather personal persuasive clear-stated and unambiguous drawing on urbanová 2001 i am ready to claim that the sub-genre of biblical dialogues manifests clear features that might be labelled as semantic determinacy namely directness personal involvement persuasion clarity and unambiguity below is a table reflecting the contrast between the two kinds of register genuine versus stylised conversation figure 5 genuine vs stylised conversation features
authentic conversation stylised conversation
indirectness directness
impersonality personality
attenuation persuasion
accentuation clarity
vagueness unambiguity
 
semantic indeterminacy semantic determinacy
24 martin adam
to conclude i agree with urbanová that the patterns of semantic indetermina-
cy are an expression of modality resulting from the comparison of the expressed world and the real world” urbanová 2001 55 in this sense the biblical dialogue cannot be viewed as genuine authentic conversation it is rather a means of presenting religious beliefs aimed at persuading the readers the overall character of biblical dialogues may be seen as a stylised conversation mani-
festing a high degree of semantic determinacy thus the preliminary hypothe-
sis postulating the semantic determinacy of biblical dialogues see above has proved to be legitimate notes
1 in the charts the individual lines of the direct speech held by different speakers are differentiated by means of graphics one participant’s utterances are in bold print while the other ones are italicised the rest of the text narrative and reporting sentences is in casual print 2 in the charts of fsp analyses the superscripts mark the real sequence of the basic communi-
cative units in other words the actual linear arrangement of the clauses the original verse numbers are to be found in the very first column of the charts 3 it will be interesting to note that two other types of scripted and so non-genuine dialogues namely theater play dialogues and textbook dialogues have been studied by chamonikola-
sová 1995 and 2007 the focus of these studies is the distribution of different degrees of prosodic prominence and degrees of communicative dynamism in english and czech scripted and non-scripted spoken texts 4 elijah was another old testament prophet according to hebrew teaching elijah was to come before the real messiah and provide thus evidence of the messiah’s identity see e g ringwald 1975 references
adam martin 2000 some problems concerning the thematic and the rhematic layers in the text an unpublished m a thesis brno masaryk university adam martin 2004 fsp analysis of a distributional macrofield” brno studies in english 30 13 19 brno masaryk university adam martin 2005 ‘functional macrofield perspective ’ in chovanec jan ed theory and practice in english studies vol 3 proceedings from the eighth conference of english american and canadian studies brno masaryk university 2005 adam martin 2006 functional macrofield perspective a religious discourse analysis based on fsp brno masaryk university brownlee william henry 1958 ‘john the baptist in the new light of ancient scrolls’ in k stendahl ed the scrolls and the new testament 33 48 new york harper carter ronald and walter nash 1990 seeing through language a guide to styles of english writing oxford oxford university press chamonikolasová jana and martin adam 2005 ‘the presentation scale in the theory of functional sentence perspective’ in jan čermák aleš klégr markéta malá and pavlína šaldová eds patterns a festschrift for libuše dušková 59 69 praha filozofická fakulta univerzity karlovy 25on semantic determinacy of dialogues
chamonikolasová jana 1995 ‘intonation centre in english and czech sentences’ brno studies in english 21 brno masaryk university chamonikolasová jana 2007 intonation in english and czech dialogues brno masaryk university crystal david 1987 the english encyclopaedia of language cambridge cambridge university press douglas james david ed 1982 new bible dictionary leicester intervarsity fellowship firbas jan 1989 ‘interpreting psalm 91 from the point of view of functional sentence perspective’ in breivik l e et al eds essays on the english language in honour of bettil sundby 107 116 oslo novus forlag firbas jan 1992 functional sentence perspective in written and spoken communication cambridge cambridge university press firbas jan 1995 ‘on the thematic and the rhematic layers of a text’ in warwik tauskanen and hiltunen eds organization in discourse proceedings from the turku conference anglicana turkuensia 14 59 72 turku university of turku firbas jan 1996 ‘a case study in linear modification on translating apo 21 6b’ brno studies in english 22 23 48 brno masaryk university ghadessy mohsen ed 1988 registers of written english situational factors and linguistic features london pinter publishers jonge marc de 1970 ‘nicodemus and jesus’ bulletin of the john rylands library 53 337 352 manchester manchester university press kohlenberger john robert ed 1997 the contemporary parallel new testament new york oxford university press ringwald a et al 1975 the new international dictionary of new testament theology i 176 188 new york zondervan svoboda aleš 1983 ‘thematic elements’ brno studies in english 15 49 85 brno masaryk university urbanová ludmila 1988 semantic indeterminacy in authentic english conversation unpublished habilitation thesis brno masaryk university urbanová ludmila 1991 ‘on discourse functions in the english language of conversation’ brno studies in english 19 133 142 brno masaryk university urbanová ludmila 2001 ‘on the language of authentic english conversation’ brno studies in english 27 49 55 brno masaryk university vachek josef 1976 selected writings in english and general linguistics praha academia mgr martin adam ph d department of english language and literature
faculty of education masaryk university
poříčí 9 11
603 00 brno
martinadamcz@yahoo com
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
jan chovanec
the role of nationality contrasts in the discursive construction of an ingroup member the woodward case in the telegraph
1 introduction
social categorisation as a process in which individuals are assigned certain val-
ues and qualities is a context-dependent activity in which discourse as a means of purposeful and goal-oriented communication through language draws on various referential and predicational strategies this process often involves the discursive construction of two mutually opposed groups the ingroup and the outgroup which are subject to affective treatment typically positive self-presen-
tation and negative other-presentation this article documents the gradual positive presentation of an ingroup member charged with a criminal act in a foreign country as identified in continued report-
ing of the case in the electronic telegraph from a potentially deviant individual and thus a possible representative of an outgroup comprising negatively per-
ceived ‘criminals’ be they convicted or suspected the english au-pair louise woodward was re-constructed into a non-deviant member of the ingroup and as-
signed positive values this was a gradual process in which heavy use was made of nationality contrasts underlying the polarisation of the contrasting groups into ‘us’ and ‘them’ nationality contrasts played an increasingly important role during the case first they contributed towards the newsworthiness of the story then they were exploited in order to point out the alleged mistreatment of an ingroup member by the outgroup and eventually were combined with several positive stereotypes about the ingroup in their aggregate these strategies resulted in a redefinition of the issue the seeming reversal of blame and the tendency to present the main news actor as a multiple victim of numerous other agents and circumstances 2 material and case background
the study is based on an analysis of 65 news articles published in the electronic telegraph within the span of ten months in terms of the progress of the legal 28 jan chovanec
case this corresponds to the very first mention of woodward her arrest 7th feb-
ruary 1997 until the overturning by the judge of the jury’s guilty verdict at the end of the trial 13th november 1997 louise woodward 18 at the time was an english au-pair hired to take care of two children in the home of an american family in boston massachusetts in february the eappens’ nine-month-old son was taken to hospital with serious injuries of which he eventually died a few days later woodward was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder for an alleged assault on the child the trial revealed various inconsistencies in the case e g the child having previous untreated injuries of unknown origin discrepancies in police accounts etc woodward never admitted any guilt not even when offered a plea bargain in october the jury found woodward guilty of second-degree murder which carried a life sentence the verdict came much to the amazement of the public on both sides of the atlantic as it was believed that woodward was charged with a very grave offence by the prosecution only in order to encourage her to accept a plea bargain and thereby admit a much lesser one her trial and the eventual verdict sparked a rare public campaign in her support the public discourse sur-
rounding woodward as can be observed in the telegraph and other british me-
dia manufactured support for woodward by viewing her positively and turning her into a victim of numerous circumstances a week after the jury’s finding the judge exercised his right to overrule the verdict changing it to involuntary manslaughter at the same time he reduced woodward’s punishment effectively setting her free however this act did not meet with uniform public approval either since the punishment was felt to be too light as a consequence public opinion turned against woodward who ended up facing negative publicity partly also due to the much condemned celebrations of her supporters 3 role of nationality contrasts in discourse representation
social categorisation in the media has attracted widespread interest among re-
searchers particularly in the field of discourse analysis and critical linguistics fowler 1991 fairclough 1989 van dijk 1988 richardson 2007 there are nu-
merous analyses of the representation of social actors and events with elaborate systems of referential strategies van leeuwen 1996 fairclough 2003 predica-
tional strategies reisigl and wodak 2001 and rhetorical strategies van dijk 1992a 1992b that ascribe various values and qualities to people and associate them with particular groups these are obviously employed in order to create certain effects on the recipients and consumers of messages the discursive construction of individuals in the media is a complex social process scollon 1998 in which journalists use numerous devices such as voic-
ing manipulation of attribution etc to discursively construct people in this proc-
ess the media may reveal their attitude towards the individuals reported on e g 29the role of nationality contrasts
by choosing particular labels or naming forms since language in the function-
alist tradition constitutes a system of options halliday 1978 1985 choices along the paradigmatic axis may obviously be highly motivated since some forms may be used in preference to certain other forms which as unsuccessful competitors are absent from the actual text yet the value of a form present is also linked to those forms that are absent in addition syntagmatic combina-
tions and transformations e g passivization or nominalization as an instance of grammatical metaphor cf fowler 1991 halliday 1985 are likewise of crucial importance in social categorisation since it is through these devices that referen-
tial content is predicated about news actors inferences cultural contexts back-
ground assumptions and stereotypes are also heavily involved since they can be used both intentionally and unintentionally to communicate significant amounts of information and affective content ‘in between the lines’ in the media social categorisation of news actors and their presentation through language is also linked to the operation of news values a set of implicit criteria held by journalists and crucial in the process of selecting an event to be covered as a news story bell 1991 harcup and o’neill 2001 in this connection it is often more newsworthy to present individuals in the media as types and refer to them by means of category labels either in connection with their names or independently cf chovanec 2000 the advantage of using category labels par-
ticularly in the spatially-constrained context of news headlines is that they are grounded within a particular cultural context and can trigger commonly shared assumptions beliefs and stereotypes cf dor 2003 716 on tabloids social categorisation in terms of stereotypes tends to disregard personal fea-
tures in favour of commonly held generalisations which may block or hamper descriptions of a more ‘objective’ nature studies of representation and stereotyp-
ing have been frequently motivated by the effort to identify discursive practices of such discrimination against for instance various ethic racial and religious groups reisigl and wodak 2001 van dijk 2000 2002 richardson 2007 im-
migrants el refaie 2001 van dijk 1987 and women clark 1998 brookes and holbrook 1998 although such discursive practices typically have a negative polarity for the news actors concerned i e they are discriminated against the opposite may also occur the perception of an individual may be boosted in the positive sense thanks to his or her co-classification with some stereotype as the analysis of data on the media representation of louise woodward in this article indicates significantly such stereotyping typically occurs against the explicit or implicit background of a discursive construction of mutually opposed groups in the form of the dichotomy of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ the construction of ingroups and outgroups is of course of primary political importance at times of approaching military conflict richardson 2007 209 lule 2004 or other times when there is a need for the manufacture of public consensus partingdon 2003 but it is also very common in non-political domains such as sport alabarces et al 2001 conboy 2006 30 jan chovanec
the construction of ingroups and outgroups is usually accompanied by an ap-
plication of several referential strategies most notably the ideological square de-
scribed by van dijk van dijk 1992a richardson 2007 one of the key princi-
ples of the ideological square consists of positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation and the ascription of positive legitimating values to ingroups and negative ones to outgroups cf steve chibnall 1977 in fowler 1991 52 the most obvious delimitation of groups is based on the nationality ethnic distinction i e the ingroup is defined in terms of belonging to the imaginary community of one’s ‘home’ nation but the boundaries are highly flexible consequently differ-
ent conceptions of ‘us’ can be used to discuss issues related to as well as justify actions aimed against various conceptions of ‘them’ cf fowler 1991 4 1 nationality as a source of newsworthiness the original impetus to the coverage of the story of louise woodward in the british telegraph consisted significantly in the fact that the au-pair was of eng-
lish origin the very first article breaking the story and introducing what was to become a long media saga ran under the headline english nanny accused of harming baby 7 feb 1997 where the presence of the nationality adjec-
tive clearly indicates that the story was newsworthy owing to the origin of the main news actor the initial report thus capitalises not only on the common news values of nega-
tivity reference to persons and unexpectedness cf fowler 1991 harcup and o’neill 2001 but importantly also on cultural proximity which postulates an imaginary link between the audience of the news report and the main news ac-
tor a story about an english person involved in some act regardless of whether positive or negative is obviously more interesting for an english audience and thus runs a much higher chance of being included in a british newspaper than an identical story about some other national the nationality of the main news actor may even override the importance of the other values and may constitute the cru-
cial factor favouring the selection of a story by a paper and its eventual coverage in the national media the nationality label was used extensively in the first part of the reporting on the case before woodward’s name became sufficiently established as a house-
hold name in britain for a detailed analysis of the naming choices and the grad-
ual construction of an assumption of familiarity with an initially unknown news actor see chovanec 2000 during this stage the references to woodward in headlines and in leads used the nationality adjectives ‘british’ in combination with a category label british au pair british girl british teenager including the highly frequent appositional phrase the british nanny louise woodward and the british au-pair louise woodward as well as the journalistic noun ‘briton’ cf the headline briton accused of killing baby ‘dreams of home’ etc which was sufficient even without a category label in the headline to guarantee sufficient newsworthiness of such news stories 31the role of nationality contrasts
4 2 mistreatment of an ingroup teenager by outgroup members
within days of the first news report and amid discussions on the issue of au-pair-
ing and its risks the woodward story started to be framed from the perspective of a new stereotype a young teenage girl falling prey to external circumstances moreover nationality played a crucial role in the on-going categorisation and characterisation because the british girl was presented as misused by a number of agents situated in the united states be they initially the american host family and big business and eventually the us legal system the us media experts and the american nation in general see section 4 4 below it is thus from the occurrence of the underlying stereotype of ‘an english girl exploited by an american family’ that the national divide britain vs america became omnipresent in the reporting on the case in this process two steps may be distinguished first affective evaluation is placed on the general notion of ‘english au-pairs in the u s ’ whereby au-pairs are viewed favourably unlike the ‘real’ motives of the host families bringing them into america cf the men-
tion of ‘the truth’ in the quote below this general discourse move is followed by a second one focused specifically on woodward and her treatment by the family with the implication that she was mistreated by noting unusual or non-standard behaviours or aspects of the host family e g their ban on woodward’s social life their religious zeal their failure to note the child’s earlier injuries despite both be-
ing doctors their careerism the whole issue is being redefined and woodward’s blame backgrounded and diminished what the paper achieved starting from its commentary on 16th february 1997 was the co-option of woodward within the imaginary ingroup perceived along nationality lines as opposed to the outgroup constituted by americans and vari-
ous ‘others’ the article evidences a significant strategic move in the formation of public consensus on the whole issue the choice to categorise woodward favour-
ably casting aside her potentially negative categorisations that could relegate her to the sphere of ‘the others’ people connected with suspect criminal illegal violent and other despicable acts whatever middle-class couples may tell their friends the truth is that thou-
sands of young english girls who come to america offering their services are not nannies” at all many are barely out of school and have little ex-
perience of looking after children beyond a few hour’s babysitting they are recruited by multi-million-dollar companies as cheap labour more properly described as au pairs they are lured across the atlantic by advertisements which promise the chance to sample the american way of life all expenses paid 16 feb 1997 for most families they are a cheap substitute to professionally-trained americans who can expect to earn at least $400 a week even if they live with the family 16 feb 1997 32 jan chovanec
the article from which the quote is taken provides the context against which the case of louise woodward is viewed in britain woodward becomes a represent-
ative of a group although a somewhat untypical one due to her alleged involve-
ment in the death of a child categorised as a representative of a group she can indirectly benefit from some of the associations stereotypically connected with such a group especially those that are explicitly made in the text of the article importantly she can also be seen as ‘cheap labour’ an individual who seems to have been tricked by ‘multi-million-dollar companies’ which ‘lured’ her ‘across the atlantic’ etc the verb ‘lure’ is particularly effective due to its connotations of innocence and trickery in other words an individual who is ‘lured’ becomes a victim and can be viewed sympathetically and with compassion the perspec-
tive of the text is thus clearly favourable to au-pairs by virtue of this it also provides thanks to updating the cultural context shared by the readers the back-
ground for a potentially favourable perspective towards woodward in terms of the discursive strategy of reversing the blame and presenting her as a victim see below the text above is also crucial in openly introducing the key dichotomy of america vs britain which came to permeate much of the subsequent reporting over the next nine months the contrast between the u s and the uk takes vari-
ous forms legal systems perceptions of the au pair industry degree of ‘civilisa-
tion’ etc yet it can be subsumed into the basic polar opposition of ‘us’ i e the british vs ‘them’ i e the americans according to the text english girls go to the u s to gain experience ad-
vertisements which promise the chance to sample the american way of life all expenses paid but their dreams disappear when contrasted with the reality these girls come over here expecting that it is going to be like a luxury cruise instead they find themselves on a life raft it is not the girls who are presented as benefiting from the entire industry they are only ‘cheap labour’ used by non-
profit-making agencies meaning that it pays no taxes which does not mean that those who run them do so for purely philanthropic purposes the owners of some are paying themselves as much as $300 000 a year and likewise exploited by families who burden them with excessive work they could expect of fully paid ‘nannies’ not just cheap ‘au-pairs’ furthermore the girls ‘lured’ to the us by ‘multi-million-dollar companies’ are presented as operating on the verge of legality and breaking laws spurred on by the families when entering the country some families encourage english nannies” to enter the country posing as tourists an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse is played by immigration officials at kennedy and newark airports where any young english girl is a potential suspect one new jersey couple successfully managed to bring in a teenage girl from ireland but only after she was told by the immigration officer that he had bust nine nannies already today and she would be the tenth ” 16 feb 1997 33the role of nationality contrasts
the british au-pair louise woodward fits all of these characterisations of the ac-
tual experience of ‘an english au-pair in the u s ’ she is a young teenager fresh from school her stay was mediated by such a company the previous family de-
nied her the chance to ‘sample’ the american experience by placing restrictions on her social life and the new family placed her in charge of two young children in her case two-year-old brendan and nine-month-old matthew as is revealed by subsequent reports the ‘boisterous’ older son was very hard to manage one au-pair even refused to take the job because of his hyperactivity furthermore the new family eventually imposed restrictions on woodward too and appar-
ently left the care of their children mostly to her while pursuing their own medi-
cal careers woodward as an au-pair was thus meant to replace a parent i e perform the job of a nanny rather than merely work with the parent and help with the children as her contract as an au-pair had stipulated all this may lead readers to develop a predisposition to adopt a positive attitude towards woodward rein-
forced by the underlying unstated belief that she as one of ‘us’ is or has been subject to mistreatment by ‘them’ 4 3 the stereotype of the british nanny
the general stereotype of ‘an english girl exploited in america’ which was acti-
vated early on with an emphasis on the national divide of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ was ac-
companied by references to the wider cultural stereotype of the ‘british nanny’ one of the first articles commenting on the initial appearance of woodward in court after the eventual death of the child in hospital made a clear reference to the positive values stereotypically associated with ‘britishness’ in connection with the professional care of children it was as if the british nanny herself that paragon of domestic order was in the dock for the murder of one of her charges commentary 16 feb 1997 from the perspective of the british paper the positive cultural stereotype ex-
plained in the apposition and familiarly referred to with the pronoun ‘that’ indi-
cating that this stereotype is assumed to be shared as part of the cultural context by the readers is obviously felt to be under threat while woodward’s case is partly newsworthy due to the violation of such a positive shared cultural stere-
otype her reputation may benefit from a co-classification with this stereotype ‘woodward as an au-pair’ and simultaneously be threatened due to her alleged deviance from the stereotype interestingly enough the newspaper reports on the case avoid explicit compar-
isons and contrasts of the stereotype with woodward references to the stereotype merely provide the background against which the facts of her case are reported nevertheless it may be argued that the evocation of the stereotype eventually benefits woodward rather than harms her on the one hand the stereotype is de-
fended and its existence is re-affirmed on the other the national divide of britain 34 jan chovanec
vs america is brought into play by emphasising positive qualities of ‘us’ and negative traits of ‘them’ especially the non-genuine reasons of many americans for wanting british nannies see below on a more specific level the national aspect was highlighted early on with the very first explicit occurrence in the headline of a commentary of the possessive pronoun ‘our’ applied in connection with the ‘british nanny’ stereotype ‘our girls’ this pronoun typically referred to as the ‘editorial we’ operates as an in-
group designator by postulating the existence of an imaginary community whose membership is shared by the discourse participants i e the british newspaper on the one hand and the british public on the other in this function the usage of the pronoun clearly promotes the dichotomising contrast between the ingroup ‘us’ the british and the outgroup ‘them’ the americans nanny nightmare the death of an american baby in the care of a brit-
ish au pair may cast a slur on our girls says celia dodd 22 feb 1997 the article further updates the stereotype of the ‘british nanny’ as held in eng-
lish-speaking cultures it describes ‘the name of the great british nanny in the states’ as follows for years british nannies abroad have been able to trade on an unrivalled reputation for excellence which owes as much to mary poppins as it does to real worth in the usa and all over the world british nannies are the ulti-
mate status symbol 22 feb 1997 moreover as the last sentence in the quote above indicates the motives of some american families when choosing british nannies and au-pairs appear not to be entirely genuine they do not seem to have only the well-being of the children in mind but are rather after the social image they project by having a child-carer from britain in the words of a direct quote of an english nanny it sounds very good to have a british nanny” in the process of constructing the positive image of british au-pairs the lan-
guage spoken by them plays a significant role too british nannies are advertised by agencies with an emphasis on ‘their low cost and fluency in english as op-
posed to spanish the language of most cheap childminders’ 16 feb 1997 the highly positive cultural stereotype of the british nanny i e in other words ‘our girls’ thus provides the locus for a delineation of individuals accord-
ing to their nationality placing them into the contrasted groups of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ various aspects of the stereotype undergo the typical processes connected with the ideological square the negative other-presentation cf language problems of au-pairs from other countries mentioned above and the positive self-presenta-
tion cf the evaluative lexis in the last but one example the comparison ‘as it does to real worth’ or the relative clause ‘which leads the world’ in the example below 35the role of nationality contrasts
americans choose british nannies not so much for their training which leads the world with its emphasis on childcare in the home and hands-on experience but because they like the accent or the uniform or the notion of a firm hand 22 feb 1997 the negative other-presentation and positive self-presentation with respect to the ‘british nanny’ stereotype has of course direct consequences for the perception of woodward once the members of the ingroup are subject to positive self-pres-
entation woodward is necessarily viewed more positively because she forms a part of such a group on account of her nationality at this point in the woodward case it is the ‘reputation of british nannies’ i e the social stereotype which is at stake rather than woodward’s individual fate as an agency representative commented louise woodward is a sacrificial lamb and her case will open everybody’s eyes” such a referential strategy is an early indication of the rhetorical move of the reversal of blame with woodward presented as an actual victim of various circumstances and followed by the occa-
sional redefinition of her individual case into a broader contrast between british and american people and values 4 4 ‘us’ vs ‘them’ and the multiple victimisation of woodward
the polar contrast of ‘we’ vs ‘them’ realised by a division along nationality lines i e british vs american became more pronounced with the approaching trial the fact that woodward was awaiting trial in a women’s maximum security pris-
on is condemned by the paper by accessing the voices of local civic leaders in terms of a fear of ‘a second tragedy” of injustice unfolding’ since ‘a teenager should not be held in custody at the adult women’s prison’ 5 mar 1997 moreover woodward is presented as a victim of harassment from other inmates e g when they ‘forced her to watch a television programme about children being abused’ as claimed by woodward on tv when speaking about ‘her ordeal in a us prison’ in addition there were concerns that she would not receive a fair trial since accord-
ing to the woodwards it ‘has been seriously prejudiced by us media reports’ 2 oct 1997 also with the indication by a boston journalist that she ‘was becoming a victim of state politics and public bias’ 3 oct 1997 since the district attorney prosecuting woodward was poised to run for attorney-general in massachusetts in this context the telegraph ran a brief news item mentioning that ‘the task of finding an unbiased jury to try a british woman began in cambridge massachu-
setts’ 7 oct 1997 revealing the presupposition indicated by the presence of the adjective ‘unbiased’ in the headline that there were continued concerns about a fair trial this echoes an earlier report on a public opinion poll which indicated that two-thirds of potential jurors in the massachusetts city where a british teen-
ager faces a murder trial over the death of a baby in her care have already decided she is guilty a poll has shown 3 oct 1997 36 jan chovanec
woodward thus comes to be presented as a victim of several circumstances all of which are significantly american from the perspective of the paper these include not only multi-million-dollar au-pair agencies a greedy family harsh prison conditions and massive us and uk pre-trial publicity but also a biased jury with a preconceived idea of her guilt the implication that woodward became the victim of the jury is made after the publication of the highly unexpected guilty verdict by the telegraph by means of an argumentative strategy contrasting the presentation of evidence at the trial by the opposing parties it is in its subjective and evaluative attitude that the paper reveals its favourable treatment of woodward as in for instance the following text most observers at the trial thought the defence had done enough to un-
dermine prosecution claims that woodward had inflicted devastating skull and brain injuries on matthew eappen because she had become frustrated and angry with his crying but the jury appeared to put more weight on the evidence of local surgeons and medical examiners who had directly treated matthew than on the string of renowned experts the defence produced to show the baby’s injuries were in fact suffered several weeks before his death 31 oct 1997 by accessing the unspecified voice of ‘most observers’ almost literally repeated in another article one day later the paper may be masking its own assessment of the case thereby lending its own opinion a more ‘objective’ flavour the conjunc-
tion ‘but’ introducing the opinion of the jury indicates the unexpectedness of the jury verdict this is pointed out by the rhetorical move of appeal to authority a ‘string of renowned experts’ who were not believed is juxtaposed with and stands in direct contrast to ‘local surgeons and medical examiners’ who were be-
lieved the hyperbolic ‘string’ and evaluative ‘renowned’ ‘experts’ language indicates the paper’s own point of view the role of the jury in returning the verdict was perceived as problematic not solely by the telegraph and its anonymous ‘most observers at the trial’ in its reproach of the jury thought to have been influenced negatively by such phe-
nomena as the presence in the defence team of a lawyer who had previously successfully defended o j simpson the alleged misinterpretation of expert evi-
dence and the strong pre-trial media publicity of the case the paper also included a special article on the previous publicly aired attitudes of judge hiller zobel the judge adjudicating the case concerning the american system of justice in the article headlined louise judge us juries are ignorant he was quoted as saying that the jury system is asking the ignorant to use the incomprehensible to decide the unknowable” 2 nov 1997 the selection of such stories and quotes may be considered as significant when trying to identify the way the paper was involved in the gradual formation of public opinion on the whole matter the underlying british-american national divide openly resurfaced in a re-
lated article on the reactions of inhabitants from woodward’s native village 37the role of nationality contrasts
woodward’s alleged innocence is explicitly mentioned which contributes to her perception as a ‘victim’ of the jury the sequence of sentences in indirect speech seemingly reports the beliefs of the villagers but is used to air the conviction that the trial was unfair since the facts presented at the trial and mediated to the pub-
lic seemed to rule out any intentional harm at the start of the week it seemed a foregone conclusion no doubts they insist-
ed and no fears louise woodward was innocent and not even an american jury could possibly say otherwise how could they come up with a verdict like that there’s no way she could have done it 31 oct 1997 the indirect quote above uses the pronoun ‘they’ constructing an opposed group the american jury with which the pronoun is co-referential the contrast be-
tween the outgroup and the ingroup implicitly present in the text voiced by the paper though ultimately attributable to the ‘thoughts and beliefs’ of the villag-
ers is made explicit in the quoted verbal reactions of individual people thus in the text below a local person who had used woodward as a babysitter in the past and thus can be rhetorically construed as an ‘authority’ on woodward’s au-pairing uses the contrasting set of pronouns ‘we’ vs ‘they’ in a particularly emotional way the fight will go on because the village is completely united behind lou-
ise i don’t know how they can have found her guilty but we’ll help her through this we’ve raised thousands of pounds so far and now we’ll keep the fund going to help her appeal we can’t leave her out there we just can’t ” 31 oct 1997 the meaning of the pronouns is vague and potentially ambiguous with the in-
group designator ‘we’ referring to the local villagers but possibly also to the wider community and the outgroup designator ‘they’ referring generally to ‘the others’ either the jury in particular or americans in general other instances of vague-
ness in these quotes are used strategically they underline the ingroup’s detach-
ment from the outgroup and the outgroup’s negative actions this is the case with spatial deixis the adverbial phrase ‘out there’ emphasizing the physical divide and separation between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and demonstrative pronouns help her through this’ and ‘a verdict like that’ in the previous quote in another emotional testimonial by a local citizen the pronominal reference combines with the imperative in a direct address via the media to the members of the outgroup the americans in boston vic brown described the verdict as one of the biggest travesties of jus-
tice that either of our nations have witnessed cry for us in boston you have wrongly sent a young girl of tremendous strength love and ability to waste away denied the opportunity to make her contribution to goodness in the world ” 31 oct 1997 38 jan chovanec
such an outspoken defence of a member of the ingroup based on the convic-
tion of her innocence was not however limited to woodward’s fellow villag-
ers who could be understood not to be entirely disinterested similar hyperbolic rhetoric was also used by some politicians and public figures who might have been thought to be somewhat more guarded in their statements despite their ten-
dencies to follow the public opinion of their own constituencies the telegraph voiced some strong nationalistic rhetoric emphasising the polar ‘us’ vs ‘them’ divide in an article drawing on an interview with louise woodward’s labour mp andrew miller who maintained that the au pair was innocent” and even called for diplomatic channels to become involved particularly noteworthy is his appeal to the stereotype of a perceived cultural superiority of the british over the americans unwittingly echoed and reciprocated by reactions of some american readers see below we in britain have a well-developed judicial system but miscarriages can happen occasionally and we have to hold up our hands and admit they have happened so what i am saying to the americans is be big enough and strong enough and recognise that louise woodward’s case has been such a miscarriage of justice ” 4 nov 1997 relying on the obvious presupposition that the outcome of the trial constitutes a ‘miscarriage of justice’ this statement may be used to infer that americans either do not have such a well-developed judicial system unlike ‘us’ in brit-
ain or if they do they are not magnanimous enough unlike ‘us’ in britain to acknowledge and rectify the unavoidable miscarriages of justice or what the speaker considers as such the british are either way presented as superior and the unsolicited advice by a british mp thus functions as yet another piece in the mosaic of discursive moves aimed at positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation a similar move pointing out one’s disappointment with the american legal system was even made by a member of woodward’s american defence team one of the quotes in which andrew good the leading defence lawyer com-
mented on the guilty verdict recycles the same idea of a ‘betrayal’ louise put her faith in the american system of justice and it failed her miserably” 1 nov 1997 this is another example of an indirect positive presentation of woodward since it implies that she is a victim of the system of justice having been let down by it this sentiment is repeated by numerous other individuals both british and american often quoted in direct speech in order to lend authenticity to their words as in the following citation of an engineer from cambridge ma i wonder if these people the jury were sitting in the same courtroom as 39the role of nationality contrasts
i was for the last three weeks i just don’t believe the prosecution proved their case beyond reasonable doubt ” 1 nov 1997 importantly it was not only by directly or indirectly accessing the voices of oth-
ers that the telegraph was revealing its point of view occasionally the paper made it clear in its own voice where its sentiments lay as in the following quote from an extended article providing a summary of the case in the prosecution’s decision to press for first or second-degree murder charges the grief-stricken parents’ wishes were taken into account their baby’s death had been so cruel and so violent they believed that no lesser charge was thinkable if woodward had been convicted of first-degree mur-
der she would have died in prison a fate reserved in britain for the worst of serial killers in the category of myra hindley and ian brady 1 oct 1997 by drawing the comparison between the different levels of statutory punishments in the us and in britain in the quote above the paper again implicitly helps to co-
construct woodward as a victim this is achieved by the obvious incompatibility of woodward with first the manner of death constituting first-degree murder significantly described from the perspective of the prosecution by the distanc-
ing attribution ‘they believed’ and second the class of ill-famed criminals with whom she was in the eyes of the prosecution co-classified and obviously mis-
classified in the opinion of the telegraph 4 5 post-verdict reversal of negativity
following the controversial verdict there was mounting public conviction both in britain and the us that the murder verdict was wrong and that woodward had not been given a fair trial the media landscape was occupied by news of public rallies appeals to the british embassy letters to the editor public opinion polls showing massive support for woodward etc by contrast the family of the dead child received only minimal coverage in which however comments were repeatedly made on the reversal of blame e g mr eappen repeated it is like blaming a rape victim for rape” 6 nov 1997 stung by suggestions that they should share responsibility for the death of their baby 8 nov 1997 hate mail blaming them for their baby’s death 10 nov 1997 then on 9th november in an unexpected twist of events judge hiller zobel applied his judicial right and overruled the jury’s guilty verdict by changing her murder conviction to manslaughter he cut woodward’s sentence to 279 days the time she had already spent in prison amid discussions of a media bid to buy her story and media images of jubilant english people in her native village the public attitude towards woodward as reported in the telegraph began to turn against her mainly due to the belief here voiced by a member of public that she got off easy” 11 nov 1997 for the very first time injustice was invoked in connec-
40 jan chovanec
tion with someone other than woodward as one of the jurors directly stated i’m flabbergasted i’m appalled this is unbelievable this is a complete injustice to that child’s life and this is not a reasonable sentence ” 12 nov 1997 refer-
ences to woodward’s innocence unfair trials etc ceased altogether reports of negative opinions on the judge’s decision and ultimately wood-
ward almost totally absent from the telegraph before 10 november 1997 sud-
denly took centre stage us viewers attack justice system 11 nov 1997 backlash in america backlash in britain 12 nov 1997 opinion polls that showed a majority of respondents opposed to woodward being freed were an indication of the swing of public opinion to the other side due to the reversal of the affective evaluation of woodward and the legal treat-
ment of her case the dichotomous contrast of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ came to be frequently revisited especially in the accessed voices of numerous individuals commenting on the main protagonist and the legal system as well as the public reaction in britain thus for instance the contrast was alluded to by mrs eappen the mother of the dead child as follows mrs eappen said the idea that someone who looks normal and friend-
ly or like a young and i hate to stereotype white soft-spoken british- accented intelligent girl could harm your child is terrifying to people ” 6 nov 1997 there were several explicit references made by american citizens pointing out against the background of english people jubilant at the freeing of woodward the apparent falsity of the belief that the english are a civilised nation such comments undermine some of the one-sided positive stereotyping of the ingroup i e the british in which the telegraph had engaged previously a man voiced his disgust at news footage from england showing people celebrating he said can you imagine what it was like for the parents of that child watching a shot on tv of people waving bottles of champagne around when they have lost their beloved child the english are supposed to be civilised that was not the act of a civilised group of people 11 nov 1997 occasionally some reactions by americans amounted to vicious and xenophobic attacks pointing out the assumed sense of cultural superiority held by the british about themselves the following letter to the editor is worth quoting at length since it epitomises the confrontational nature of the ‘us’ vs ‘them’ divide and the awareness of the positive self-presentation negative other-presentation of the ideological square this letter is with regard to the sickening behaviour and attitude exhibited by your nation and nationals in the louise woodward case in massachusetts 41the role of nationality contrasts
apparently according to your citizens and diplomatic staff every other sys-
tem of justice in the world is unfair and uncivilised except your own i know that after killing and slaughtering so many people over these many centuries all over the globe the british must surely be better equipped to ascertain who a murderer is instead evidently your populace seems to hold a greater deal of sympathy for the british criminal or criminals rather than the poor victims whose lives they have so coldly snuffed out to then validate the hypocritical defence of these murderers as stating ad nauseam that the host nation’s justice system is unjust and unfair is truly appalling neil gompers letters to et 12 11 1997 the quotes from letters of other americans use similarly strong and evaluative language pointing out the absolute unacceptability of the behaviour of the out-
group i e the british when viewed from the american perspective the charac-
teristic language of these direct quotes includes personal constructions with high-
ly negative evaluative adjectives e g i am appalled i find it abhorrent i am absolutely horrified and even an attempt to redefine the issue by the use of metaphor in religious terms this is sick and a blasphemy to the memory nevertheless the telegraph did include self-reflexive comments of the british on the behaviour of some of their compatriots as if to indicate that the celebra-
tions do not follow national boundaries and that the whole of britain is not by any account jubilant the backlash in britain is described in terms of shame such a moral attitude may exonerate the majority of the positively perceived in-
group the british at the expense of a small group a fraction that forms the woodward’s ‘fan club’ cf the citation of mrs eappen on 12 november 1997 this strategy allows the majority of the ingroup to preserve self-respect while distancing themselves from socially unacceptable behaviour one caller said his wife burst into tears because she felt so ashamed to be british” another told talk radio i’m truly embarrassed the hysteria of the people in elton is sickening ” 12 nov 1997 interestingly the phrase ‘so ashamed to be british’ implicitly draws on the exist-
ence of the ‘british cultural superiority’ stereotype paradoxically denying it ‘the british do behave in an uncivilised manner’ and at the same time affirming it ‘not all of us are the same’ the affirmation of the underlying stereotype may also be perceived in the second quote above since the ‘hysteria’ is localised in the village of elton woodward’s home and thus spatially contained within rather limited bounds as regards the attitude of the telegraph it did on the one hand vocalise much of the opposition against woodward’s release and the behaviour of her british supporters perhaps in order not to appear to condone it itself but on the other it praised the courage of judge zobel indirectly likening him to a hero in an arti-
42 jan chovanec
cle significantly headlined zobel was guided by a hero of the revolution 11 nov 1997 the paper discusses in detail the courageous life of the 2nd us president john adams quoted by judge zobel in his ruling who at the time of the revolu-
tion defended british soldiers on trial for firing on citizens during the ‘boston massacre’” since he was a lawyer dedicated to the legal system” a parallel is thus implied between adams and judge zobel who also stepped in to protect a british citizen because he felt the need to intervene and correct an obvious wrong committed on woodward 5 conclusion
the representation of louise woodward in the telegraph as the material ana-
lysed has indicated was not entirely disinterested in the media coverage of her case references to her english british nationality played a crucial role from an early marker of newsworthiness the nationality label became the basis for wood-
ward’s direct and indirect social categorisation as a member of an ingroup the gradual construction of two opposed groups ‘us’ vs ‘them’ i e the british vs the americans was followed by the application of certain stereotypes concerned with positive self-presentation of the british nation and its members in addition by backgrounding and eventually suppressing woodward’s potential categorisa-
tion as a deviant and harmful individual the suspect of an alleged manslaughter of a baby in her care the paper contributed to the formation of a positive attitude towards woodward in this process various referential strategies contributed to exonerating wood-
ward and mustering up wide public support for her at the national level the range of category labels applied to her were mostly positive teenager au-pair school-leaver victim of injustice sacrificial lamb borderline hero for her efforts to save the child etc as neil wallis the deputy editor of the sun defending a later offer of a financial payment to the woodwards for their story put it the newspaper and the country saw her as a victim of a miscarriage of justice rather than a criminal 12 nov 1997 in addition the positive stereotypes of the ‘british nanny’ and the ‘exploited teenage girl’ in america thanks to which woodward could be seen in terms of positive models intensified the dichotomous contrast of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ and ex-
acerbated the positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation of these groups as a result in a paradoxical reversal of roles woodward started to be perceived as a victim rather than a perpetrator in this sense her discursive con-
struction solidified into another stereotype that of an unjustly sentenced indi-
vidual cf the quote by congressman slattery after voting down a bill to revive the death penalty in massachusetts the spectre of the woodward case left me with a deeply unsettled conviction about executing the wrong person what hap-
pens to these people we’re not sure of what happens to the louise woodwards of the world 8 nov 1997 as noted by mrs eappen the mother of the dead 43the role of nationality contrasts
child woodward was victimised to such a degree that she even achieved a status approaching that of a hero to see louise essentially exonerated released to the cheers of her fan club to see her as some sort of hero” 12 nov 1997 the case study indicates the power of the media in redefining issues as a result of their use of discursive referential and predicational strategies thanks to creat-
ing group divisions postulating group membership for individuals and engaging in affective representation as a part of the ideological square they may signifi-
cantly influence the positive or negative perception of individuals by the public and thus be directly involved in the manufacture of public consensus references
alabarces pablo alan tomlinson and christopher young 2001 ‘argentina versus england at the france ’98 world cup narratives of nation and the mythologizing of the popular’ media culture & society 23 547 566 bell allan 1991 the language of news media oxford uk and cambridge ma blackwell brookes rod and beverley holbrook 1998 ‘ mad cows and englishmen” gender implications of news reporting on the british beef crisis in carter cynthia branston gill and stuart allen eds news gender and power london and new york routledge 174 185 chovanec jan 2000 ‘interpersonal implications of participant identification in news headlines’ in 6th conference of british american and canadian studies proceedings prešov fakulta humanitných a prírodovedných vied prešovskej univerzity 2000 124 133 clark kate 1998 ‘the linguistics of blame representations of women in the sun’s reporting of crimes of sexual violence’ in cameron deborah ed the feminist critique of language a reader 2nd ed london routledge conboy martin 2006 tabloid britain constructing a community through language london routledge dor daniel 2003 ‘on newspaper headlines as relevance optimizers’ journal of pragmatics 35 675 721 el refaie elisabeth 2001 ‘metaphors we discriminate by naturalized themes in austrian news-
paper articles about asylum seekers’ journal of sociolinguistics 5 3 352 371 fairclough norman 1989 language and power london and new york longman fairclough norman 2003 analysing discourse textual analysis for social research london routledge fowler roger 1991 language in the news discourse and ideology in the press london and new york routledge halliday m a k 1978 language as a social semiotic the social interpretation of language and meaning london edward arnold halliday m a k 1985 an introduction to functional grammar london edward arnold harcup tony and deirdre o’neill 2001 ‘what is news galtung and ruge revisited’ journalism studies 2 2 261 280 lule jack 2004 ‘war and its metaphors news language and the prelude to war in iraq 2003’ journalism studies 5 2 179 190 partingdon alan 2003 the linguistics of political argument the spin-doctor and the wolf-pack at the white house london routledge reisigl martin and wodak ruth 2001 discourse and discrimination rhetorics of racism and antisemitism london routledge 44 jan chovanec
richardson john e 2007 analysing newspapers an approach from critical discourse analysis basingstoke palgrave macmillan scollon ron 1998 mediated discourse as social interaction a study of news discourse london and new york longman van dijk teun a 1988 news as discourse lawrence earlbaum associates van dijk teun a 1987 ‘semantics of a press panic the tamil invasion”’ european journal of communication 3 1987 167 187 van dijk teun a 1992a ‘discourse and the denial of racism’ discourse & society 3 87 118 van dijk teun a 1992b ‘racism and argumentation race riot rhetoric in tabloid editorials’ in f h van eemeren et al eds argumentation illuminated dordrecht foris 242 259 van dijk teun a 2000 ‘new s racism a discourse analytical approach’ in simon cottle ed ethnic minorities and the media milton keynes uk open university press 33 49 van dijk teun a 2002 ‘discourse and racism’ in goldberg david and john solomos eds the blackwell companion to racial and ethnic studies oxford blackwell 145 159 van leeuwen theo 1996 ‘the representation of social actors’ in carmen rosa caldas-coulthard and michael coulthard eds texts and practices london routledge mgr jan chovanec ph d department of english and american studies
faculty of arts masaryk university
arna nováka 1
602 00 brno
chovanec@phil muni cz
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
renata kamenická
defining explicitation in translation
the development of descriptive translation studies in the 1980s has enabled the observation that certain linguistic phenomena typically occur in translated texts irrespective of the language from which the text was translated referred to col-
lectively as ‘translation universals’ such phenomena as simplification avoidan-
ce of repetitions present in the source text explicitation normalization and the distinctive distribution of lexical items became the object of further study first through the use of parallel corpora consisting of source language texts and their target language translations and later through comparable corpora consisting of translated texts and original texts written in the same language for analogical pragmatic situations observed already in the pre-descriptive and pre-corpora period of translation studies e g by vinay and darbelnet 1958 levý 1963 nida 1964 and others explicitation was one of the translation universals that attracted the greatest amount of attention from the start both as a sl universal explicitatory shifts between the st and tt were studied in parallel corpora and a tl universal the overall degree of explicitness was compared in translati-
ons and non-translated texts in comparable corpora and since the formulation of the so-called ‘explicitation hypothesis’ by blum-kulka in 1985 blum-kulka 1985 see below the discourse on explicitation has become a very lively one despite prolific coverage in the literature with many papers summarising the history of the concept and its definitions there seems to be a lack of recognition of the fact that the interpretation of the term itself varies from one researcher to another explicitation is spoken about as if reference were being made to the same set of phenomena while the opposite is true the following paragraphs will attempt to clarify some of the often reiterated misunderstandings regarding the delimitation of explicitation and show that explicitation as well as its coun-
terpart implicitation should be recognized as prototypical categories with a core and a periphery our main concern will be with the explicitation hypothesis itself and the relation between explicitation implicitation specification generalization and addition omission while defining explicitation can be bypassed by comparable corpora studies focusing on certain selected types of explicitation such as olohan and baker 46 renata kamenická
2000 or olohan 2001 clarification of which language phenomena are actually regarded as covered by the term is essential to any study of explicitation based on parallel corpora since combining both approaches will certainly benefit descrip-
tive translation studies issues surrounding definitions of explicitation can hardly be set aside for too long the explicitation hypothesis
in order to elucidate the situation it seems reasonable to start with a discussion of the statement probably quoted most often in this context the so-called explicita-
tion hypothesis first formulated by blum-kulka in 1986 the process of translation particularly if successful necessitates a complex text and discourse processing the process of interpretation performed by the translator on the source text might lead to a tl text which is more re-
dundant than the sl text this redundancy can be expressed by a rise in the level of cohesive explicitness in the tl text this argument may be stated as the explicitation hypothesis” which postulates an observed cohesive explicitness from sl to tl texts regardless of the increase traceable to dif-
ferences between the two linguistic and textual systems involved it follows that explicitation is viewed here as inherent in the process of translation blum-kulka 1986 19 formulating this statement in 1986 blum-kulka was not concerned with defin-
ing explicitation at that point in the history of translation studies explicitation appeared to be a fairly well-established term grounded mainly in the prescrip-
tive approach should this formulation of the so-called explicitation hypothe-
sis be considered with a view to establishing a corresponding definitional basis for explicitation blum-kulka’s definition would probably have to be based on the concept of an increase in redundancy in the tl text compared with the sl text” blum-kulka however does not specify what it is that this redundancy concerns another significant feature of her observation already pointed out by pym 2005 is that she immediately narrows her claim down to cohesive explic-
itness in a rather loose way this redundancy can be expressed by a rise in the level of cohesive explicitness in the tl text” blum-kulka 1986 19 emphasis rk blum-kulka’s concern with explicitatory shifts of cohesion is motivated by cohesion being an objectively detectable overt textual relationship which lends itself to quantitative analysis blum-kulka 1986 23 an aspect of explicitation which has since attracted the attention of researchers e g blum-kulka 1986 pápai 2004 puurtinen 2004 however discussing blum-kulka’s formulation of the explicitation hypothesis is essential for any discussion on definitions of explicitation especially because it has become a strategy for a number of authors writing on this translation universal to avoid any strict definition of explicitation 47defining explicitation in translation
by referring to blum-kulka’s statement concerning cohesive explicitation only and then extending their discussion to explicitation in general blum-kulka’s explicitation hypothesis thus presupposes a shared knowledge of what the term refers to was this assumption justified or is there reason to worry about the accuracy of usage of this term specification and generalization points on which authors tend to differ include especially the relation between explicitation and implicitation on the one hand and specification generalization and addition omission on the other nida 1964 for instance seems to list explicitation as one of his techniques of addition i e he appears to regard addition as a hyperonym to explicitation as noted e g by klaudy 1998 or perego 2003 while a detailed study of his account of the techniques of adjustment in translation shows that equating expli-
citations with additions and at least some of subtractions with implicitations is a more accurate description of his approach kamenická 2007 øverås 1988 on the other hand views addition as just one of the strategies of explicitation other authors mostly leave the relation between these concepts unresolved this is nevertheless not the case with kinga klaudy although her contribu-
tions to the discourse on explicitation are numerous we will focus on her recent account of explicitation and implicitation klaudy and károly 2005 aware of the difficulties inherent in defining these terms identify explicitation and implici-
tation as two broad concepts covering a number of obligatory and optional trans-
fer operations explicitation takes place for example when a sl unit with a more general meaning is replaced by a tl unit with a more specific meaning when the meaning of a sl unit is distributed over several units in the tl when new meaningful elements appear in the tl text when one sentence in the st is divided into two or several sentences in the tt or when sl phrases are extended or raised” to clause level in the tt etc implicitation occurs for instance when a sl unit with a specific meaning is replaced by a tl unit with a more general meaning when translators com-
bine the meanings of several sl words in one tl word when meaningful lexical elements of the sl text are dropped in the tl text when two or more sentences in the st are conjoined into one sentence in the tt or when st clauses are reduced to phrases in the tt etc klaudy and károly 2005 15 emphasis rk among other things like øverås and unlike leuven-zwart 1989 1990 they thus subsume specification and generalization under explicitation and implicita-
48 renata kamenická
tion associating specification with explicitation and generalization with implici-
tation this is in my opinion an association whose validity is limited although the observation may be accurate in some cases such as 1 or 2 st tt units where the connection is reversed can also be found 1 st you could tell the men from auburn by the noise they made fal-
coner tt trestance z auburnu člověk poznal podle řinčení tt you could tell the convicts from auburn by the rattle 2 st i told swallow that nobody would come to rummidge but he wouldn’t listen small world tt já jsem swallowa varoval že do papridge nikdo nepřijede ale nedal si říct tt 1 i warned swallow that nobody would come to rummidge but he wouldn’t listen a number of examples where a more general rather than more specific reference results in explicitation can be found in the category of the so-called pragmatic cultural explicitation 3 st the job of check-in clerk at heathrow or any other airport is not a glamorous or particularly satisfying one small world tt registrovat cestující u přepážky na letišti ať už v londýně nebo kde-
koli jinde není atraktivní ani zvlášť uspokojivé zaměstnání tt checking in passengers at an airport counter whether in london or anywhere else is not an attractive or particularly satisfying job at the time when the czech translation of lodge’s novel was published 1988 air travel was still very much the privilege of a few select people in the czech republic and quite a number of czech readers might thus have had problems identifying heathrow as a london airport the use of the more general toponym therefore reduced the processing effort on the part of the tl readers and the translation may be regarded as involving an explicitatory shift compared with a version preserving heathrow” as the identification of the place a similar illustration of an explicitation based on a more general meaning con-
trary to the assumed association between explicitation and specification may be 4 st on the shelf under her counter she kept a bills and moon romance to read in those slack periods when there were no passengers to deal with small world tt v přihrádce pod přepážkou měla vždy nějaký zamilovaný román aby si přestávkách mezi náporem cestujících mohla číst 49defining explicitation in translation tt on the shelf under the counter she always had a romance to be able to read in slack periods between one surge of passengers and another but to insist that the connection between specification generalization and expli-
citation implicitation is reversed in occurrences where some element of culture is involved while the specification explicitation and generalization implicitation equations hold true for other instances would be an over-simplification for coun-
terexamples are not too difficult to find most people would probably agree that that kind of man” is a more general reference than howard” as far as a fictional character of that name in small world by david lodge is concerned yet 5 st no one can figure out how she can stand being married to howard small world tt nikdo nechápe jak může vedle takového mužského vydržet tt no one can figure out how she can stand living with that kind of man can be analyzed as an occurrence of explicitation where the speaker’s attitude to-
wards the said howard is explicitated he is referred to as howard in the czech translation shortly before and the fact that he is the woman’s spouse is clear from the co-text too generalizing explicitations may also be found in instances where abstract meanings expressed in the st by relatively long stretches of text within relatively complicated sentences are summed up” and shortened in czech 6 st he is the most learned man who knows the most of what is farthest removed from common life and actual observation that is of the least practical utility and least liable to be brought to the test of experience and that having been handed down through the greatest number of intermediate stages is the most full of uncertainty difficulties and contradictions ” small world tt nejučenější je ten kdo má nejvíc vědomostí o věcech co nejvzdá-
lenějších běžnému životu a opravdovému pozorování tedy o věcech nejméně upotřebitelných a nejméně ověřitelných zkušeností o tako-
vých které jsou i po nejdelším zkoumání plné nejistot nejasností a rozporů ” tt the most learned man is the one who knows the most of things most removed from common life and actual observation that is of things least practically utilizable and least verifiable by experience those that even after the longest examination are full of uncertainty dif-
ficulties and contradictions ”
in the translation of the quotation from hazzlit processing effort is reduced com-
pared with the st version containing the longer and more specific segment and 50 renata kamenická
the meaning of the whole utterance becomes more explicit the occurrence can be regarded as involving both explicitation and simplification as is sometimes the case with explicitation generalizing explicitations not involving cultural references however need not be restricted to abstract meanings or complicated syntax but may equally well involve 1 1 shifts as in 7 st as he spoke they both heard a small muffled explosion the sound distinctive and unmistakable of a bottle of duty-free liquor hitting the stone composition floor of an airport concourse and shattering inside its plastic carrier bag also a cry of shit ” and a dismayed antipho-
nal oh howard ” small world tt vtom oba uslyšeli zdušenou explozi výrazný nezaměnitelný zvuk láhve s bezcelným alkoholem která se v tašce z umělé hmoty roz-
křápla o tvrdou podlahu letištní haly a zároveň výkřik doprdele a konsternovaný protivýkřik ale howarde tt suddenly they both heard a muffled explosion the distinctive unmis-
takable sound of a bottle of duty-free liquor that shattered inside a plas-
tic bag against the hard floor of the an airport concourse and a simul-
taneous cry of shit ” and a dismayed counter-cry oh howard the shift in example 7 replaces a specification of the material of the floor with a general property most relevant with respect to the event presented in the sen-
tence as part of the flow of events in the narrative the shattering of the bottle since the material specification in the st has the status of framing information in the message as termed by gile 1995 54 5 it is mainly the properties of the ma-
terial relevant for the accident being described that the reader will infer from the surface structure of the sentence and use for processing the text which entitles us to regard the shift as an explicitation these examples show that contrary to the assumption common to approaches to explicitation that acknowledge the existence of a relation between explicita-
tion implicitation and specification generalization explicitation cannot be uni-
versally paired with specification as opposed to generalization and similarly implicitation cannot always be associated with generalization although examples of specifying implicitations are harder to find especially due to the generally lower frequency of implicitation in translation addition and omission
another pair of concepts referring to translation procedures for adjusting the presentation of information in the tt is addition omission while prescriptive approaches to translation studies did not have to bother with situating the bor-
derline between explicitation and addition on the one hand and implicitation and 51defining explicitation in translation
omission on the other the issue certainly is of some concern to descriptive trans-
lation research the distinction between the two pairs of terms is closely related to the concept of retrievability from context we speak of implicitation or omission depending on whether the information that marks the locus of the translation shift in the st surface structure can or cannot be retrieved from the tt context respectively and similarly we speak of explicitation or addition depending on whether the infor-
mation that marks the locus of the translation shift in the tt surface structure can or cannot be retrieved from the st context respectively retrievability from the co-text or the lack of it are certainly less disputable although deciding which of the terms should be applied to a certain translation shift may be complicated by the question of how much co-text is allowed for a shift to qualify as explicitation implicitation the relative salience of the infor-
mation present in the co-text and the manner of its presentation its explicit or implicit status may influence the answer some cases of omissions are easily identifiable the information is not present anywhere in the co-text 8 st he was raking leaves in yard y when the pa said that 734-508-32 had a visitor falconer tt hrabal zrovna listí na dvoře když megafonem hlásili že 734-508-32 má návštěvu tt he was raking leaves in the yard when they were informed through the public address system that 734-508-32 had a visitor other shifts are on the other hand easily identifiable as implicitations 9 st there were no pictures on the walls of the visitors’ room but there were four signs that said no smoking no writing no ex-
change of objects visitors are allowed one kiss falconer tt na stěnách návštěvní místnosti nevisely žádné obrazy ale byly tu nápisy kouření zakázáno zákaz psaní zákaz vymě-
ňování předmětů návštěvníkům je povolen jeden polibek tt there were no pictures on the walls of the visitors’ room but there were signs no smoking no writing no exchange of objects visitors are allowed one kiss we may thus be able to formulate a rule of thumb to distinguish between omis-
sions and implicitations unlike omissions implicitations allow a non-negligible likelihood that the segment in question will occur in a back-translation in other words the likelihood will be greater than for other choices of competing elements in the same class” position in the sentence 52 renata kamenická
the rule will enable us to identify the following as an instance of omission 10 st the meeting was on the lower floor of a new office building fal-
coner tt schůze se konala v přízemí jakési úřední budovy tt the meeting was on the ground floor of an office building given the tt and pushed to fill in an adjective modifying office building” we might select any other adjective such as old” dreary” noisy” large” etc with just the same likelihood but what would our assessment of 11 be 11 st he had recently completed a master’s dissertation on the poetry of t s eliot but the opening words of the waste land might with equal probability have been passing through the heads of any one of the fifty-odd men and women of varying ages who sat or slumped in the raked rows of seats in the same lecture-room small world tt nedávno napsal diplomovou práci o poezii t s eliota ale úvodní slova pustiny by právě tak mohla prolétnout hlavou kohokoli z pade-
sátky mužů a žen kteří seděli či umdlévali na křivolace seřazených židlích v této přednáškové místnosti tt he had recently completed a thesis on the poetry of t s eliot but the opening words of the waste land could just as well have crossed the mind of any of the fifty-odd men and women who sat or droopped on irregularly arranged chairs in this lecture room one argument for classifying the reduction in the tt as implicitation might be that unless specified otherwise we would expect such an audience of a confer-
ence on literary theory or any conference at that to be of varying age and not only that we would be able to further specify that age range as something around the mid-twenties to advanced age relying on our personal or mediated experi-
ence the implicitated segment does not say anything contrary to what would be expected but is that enough to qualify the shift as an implicitation a similar example 12 might help us clarify the issue 12 st the conferees had by that time acquainted themselves with the ac-
commodation provided in one of the university’s halls of residence a building hastily erected in 1969 at the height of the boom in higher education and now only ten years later looking much the worse for wear small world tt krátce předtím zjistili že univerzita je ubytovala v kolejní budově chvatně postavené v roce 1969 za největší konjunktury vysokoškol-
ského vzdělání a teď po pouhých deseti letech značně zchátralé tt they had shortly before found that the university accommodated them in a hall of residence hastily built in 1969 at the peak of the 53defining explicitation in translation
boom in higher education and considerably dilapidated now only ten years later the expectation certainly is for a university unless it is a really miniscule one to have more than one hall of residence but again should the mere fact that the implicitated information does not preclude the inference indicate that the infe-
rence will be made at all my claim is that the concept of frames petruck 1996 previously used in literature on translation for example by neubert and shreve 1992 59 65 or gaddis-rose 1997 79 81 which conveniently highlights the contribution of word meaning to sentence and text interpretation may be useful in finding the answer to avoid confusion i will consistently refer to fillmore’s later use of the term ‘frame’ in which frames were understood as cognitive structuring devices indexed by words associated with them that are part of particular texts and evoked in the service of understanding as opposed to his earlier approach contrasting frames as linguistic entities with ‘scenes’ as cognitive conceptual or experiential entities petruck 1996 1 within this view words presented as part of the text evoke the frame s in the mind of the speaker hearer while the interpreter of the text translator reader invokes the particular frames on the basis of the words the concept itself is an extension of the concept of case frames characterizing small abstract ‘scenes’ or ‘situations’ in case grammar the argument associated with case frames was that to understand the semantic structure of the verb it is necessary to understand the properties of such schematized scenes” fillmore 1982 115 qtd in petruck 1986 the concept of frames implies among other things that knowing the meaning of any of the words evoking a particular fra-
me requires access to that frame and that knowing the meaning of any of these words means in a sense knowing the meaning of all of them in a similar con-
text neubert and shreve 1992 56 9 speak of different kinds of co-presence from immediate co-presence to prior physical co-presence and potential physical co-presence and especially linguistic co-presence on all of which frames may be based the frame invoked by the segment v kolejní budově in a hall of residence” in the tt in the above example is a complex and semantically rich frame of studying at a university including various forms of accommodation in the place of stu-
dy implying that the participants of the conference are accommodated in rooms inhabited by students during the term the elements of the frame will include a student a university a subject of study a university teacher and potentially some others discussing the commercial transaction frame petruck 1996 1 distinguishes between elements of a frame a buyer a seller goods money and words indexing or evoking different parts of the frame e g verbs such as buy sell pay spend cost and charge it is however not clear what property would it take for a frame-indexing word to qualify as an element of that frame too any more detailed discussion of frames must take into account the fact that frames are structured entities with elements that tend to be more central salient 54 renata kamenická i e linked to the frame by a salient contiguity and thus likely to be mentioned in any account of that particular frame and elements which are rather peripheral less salient i e linked to the frame by a less salient contiguity and may or need not be invoked depending on the indexing expressions individual and cultural differences in frames must not be disregarded either one person’s frame related to study at a university will be more developed than that of another speaker of the same language if their direct and indirect experience in that domain differ substantially the fact that frames are inseparably attached to culture s is hard to overlook in discussing translation the idea that a university is likely to have several halls of residence is likely to be not very central to the university study frame which relativizes the classification of the segment quoted in 12 as an oc-
currence of implicitation the more central salient an element of a frame indexed in the text to that frame the more legitimate the claim of the segment to the status of implicitation as opposed to omission and vice versa the more peripheral less salient the element of the frame indexed by the textual cue the more appropriate the classification of the corresponding shift as an omission as opposed to impli-
citation explicitation and addition are in an analogical relationship another example perhaps even closer to the omission pole” on the scale from implicitation to omission describes a situation experienced by philip swallow in turkey 13 st at private parties there would be food and drink somehow scrounged or saved in spite of the endemic shortages at what cost and domestic sacrifice philip hated to think small world tt jídlo a pití na soukromé večírky vždycky nějak sehnali nebo ušetřili vzdor zásobovacím potížím philip raději nemyslel na to za jakou cenu a s jakými rodinnými oběťmi tt despite insufficiency of supply they always somehow managed to get or save food and drink for private parties philip preferred not to think at what cost and sacrifice of their families this was although the meaning of endemic” i e of or relating to a disease or anything resembling a disease constantly present to greater or lesser extent in a particular locality” or originating where it is found” the free dictionary fits the short-
age frame well and most of it can be inferred from the frame upon invocation by ”zásobovací potíže insufficiency of supply” as the indexing expression since shortages are generally conceptualized as unpleasant linked to a smaller or great-
er geographic area and potentially recurring the collocational metaphorical association with disease is likely to be assessed as not very salient within the frame and not likely to be invoked without an explicit indexing expression the translation shift is therefore more likely to be assessed as an omission rather than an implicitation although the latter cannot be regarded as totally inappropriate petruck 1996 6 admits that the practical matters” that frame semantics research still needs to address include determining the contents of a frame deter-
55defining explicitation in translation
mining the boundaries of a frame and determining how frames interact all these issues are of great interest to translation studies too even before more is known in this respect we may already admit that the borderline between explicitation implicitation and addition omission is fuzzy and suggest that the relative sali-
ence centrality of the aspects of the frame indexed by words in the st or tt segment will determine the position of the translation shift on the cline between implicitation omission or explicitation addition respectively conclusion
all of the parts of the discussion above point to the intrinsic difficulties involved in delimiting explicitation suggesting what was noted by englund dimitrova 2005 33 41 as the first among the people involved in research on explicitation in translation studies at the present time in studies of translation a host of phenomena with cer-
tain aspects in common are grouped together under the term explicitation” which tends to be used as a kind of umbrella term to label certain phenom-
ena of differences between the st and the tt which seem to be permissible in translation ” englund dimitrova 2005 40 i would like to go one step further arguing that explicitation is a prototype cate-
gory i e a category the membership of which cannot be defined by a single pro-
perty shared by all of its members but whose members are connected by family resemblances for a discussion of prototype categories in translatology see for example halverson 1998 what translation studies can do instead of adding to the rather futile attempts at constructing definitions around single individual attributes of explicitation is describe the centre and the periphery of the category which to my knowledge has not yet been done textual explicitness in non-translated texts was discussed by hausenblas 1997 46 53 who comments on the semi-terminological nature of the concept and specifies its relation to other concepts such as lack of ambiguity ambiguity denotation connotation direct indirect form of expression text subtext comple-
teness incompleteness of expression and implication none of the binary opposi-
tions was found to stand in a clear-cut relation to explicitation implicitation having undertaken this effort to delimit explicitation implicitation with respect to phenomena that seem akin to it we will perhaps learn better to appreciate one of the conclusions of frame semantics this time applied to explicitation implicitati-
on as a twin concept rather than its individual instances that in frame semantics with its u-semantics semantics of understanding a word is defined in relation to its background frame not in relation to other words petruck 1996 3 56 renata kamenická
notes
1 the asterisk marks a back-translation by rk a close translation of the czech text back to english designed to highlight the translation shift references
blum-kulka shoshana 1985 ‘shifts of cohesion and coherence in translation’ in j house and s blum-kulka eds interlingual and intercultural communication discourse and cognition in translation and second language acquisition tübingen gűnter narr 17 35 englund dimitrova birgitta 2005 expertise and explicitation in the translation process amster-
dam and philadelphia john benjamins fillmore charles 1982 ‘frame semantics’ in linguistics in the morning calm the linguistic society of korea soeul hanshin 11 137 gaddis rose marilyn 1997 translation as literary criticism manchester st jerome pub-
lishing gile daniel 1995 basic concepts and models for interpreter and translator training amster-
dam philadelphia john benjamins halverson sandra 1998 ‘translation studies and representative corpora establishing links between translation corpora theoretical descriptive categories and a conception of the object of study’ meta xliii 4 hausenblas karel 1997 ‘explicitnost a implicitnost jazykového vyjadřování’ explicitness and implicitness in language use od tvaru k smyslu textu stylistické reflexe a interpretace praha ff uk 46 53 kamenická renata 2007 explicitation and translator’s style prague charles university phd dissertation the free dictionary http www thefreedictionary com klaudy kinga 1998 ‘explicitation’ in baker mona ed routledge encyclopaedia of translati-
on studies london and new york routledge 80 84 klaudy kinga and károly krisztina 2005 ‘implicitation in translation an empirical justification of operational asymmetry in translation’ across languages and cultures 6 1 13 28 leuven-zwart kitty van 1989 ‘translation and original similarities and dissimilarities i’ target 1 2 151 81 leuven-zwart kitty van 1990 ‘translation and original similarities and dissimilarities ii’ 2 1 69 95 cheever john 1978 falconer new york ballantine books cheever john 1990 věznice falconer trans radoslav nenadál prague odeon levý jiří 1963 umění překladu the art of translation praha čs spisovatel lodge david 1984 small world london secker & warburg lodge david 1988 svět je malý trans antonín přidal prague odeon olohan maeve 2001 ‘spelling out the optionals in translation a corpus study’ ucrel technical papers 13 423 32 olohan maeve and mona baker 2000 ‘reporting that in translated english evidence for subli-
minal processes of explicitation’ across languages and cultures 1 2 141 158 neubert albrecht and geregory m shreve 1992 translation as text kent ohio & london england the kent state university press nida eugene a 1964 toward a science of translating leiden e j brill øverås linn 1988 ‘in search of the third code an investigation of norms in literary translation’ meta 43 4 571 588 57defining explicitation in translation
pápai vilma 2004 ‘explicitation a universal of translated text ’ in a mauranen and p kujamäki eds translation universals do they exist amsterdam and philadelphia benjamins 143 64 perego elisa 2003 ‘evidence of explicitation in subtitling towards a categorisation’ across languages and cultures 4 1 63 88 petruck miriam r l 1996 ‘frame semantics’ in j verschueren j ostman j blommaert and c bulcaen eds handbook of pragmatics philadelphia john benjamins puurtinen tiina 2004 ‘explicitation of clausal relations a corpus-based analysis of clause con-
nectives in translated and non-translated finnish children’s literature’ in a mauranen and p kujamäki eds translation universals do they exist amsterdam and philadelphia benja-
mins 165 76 pym anthony 2005 ‘explaining explicitation’ in k karoly and á fóris eds new trends in translation studies in honour of kinga klaudy budapest akadémia kiadó 29 34 vinay jean-paul and darbelnet jean 1958 comparative stylistics of french and english a methodology for translation amsterdam philadelphia john benjamins mgr renata kamenická ph d department of english and american studies
faculty of arts masaryk university
arna nováka 1
602 00 brno
kamenick@phil muni cz
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
naděžda kudrnáčová
caused motion events as complex structures
from numerous works dealing with causative predicates it follows that their de-
composition poses numerous problems decompositional formulas of causative events employ the abstract predicate ‘cause’ taking two arguments the cause and the result causative events are thus represented as chains with the cause on the one pole and the result on the other the causer x acts on the causee y inducing a change in y the resulting change in y may be either a process or a state the present paper will focus on caused motion predicates it will demonstrate that a caused motion events represent complex structures that may involve more than two subevents the subevents are not only interrelated but also display a hierarchical ordering b in spite of being clearly discernible the subevents do not have an au-
tonomous status c the interaction between the verb’s specific causative structure and its lexico-semantic structure manifests itself at a syntactic level the position of subevents in decompositional formulas
movement and manipulative causation are regarded as belonging to the core of causative events talmy 1976 decompositional formulas of caused motion events are traditionally presented in the form ‘x made it be the case that y moved’ ‘x made it be the case that y changed location’ or ‘x caused y to move’ ‘x caused y to change location’ these decompositions may pose problems as to the specification of concrete semantic values of the two subevents the causing subevent and the caused one for example jackendoff 1983 177 offers two possible interpretations of the sentence amy put the flowers in the vase in the form ‘amy made it happen that the flowers went into the vase’ and ‘amy made it be the case that the flowers were in the vase’ and adds that the latter seems less acceptable because what amy really did was bring about an event whose end-
state is the situation in question” however a closer look reveals that both vari-
60 naděžda kudrnáčová
ants might serve as paraphrases of the sentence amy dropped the flowers in the vase or amy threw the flowers in the vase in the event of dropping” the causer ceases to release a stationary type of energy between himself and the object by the term ‘stationary energy’ i mean such a type of energy as the causer releases to merely maintain the position of the object in his her physical scope by contrast a release of a dynamic type of energy sets the object in motion as a result the object becomes subject to the force of gravitational energy and moves down-
wards jackendoff 1983 178 introduces the concept of ‘permissive agency’ in dropping the flowers in the vase” the position of the object is first controlled by the causer but then it is free from such control the same is valid for throw fling and other verbs of ballistic motion” in throwing” the causer transmits dynam-
ic energy onto the object in this way making the object move in a certain direc-
tion typically not downwards by contrast in putting something somewhere” the causer controls the movement of the object all along the path that the object traverses that is in the event represented by the verb put the causing subevent the activity carried out by the causer and the caused subevent the motion of the object are temporally coextensive which does not hold for drop and throw in the light of this the paraphrase in the form ‘amy made it be the case that the flowers went into the vase’ not ‘were in the vase’ is better suited to represent dropping” or throwing” i e such events as involve an unaccompanied move-
ment of the object the decomposition in the form ‘amy made it be the case that the flowers were in the vase’ is then more appropriate for amy put the flowers in the vase because the caused motion event linguistically grasped by the verb put profiles the resulting state i e the final localization of the object it must be added that this type of paraphrase ‘x makes it be the case that y is somewhere’ can in fact be offered as a decomposition of any event involving the object’s change of location brought about by an external causer it may represent not only putting something somewhere” but also let’s say throwing raising pushing something somewhere” one cannot overlook one important fact namely that the specification of the first argument of the abstract predicate ‘cause’ in the form ‘amy made it be the case that’ is in spite of representing a verb of action and imputing agency cf davidson 1966 65 7 very vague to this effect which also adds to the broad applicability of the decompositional formula under considera-
tion it is clear that the causing subevent cannot be specified independently of the caused subevent because the two form an inseparable unit to give a well-known example the causing subevent ‘mary did something’ from the causative para-
phrase of the sentence mary opened the door ‘mary did something that caused the door to be open’ see e g parsons 1994 227 may stand not only for stere-
otypical actions involving manipulating handles for example but also for kick-
ing against the door true enough this last scenario would probably be rendered in the form mary kicked the door open it is worth noting that a stereotypical character of actions is an important factor motivating the use of lexical causa-
tives for example mccawley 1978 points out that the lexical causative kill 61caused motion events as complex structures
represents the action in question in its stereotypical version in the light of these considerations it is apparent that the concrete semantic value of ‘mary did some-
thing’ as the first argument of ‘cause’ depends not only on semantic but also on pragmatic factors i e on certain prototypical scenarios the analysis of lexical causatives in a lexical decomposition theory raises problems also because decompositional formulas necessarily employ the ab-
stract predicate ‘cause’ from this it logically follows that causative decomposi-
tional formulas cannot conform to the ways in which a natural language is used it is then quite symptomatic that if a given decompositional formula does not sound plausible its interpretative status is cast into doubt for example palm-
er 1986 139 observes that there are degrees of plausibility in the causative analysis of english verbs” and points out that decompositional formulas bring about problems when it comes to verbs such as hit john hit bill ‘john caused bill to ’ in fact palmer’s criticism concerns two related problems namely which verbs should actually be taken as causative ones and how the concept of a ‘resulting change of state’ could be specified in clearer terms the test ‘x verbed y but nothing happened to y’ as in john melted the ice but nothing happened to it cf e g shibatani 1976 is a useful device for singling out verbs of change of state from those that do not entail such a change the verb melt naturally entails a change of state but its applicability as a diagnostic test for determining verbs of change of location is open to debate consider harry hit john but nothing happened to him harry raised rolled pushed threw bounced the ball but nothing hap-
pened to it the plausibility of the first sentence is beyond doubt but the second sentence poses problems one cannot reasonably say that if someone raises the ball the ball does not undergo any change still the statement in the form but nothing happened to it” is not a felicitous way of grasping this aspect of meaning because it points to the ‘inner’ change in the object to the damage done to it perhaps rather than to its change of location it cannot be overlooked that such decompositions are possible and hence seem plausible when the slot for the given verb in the formula ‘cause to v’ is filled with intransitive variants of their causative transitive counterparts let me adduce well-known examples with the verbs break and open the causative transitive events he broke the vase opened the door are traditionally paraphrased by means of formulas employing intransitive verbs that are part of the natural language lexicon ‘he caused the vase to break the door to open’ it should be realized that intransitive verbs are used in sentences that abstract the activity of the causer from the profiled action in question the vase broke the door opened in these eventualities the external causer is presumed but not explicitly stated it is either specified in the extra-sentential context or may be inferred from it or there is no external causer and the event is presented as ‘spontaneous’ or ‘internally caused’ 62 naděžda kudrnáčová on the feature ‘spontaneousness’ see haspelmath 1993 on the concept of inter-
nal causation see esp levin and rappaport hovav 1995 and levin 1994 the same is valid for caused motion events the formulas ‘x caused y to rise turn bend go down fly’ etc seem plausible precisely because they employ intransitive verbs from the natural language lexicon i e verbs that express actions move-
ments in which the activity of the causer the causing subevent is relinquished the causer’s versus the causee’s perspectivization
it will have been noted that decompositions in the form ‘cause to v’ can be read-
ily offered for predicates that can participate in the causative inchoative alter-
nation in other words these decompositions are open for causative predicates representing events which can be broken down into the causing subevent and the caused subevent in such a way that the caused subevent is presentable as abstracted from the activity of the causer which means that an intransitive verb capable of rendering the situation in this way is available a closer look reveals that intransitive verbs present caused motion events from the causee’s perspec-
tive if someone raises rolls turns bends rotates spins bounces etc an object the object as the causee rises rolls turns bends rotates spins bounces the causee’s rising rolling turning bending rotating spinning bouncing is natu-
rally part of its being raised rolled turned bent rotated spun bounced but in this case it is presented as abstracted from the exertion of force on the part of the causer the paraphrase decomposing the event into two parts the causing sub-
event and the caused one is then quite plausible ‘x causes y to rise roll turn bend rotate spin bounce ’ the subtraction of the causing event from the caused one is however highly problematic with verbs that represent caused motion events from the causer’s perspective in such a case the verb lexicalizes the activity carried out by the causer namely the type of energy the causer imparts on the object and the type of physical contact between the causer and the object from both a spatial and a tem-
poral point of view if the verb specifies the activity carried out by the causer the resulting motion of the object only follows from the nature of the causer’s activ-
ity needless to say in spite of not being explicitly lexicalized by the verb the causee’s motion is part of the lexico-semantic content of the verb in such a case the paraphrase ‘cause to v’ cannot be offered as an analytic formula because the lexicon does not contain a verb which could fill the slot reserved for the intransi-
tive verb ‘x causes y to push pull throw toss cast hold bring carry etc ’ let me illustrate this point in greater detail in the example of the verb push this verb denotes motion during which the object moved does not leave the physical scope of the causer’s body which is one of the reasons why it is dif-
ficult to specify the caused subevent the movement of the object as a distinct event it is certainly possible to capture the event as ‘x causes y to move’ but this paraphrase does not take us any further because it can be offered for any caused 63caused motion events as complex structures
motion event the decomposition in the form ‘x causes y to move along x’ does not represent any progress either because it is applicable to other caused motion events to carrying something” for example it appears that two more aspects of meaning must be taken into consideration namely the dual causative character of the subevents and the type of energy transmitted from x onto oneself and onto y the formulas in the form ‘x causes oneself to move by constantly transmitting dynamic energy onto oneself’ and ‘x causes y to move by constantly transmitting dynamic energy onto y’ represent a better solution they capture not only the type of energy but also the complex causative structure of the entire event namely a transition of dynamic energy from x onto oneself with the resulting motion of x and b transition of dynamic energy from x to y with the resulting motion of y what remains to be specified is the relation between a and b pinker 1989 103 characterizes push as involving continuous exertion of force resulting in the guided motion of a theme” little reflection shows that the postulation of temporal coextensiveness note the expression constantly” in constantly trans-
mitting dynamic energy” is however too mechanical and does not reflect the fact that a and b are interdependent in such a way that the nature of a follows from the nature of b and vice versa in other words the specific character of the subevents is constituted in their interaction all these factors point to the fact that the verb push lexicalizes the caused motion event from the perspective of the causer in that it specifies the manner in which the causer acts on the object on the causee the motion of the object being incorporated in the causer’s activity is discernible only as its logical part this explains why push cannot participate in the causative inchoative alterna-
tion harry pushed the cart the cart pushed the verb push represents an event in which the activity of the external causer cannot be relinquished this prevents the verb from entering into the inchoative construction which as mentioned above renders the causee’s movement as re-
leased from its ties with the causing subevent in theory one might expect that the dissociation of subevents would be less problematic in caused motion events in which the object leaves the physical scope of the causer’s body as is the case in the event of throwing the verb throw is commonly specified as a verb of instantaneously causing ballistic motion” levin 1993 147 so harry threw the ball into the air is paraphrasable as ‘x causes y to fly’ one must take into account however that the initial kinetic phase of throwing” encompasses a certain portion of the path that y traverses because y is placed in x’s body part s in other words the path that y traverses has two sections the first belongs to an accompanied” movement the second to an unaccompanied” one from this it follows that the direction of the movement of x’s part s determines the direction of the subsequent unaccompanied move-
64 naděžda kudrnáčová
ment of y hence the difference between throwing to somebody” and throwing at somebody” as can be seen this strictly physical aspect of the causative event in question manifests itself at a syntactic level which testifies to the fact that the partial overlap of the two subevents must be regarded as a constitutive meaning component in the lexico-semantic structure of the verb throw as a complex structure
the verb throw may be used to represent a causative event with yet another par-
ticipant when harry throws a ball to john harry causes not only the object’s change of location but also a change of its possession this complex causative event thus involves two meaning complexes each with its own causative struc-
ture the first can be paraphrased as ‘x causes y to move’ and the second as ‘x causes z to have y’ z = the receiver although these decompositions may be ap-
plied also to events that are not commonly labelled as involving caused motion give somebody something for example they provide frames that represent spe-
cific syntactic structures cf goldberg’s construction grammar taking the basic conceptual components of a causative event as syntactically relevant aspects of meaning see esp goldberg 1995 therefore throw somebody something” oc-
curs in the same syntactic frame as send somebody something” or give some-
body something” harry threw sent gave john a ball let us now have a closer look at the relation between the two meaning com-
plexes in question needless to say each represents a different perspectivization imposed on the entire event the paraphrase ‘x causes y to move’ grasps the event from the perspective of the entity whose motion is caused whereas the paraphrase ‘x causes z to have y’ grasps the event from the perspective of the participant the receiver in whose direction the object moves however what remains to be specified is the nature of the relation between the two subevents the paraphrase ‘x causes y to move thereby causing z to have y’ represents no progress in that it merely establishes a causative relation between the subevents in fact it cannot be overlooked that the causation of the second subevent is al-
ready present in the first subevent when harry throws a ball at john not to john” he transmits dynamic energy onto the ball in such a way as substantially diminishes the possibility that john will catch it therefore one can say harry threw a stone at john but john caught it or but john managed to catch it but one cannot reasonably say harry threw a stone to john but john caught it or but john managed to catch it in the event throwing a stone at john” john is not the intended receiver as is the case in throwing a stone to john” but represents a mere spatial end-point in the direction of which the object moves in this type of event then the causer intentionally sets the object in motion but at the same time does not want the potential receiver to have it therefore the subevent ‘x causes z to have y’ is missing here 65caused motion events as complex structures
the paraphrase of the subevent ‘x causes z to have y’ and by the same token ‘x causes y to move’ captures the given situation from the point of view of the causer viewed from the perspective of the receiver john catches the ball” it should be paraphrased as ‘z causes oneself to have y by transmitting dynamic energy onto y ’ in this connection let me mention briefly that the idea that an event may contain more than one level of causation is not a novel one kas-
tovsky 1973 273 for example suggests that the verb teach is a double causa-
tive because it implies ‘cause to learn’ and learn in turn implies ‘cause oneself to know’ it will have been seen that although the subevents ‘x causes y to move’ and ‘x causes z to have y’ represent two clearly discernible units they cannot from the point of view of the structure of the event as a whole be posited as having a func-
tionally independent status it is also worth noting that the presence of intention does not have a mere additive status but co-shapes the causative structure of the entire event decompositional formulas of caused motion predicates should therefore incorporate a potential unintentionality of setting the object in motion in the event of dropping for example the object can be caused to move intention-
ally as well as unintentionally because this type of event involves a release of sta-
tionary energy in the event of throwing by contrast a release of dynamic energy of a specific type presupposes the presence of intention but not necessarily in the overall physical pattern of the event let us recall the difference between throw-
ing something to somebody” and throwing something at somebody” which as has been demonstrated points to the conceptual link between the causing subev-
ent and the caused one in throw the two subevents overlap to a certain extent in this context one might point out that the potentiality of the presence of intention in certain caused motion events attests to the need of separating the concept of causation from that of intention caused motion predicates as nets of interrelated subevents
the analysis of a selected group of verbs hold carry and bring offered in this section will demonstrate that caused motion events represent complex structures involving a net of interrelated subevents strictly speaking hold is not a verb of caused motion but a verb of caused position it is incorporated in the analysis because it helps to characterize the causative structures of carry and bring hold ‘x causes y to be at oneself by transmitting stationary energy onto y ’
carry subevent 1 ‘x causes oneself to move by transmitting dynamic energy onto one-
self ’
66 naděžda kudrnáčová
subevent 2 ‘x causes y to be at oneself by transmitting stationary energy onto y ’
bring subevent 1 ‘x causes oneself to move by transmitting dynamic energy onto one-
self ’
subevent 2 ‘x causes y to be at oneself by transmitting stationary energy onto y ’
subevent 3 a ‘x ceases to move oneself’ = x changes his her final location thereby b ‘x ceases to move y’ = x changes the final location of y the causative structures of carry and bring as presented above represent minimal patterns that these verbs must involve for them to be what they are meant to be as can be seen hold represents a simple causative chain while carry and bring represent complex causative structures carry = ‘ hold move ’
bring = ‘ hold move ’ and ‘cease to hold move ’
as to the number of subevents one important remark must be made the pres-
ence of subevent 3 in the structure of bring correlates with the intrinsic telicity of the verb it is important to realize that a directed movement can be telic only when the desired spatial goal is built in the motor plan of subevent 1 in other words subevent 1 is conceptually related to subevent 3 in carry telicity is a mere potential feature with a to-directional phrase as its manifestation at the surface level i carried the package to peter this means that in its telic use the verb carry also involves subevent 3 the subevents each representing a causative unit in its own right are inter-
related on temporal as well as on conceptual grounds more specifically the relation between subevents 1 and 2 in both carry and bring involves their temporal coextensiveness in bring the relation between 1 and 2 on the one hand and 3 on the other involves their temporal successiveness what is more subevents 1 and 2 in both the verbs are mutually dependent the intrinsic non-separable relation between 1 and 2 manifests itself clearly in the speci-
fication of 3 3a = discontinuation of 1 implies 3b = discontinuation of 2 note however that the discontinuation of 2 does not imply that y changes its owner which explains why a change in y’s possession necessitates a syntactic slot for the receiver harry brought him a glass of water harry brought a glass of water to him let us now consider the causative structures of the verbs under consideration in the light of their syntactic behaviour needless to say the absence of subevent 67caused motion events as complex structures 3 in an atelic use of carry explains why this verb can be used without a to-direc-
tional phrase which denotes a spatial goal or a potential receiver the verb bring due to the obligatory presence of subevent 3 always indicates a final change of the object’s location or a change of its possession when used deictically these components are inferred from the context harry carried a book harry brought the book to john to the meeting as has already been mentioned the verb carry can denote a telic event i e can be used in the same sense as bring carry something to somebody somewhere” in this case the verb’s causative pattern must also contain subevent 3 this fact shows itself directly at a syntactic level the verb is complemented with a to-di-
rectional phrase denoting a spatial goal of motion or a receiver of the object cf amanda carried the package to pamela to new york levin 1993 135 it is worth noting however that carry and bring even when used as verbs of a possession change differ not only in that the former denotes a manner of mo-
tion and the latter is mute about this aspect of meaning consider amanda carried pamela the package levin 1993 135 amanda brought pamela the package as opposed to bring the verb carry does not dativize or at least such a possibil-
ity is highly questionable the reason must be sought in a different hierarchical ordering of their sub-events in carry the subevent involving the causer’s motion takes precedence over the subevent involving the object’s position by this it is meant that although the two subevents are temporally coextensive they are not of equal importance in the conceptualization of the entire event the motion of the causer has a dominant position the motion of the causee the object’s motion represents a mere co-occurring event this is the reason why a change of posses-
sion can only be rendered as a change of location and why the dative alternation is barred for the verb we can say that in carry it is the spatial vectorial schema that plays a decisive role in determining the syntactic behaviour of the verb this schema enables the verb to enter into a vectorial type of construction only i e into the construction with a directional phrase the object’s change of location is thus rendered as a result of the causer’s change of location from this it follows that when a possession change is to be expressed the receiver can only be ex-
pressed in the to-directional phrase to pamela which renders the receiver as an end-point on the path traversed by the causer in bring by contrast the causer’s motion and the object’s motion have an equal status which enables the verb to enter into both types of syntactic construction 68 naděžda kudrnáčová
needless to say carry lexicalizes the type of position of the object the object is not only located at the causer but this location has certain manner characteris-
tics and what is more and what is probably consistent with the other semantic features of this verb as discussed so far carry does not render the object’s posi-
tion and hence a potential change of its location expressed in the to-phrase in a contrastive way in other words the verb does not imply that the object is located at the causer as a result of a change of its original position whereas bring does carry such an implication in bring the object’s change of location is always present because the verb renders the object’s change of location as a change of its original location let me corroborate this assumption by appealing to dow-
ty’s observation 1991 578 namely that in put something somewhere the object undergoes two changes first it is removed from the original position and then placed in its new one we have dealt with the reasons why bring and carry do not behave uniformly as far as the syntactic manifestation of a possession change is concerned the discussion has also shown that the two syntactic constructions denoting a change of possession the dative construction and the construction with the to-phrase are endowed with their own semantic potential and that it is this inherent syntactic meaning that imposes restrictions on the range of verbs that can enter into them the construction with the directional phrase conceptualizes ownership as loca-
tion ‘y is located at z’ z = the receiver while the dative construction conceptu-
alizes ownership as possession without locative implications ‘z has y’ stationary energy versus dynamic energy
by way of concluding the analysis let me add a remark on the two types of en-
ergy as postulated in this paper it will be seen that the difference between them manifests itself at a syntactical level which attests to their incorporation in the verbal conceptual structure let me demonstrate this point on the example of the verbs carry bring and push again levin characterizes carry push and bring as displaying common lexico-semantic features bring may be used deictically she describes carry and push as verbs of causation of accompanied motion in some manner” levin 1993 138 and bring as a verb of continuous causation of accompanied motion in a deictically specified direction” levin 1993 135 however these verbs differ in one important aspect of meaning carry and bring involve transmission of stationary energy from the causer onto the object while push involves transmission of dynamic energy from the causer onto the object compare nora pushed the chair levin 1993 137 nora pushed at on against the chair levin 1993 137 nora brought the book 69caused motion events as complex structures nora brought at on against the book nora carried the book nora carried at on against the book as opposed to the verbs bring and carry the verb push can be used with the prepositional phrases employing at on and against because these phrases profile the imparting of force dynamic energy to the object and thus are not compatible with verbs denoting actions that involve transition of stationary energy on the value of decompositions
as the analysis of lexical causatives expressing caused motion has shown dif-
ficulties connected with the concrete specification of the causing subevent and the caused subevent testify to the fact that their dissociation may obscure the nature of the entire event although the cause and the result represent two discernible events they are not functionally independent they both represent clearly dis-
cernible components of the whole event but such as cannot be posited as autono-
mous units naturally this fact imposes limits on the interpretative value of a de-
compositional approach the analysis of kill as ‘cause to die’ mccawley 1968 may serve as a classic illustrative example this decomposition was duly critised among others by fodor 1970 and wierzbicka 1975 basically because ‘cause to die’ fails to capture certain spatial temporal and volitional aspects of meaning as present in kill haiman 1985 observes that due to the principle of iconic-
ity lexical causatives require a single clause and can therefore denote a single event only the internally compact character of lexical causatives is often posited as following from the fact that lexical causatives denote events involving direct causation direct causation as implied in lexical causatives has been argued for by fodor 1970 shibatani 1976 mccawley 1978 among others wolff 2003 provides experimental evidence that english speakers encode a given event by means of a lexical causative if they view it as a single unit involving direct causa-
tion and gergely and bever 1986 argue along the same lines in spite of all the facts mentioned above it cannot be denied that decomposi-
tional formulas have a descriptive value they explicitly capture the presence of a dynamic relationship between the causer and the causee the causer transmits energy onto the object and in this way performs a causative role with respect to its motion transitivity seen from this perspective justifies the postulation of dis-
sociation between the cause and the result in other words decompositional for-
mulas of caused motion events encode the transitivity of causativity in terms of its force-dynamic nature as is well known talmy’s force dynamics e g talmy 1976 1988 involves causality as one of its spheres of action kemmer and ver-
hagen 1994 following talmy take transitivity as essentially force dynamic in nature” 1994 127 70 naděžda kudrnáčová
conclusion
decompositions in the form ‘x made it be the case that y went was somewhere’ or ‘x caused y to move to change location’ represent analytic structures that grasp situations actions and states of caused motion events that are regarded as their constitutive parts they are however mute about certain meaning components that have a role in shaping the causative structure of the event the analysis of a selected group of verbs has shown that an analysis of verbal causative structures should involve a more detailed description of their inner structuration not only with respect to their representation at a syntactic level but also with respect to their representation at a lexical conceptual level references
davidson donald 1966 ‘the logical form of action sentences’ in n rescher ed the logic of decision and action 81 95 pittsburgh university of pittsburgh press dowty david 1991 ‘thematic proto-roles and argument selection’ language 67 547 619 fodor jerold a 1970 ‘three reasons for not deriving kill from cause to die’ linguistic in-
quiry 1 429 38 gergely györgy and bever thomas g 1986 ‘relatedness intuitions and the mental representa-
tion of causative verbs’ cognition 23 211 77 goldberg adele e 1995 constructions a construction grammar approach to argument struc-
ture chicago and london chicago university press haiman john 1985 natural syntax iconicity and erosion cambridge cambridge university press haspelmath martin 1993 ‘more on the typology of inchoative causative verb alternations’ in b comrie and m polinsky eds causatives and transitivity 87 111 amsterdam and philadel-
phia john benjamins jackendoff ray 1983 semantics and cognition cambridge mass mit press kastovsky dieter 1973 ‘causatives’ foundations of language 10 255 315 kemmer suzanne and verhagen arie 1994 ‘the grammar of causatives and the conceptual structure of events’ cognitive linguistics 5 115 56 lakoff george 1970 irregularity in syntax new york holt rinehart and winston levin beth 1993 english verb classes and alternations a preliminary investigation chicago university of chicago press levin beth 1994 ‘a preliminary analysis of causative verbs in english’ lingua 92 35 77 levin beth and rappaport hovav malka 1995 unaccusativity at the syntax-lexical semantics interface cambridge mass mit press mccawley james d 1968 ‘lexical insertion in a transformational grammar without deep structure’ in b darden c bailey and a davison eds papers from the fourth regional meet-
ing cls 71 80 chicago department of linguistics university of chicago mccawley james d 1978 ‘conversational implicature and the lexicon’ in p cole ed syntax and semantics 9 pragmatics 245 59 new york academic press palmer frank r 1986 semantics cambridge cambridge university press parsons terence 1994 events in the semantics of english a study in subatomic semantics cam-
bridge mass mit press pinker steven 1989 learnability and cognition the acquisition of argument structure cam-
bridge mass mit press 71caused motion events as complex structures
shibatani masayoshi 1976 ‘the grammar of causative constructions a conspectus’ in m shi-
batani ed syntax and semantics 6 the grammar of causative constructions 1 40 new york academic press talmy leonard 1976 ‘semantic causative types’ in m shibatani ed syntax and semantics 6 the grammar of causative constructions 43 116 new york academic press talmy leonard 1988 ‘force dynamics in language and cognition’ cognitive science 12 49 100 wierzbicka anna 1975 ‘why kill does not mean cause to die the semantics of action sen-
tences’ foundations of language 13 491 528 wolff phillip 2003 ‘direct causation in the linguistic coding and individuation of causal events’ cognition 88 1 48 phdr naděžda kudrnáčová csc department of english and american studies
faculty of arts masaryk university
arna nováka 1
602 00 brno
kudrnada@phil muni cz
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
olga dontcheva-navratilova
style markers of resolutions clause patterns and verb complementation
1 introduction
in discourse studies in spite of existing differences it is generally agreed that genre is a class of communicative events defined in terms of a socially recognised communicative purpose socio-cultural situation content and linguistic form e g bhatia 1993 swales 1990 2004 therefore an investigation into the style mark-
ers of a genre should map the patterns of co-occurring features in a representative corpus of texts and correlate statistical findings with an interpretation of the mo-
tivation for the stylistically relevant choices of language patterns and discourse strategies used to achieve genre-specific communicative purposes this inquiry into verb complementation in unesco resolutions is part of a larger study which analyses the genre of resolutions see dontcheva-navratilova 2005a 2005b 2005c 2006 it draws on previous research into stylistic features of different types of professional discourses in particular bureaucratic discourse and legal english e g charrow 1982 danet 1985 donahue and prosser 1997 hiltunen 1990 and corpus-based research into register analysis biber 1999 biber et al 1998 1999 bhatia et al 2004 the primary aim of the present investigation is to describe stylistically relevant clause patterns and verb complementation in resolutions a genre of formal writ-
ten discourse in institutional settings as resolutions are typically one-sentence texts of different lengths e g r20 consists of 30 words while r66 includes 4067 words they are characterised by considerable structural complexity which is motivated by the presence of embedded clauses heavily modified noun phrases and nominalizations since processing condensed structures imposes greater de-
mands on the reader structural complexity is related to processing complexity however in the case of highly specialized professional discourses which are not intended for the general public processing complexity is reduced as a result of the experience gathered in working with the genre therefore an awareness of the recurrent structural patterns used in the genre of resolutions may be seen as a factor facilitating discourse processing and thus reducing its complexity 74 olga dontcheva-navratilova
2 methodology
the present research is performed on a specialised corpus of 114 resolutions 45 000 words which form part of the ‘resolutions’ volume of the records of the general conference of unesco adopted at the 30th session in 1999 since the genre of resolutions is historically related to legislative frozen genres where form-function correlations are rather fixed and therefore it is often not neces-
sary to base findings on large corpora” bhatia et al 2004 206 207 the size of the corpus is regarded as sufficiently representative within the one-sentence text of resolutions clause components correspond to text-structure components dontcheva-navratilova 2005c it is therefore reason-
able to expect that structural patterns at the highest syntactic level i e the level of main clauses reflect strategic choices in discourse which typically motivate sty-
listically relevant choices of language patterns thus the present research focuses on the analysis of main-clause patterns and the complementation of main-clause predicative verbs without offering a detailed analysis of embedded clauses drawing on biber et al 1999 141 the present investigation uses a typology of clause patterns which relates the approach based on verb-valency to the tra-
ditional classification of verbs based on transitivity e g quirk et al 1985 hud-
dleston and pullum 2002 assuming that the one-place sv pattern corresponds to intransitive verbs the two- and three-place sv patterns svo svoo svoc and svoa with objects correspond to transitive and the two-place sv patterns with complement or adverbial correspond to copular verbs svc and sva though the syntactic realization of major clause elements is not reflected in this clause ty-
pology in agreement with biber 1999 and huddleston and pullum 2002 333 the variability of realization patterns of complements is regarded as a potential register- or genre-specific choice in the discussion of verb complementation the term ‘complement’ is restricted to non-subject elements for verb complements which take the form of dependent clauses the term ‘complement clauses’ is preferred to ‘nominal clauses’ as used in quirk et al 1985 which implies a comparison with other potential realiza-
tions of the clause element and to the term ‘content clauses’ as used as a default category in huddleston and pullum 2002 which fails to specify the function of the clausal element in the sentence the frequency counts reported in the paper have been performed manually and using the ‘microconcord’ concordancer the frequency of occurrence of estab-
lished stylistically relevant lexico-grammatical patterns is compared to the results reported in previous corpus-based research e g biber 1999 biber et al 1998 1999 a functional interpretation of quantitative data is provided to explain the motivation for the stylistic choices facilitating the realization of genre-specific communicative purposes in formal institutional discourse 75style markers of resolutions
3 results of the analysis
in the material under investigation all sentences are declarative complete major sentences with the discourse function of statements which is in conformity with the findings reported by crystal and davy 1969 danet 1985 hiltunen 1990 and knittlová 1990 concerning legal language the speech acts performed are declarations directives representatives and occasionally expressives a tendency towards disambiguation in the genre of resolutions motivates a preference for explicit reference to the communicative intention of the speaker thus most reso-
lutions are realized by performative utterances the illocutionary force of which is signalled by a performative verb in the active voice of the simple present tense of the indicative mood leech 1983 184 185 searle 1969 30 drawing on austin 1962 55 56 and lyons 1977 779 it is necessary to stress that in ritualized institutional acts the performer of the illocutionary act can use any pragmati-
cally appropriate expression to refer to himself and to the addressee in the case of unesco resolutions the performer is referred to as ‘the general confer-
ence’ and the addressee most frequently as ‘the director-general’ or ‘member states’ except for declarations performatives in resolutions take the form of illocutionary performative sentences which drawing on leech 1983 181 191 may be regarded as instances of ‘oratio obliqua’ i e they take the syntactic form of complex sentences in which the main clause typically introduces the perfor-
mative verb indicating the speech act and the subordinate clause indicates the propositional content therefore a high frequency of clausal complementation of performative verbs in resolutions is expected previous research dontcheva-navratilova 2005c has evidenced that there are two sub-types of resolutions which show functional and structural differ-
ences executive and preparatory resolutions executive resolutions state regula-
tive facts and establish duties and obligations of executives and member-states using declarations directives and occasionally expressive performative speech acts they typically take the form of multiple sentences with coordinated main clauses which contain predicative verbs with different types of complementation preparatory resolutions state decisions concerning the composition of bodies the establishment of procedures and the definition of rights which constitute the con-
ditions for the work of the session of the general conference and the bodies of the organization over a certain period preparatory resolutions may be further sub-divided into preparatory resolutions dealing with administrative issues and preparatory resolutions dealing with elections the former commonly realize non-
performative representative speech acts and may occasionally include more than one sentence the latter usually consist of one main clause realizing a performa-
tive declarative speech act the present investigation tries to relate functional differences between the above-mentioned sub-types of resolutions to variation in their syntactic realization 76 olga dontcheva-navratilova
3 1 distributions of main-clause patterns in different types of resolutions
since each clause pattern is adapted for the expression of some characteristic meanings biber et al 1999 141 it is not surprising that the above-mentioned sub-types of resolutions show a strong preference for particular types of clause patterns and that some verb patterns i e copular verb patterns are totally absent in the material under investigation the distribution of main-clause patterns in the text of the 1999 ‘resolutions’ volume is summarized in table 1 below table 1 distribution of main-clause patterns in the 1999 ‘resolutions’ volume
clause type sv svo svoc svoo
preparatory resolutions administrative issues
0 15 1 6
preparatory resolutions dealing with elections
1 5 16 0
executive resolutions 0 179 3 254
total no 1 194 20 260
total 0 2 40 8 4 2 54 8
the findings suggest that resolutions use excusively transitive clause patterns and that there is a tendency to associate each type of resolution with one or more clause types thus preparatory resolutions dealing with administrative issues show a strong preference for the svo clause pattern preparatory resolutions dealing with elections use primarily the svoc clause pattern and executive reso-
lutions use the svo and svoo clause patterns the absence of intransitive and copular verb patterns is motivated by the pres-
ence of the agentive subject invariably the general conference which is en-
gaged in a process extended beyond the agentive participant the processes being primarily communication mental activity and causation the single instance of sv clause pattern occurring in preparatory resolutions dealing with elections is the only case of passive voice clause pattern using an affected subject with non-
realization of the context-dependent agentive participant as illustrated in exam-
ple 1 1 the following members were thus elected r010 11 the patterns showing the highest frequency of occurrence are the monotransitive svo pattern and the ditransitive svoo pattern this distribution of clause pat-
terns may be regarded as genre-specific as it is motivated by the high frequency of declarative speech acts stating decisions and directive speech acts stating du-
ties and obligations assigned to member states and executives the distribution of performative and non-performative sentences in the three sub-types of resolutions is summarized in table 2 77style markers of resolutions
table 2 distribution of performative and non-performative sentences in resolu-
tions
text type svo svoo svoc
perform non- perform perform non- perform perform non- perform preparatory resolu-
tions administra-
tive 4 11 5 1 0 1
preparatory resolu-
tions elections
4 1 0 0 16 0
executive resolu-
tions
180 2 254 0 2 0
total no 188 14 254 1 18 1
total 93 7 99 6 0 4 94 7 5 3
the preference for performative sentences in resolutions is a stylistic choice reflect-
ing a tendency towards explicitness and clarity in the genre and the character of the macro-performative speech act of declaration conveyed by the ‘resolutions’ volume performative sentences use a verb in the ‘instantaneous’ simple present tense of the indicative mood which implies that the event described is non-habitual and punctual and takes place at the very time of speaking i e the coding time and the receiving time coincide this use of the ‘instantaneous’ simple present tense in performatives endows them with a dramatic ritualized effect often highlighted by the use of hereby though this adverbial is never used in the material under investigation since numerous resolutions include series of speech acts related to a specific topic their syntactic structure consists of multiple clauses with deletion of the subject taking the form of numbered lists as illustrated in example 2 2 the general conference 1 notes that in preparing the draft programme and budget for 2000 2001 30 c 5 the director-general complied with the budgeting techniques that it had recommended at its 29th session 29 c resolution 86 2 invites the director-general to continue to apply the same budgeting techniques in the preparation of document 31 c 5 subject to any modifica-
tion or improvements that may be recommended by the executive board or the director-general at a future session of the board r80 123 predicates form separate paragraphs and are coordinated asyndetically this is in conformity with hiltunen’s claim that asyndetic coordination is preferred in lists typically made up of paragraphs hiltunen 1990 71 it should be noted that the semi-colons used for marking the boundaries between predicates function as ‘in-
tegrators’ and designate a high level of formality tárnyiková 2002 44 in non-performative sentences the verb is in the simple past tense of the un-
marked indicative mood the meaning of the past tense is the one most com-
monly used combining two semantic features a the event has taken place in the 78 olga dontcheva-navratilova
past with a gap between its completion and the moment of text production and b the writer has in mind a definite time at which the event took place the major-
ity of non-performative sentences occur in preparatory resolutions dealing with administrative issues and perform representative speech acts they are primarily informative i e they report constitutive decisions taken by the general confer-
ence since the events reported often differing in the time of their happening are seen as separate units of information one resolution may consist of more than one sentence as illustrated in example 3 3 at its 2nd plenary meeting on 26 october 1999 the general conference having considered the provisional agenda drawn up by the executive board 30 c 1 rev adopted that document at its 3rd plenary meeting on 27 oc-
tober 1999 it decided to add to its agenda items 4 14 proclamation of 21 march as world poetry day” 30 c 82 and 13 4 admission of the cayman islands as an associate member of the organization” 30 c 33 at its 7th plenary meeting on 29 october 1999 item 4 15 arabia plan” 30 c 83 and at its 9th plenary meeting on 30 october 1999 item 5 5 definition of regions with a view to the execution by the organization of regional activi-
ties” 30 c 80 r03 3 3 2 svo main-clause pattern and the complementation of monotransitive verbs
the svo clause pattern occurs in all types of resolutions it is the most frequently used clause pattern in preparatory resolutions dealing with administrative issues and the second in frequency in executive resolutions since clauses using perfor-
mative and non-performative verbs express different speech acts the differences in the structural realization of their complementation is expected to be stylisti-
cally relevant and therefore will be discussed separately 3 2 1 complementation of non-performative monotransitive verbs
table 3 summarizes the syntactic types of complementation and the frequency of occurrence of monotransitive verbs used in non-performative sentences table 3 complementation of non-performative monotransitive verbs verb complementation no of occurrences
adopt np 2
announce np 1
approve np 1
decide to-infinitive clause 4
elect np 1
set up np 1
79style markers of resolutions
the findings show that the majority of non-performative monotransitive verbs occur only once in the text and are typically complemented by a noun phrase the two verbs which occur more than once decide and adopt may be regarded as semantically central to the genre of resolutions as they refer to the act of tak-
ing a decision and to the act of adopting a resolution which overlap with the macro-performative function of the ‘resolutions’ volume the verb decide is the only one to take subjectless to-infinitive clause complementation with resultative meaning it should be noted that decide is also used in performative sentences where it takes to-infinitive and that-clause complementation all the verbs re-
quire an animate subject and inanimate object except for elect which allows for an animate and inanimate object and in the text takes the collective animate ob-
ject ‘its general committee’ the present research draws on biber et al ’s typology of verbs according to se-
mantic domains biber et al 1999 360 364 which distinguishes the following seven major semantic domains based on the core meaning of the verbs activity verbs communication verbs mental verbs causative verbs verbs of simple oc-
currence verbs of existence or relationship and aspectual verbs according to this typology the verbs approve adopt and decide are mental verbs with dynamic meaning announce is a communication verb and set up and elect are activity verbs though quirk and greenbaum 1985 classify elect as a causative verb however some verbs can be used with different meanings belonging to more than one semantic domain the contextual factor being decisive in identification of the meaning of the verb on the problem of blurring and overlap between speech-act and non-speech-act verbs” see leech 1983 204 thus the verbs approve adopt and decide may also be interpreted as speech-act assertive verbs referring to ‘representative declarations’ searle 1975 361 performed by the agentive participant this interpretation is motivated by the institutional charac-
ter of the communication where adopting a resolution is an act of doing which changes the status quo in the organization the direct objects refer to entities which are affected directly by the action denoted in the clause and are typically situated in final position in the sentence as table 3 suggests the object may be realized by a noun phrase typically with heavy prepositional post-modification example 4 or in the case of the verb decide by a to-infinitive clause whose subject is the same as the subject of the superordinate clause example 5 4 at its 1st plenary meeting on 26 october 1999 the general conference in accordance with rules 26 and 33 of its rules of procedure set up a cre-
dentials committee for its 30th session consisting of the following mem-
ber states burkina faso costa rica georgia lebanon thailand turkey united republic of tanzania uruguay and yemen r01 1 5 at its 2nd plenary meeting on 26 october 1999 the general conference decided to admit as observers the representatives of the following non-gov-
ernmental organizations r06 7 80 olga dontcheva-navratilova
3 2 2 complementation of performative monotransitive verbs
the performative verbs used in svo clauses belong to the following categories i assertive verbs accept acknowledge appreciate approve consider decide endorse express note reaffirm recall reconfirm recognize reiterate resolve support take note of underline ii directive verbs authorize request iii expressive verbs commend thank welcome
it is evident that assertive verbs form the most numerous group the performa-
tive sentences in which they are used perform ‘representative declarations’ it should be noted that not all assertive verbs are illocutionary performative verbs a restricted number of them belong to the group of locutionary performative verbs bach and harnish 1979 209 e g note reiterate express which from the point of view of classification of verbs into semantic domains are communi-
cation verbs the rest of the assertive verbs are mental verbs as mentioned in the discussion of non-performative verbs above there is some blurring and overlap between speech-act and non-speech-act verbs as verbs can be used with differ-
ent meanings in different contexts drawing on the criteria suggested by leech 1983 223 225 for the semantic analysis of assertive verbs the assertive verbs used in the resolutions are considered as making the proposition publicly known vs making the proposition privately or obliquely known expressing a confident assertion vs expressing a tentative assertion and passing the information on unidirectionally vs the argumentative presentation of information where truth claims may be opposed and need to be justified and defended it is interesting to note that there is an occurrence of the activity verb receive used performatively and in coordination with the verb accept thus delimiting the physical act of re-
ceiving a report from the mental act of accepting it as in 6 the general conference 3 receives and accepts the report of the external auditor and the audited financial statements on the accounts of unesco for the financial period ended 31 december 1997 r63 97 directive verbs each have one occurrence as monotransitive verbs with the svo clause type while they are the most frequently used verbs with the ditransitive svoo clause pattern logically requiring the identification of the recipient the monotransitive verb authorize is complemented by a direct object noun phrase with an abstract head which is a nominalized structure example 7 while the verb request occurs with that-clause complementation in which the doer of the required action is indicated by the subject of the subordinate clause whose verb is in the subjunctive mood example 8 81style markers of resolutions 7 the general conference 2 authorizes further allocations in 2000 2001 of unesco coupons pay-
able in local currencies up to a maximum of us $2 000 000 r68 107 8 the general conference requests that its president take the necessary steps to enable the legal com-
mittee to review as soon as possible and before its next ordinary session part xiv of the rules of procedure of the general conference in particular to ensure that this part contains objective and verifiable admissibility crite-
ria for such draft resolutions r87 127 expressive verbs are relatively rare and typically complemented by a heavily post-modified noun phrase functioning as direct object example 9 the direc-
tive and expressive speech-act verbs used in the material belong to the semantic domain of mental verbs since they typically occur within the svoo clause type they will be discussed in greater detail below section 3 3 9 the general conference 2 thanks the director-general who has spared no effort to increase the par-
ticipation of palestine in unesco’s programme and activities r52 87 table 4 summarizes the syntactic realizations of complementation and their fre-
quency of co-occurrence with verbs used in svo performative sentences since not all verbs in the list can control both types of clausal complementation the options which are not available are indicated by a dash the findings suggest that there are three types of performative monotransitive verb complementation in addition most verbs take noun-phrase complementa-
tion while only the verb decide is complemented by a to-infinitive clause table 4 complementation of performative monotransitive verbs
verb
complementation
total no noun phrase that-clause to-infinitive clause
accept 1 0 1
acknowledge 1 0 1
appreciate 3 0 3
approve 10 10
authorize 1 0 1
commend 1 1
consider 0 7 0 7
decide 0 38 14 52
endorse 9 9
express 3 3
note 8 13 21
reaffirm 4 1 5
82 olga dontcheva-navratilova
verb
complementation
total no noun phrase that-clause to-infinitive clause
recall 1 5 6
recognize 0 1 1
recommend 0 7 7
reconfirm 1 0 1
reiterate 3 0 3
request 0 1 1
resolve 0 7 0 7
support 2 2
thank 3 3
take note of 6 1 7
underline 0 1 1
welcome 6 6
total no 63 82 14 159
total 39 6 51 6 8 8 100
the occurrence of noun phrases as objects is very common in the svo clause type the majority of the noun phrases contain as heads abstract nouns which may be regarded as instances of nominalization used to condense the sentence structure as in 10 the general conference 7 welcomes the support given by norway and italy to the slave route project in particular through substantial extrabudgetary contributions 9 welcomes the cooperation of the world tourism organization in the im-
plementation of the cultural tourism programme on the slave route in af-
rica and the caribbean r34 70 the use of nominalization structures is a stylistic choice reflecting the fact that performatives are not genuine instances of indirect speech paraphrasing actual original wordings therefore language means are selected so as to match the overall style of the text which in the case of the genre of resolutions bears the features of highly formal written language that-clauses and to-infinitive clauses differ in their patterns of use as comple-
ment clauses while that-clauses combine with a restricted number of verbs from a few semantic domains i e mostly mental perceptual or communication verbs to-infinitive clauses can be controlled by numerous verbs from a wider range of semantic domains e g mental and communication verbs verbs of desire decision facilitation biber 1999 138 the register patterns of post-predicate that-clauses and to-infinitive clauses also differ that-clauses are most common in conversation fairly common in fiction and news and rather rare in academic prose while to-infinitive clauses are moderately common in fiction news and academic prose and less common in conversation biber et al 1998 83style markers of resolutions
since the common function of post-predicate that-clauses is to report the speech thoughts attitudes or emotions of human participants in mental speech-
act and other communication verb complementation it is not surprising that com-
plementation by that-clauses shows the highest frequency of occurrence 46 of the instances being complementation of the verb decide from a syntactic point of view these typically take the form of complex sentences including a main clause to introduce the performative speech-act verb and a subordinate content clause to perform the function of direct object as in 11 the general conference 1 notes the strategies developed to support personnel policy 2 considers that there have been too many exceptions in the application of personnel policy and the personnel management system which should be strictly applied inter alia in the interest of maintaining staff morale 3 underlines that implementation of personnel policy is primarily aimed at the effective execution of the organization’s programmes 4 considers that the personnel policy has to be reviewed taking fully into account the need for competitiveness expertise efficiency and universality r72 110 the verb in the subordinate clause is in the indicative mood as assertive verbs are factual and introduce propositions it should be noted that the conjunction that is never zero which is a stylistic choice conforming to the formality of the written genre and its tendency towards explicitness and disambiguation to-infinitive clause complementation in the performative svo clause pattern occurs exclusively in post-predicate position with the verb decide example 12 decide is a mental verb of intention and decision and in this group is reported by biber et al 1999 to be the most common verb controlling to-infinitive clauses 12 the general conference decides to add a third paragraph to rule 37 of its rules of procedure read-
ing as follows r78 115 as mentioned above the complementation of decide in non-performative sen-
tences is restricted to to-infinitive clauses the to-infinitive clause complement-
ing the performative and non-performative uses of decide expresses constitutive actions concerning amendments to texts or changes in the constitution of bodies when complementing a performative use of decide the to-infinitive clause may also indicate the decisions to consider an issue on a future occasion that-clause complementation of the verb decide occurs exclusively in resolutions on financial questions and expresses decisions concerning payments of contributions exam-
ple 13 this pattern of complementation reflects the fact that that-clauses al-
low the expression of meanings that are not available with non-finite clauses i e their verbs have tense or modality and the subject of the that-clause does not 84 olga dontcheva-navratilova
have to be co-referential with the subject of the main clause” biber et al 1999 757 the findings of the analysis have proved that in all that-clauses controlled by decide the verb of the subordinate clause is marked for modality typically the modal verb shall used to express what is to be the obligatory consequence of a legal decision” crystal & davy 1969 2006 and the subject of the subordinate clause is not co-referential with the subject of the main clause 13 the general conference decides that the contributions remaining due for the financial periods 1996 1997 and 1998 1999 totalling $139 104 shall be paid in six equal instalments of $23 184 from 2000 to 2005 on or before 30 june of each year r66 104 3 3 svoo main-clause pattern and the complementation of ditransitive verbs the svoo clause pattern occurs in executive resolutions the five instances of this svoo clause type in preparatory resolutions dealing with administrative is-
sues are motivated by the fact that the structure of these resolutions resembles the structure of executive resolutions there are no instances of the svoo clause type in preparatory resolutions dealing with elections the strikingly high propor-
tion of performative svoo clauses in executive resolutions reflects their execu-
tive character i e they record directive and commissive speech acts regulating the relationship between participants in the act of communication all resolutions using the svoo clause type are one-sentence texts typically including coordi-
nate clauses with subject deletion it should be noted that the addressees indicated in multiple predicates within one resolution may vary the performative verbs used in svo clauses are all illocutionary verbs which belong to the following categories directive verbs appeal authorize call upon invite request urge
expressive verbs congratulate convey gratitude express gratitude pay tribute thank
since the verbs used in the svoo clause type are illocutionary verbs they belong to the semantic domain of communication verbs the performative sen-
tences in which they are used express directive and expressive speech acts re-
spectively it is evident that the set of verbs occurring in the svoo clause pat-
tern in the material is considerably less numerous than the set of verbs used with the svo pattern nevertheless the overall frequency of occurrence of di-
rective and expressive verbs used in svoo patterns is higher which reflects one of the main functions of resolutions i e to state duties and obligations in the organization a semantic analysis of directive and expressive verbs drawing on leech 1983 218 bach and harnish 1979 47 49 51 55 and searle 1969 66 67 1975 344 350 suggests that the meanings of directive verbs used in resolu-
tions vary primarily in the desirability of the event for the addressor and ad-
85style markers of resolutions
dressee in the implied attitude of the addressor and in the force of imposition of the verb which reflects differences in the status of participants in the communi-
cation the meanings of expressive verbs vary in the desirability of the event for the addressor and addressee and in the implied attitude of the addressor there-
fore the choice of verbs reflects politeness considerations and the character of the relationship between the participants in the communication for a detailed semantic analysis of directive and expressive verbs see dontcheva-navratilova 2005a verbs of the directive and expressive groups show different patterns of comple-
mentation while directive verbs in svoo clauses are commonly complemented by a noun phrase referring to the addressee and a to-infinitive clause expressive verbs are commonly complemented by a noun phrase indicating the addressee and a prepositional phrase referring to the act performed leech 1983 205 206 table 5 summarizes the syntactic types of complementation and their frequen-
cy of co-occurrence with the verbs used in svoo clauses accounting separately for directive and expressive verbs table 5 complementation of ditransitive verbs
verb
complementation
oi np to-inf clause
oi np op pp od np op pp directive verbs
appeal 9 0 0
authorize 61 0 0
call upon 22 0 0
invite 96 0 0
request 42 0 0
urge 8 0 0
expressive verbs
congratulate 0 1 0
convey gratitude 0 0 1
express gratitude 0 0 10
pay tribute 0 0 2
thank 0 5 0
total no 236 6 13
total 92 5 2 5 5 0
the pattern of complementation of directive verbs including an indirect object with the semantic role of recipient realized by a noun phrase and a to-infinitive clause coincides with the pattern of complementation reported by leech 1983 205 and biber et al 1999 696 as typical of many speech-act and directive verbs in this pattern the noun phrase functioning as direct object in the main clause performs the function of subject of the to-infinitive clause as the addressee of the speech act is the agent responsible for the future action as in 86 olga dontcheva-navratilova 14 the general conference 1 invites the director-general to submit additional information on the pro-
posal contained in these documents at the 159th session of the executive board in particular regarding the repercussions of such a proposal on the current system of split-level assessment of contributions of member states r69 107 expressive verbs occur with two patterns of complementation the verb thank and the verb congratulate whose single appearance is in coordination with thank example 15 occur with an indirect object with the semantic role of recipient realized by a noun phrase signalling the addressee and a prepositional object introduced by the preposition for indicating the action beneficial for the addressor 15 the general conference 1 congratulates and thanks the director-general for his great efforts to ensure the full implementation of the executive board’s decisions and the general conference’s resolutions r54 88 convey express one’s gratitude which may be regarded as formal paraphrases of thank and the expression pay tribute occur in the pattern verb plus direct object realized by a noun phrase referring to the action beneficial for the addressor and a prepositional object indicating the addressee 16 the general conference 3 expresses its gratitude to the member states and organizations that have supported the institute’s programme through voluntary contributions or contractual agreements r4 29 3 3 svoc main-clause pattern and the complementation of complex-transitive verbs
the complex-transitive svoc clause pattern occurs primarily in preparatory resolutions dealing with elections where the performative sentences function as declarations the high proportion of performative svoc clauses in preparatory resolutions dealing with elections reflects their specific character which oscillates between the preparatory nature of decisions concerning the status of participants involved in the communication and the executive character of the declarations that they perform all resolutions using the svoc clause type are one-sentence texts typically including one predicate the verb phrase of the svoc clause type invariably uses the ‘instantaneous’ simple present tense of the unmarked indicative mood the most frequently used verb is elect which is semantically central to this sub-type of resolution as it ex-
87style markers of resolutions
presses an action that causes the attribution of a resultant quality to a participant in the communication except for the verb consider which is a mental verb the performative verbs used in svoc clauses are verbs typically occurring in decla-
rations elect and appoint belong in the semantic domain of activity and proclaim is a communication verb the verbs used in declarations explicitly name the act which is performed by uttering the sentence thus performing an institutional speech act which achieves an extralinguistic goal i e it brings about a change in the state of affairs in the organization conditions for the felicitous performance of such a declaration are stated beforehand in unesco documents referred to in the text of the resolutions the frequency of occurrence of performative verbs used in the svoc clause type and the syntactic types of their complementation are shown in table 6 table 6 complementation of complex-transitive verbs
verb
complementation
od np c to-inf clause od np c np od extraposed to-inf clause c adj p od np c adj p od np c pp appoint 0 1 0 0 0
consider 0 0 1 0 0
elect 15 0 0 0 0
proclaim 0 0 0 0 1
recognize 0 0 0 1 0
total no 15 1 1 1 1
total 78 8 5 3 5 3 5 3 5 3
the specificity of complex transitive complementation is that the two elements following the verb e g the object and the object complement are notionally equated with the subject and predication of a nominal clause” quirk et al 1985 1195 occurrences of the svoc clause type containing a complex-transitive verb and an object complement with the semantic role of attribute vary in the sub-types of the semantic roles of the attributes the object complements occur-
ring with the verbs appoint elect and proclaim have the function of attributes identifying a resulting state while the object complements occurring with the verbs consider and recognize have the function of attributes identifying a current state there is a strong tendency for the direct object to be realized by a noun phrase referring to a participant in the communication typically member states occa-
sionally experts the object complement usually takes the form of a to-infinitive clause which reflects the fact that the only verb with multiple occurrences is the verb elect in the complementation of the verb elect the to-infinitive clause identifies the resultant state of the implied subject which is the object of the main clause as in 88 olga dontcheva-navratilova 17 the general conference elects the following member states to be members of the intergovernmental council until the end of the 32nd session of the general conference list of states 4 conclusion
since genre is a text type defined in terms of a socially recognised communica-
tive purpose socio-cultural situation content and linguistic form an investiga-
tion into the style markers of genre is likely to find a close correlation between language means and their functional value in discourse the analysis of clause-
type patterns in unesco resolutions has evidenced that there is a tendency to associate each type of resolution with one or more clause types preparatory reso-
lutions dealing with administrative issues which have an informative function show a preference for the svo clause-type pattern preparatory resolutions deal-
ing with elections which are declarations attributing roles to the participants in the institutional communication use primarily the svoc clause-type pattern and executive resolutions which have a regulative function use the svo and svoo clause patterns the tendency towards explicitness in the genre of resolu-
tions motivates a strong preference for the use of performative utterances stating explicitly the communicative intention of the addressor thus all clause types take the form of performative sentences the svo clause type in informative pre-
paratory resolutions dealing with administrative issues is the only one to allow for non-performative speech acts verbal complementation in resolutions is restricted to a limited number of pat-
terns in svo clauses which occur in all types of resolutions the complementa-
tion of mental and communication verbs is typically realized by noun phrases and that-clauses to-infinitive clause complementation is used exclusively with the mental verb of intention and decision decide the preference for that-clause complementation reflects the potential of this clause type to express meanings that are not available with non-finite clauses the frequent occurrence of noun phrase complementation which is typically represented by instances of nomi-
nalization is a stylistic choice which reflects the high level of formality in writ-
ten institutional discourse the svoo clause pattern uses performative directive and expressive illocutionary verbs chosen from a restricted set nevertheless their overall frequency of occurrence is high which reflects the main functions of reso-
lutions i e the stating of duties and obligations in the organization the directive verbs display a single pattern of complementation consisting of a noun phrase and to-infinitive clause the noun phrase indicates the addressee of the speech act and functions both as the indirect object of the main clause and the subject of the complement to-infinitive clause the expressive verbs occur with two patterns of complementation i e a noun phrase signalling the addressee and a prepositional phrase indicating the action beneficial for the addressor and a noun phrase refer-
ring to the action beneficial for the addressor and a prepositional phrase indicating 89style markers of resolutions
the addressee within the svoc clause pattern which occurs primarily in pre-
paratory resolutions dealing with elections verbal complementation is typically realized by a noun phrase with the function of object and a to-infinitive clause with the function of object complement in conclusion it may be stated that the findings of the present research sug-
gest that the restricted range of main-clause patterns and patterns of verb com-
plementation may be regarded as a stylistic marker of the genre of resolutions furthermore since the patterns of verb complementation include clausal com-
plementation heavily modified noun phrases the heads of which frequently take the form of nominalizations post-modified by an embedded clause and complex prepositional phrases structural complexity may also be considered as a stylistic feature of the genre references
austin john 1962 how to do things with words oxford oxford university press bach kent and harnish robert 1979 linguistic communication and speech acts cambridge mass mit press biber douglas 1999 ‘a register perspective on grammar and discourse variability in the form and use of english complement clauses ’ discourse studies vol 1 2 131 150 biber douglas conrad susan and reppen randi 1998 corpus linguistics investigating lan-
guage structure and use cambridge cambridge university press biber douglas johansson stig leech geoffrey conrad susan and finegan edward 1999 longman grammar of spoken and written english harlow pearson education limited bhatia vijay 1993 analysing genre language use in professional settings london long-
man bhatia vijay langton nicola and lung jane 2004 ‘legal discourse opportunities and threats for corpus linguistics ’ in connor ulla and upton thomas eds discourse in the profes-
sions perspectives from corpus linguistics amsterdam philadelphia john benjamins pub co 203 229 charrow veda 1982 ‘language in the bureaucracy ’ in di pietro robert ed linguistics and the professions advances in discourse processes vol viii norwood ablex publishing corpo-
ration 173 188 crystal david and davy derek 1969 investigating english style london longman danet brenda 1985 ‘legal discourse ’ in van dijk teun ed handbook of discourse analysis vol 1 london academic press 273 291 donahue ray and prosser michael 1997 diplomatic discourse international conflict at the united nations addresses and analysis greenwich ct and london ablex publishing cor-
poration dontcheva-navratilova olga 2005a ‘politeness strategies in institutional speech acts in povolná renata and dontcheva-navratilova olga eds discourse and interaction 1 brno seminar on linguistic studies in english proceedings 2005 brno masaryk university 15 29 dontcheva-navratilova olga 2005b ‘text organization development in the structure of unesco ‘resolutions‘ volumes ’ acta academia karviniensia 2 2005 16 35 dontcheva-navratilova olga 2005c ‘text typology of resolutions ’ brno studies in english 31 s11 19 33 dontcheva-navratilova olga 2006 ‘information processing in resolutions ’ in mačura martin and miššíková gabriela eds proceedings of the 1st nitra international conference on dis-
90 olga dontcheva-navratilova
course studies ‘trends and perspectives’ march 20 2006 37 46 nitra constantine the philoso-
pher university hiltunen risto 1990 chapters on legal english helsinki suomalainen tiedeakatemia huddleston rodney and pullum geoffrey 2002 the cambridge grammar of the english lan-
guage cambridge cambridge university press knittlová dagmar 1990 funkční styly v angličtině a češtině olomouc leech geoffrey 1983 principles of pragmatics london and new york longman lyons john 1977 semantics 2 vols cambridge cambridge university press quirk randolph greenbaum sidney leech geoffrey and svartvik jan 1985 a comprehensive grammar of the english language london longman searle john 1969 speech acts cambridge cambridge university press searle john 1975 ‘a taxonomy of illocutionary acts’ in gunderson keith ed language mind and knowledge minneapolis university of minnesota press 344 369 swales john malcolm 1990 genre analysis english in academic and research settings cam-
bridge cambridge university press swales john malcolm 2004 research genres cambridge cambridge university press tárnyiková jarmila 2002 from texture to text olomouc univezita palackého 3rd ed sources
records of the general conference 30th session paris 26 0ctober to 17 november 1999 vol 1 resolutions 2000 paris united nations educational scientific and cultural organization http unesdoc unesco org images 0011 001185 118514e pdf mgr olga dontcheva-navratilova ph d department of english language and literature
faculty of education masaryk university
poříčí 9 11
603 00 brno
navratilova@posta ped muni cz
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
gabriela miššíková
pragmatic dimensions in stylistic analysis
the present paper deals with a pragmatic model of meaning as applicable in sty-
listic analysis and some other concepts traditionally dealt with in pragmatics we shall view the process of stylistic analysis as a multi-level procedure emphasizing the connections between semantic and pragmatic aspects of the text in this respect we attempt to view the text as discourse between the writer and the reader and thus our analysis also provides comments on specific discourse characteristics exploring the stylistic means of the short story we focus on the study of the phenomenon known as foregrounding and the quality of openness in text in eng-
lish stylistics foregrounding as an opposite pole to backgrounding is an impor-
tant concept while openness is a crucial text quality studied in text linguistics foregrounding and openness may seem to be quite different in nature however we shall see that they can overlap in many aspects this paper aims to reveal the significance of the above indicated aspects of style and discourse in the process of reading analysing and understanding texts a sample analysis of doris lessing’s short story in defence of the underground is intended to illustrate the presented theoretical approach introduction
assuming that any text is a written communication with particular functions and purposes the process of reading means participating in it a reader becomes part of a discourse his task and desire is to decode the message conveyed by the text and also to decipher those meanings which are encoded between the lines reading and understanding texts can be viewed as a process of tracing text relations which are necessarily incomplete and the reader has to look for the ‘clues’ both in the text and in his mind to bridge various gaps in the text cf van peer 1989 279 enhancing semantic dimensions in stylistic analysis sa means to account for a variety of contextual meanings as provided by the inter-
play between the lexical meanings expressed in the text and specific extensions of meaning created by more or less unique connotations in particular contexts the 92 gabriela miššíková
implementation of pragmatic dimensions in sa means to focus on the analyzing and understanding of socio-cultural political or historical features of the text particular techniques of foregrounding such as deviation and parallelism are often relevant for our recognition of text and discourse structures semantic versus pragmatic dimensions in sa
a semantic dimension in stylistic analysis sa can help us to see the network of lexical relations in its complexity in general we can identify a variety of se-
mantic relations such as synonymy antonymy and hyponymy as efficient means of lexical cohesion similarly patterns of repetition of lexical units and their ar-
rangement within a text show how we perceive reality and how we cope with it in a given social context particular lexical items can be highlighted as capable of conveying pragmatic meanings for instance the lexical meaning conveyed by the words in a sentence there used to be decent lavatories but now they are locked up because they are vandalized as soon as repaired lessing 1993 81 primarily indicates the problem of vandalism further expressed in but often a window is smashed and there is always graffiti namely the words locked up vandalized and repaired imply a critical view of a particular social problem related to the present time in addition assumptions which evoke nostalgia for the good old days and signals of different views of london including biased judgements and prejudices are easily inferable from the given context as for the discourse organization the place and time deixis there and now together with other expressions of time used to be and as soon as mark the dis-
course structure clearly the importance of context for understanding a text can be further illustrated by a set of lexical items whose semantic meanings are related and similar these items are classified as contextual synonyms and help to foreground particular ‘clues’ in the text so that the reader can relate the messages encoded in the text to his own socio-cultural background knowledge and experiences in other words an atten-
tive reader is capable of inferring specific signals and can reconstruct the coherence of the text on the one hand those lexical items which are semantically related function as powerful means of lexical cohesion on the other hand they provide direct clues for restoration of the coherence of the passage in the following text this particular arrangement of lexical items creates a picture of a famous university whose elite students young people graduates the privileged young in spite of their ingenious social life still have a need for systematic destruction a broader text sample is necessary to illustrate the importance of the context it is not that they are depraved because they are deprived for i have just visited a famous university up north where they have twenty applications for every place where ninety-nine per cent of the graduates get jobs within a year of leaving these are the privileged young and they make for them-
93pragmatic dimensions in stylistic analysis
selves a lively and ingenious social life their teachers clearly admire if not envy yet they too smash everything up not just the usual undergraduate loutishness boys will be boys but what seems to be a need for systematic destruction what need do we know lessing 1993 82 opening with an interesting rhetorical device i e paronomasia the text con-
veys a range of meanings related to specific aspects of university education in britain namely the existence of elite schools and prestigious universities be-
tween the lines further messages are encoded for instance the signals about the social status of teachers and students etc a pragmatic dimension of the text in-
vites a comparative point of view a cross-cultural comparison of the british reality as expressed by the text with the reader’s native or familiar socio-cul-
tural background is appealing text-external relations are clearly definable and the coherence of the text is smooth the questions asked at the end of the para-
graph create the openness of the text which enhances the reader’s involvement and cooperation a pragmatic model of meaning
the study of meaning has traditionally been the field of philosophy and semantics it is also studied as a part of various academic disciplines for example psychol-
ogy semiotics and linguistics as cruse 2000 points out the linguistic approach to meaning in language focuses on three key aspects the first is that ‘native speaker’ semantic intuitions are centre-stage” they constitute the main source of primary data the second is the importance of relating meaning to the manifold surface forms” of language the third is the respect paid not just to language but to languages” cruse 2000 11 a very important task is to discover a way of specifying or describing meanings whether of isolated words or sentences or of utterances in context cruse takes a position that in general meanings are not finitely describable and tries to find the best way to approximate meaning as closely as possible to the intended meaning as is necessary for the speaker’s purposes cruse’s approach towards the study of meaning is close to pragmatics the field of study is outlined in a more generous way than the scope of traditional linguistics and it seems that there is no clear dividing line between semantics and pragmatics in his approach considering the aims of our stylistic analysis the meaning studied within the text is the one created in a flow of communication that is within a discourse between the author and the reader in other words within the process of stylistic analysis we study also the meanings which arise from the very act of communication taking place in a concrete situation a traditionally viewed semantic approach would not suit our purposes because its primary focus is on the meaning as it comes out of the systematic relations holding between words phrases clauses and sentences in the following example the semantic message conveyed by the underlined sentences in a given abstract is enhanced by the use 94 gabriela miššíková
of words which may carry revealing pragmatic meanings for instance the words disregarded and report seem to articulate social and cultural attitudes ‘i’ll tell you what you can do ’ says the indian all this time i stand there disregarded they are too angry to care who hears them and it follows might report them then the young white man says he could be something in building or a driver ‘you think i should do the same then ’ lessing 1993 80 specific information coming primarily from the context indicates socio-cultural phenomena such as the different mentality of non-native londoners conflicts between indian shop-keepers and the others” competition for work etc other sensitive political and social issues are inferable from the contextual meanings of the expressions he is on automatic or in his rage which are used to describe the heat of an argument later in the text a pragmatic model of meaning applicable in stylistic analysis will investigate the meaning of language in relation to a context of use and users” verdonk and weber 1995 13 semantics concentrates on the meaning of the sentence as an abstract syntactic unit dissociated from a situational context while pragmatics centres on the meaning of the utterance” which is the concrete realization of a sentence in a context of use verdonk and weber 1995 13 as demonstrated by the following extract the nuances of meaning are often encoded in the network of lexical and contextual meanings butterfly saris workaday cardigans that make the statement if you chose to live in a cold northern country then this is the penalty never has there been a sadder sartorial marriage than saris with cardigans ” lessing 1993 84 a vivid picture of multicultural london an impressive depiction of a clash of different cultures the uneasy adaptation of immigrants in a new setting and many other messages are palpable between the lines however their full understanding is considerably determined by the reader’s social and cultural background his knowledge and personal experiences an enhanced pragmatic approach in sa reveals a variety of sentence and text relations pointing out the interaction between the writer and the reader by means of the mental processes of integration and inference the text-internal and text-
external relations become more apparent and complete such analysis illustrates the mutual effort on the author’s and the recipient’s part to contribute towards the process of efficient communication 95pragmatic dimensions in stylistic analysis
foregrounding deviation and parallelism
a good starting point for the analysis of any text is to examine the foregrounded parts and provide analysis and interpretation which link those parts together fore-
grounded features are the parts of the text which the author consciously or uncon-
sciously is signalling as crucial to our understanding of what he has written ” short 1997 36 some authors call this strategy of linking together foregrounded features cohesion of foregrounding” leech 1969 foregrounded features in any text are those which break the rules established and respected at any language level native speakers of a language just like many second language learners recognise these features as odd stylistically marked and highly expressive however as short 1997 37 points out we need to make sure that our intuitions are reasonable and not based on personal whim” so we need to analyse and describe the nature of the deviation different kinds of deviation which can produce foregrounding can be recognised and classified in any text we shall not attempt to provide a complete list of them since the account would have to include too many phenomena such as discoursal deviation beginning in the middle in medias res semantic deviation metaphors lexical deviation neologism functional conversion grammatical deviation re-ordering of noun phrases re-sequencing of phrases inside the normal subject-verb-object-adverbial order in poetry morphological deviation playing” with morphemes such as in the poetry of e e cummings or prose of a burgess phonological deviation alliteration assonance and rhyme and graphological devia-
tion oddities in the written presentation of the text such as capital letters spacing a blank blackened page as in l stern’s trisdam shandy etc deviations at all linguistic levels require of the reader to infer the meaning and significance of the deviation in the case of the phonological and graphological deviations due to the relation between writing and speech these inferences are connected with the ways we might read the text out loud reading the text aloud might in turn lead to deductions about the meaning consider the poetry of e e cummings which is often labelled as poetry of the eye” in addition to this list a different nature of internal deviation deviation against a norm set up by the text itself and external deviation deviations listed above i e deviation from some norm which is external to the text would have to be pointed out and many more details about parallelism would be required cf miššíková 1999 45 as indicated by its title our short story is devoted to the description of the past and present days of london’s underground in order to express the atmosphere inside the trains the author incorporates two poems into her text these are the poems provided by the keepers of the underground inserted into a row of adver-
tisements lessing 1993 88 the poems are deviations against a norm set up by the text of the short story by means of deviating from a genre norm the poems are foregrounded in the text foregrounding is often created by parallelism in our text parallel noun phras-
es and parallel and contrasted sentence structures i stand i know contrasted to she used to she did are used to create a well structured narration 96 gabriela miššíková
not long ago just where i stand marked the end of london i know this be-
cause an old woman told me she used to take a penny bus here from marble arch every sunday that is she did ‘if i had a penny to spare i used to save up from my dinners i used to look forward all week ’ lessing 1993 80 foregrounding is often studied in poetry whose language due to its aesthetic function is considered as the main source of unexpected and surprising usages of language means as leech points out foregrounding is a means to achieve a goal it is the creation of an effect a special effect hence a special meaning” leech 1969 58 61 a pragmatic dimension in sa illustrates that language is much more than a neutral objective description of the world” and aims at the exploration of its social situatedness” cf fowler 1986 9 the meaning of speech acts
as short has put it when we say things we do not just say things we also per-
form acts by saying what we do short 1997 195 the same applies to writing and what works for the real world also works for the fictional world when an indian in our short story says i’ll tell you what you can do he performs an act of promising advice and support the speech act is an important and flexible mecha-
nism that helps to interpret what we hear and read in the opening paragraph of our text we are taken to the underground station approaching it at first from the outside in a small cigarette shop outside the underground station the indian behind the counter is in energetic conversation with a young man they are both so angry that customers thinking of coming in change their minds lessing 1993 79 the narrator performs the speech act of statement realised by the grammatical structures traditionally referred to as declarative sentences the first sentence is an informative statement it provides the reader with several pieces of informa-
tion e g there is a shop it is a cigarette shop it is small its owner is an indian the indian is talking to a man the man is young their conversation is energetic there are expectations that arise from this speech act the reader can expect that something must have happened since the conversation is described as ‘energetic’ the second sentence which is an evaluative statement fulfils the reader’s expec-
tations and thus approves of this interpretation which resulted from the mental operation known as inference that is making use of one’s personal knowledge and experiences in order to clarify and complete text-external relations or coher-
ence the reader finds out that both men are angry and a comparison so angry that makes the fact even more explicit both declarative sentences are perceived 97pragmatic dimensions in stylistic analysis
as statements not only because of their grammatical structures but also because of their situational and communicative context which also includes the cultural background of the recipient of the text the first sentence is the opening sentence of the story the second one adds more detail and unfolds the story the co-text plays a role too the first sentence is an announcement an in medias res begin-
ning of the text the second one supports the inner complexity of the text and exhibits strong cohesive links the cohesion by the reference they and lexical cohesion energetic angry etc as a result of quite complete text-internal rela-
tions individual parts of the utterance can be easily integrated so far the text continues smoothly however an expectation of further development is clearly indicated and the reader becomes interested and involved in the story the actual conversation between the two men starts in the following paragraph they did my car in they drove past so near they scraped all the paint off that side i saw them do it i was at my window just luck that was they were laughing like dogs then they turned around and drove back and scraped the paint off the other side they went off like bats out of hell they saw me at the window and laughed lessing 1993 79 this utterance consists of a series of speech acts performed by the first man it is followed by the response of the other man in the next paragraph the succes-
sion of speech acts of particular participants of the conversation is commonly referred to as turn-taking it is here where particular expectations more or less influenced by the given conversational models and conventions i e social and cultural background on the reader’s part are created and the tension arises from the ways and extent to which the expectations are fulfilled as short 1997 195 points out by observing the speech acts which different people perform we can infer things about them and their relations with others” the sentences are all de-
clarative speech acts the speech is dynamic the inverted word order elliptical and interrupted sentence structures are evidence of a disturbed mind and strong emotions these features are characteristic of a spoken utterance syntactic ex-
pressive means and stylistic devices are dominant e g an ellipsis the other side an anacoluthon combined with stylistic inversion i was at my window just luck that was but some lexical means also contribute towards the expressive-
ness of the statement e g the use of colloquial phrasal verbs did my car in the use of common clichés they were laughing like dogs and they went off like bats out of hell evokes the spontaneity of colloquial language pragmatically the act of turn-taking creates further expectations as for the response of the other man and also the continuation of the conversation this will depend on the relation-
ship between the two men accounting for the meaning created by the context we realise that there is much more to be inferred than the actual accident with the car or the relationship between the two men out of the verbal interaction of the two protagonists the picture of a multicultural setting and everyday life in a london suburb arises the picture is made clearer and more complete as the narration de-
98 gabriela miššíková
velops it takes us on a journey on london’s underground and finally concludes at the end of the jubilee line where the narrator gets out the journey provides plenty of opportunities to tell stories about recall memories of and express opin-
ions on london and londoners in the final part of this article specific functions of lexical expressive means and devices from the semantic and pragmatic point of view are analysed the fol-
lowing extract offers several points for discussion in my half of the carriage are three white people and the rest are black and brown and yellowish or by another division five females and six males or four young people and seven middle-aged or elderly two japanese girls as glossy and self-sufficient as young cats sit smiling surely the mourners for old london must applaud the japanese who are never ever scruffy or careless probably not in that other london there were no foreigners only english pinko-grey as shaw said always chez nous for the empire had not imploded the world had not invaded and while every family had at least one relative abroad administering colonies or dominions or being soldiers that was abroad it was there not here the colonies had not come home to roost lessing 1993 84 from a syntactic point of view the elliptical and parallel sentence structures ob-
served in this example are stylistically marked and foregrounded for example the parallelism with rhetoric effects empire had not imploded the world had not invaded the modality of sentences varies and together with stylistic inver-
sion a smooth flow of discourse resembling a spoken utterance is created the quality of spokenness is achieved by indirectness and confirmation-seeking cf urbanová and oakland 2003 17 supported by modal adverbs surely probably not which are often used to indicate attitudes in everyday speech in addition to the variety of efficient syntactic stylistic devices lexical devices contribute con-
siderably towards the final effect analysing lexical items semantically we have to point out the expressive power which arises from a clash between the lexical item itself and the context of a sentence thus we can classify lexical expressive means for example polysemy of expressions like white black brown yellow-
ish pinko-grey about people the mourners that other london chez nous etc as a matter of fact these semantically related lexical items are organized into patterns of oppositions such as english people the others white people black and brown people females males old london other london present times home abroad etc this semantic relatedness of the listed lexical items provides clear cohesive links in the text and also enhances smooth coherence at the same time some of these foregrounded items are used in a deictic function and as such outline the structure of the discourse accounting for the context of the given abstract the effects created at the lexi-
cal level are best seen as complex codes which have to be decoded the codes are almost unpredictable however they are of high complexity and informativeness 99pragmatic dimensions in stylistic analysis
certainly the description of the japanese women with the feline figure of speech in two japanese girls as glossy and self-sufficient as young cats is genuinely metaphorically engaging associative meanings are crucial for our understanding of the speaker’s intended meaning in this sense we can infer an encoded message about the famous” attitude of english people towards foreigners the japanese who are never ever scruffy or careless or in that other london there were no foreigners last but not least shades of humour and a harmless irony seem to ap-
pear between the lines it is these shades of meaning and a number of incomplete and hidden messages encoded in the text that point out the importance of that contextual dimension of discourse which is secured by our personal experiences knowledge and socio-cultural background in this respect the perception of vari-
ous allusions expressed in the text for instance to g b shaw the british empire and its colonies and dominions etc can be correctly decoded and adequate refer-
ences to the past and present of london and its inhabitants discovered conclusion
as illustrated above semantic analysis reveals lexical relations between the words and sentences but does not seem to account for the meanings which arise from the situational or verbal context of an utterance tracing cultural and cross-
cultural references that is comparing what we read in the text with our per-
sonal experiences knowledge and cultural background seeks to complete text-
external relations these phenomena have to be deciphered and inferred in the text sometimes culture-specific lexis provides clues for the reader and creates a more specific cultural shading” of a text more often complex and elaborated stylistic devices such as metaphor and metonymy help to encode sophisticated messages the aim of this paper was to illustrate that exploring pragmatic dimensions in sa means to add an efficient extension to our analytical toolkit in this approach the natural qualities of human communication are respected and explored in the full length references
cruse d alan 2000 meaning in language an introduction to semantics and pragmatics ox-
ford oup fowler roger 1986 linguistic criticism oxford oup leech geoffrey 1969 a linguistic guide to english poetry burnt mill harlow longman lessing doris 1993 ‘in defence of the underground’ london observed stories and sketches london hammersmith miššíková gabriela 1999 štylistická analýza textu na materiáli anglického jazyka nitra ff ukf short mick 1997 exploring the language of poems plays and prose london longman 100 gabriela miššíková
urbanová ludmila and oakland andrew 2003 úvod do anglické stylistiky brno barrister & principal van peer willie 1989 ‘how to do things with texts towards a pragmatic foundation for the teaching of texts’ reading analysing & teaching literature london longman verdonk peter and jean jacques weber eds 1995 twentieth-century fiction from text to context london routledge doc phdr gabriela miššíková csc department of english and american studies
faculty of arts university of constantine the philosopher
štefánikova 67
949 74 nitra
slovakia
gabimissik@yahoo com
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
peter newmark
a new theory of translation
1 introduction the wider context
after 1 the substantial changes both in the numbers of countries and the dimen-
sions of population groups since the collapse of the soviet union in 1989 2 the opening up of the virtual computer languages of blogging e-mails the web and the ipods and 3 the huge increase in economic and political global migrations transnational transcontinental and intracontinental the face of the world’s linguistic map started on a radical transformation economic and asylum-seekers’ migrations went hand in hand first with the need for public service interpreters and translators at the national frontiers and then at the local government health and education offices followed in principle at least by mass foreign language teaching classes for the new immigrants political migrations or asylum seeking sometimes in the murderous form of ethnic cleansing imposed similar conse-
quences though too often the fanatical and or elderly immigrants were reluctant and sometimes refused to acquire their new ‘home’ languages these mass migrations have resulted in a steep decrease in the uk in the number of truly native speakers and a rise in the number of ‘semi-native’ speak-
ers who are often used as interpreters as interpreters they are usually competent but as translators they are not semi-native translations’ of authoritative texts are dangerous in tourist and publicity material where they are common they may be funny but local authorities responsible for public notices reputable hotels restaurants and places of entertainment where such semi-native translations are at last declining should avoid them concomitantly there has been a substantial increase in the authority of inter-
national organizations the un the european union unesco who and to a lesser extent the arab league and the organisation of american states fur-
ther there has been an enormous gain in world prominence in the ngos non-
governmental organisations and in particular the world charities and founda-
tions such as amnesty international oxfam cathod action aid live aid the paul hamlyn foundation all these originating please note in the uk as well as médecins sans frontières msf and the soros foundation these are now 102 peter newmark
quite openly ‘politicized’ on the basis of the un’s universal declaration of hu-
man rights 1948 their ‘intervention’ can no longer be regarded as ‘interfer-
ence’ ‘no country has a right to interfere in the internal affairs of another’ said harold macmillan in his 1960 ‘winds of change’ speech and then came the boycotts the virtue of ‘obedience’ began to fade and ‘for king and country’ long ago mocked by the poet wilfred owen only survived as a faded metaphor robin cook the british foreign secretary made a pioneering speech in 1997 de-
claring that british foreign policy would from then on have an ethical dimension and would no longer be guided by purely national interests human rights would be put at the heart of its policy after his death the policy was hardly pursued on the other hand with the present exception of the one world power the in-
fluence of the nation-state and with it in some cases nationalism has declined whilst that of two of the religious civilizations the moslem in asia and the evangelical christian in the united states has increased few would now die ‘for king and country’ but every day some die for allah as a result of all these directly or indirectly linguistic factors as well as the huge advances in technology transport and communications leading to globali-
zation that is global trade global investments and global labour interchange there is not only an increased necessity for foreign language speakers and readers ‘linguists’ of two or three languages and for various modes of interlinguistic communication notably for translation there is also the need and the recognized presence of an international auxiliary lingua franca english has for decades been the international language of air transport and of meteorology geographically owing to the positions occupied by the declin-
ing british empire on which the sun never used to set and the complementary dominance of the united states english could not have a more favourable start-
ing point as an international language furthermore its most useful characteris-
tics are 1 its monosyllabism which enhances its concision and its emphatic quality 2 its flexible word order which enables it to vary its emphasis as flexibly 3 its word-class changes of monosyllables for example to round the round round the corner a round run turn round often strengthening the force of a verb by converting it to a noun e g it’s a con a read a let down 4 its phrasal verbs sometimes converted to phrasal nouns a ‘run down’ and occasionally adjectives ‘run down’ these are frequently both metaphorical and physical in parallel with the mind and the brain and therefore often widely polysemantic and sometimes subtly ambiguous 5 its enormous unique vocabulary combining the in principle intellectual polysyllabic grecolatin with the in principle physical monosyllabic anglo-saxon words 6 its porous nature due to the fact that unlike many other languages its con-
tacts with most other languages have rarely except for a period in the 18th cen-
tury been resisted thus ensuring in principle that only the fittest words have survived though many beautiful words have been lost 103a new theory of translation
7 the unique ‘-ing’ combination which can be used as an adjective a present participle a noun a verb-noun seeing you was a surprise’ the five imperfective active tenses i shall be doing i am doing i was doing i have been doing i had been doing and the present passive tense this is being done 8 shakespeare’s universal moral wisdom his philosophical thought and his poetic and euphonious words including about 1700 neologisms which he cre-
ated and above all the influential semi proverbial idioms that are so frequently quoted without attribution in his work characterise the language there are about 1200 shakespeare quotations in the chambers dictionary of quotations many of which may be regarded as keywords in the language his introduction of new meanings for existing words and of latin and french words is also nota-
ble i thank david crystal for the first statistic the meaning of his lyrics has been enhanced not only by finzi gurney vaughan williams britten in a mid-
summer night’s dream and others and by schubert himself in ‘who is sylvia ’ and ‘hark hark the lark ’
9 the extraordinary wealth of poetry from langland and chaucer through keats and shelley to auden and larkin of which many quotations have merged into prose and have become part of the language 10 spelling the orthography is more remote from its sound sequence than it is in any other language which is an obstacle to the non-native speaker its advantage is that in some cases the spelling reveals the etymology of a word and helps the learner to find a bridge word e g through thorough durch ger to memorize it but spelling is still a considerable handicap to the language learner 11 the non-cultural non-allusive variation of english serves as an available auxiliary lingua franca which is more readily translatable than the usual more comprehensive idiomatic version 2 the closer context
the closer context for a fresh approach to translation shows that the present pre-
vailing theories of translation are not helpful i give some illustrations 1 ‘the translator must reproduce every fact and idea in the original even if it’s a blatant lie it’s not his job to make a moral judgement he has to reproduce the original as though it’s the gospel truth ’ j d graham in the translator’s hand-
book aslib 1989 2 ‘i am wary of introducing the moral dimension into translation there must be no shirking even when the translator is acting for a cigarette manufacturer wanting to promote his products in third world countries he must put across his clients’ views however repugnant ’ geoffrey kingscott in language inter-
national vol 2 no 6 dec 1990 i find these two approaches to translation truly shocking and i doubt whether more than a few translators would dare to adopt them in 2007 3 according to descriptive translation studies the translation scholar’s task 104 peter newmark
is to analyze objectively the translations that are published and not to relate them to any standards of quality or of moral value 4 in the recent institute of translation and interpreting i t i annual general meeting agm jean-pierre mailhac restricted ‘pure theory’ to description and confined ‘applied theory’ to translation training thereby implying that deduction should precede induction and passing over the ‘hunch’ the hypothesis that pre-
cedes theory mailhac who is addicted to clichés accepts translation theory but he appears to be unaware of the new factors that have to be taken into account and of the necessity of a new translation theory in the presence of so much disa-
greement about the purpose and methods of translation 5 the functionalist or skopos theory of kussmaul vermeer nord reiss etc which regards a text as a tender and the reader commissioner as a client the pur-
pose of the the text is overriding and excludes stylistic considerations 6 an ideological or post-modernist approach to translation ranging from ‘ma-
nipulative’ hermans peter france venuti etc to post-colonialist and cannibal-
istic both approaches see the translator as essentially distorting the narrative and the style of the source language text for her own propagandist or commercial or cultural purposes no translator can completely eliminate this effect but a good translator as she revises is always attempting to reduce it 7 both wittgenstein’s famous remark ‘in most cases the meaning of a word is its use’ as well as much of the work in corpus analysis in the last thirty years e g in john sinclair’s stimulating trust the text routledge 2005 have left the impression particularly on translation scholars that the meaning of a word can always be found in the ‘living language of a text or a corpus which is the only authority on the way words are used and make their meaning’ the dictionary is always secondary this is mistaken words in translation texts and corpora are not infrequently misused and misplaced and it may require the accumulated authority of a dictionary to correct them a small example for most of my life i thought that the meaning of ‘mercenary’ was ‘mean’ as it is a pejorative word it fitted various contexts and collocations and i never learned its true meaning ‘influenced by greed or desire for gain’ until i looked it up in a dictionary much later i had surmised its meaning only from a number of contexts and no one had explained it to me i would say that in most but not in all cases a large up to date dictionary is more trustworthy than any single item in a corpus all words have single basic meanings which may be neutralised by some of the collocations or phrases or idioms of which they form a part the more frequently used a word the more subsidiary meanings it is likely to develop see g zipf’s brilliant book the psychobiology of language 1935 reprinted 1965 boston mit press 8 some of these idioms may be more frequently used than their independent forms pace john sinclair the basic meaning of ‘to bet’ is ‘to wager’ and that is how it is normally visualized the fact that it is more commonly used in the two idioms ‘i bet’ where it means ‘i guess’ or ‘i predict’ and ‘you bet’ where it means slightly more familiarly and insistently ‘certainly’ or ‘you can be sure that ’ without visualization is irrelevant nevertheless the analysis of large 105a new theory of translation
texts and the appearance of the cobuild series directed and inspired by john sinclair have revitalized lexicography and benefited translators 9 ‘translation theory spare us that’s the reaction to be expected from most practising translators ’ emma wagner 3 language learning and translation
given the recent and present global migrations my thesis is that language learning and translation both of whose practitioners in the past have often shown a certain mutual hostility towards each other they sometimes try to do each other out of their jobs will have to be reconsidered reassessed and reprogrammed in most countries in the world the majority of recent immigrants will have a right to the services of public service interpreters and translators at the frontiers at the local government offices and at hospitals and social service offices these services as is now evident in the uk are expensive and immigrants as new citizens have the duty to learn at least how to speak listen to and read the national language at say three month immersion courses desirably this would be without cost to themselves and it would avoid later expense to the public many elderly bigoted uneducated and or disabled people will object to this obligation and a case can be made for some exemptions on health grounds but the majority of these im-
migrants should take these language courses seeing them as a necessary task a grind not an art or a skill initially using their own language as a stepping stone making use of translation via teachers and reference books they would begin with words and with literally as well as idiomatically translated phrases phrases and sentences in tourist phrase books should always be translated idiomatically and literally but they never are learning word groups categorized by basic sub-
jects and by frequency they should as far as possible acquire a ‘semanticized’ grammar e g ‘a transitive verb’ as ‘a verb requiring an object’ to achieve short cuts and stand no nonsense about suppressing their own language since it re-
mains so useful as the point of resemblance to or of contrast with the new home language the language world of today reflects a pendulum with language competence at the end of one pole and translating at its other end the more language prac-
tice the less translating and vice versa the more language speakers the fewer translators and vice versa in principle the first alternatives of the two pairs are politically more healthy and less costly to the state nevertheless there is a large quantity of important and serious contemporary non-literary and literary writing i can hardly call it a residuum although it is a fraction of ‘popular’ non-lit-
erary writing that always needs translating a certain amount of non-literary speaking also needs interpreting at conferences and formal interviews meetings furthermore a considerable amount of the serious literary work of the past needs retranslating approximately every thirty years or sometimes earlier if it has not been well done it is to this serious writing that i now turn 106 peter newmark
4 the non-literary and the literary
by non-literary writing i mean factual writing non-fiction sachbücher subjects relating to the external reality the product of the ‘brain’ as opposed to the ‘mind’ beginning with legal scientific and technological texts and extending to all de-
scriptions of the physical world occupations leisure activities and social events in principle such writing only admits of one interpretation although this is in fact not so owing to the different cast of translators’ minds and the markedly different lexical and grammatical resources of all languages however since good non-lit-
erary or specialized or technical or general translations should be as accurate as is possible the translation is likely to closely resemble the original unless the latter is deficient in its veracity and its style the translator or in some cases the reviser is the only person ultimately responsible for the truth the content and the style of a non-literary translation she cannot in my opinion offload this respon-
sibility on to the author of the original by literary writing i mean imaginative writing that is the creating of images in the mind and their realization on paper the creation of ‘fiction’ this writing normally implies a critical comment on life on individuals and society ‘art is a criticism of life’ matthew arnold or a deliberate turning away from them all directly or indirectly it evaluates good and evil right and wrong it is in the first place serious poetry short stories novels and plays i e tragedies dramas comedies farces all of which are essentially allegorical figurative or metaphor-
ical these genres are positioned on a cline stretching between serious poetry which is created through the translator’s close working on the poem with him-
self as the reader and at the other end farce which may also be serious as in le bourgeois gentilhomme or joe orton’s plays but where the active engagement of the audience is an essential factor imaginative literature is the product of the ‘mind’ which translates as the ‘spirit’ or the ‘sense’ in german the ‘spirit’ in french ‘knowledge’ in russian ‘thinking’ in czech but has direct equivalents in spanish italian and portuguese in fact the ‘mind’ is the spiritual element in a person freud refers to it as das seelische the ‘soulful ‘ element since as in the instance of the voice of a cher-
ished person who has died many years ago it is neither verifiable nor amenable to science although one is entirely conscious of its existence as literary writing relates the mind to the external world it is basically polyse-
mantic with elements of ambiguity ‘this is so isn’t it ’ f r leavis but it can only be interpreted within certain limits irony however which may appear any-
where can subvert and may ambiguate the meaning of any sentence unexpect-
edly if the translator is not wary advertising and most kinds of tv and radio fiction which convert written texts to sound are genres of imaginative writing the translator is responsible for producing a valid and well written interpreta-
tion of a literary text in translating novels and short stories the main impact of the work on the reader will usually be that of the author in translating or adapt-
ing poetry or drama the translator’s creative contribution will normally be much 107a new theory of translation
greater but the more serious the work the more closely its universal component will be translated the first line of hamlet’s most famous monologue is usually translated almost literally to be or not to be that is the question sein oder nicht sein das ist hier die frage fact and imagination may be merged in literary texts in particular autobiography or historical novels where the translator may decide to emphasize the factual com-
ponent to a greater degree than the original by reinforcing the relevant allusion poetry is the most concise and most expressive form of literary language since it brings in the vocal factor most compellingly it is rebarbative to the majority of people owing to its ‘artificial’ tone of voice its rhythms require a particular vocal effort its peculiar constraints imposed by its various forms some of which are more limiting than others make poetry the most difficult and the most re-
warding literary genre to translate in particular where as in the hamletquotation above it comes closest to prose in terms of translation as opposed to adaptation i surmise that the translator of poetry is 40 to 60 creative or up to 80 if like rilke he improves on a defective original the translator of fiction is perhaps 20 to 30 creative and the translator of factual texts 10 to 15 the variations in percentage are related to the degree of difficulty of the texts i have hazarded these figures first to record my belief that all translation has an element of creativeness secondly that in translating serious imaginative lit-
erature the author is always more important than the translator because the trans-
lator serves the author except sometimes in the translation of inferior poetry thirdly to show clearly my own perspective on translation which may well be quite different from the reader’s the translator’s degree of creativity is in no way correlative with the amount of time she devotes to her work a tough technical text requiring long periods of research and considerable writing skills will be correspondingly well paid but will not normally require extensive creative powers 5 writing and speaking
i think that the received view among most linguists is still that speaking is more important than writing and in fact that writing since it follows speaking in time is merely a pale imitation of speech the great phonetician henry sweet who was bernard shaw’s model for professor higgins in pygmalion the play of my fair lady and the noted philosopher jacques derrida exceptionally dissented from this view and gave precedence to writing i believe that both writing and speaking which to a degree run parallel to both literary and non-literary writing and translation respectively more often than not 108 peter newmark
have different functions writing is used to document speaking or thinking in rela-
tion to speech writing is more lasting more concise more formal more studied speaking is more spontaneous more natural more diffuse unless it is the reflec-
tion of dialogue in a play or is based on a written version of an address or a lecture in value neither has precedence since both are now essential for a full life but writing is likely to be the more permanent and the more aesthetic medium 6 the imagination and translation
essentially the imagination is the act or power or faculty of forming pictures or images or concepts in the mind the imagination derided by the still fashionable translation scholar itmar even-zohar in his polysystem studies as a ‘vague no-
tion’ and avoided by theo hermans in his many vain attempts to hit on a defi-
nition of ‘literary translation’ in a companion to translation studies edited by piotr kuhiwczak and karin littau multilingual matters 2007 is a powerful in-
disputable but mysterious human force rooted in memory and reminiscence and expressed indirectly in the reflections of the five senses of the mind 1 ‘sonorization’ which is the surface of thought and thinking one cannot think without speaking in the mind to oneself is the most powerful of these re-
flections it is the hearing in the mind of the voices of the dead one has known and has usually loved and the living one knows of the cries of the birds and the other animals of the wonderful sounds and tones of serious and other music all of which reflect to a greater or lesser degree the emotions common to the univer-
sal human voice here i am expanding the thought of nikolay chernyshevsky’s the aesthetic relations of art to reality 1855 and opposing the eminent view that music is fundamentally an abstract art form sonorization may also reflect the sounds of nature the winds in the trees the breaking of glass the thud of a parcel the noise of any artefact as a phenomenon ‘sonorization’ is incontro-
vertible but as a single word it does not appear to exist in any language it is an essential accompaniment to the translation of all imaginative texts of their dia-
logue in particular melding as it does the written word with the interior human voice as lev vygotsky thought and language magisterially described it but it is barely present in the reading or the skimming let alone the translating of non-literary texts 2 visualization the creation of visual images in the mind is an important proc-
ess in translating virtually all kinds of texts ‘if you can’t visualize the narrative of this paragraph it cannot have any meaning you must have made a mistake ’ the process is focussed on the clarity and the simplicity of the players’ outlines in the text’s narrative strangely enough english appears to be the only language which has a single word for this process although it has just appeared as visual-
iser i assume calqued from english in the 2006 collins-robert dictionary it is the most immediately attractive and perhaps the least cerebral of the five senses hence the popularity of cinema and tv where the visual image is dominant 109a new theory of translation
3 i tentatively call the other three mental sense-impressions in order of strength ‘odorization’ ‘gustation’ and ‘tactilization’ normally they would only occur typically in certain genres of text odorization in texts about flowers and nature in general and most repellently in the description of dead bodies- ‘the un-
mentionable odour of death’ 1st september 1939 w h auden ‘gustation’ in the now so trendy cuisine texts ‘tactilization’ in brief references to the feel of touch-
ing human animal or material surfaces and notably in erotic texts where mas-
turbation reproduces the sense- impression ‘sexualization’ which is focussed primarily on the skin-tight male or female nates could be regarded as the sixth most powerful sense acute but usually brief again i have found that other lan-
guages have no single word equivalents for these mental feelings and admittedly these three or four mental states only have an ancillary role in translation 4 the imagination represents the individual factor in translation the socio-
logical factor is represented by the context where collocations colligations and idioms bind the text to social groups and backgrounds ‘proving’ as though proof were ever needed that translation is not produced in a vacuum this contrast may give rise to a conflict between fresh and stale writing the imaginative may degenerate into quirky or pretentious idiosyncracies the social governed by a computer’s translation memory into a string of ‘safe’ clichés and platitudes it is regrettable that most translation scholars are sociologically rather than aestheti-
cally inclined and do not write well lastly ‘sensualization’ could be introduced as a generic term or hyperonym for having the senses in the mind 7 the context of translation theory
from the time of cicero up to that of danica seleskovitch who was de gaulle’s charismatic and erudite interpreter at e s i t the ecole superiéure de l’interprétation et de la traduction at the sorbonne in paris translators transla-
tion students and lay persons have been arguing about whether they prefer sense for sense or word for word translation jean-rene ladmiral put it succinctly cib-
liste or sourcier which i translate as ‘targeteer’ or ‘sourcerer’ inclined to the source or to the target text this dualistic approach to translation was continued by st jerome the patron saint of translators martin luther william tyndale and emile dolet the latter two martyred because they wanted to open up the truth of the scriptures to a new unlettered readership it is paralleled by the ‘refined’ and ‘unhewn’ dualism in chinese translation theory see an anthology of the translation of chinese discourse ed martha cheung st jerome press 2006 after a period of ‘servile’ translation during the renaissance period friedrich schleiermacher 1838 was the first to hive off business translation more com-
monly oral than written from serious translation texts for the next 150 years some outstanding men of letters among them shelley in his memorable essay the defence of poetry w humboldt paul valéry ortega ý gasset robert frost 110 peter newmark ‘the poetry is lost in the translation’ and robert graves declared the translation of poetry to be impossible although some of these themselves translated poems from several languages after the second world war the nuremberg trials marked a turning point translators and interpreters came into the limelight of international attention for the first time non-literary texts began to greatly exceed literary translations in quantity literary and general translators in most countries formed separate asso-
ciations eugene nida established the importance of the readership as a distinct group representing the third player in the translation triangle previously the translator had normally identified himself with the reader an assumption now mainly valid for the translation of poetry where the translator of a personal poem attempts to primarily record his own response to the poem in his translation and almost forgets the dear old reader however the dualistic approach to translation continued to prevail in nida’s dynamic later functional equivalence in which ‘the message of the original text was so transported into the receptor language that the response of the recep-
tor was essentially like that of the original receptors’ nida preferred functional equivalence to formal correspondence where the grammatical structures and stylistic patterns of the original are retained in the translation but pointed out that these were flexible and sometimes overlapping terms in this or that text the dualistic approach was also taken up by juliane house in her ‘overt’ and ‘covert’ translation methods in the latter she introduced a ‘cultural filter’ for the purpose of ‘localizing’ a text my own approach was also dualistic in applying ‘semantic’ sourcerer’s translation to authoritative and literary texts and ‘com-
municative’ targeteer’s translation to general non-literary and technical texts however given so much disagreement about translation theory particularly in the new climate i have described i think it is necessary to reconsider its purposes to enumerate the factors that are missing in translation theory as it now exists and then to propose a new theory or perhaps a ‘theoretic’ which is a concatenation or a network of theories of translating and translation 8 the missing factors in translation theory
there has always been a controversy about whether translation theory should be descriptive or prescriptive that is value-free or value-bound i take the same view that c p scott the editor of the manchester guardian took of journalism when he distinguished comment which is free from facts which are sacred stating that both are an essential part of a newspaper in my view there is no point in carrying out a translation analysis which is descriptive unless one also makes a value judgement which has pedagogic if not prescriptive implications furthermore i have been stating for years although this has escaped comment ‘in the literature’ that translation contrary to the received opinion is essentially a noble truth-seeking profession or occupation when it is successful it is neither 111a new theory of translation
treacherous nor deceitful nor parasitic nor ‘of secondary value’ as many academ-
ics have it nor even ‘not innocent’ hermans nor is it a mere echo george bor-
row nor the reverse side of a tapestry cervantes nor is it the image of a plain faithful or a beautiful unfaithful woman when translation distorts the ideas of the original it is a mistranslation and it should be analysed critically like all translations not ‘descriptively ’ as though it were value-free translation studies now are much concerned with its interdisciplinary aspects which are undeniable but some intrinsic factors are still missing in the descrip-
tions of the essential theory 1 the importance of the text’s language to what extent does the degree of detail in the style as opposed to the message have to be reproduced should ‘minuscule’ be differentiated from ‘tiny’ 2 the seriousness of the text’s language to what extent does the degree of urgency and emotional sincerity in the language have to be reproduced distin-
guish ‘insistent’ from ‘emphatic’ 3 the familiarisation defamiliarisation effect normally the language of the target language should at its various stages be roughly as frequently used as that in the source text if the language at a particular place in the translation is less common than the original it may appear as unduly emphasized or as transla-
tionese and it has therefore been mistranslated if it is more common it should be simplified like so many common collocations that have become clichés ‘at the end of the day’ becomes ‘finally’ 4 a word’s degree of importance texts normally have keywords often but not always repeated representing the subject the main points and the conclusion of the narrative keywords such as ‘fundamentalism’ often have a long history vari-
ous etymologies and surprising translations intégrisme french a modulation that arises from a different point of view they often appear context-free they have to be distinguished and fully translated whilst other parts of the text may be more summarily treated see raymond williams’ keywords which has been recently revised normally a keyword must be identified by the translator and be consistently translated by the same target language word a passage or a text may be explicated if it is important or gisted if it is less so 9 the truths of a text
essentially the translator is concerned with two kinds of truths 1 the factual truth of the external world that is the factual equivalence of the translation with the original it is always approximately feasible to render this truth when there are no cultural differences between the concepts and the objects of the source and target languages otherwise the translator uses various explication procedures i take it as axiomatic that there is more that unites the different ethnic groups than divides them that people laugh and cry in the same way and for similar reasons that mature people have similar values of right and 112 peter newmark
wrong and of good and bad and that we live in different villages but in the same contracting world that universals exist particularly on the moral plane but they are often obscured and the translator has to uncover them 2 truth as the ideal die wahrheit see below which is not the same in factual and imaginative texts but where there are common factors like many concepts truth as an ideal is most readily grasped if one indicates its opposite which in translation is the unglossed use of morally prejudiced language which may be sexist racist or more accurately ethnic or religious or which may relate to sanity age both old age or youth or physical appearance ageism is now par-
ticularly relevant since the rise in the developed countries of a large often un-
prepossing generation 70 to 100 years old largely on medication preserved from death by a mere pill so don’t be too harsh on the wicked capitalist pharmaceu-
ticals released into the open from carers sheltered accommodation residential homes or sanitized madhouses the is the new fourth generation 3 die wahrheit is most brilliantly explained by mozart and schikaneder in the magic flute where after a nice little reflection on colour prejudice in rela-
tion to monostatos papageno asks pamina what he is going to tell sarastro the high priest or god-figure to explain his presence in the palace ‘the truth the truth even if it were a crime’ die wahrheit die wahrheit war’ es ein verbrechen pamina replies in sublime musical tones that go far beyond the particular situa-
tion and prose this ideal truth has five main components 1 the factual truth which applies always to factual but also to realistic imagi-
native texts the translator who must be at least a temporary expert in the subject and the background of the text is finally responsible for the accuracy of the facts in her translation and must also check them in the original 2 the logical truth which applies to every type of text except fantasy the logical truth particularly applies to connectives of causality time and enumera-
tion some of which may be ambiguous e g ‘then’ ‘next’ ‘secondly’ ‘finally’ ‘at the end of the day’ and must therefore be clarified
3 the moral truth which is more likely to be implicated in persuasive propa-
ganda and imaginative texts than in others the translator’s business is not to impose or insert any moral truths on her readers but to expose any variety of prejudiced language in the original as explained above on the basis never of her own views but of the international human rights declarations 4 the aesthetic truth which is of two kinds firstly in its bearing on fac-
tual texts where it is focussed on clarity brevity simplicity and fresh language secondly in its bearing on imaginative texts where its purpose is to render the author’s manner and matter as accurately as possible within the limits of the 113a new theory of translation
translator’s credibility the target language’s resources and the familiarisation ef-
fect produced by two or three readings 5 the truth of pure language which posits that the expression of any thought existing in the source language even if it has not yet appeared in the target lan-
guage can be literally translated into it provided it is glossed ‘i wish you a lucky hand as the germans say ’
‘in principle’ which usually means ‘not yet’ the translator is himself finally responsible for the validity that is the truth the content and the form of the translation many translations require a lot of collaboration but eventually they should be the responsibility of one person 10 a new theoretic of translation
my correlative theory of translation which is 1 the more serious and impor-
tant the language of the text the more closely it should be translated 2 the less serious and important the language of a text the less closely it needs be trans-
lated 3 the better written a text the closer should be the translation should be put within the framework of the above-mentioned sections vi and vii ‘closely’ should be regarded as on a cline from literal translation retaining the same em-
phases and functional sentence perspective continuing through idiomatic and synonymous and extending to paraphrastic translation but keeping within the bounds of good sense further 1 the translator is ‘invisible’ within the text but must be visible extratextu-
ally she or he establishes her identity by her attribution on the title page of the text and in the case of a book on its cover the book should contain a transla-
tor’s introduction explaining her take on the translation and where appropri-
ate essential notes at bottom of page end of chapter or of text the extratextual components are an integral part of the translation occasionally the translator may make a disclaimer between square brackets and an enforcing sic ‘this is hard to believe ’ within the text the purpose of these extratextual components is not to impose the translator’s views but among other things to ensure that the readership is never misinformed or deceived this surely is any translator’s main moral responsibility 2 slips misspellings obvious mistakes incorrect personal and place names should be corrected unobtrusively within the text and should be notified to the commissioner of the translation 3 translating is a continuous decision making and revising process as jiří levý a fine jewish czech literary theorist and translator put it and it has to be performed at many levels 114 peter newmark
11 conclusion
in this essay i have attempted to provide a useful model of how translation can be characterized at the present time and how standards of translation could be improved i have tried to show that a serious source text is not always sacred and that when a text is written for a readership the readership must not be misled by it i hope that my model will serve some purpose even if it merely assists trans-
lators or readers who disagree with it to improve or adjust their own models of translation note
i delivered an embryonic version of this paper on 13th april 2007 in the department of english and american studies of the masaryk university of brno on the occasion of my being awarded the university’s honorary doctorate i gratefully dedicate the paper to jan firbas’s department prof peter newmark ba phd
centre for translation studies
faculty of arts & human sciences
university of surrey
guildford surrey
gu2 7xh great britain
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
sabine coelsch-foisner and johannes coelsch
visitor attractions space and dramaturgy
this paper attempts to delineate structural features of contemporary visitor attrac-
tions and define them in relation to dramatic and narrative forms of entertainment for visitor attractions it will be argued employ elements of both storytelling and dramatic presentation they constitute an important sector in popular culture as the first part of this paper will demonstrate and given the use of new media and media technologies integral in them may be seen as lying at the intersection of various forms of entertainment and infotainment ranging from video film and television to computer games and more sophisticated means of simulating worlds and constructing virtual realities for the purpose of this paper all venues that postmodern culture offers under the labels of ‘museum’ and ‘expo-museum’ ‘theme park’ ‘living museum’ ‘multi-media experience’ ‘ story’ ‘ land’ or ‘ world’ ‘heritage centre’ or ‘science centre’ − heterogeneous and volatile as these categories are − will be subsumed under the broad category visitor at-
traction it is held to cover a wide range of institutions and activities connecting in varying degrees entertainment and information in a real space even though museumization” itself has moved into the virtual territory of the web as rich-
ard humphrey has shown in his historico-cultural” approach to british museum culture humphrey 2003 111 space as we shall see is a crucial category de-
marcating visitor attractions from purely visual or audiovisual cultural products as well as from other sites of simulation the attraction is first and foremost spatial in the sense that space dominates all claims to authenticity adventure dis-
covery and hands-on experience and that all dramatic and narrative components are translated into spatial terms i e into ways of visitor interaction and involve-
ment what ‘visitor attraction’ denotes is above all an experiential approach charac-
teristic of contemporary museum culture and increasingly explored for its own sake experience may be of the vicarious type as in classical time-ride installa-
tions where visitors are made to see hear smell even taste and touch the culture of a different period or people an example being the oxford story or tussaut’s spirit of london” or it may be of a purely sensational nature where visitors can experience the thrill of an earthquake a sinking ship or a room turning upside 116 sabine coelsch-foisner and johannes coelsch
down within the safe confines of an attraction as cassandra” in europapark rust to produce the maximum sensation the ultimate ‘kick’ has become the motto for many sites or at least for individual stations paradoxically delimit-
ing again the target audience in terms of physical ability and mental prowess entrance is often prohibited to children under a certain age pregnant women the elderly or disabled given this broad and ever changing spectrum of the ex-
periential the term visitor attraction almost functions like a mode pervading the high and the low − avant-garde museums and popular theme or corporate parks − progressively eroding the distinctions between what richard humphrey has called museums and museum-like venues” 112 in this respect a visitor attraction may be seen as the merging characteristic of the late twentieth century of a trend pioneered in the united states with walt disney’s creation of anaheim in 1955 and the development of older notions of learning and conservation integral in the concept of ‘museum’ in a climate of prospering leisure industries the latter trend was spearheaded by postwar brit-
ain when museum institutions proliferated and increasingly became private busi-
nesses tracing the development of the british museum from 1600 until the 21st century humphrey’s historico-cultural perspective” shows the disparate mean-
ings which the word ‘museum’ acquired in the course of history due to economic social and cultural changes from a cabinet to an elevating experience to a temple of learning to an exhibition hall to an institution to a purpose-built educator to a web-site ” 114 as one looks beyond british culture the termino-
logical confusion is aggravated due to the multitude of indigenous terms e g the german welten borrowed from department stores and the different and chang-
ing connotations of the english borrowings in scandinavian countries as in the british isles a museum or museet is more than a collection of objects on display and the term theme as in theme park theme restaurant or theme hotel has none of the connotations of funfair or jahrmarkt current in central-european countries auto-labels and designations employed by the venues themselves have a limit-
ing value for establishing generic distinctions in that they reflect marketing trends and consumer expectations rather than immanent criteria in current usage visitor attraction refers to actual sites and when humphrey argues that the museum has become a central locus of the postmodern condition” 101 we would suggest that it is the visitor attraction with its explicit customer orientation that circumscribes this locus visit denoting a temporary sojourn in a different environment a kind of carnivalesque escape and total immersion occasionally enhanced by a trans-
formation of the self like putting on helmets or protective gear in show mines attraction signifying a pact between provider and consumer a strategy or complex of strategies adopted by providers in order to achieve client satisfaction for a crucial prerequisite for any visitor attraction is the way in which it meets its visitors a book that is not read will still linger on in some archive and may at least potentially be rediscovered a privately funded visitor attraction that is not visited will vanish from the face of the earth and survive at best in documentary form visitor attractions are more ephemeral than other cultural products even 117visitor attractions space and dramaturgy
when compared with other forms of popular culture here again lies a vital dif-
ference between what different cultures understand by ‘museum’ and how they devise and design fund and maintain them shifts in funding from public to pri-
vate and new levels of client orientation have been crucial in the development of visitor attractions and the transformation of ‘museums’ into what has been called ‘new museums’ or ‘expo-museums’ where these museums visitor attrac-
tions in the british or scandinavian sense are radically client-oriented museen in the german-speaking world for example still largely rely on public funding and defend their didactic and archaeological mission by defining it in opposition to broad public tastes museums in the german-speaking world have become ventures between public interest and private business between didactic purpose and public appeal the debate however to what extent client orientation has infiltrated into all levels of museum culture and whether it constitutes a valid criterion for defin-
ing the popular the trivial or the facilely consensual” 112 is not crucial for a structural analysis what is crucial though is the interrelation of cultural prod-
uct and consumer taste for where critics like humphrey complain about the trivialization that can now be encountered in museums themselves” 112 perceiving today’s heritage centres as extreme forms of the dominant trends of the age the shifts from narrative to experience from the univocal to the multiva-
lent from the enshrined object to the epistemically crowd-pulling exhibit from the original to the replica from presentation to re-presentation” 112 a closer look at the structure of these heritage centres or visitor attractions will reveal more about consumer tastes and behaviour and show how these interrelate with other consumer or leisure institutions gertrud lehnert for example compared the layout of museums with that of department stores lehnert 1999 63 hum-
phrey 2003 107 what happens to layout and design when put into the service of ‘experience’ our aim is precisely to show how visitor attractions apparently meet and no doubt also shape consumer expectations if client orientation in popular forms of entertainment has been hotly debated in cultural theory it has never been disputed in the camps of both providers and consumers and what is more important it has generated specific structures con-
sumer culture is always a transaction between provider and client a crucial task for the cultural critic is to define this transaction and to find out what its terms and conditions are if the grand narratives in the sense of using artefacts to illustrate a story-line have disappeared experience in the sense of thrill tension or relaxa-
tion and escape requires a different kind of spatial organisation and time schedul-
ing visitor attractions are not only a barometer of the shift from information to experience but of the radical changes which the very notion of experience has undergone under the aegis of postmodernity for these have produced their own formulas visitor attractions are formulaic in character very much like formulaic forms of literature such as popular romance detective fiction or adventure story not surprisingly it is there that we have to look for parallels and seek to de-
fine what exactly constitutes the pact between visitor and visitor attraction two 118 sabine coelsch-foisner and johannes coelsch
elements stand out at this intersection of structure and client response space and dramaturgy before we explore these two components we should like to raise an issue commonly neglected in debates about popular culture the issue of failure 1 visitor attractions a success story without comprehensive statistical evidence one may observe in the 1990s a common tendency all over europe to merge the concepts of museum and at-
traction one reason being the fact that museums and historical buildings and sites whose presentation was purely factual and targeted at educated visitors stayed empty museum designers were called upon to integrate considerations of enter-
tainment emotional appeal and the dreams of customers in planning exhibitions so as to attract new and larger audiences scherrieb 2000 79 81 a significant change came in 1994 with the enormous echo produced by the titanic-exhibition in hamburg 600 000 visitors walked through the exhibition experiencing in life-
like stations the departure of the vessel her collision with the iceberg and the fatal night in april 1912 another milestone constructed at the intersection of museum corporate park and theme park was swarovsky’s kristallwelten atmospheric wonder chambers ten miles east of innsbruck the capital of the tyrol it worked like a magnet attracting 500 000 visitors per year struggling to equal these results many tourist regions in central europe built similar attractions and failed opel live in rüsselsheim futuruscope in france play castle in the tyrol the anderswelt in lower austria or legoland in güns-
burg to name only a few when dealing with visitor attractions especially since they are consumer-oriented it is important to trace the history of failure and its possible causes amongst others under-estimated budgets or false perceptions of visitor attractions as three-dimensional advertisements or monuments to archi-
tects’ fame the worst disaster came in 2000 in the shape of the expo in hanno-
ver with visitor numbers lying far below the expected figures in the meantime britain and the scandinavian countries continued to build at an amazing pace and with unprecedented pomp budgets reaching an enormous scale with the ex-
penditure in individual cases doubled out of public lotteries income the jorvik viking centre saw a relaunch at a staggering 2 5 m gbp in stockholm a visitor attraction museet was built for the 17th-century vessel wasa which sank off the swedish coast attracting a peak of 800 000 tourists per year in norway the fjär-
land glacier museum was built with directors of world-renown commissioned for the films and in denmark a manufacturer of heating installations commis-
sioned danfoss a waterworld theme park covering an immense ground 1 what all ‘successful’ attractions share is a clear composition borrowed from narrative and dramatic forms of art as well as from film and television moving through a three-dimensional realm visitors experience an alternative or simu-
lated world constructed for their pleasure which may mean thrill and excite-
ment relaxation or meditative calm often all of these together client ori-
119visitor attractions space and dramaturgy
entation which accounts for the success of an attraction requires a clear and consistent dramaturgy scherrieb 2001 4 6 this is mirrored in slogans like publikumswirksame präsentation attractive presentation zeitgerechtes er-
scheinungsbild high-end state-of-the-art installations or schaffung eines ge-
samterlebnisses creation of a multi-media experience which are common in bids and invitations to tender what these terms convey is a way of calculating in figures or rather in client numbers the quality of a dramaturgy is measured solely in terms of its economic success whether guaranteed by the number of visitors paying entrance fees or by the revenue from shops or restaurants con-
nected with the attraction what do these slogans mean in terms of a client-ori-
ented dramaturgy evolving around the spatial and temporal axis of an attraction its layout setting and theme plot 2 layout and setting
just as length is a defining criterion of many literary genres even though it tends to be relative rather than absolute space is an important criterion for visitor attractions although there are no clear terminological distinctions among attrac-
tions of varying length visitors have certain expectations as to the space they will cover and the time they will spend in an attraction a ‘centre’ for example tends to be more comprehensive than a ‘time ride’ or ‘adventure’ in accordance with the categories of narrated time and narrating time we may distinguish be-
tween experienced space and experiencing space which are closely connected usually covering a minimum of approximately 1 000 square metres to offer suf-
ficient room for constructing zones and for welcoming visitors attractions are commonly divided into individual zones rooms or stations varying between five and fifteen in each of which the visitor stays between ten and fifteen min-
utes the scheduling of time is important for two reasons it ensures maximum attention and guarantees a flowing stream of visitors the arrangement of the zones or stations corresponds to the acts of a play or the chapters in a book they are individual segments which cohere under the overarching theme of the attrac-
tion whether arranged in sequential order reflecting an episodic narrative like the alice in wonderland centre in llandudno or in a dramatic plot of rising and falling action with a clear climax as suggested by the story of the titanic or the war of the roses in warwick castle the theme a catastrophe or cultural event a writer or a particular literary work space water electricity war bank robbery the bagpipe whiskey sherlock holmes to give an idea of the wealth runs like a red thread through the individual stations cf prange 2003 2 4 hence the experienced space and the experiencing space overlap in the sense that the theme or subject of an attraction together with the objects exhibited form an entity as christian mikunda has suggested when arguing that all great museums in this world are places we do not visit in order to see works of art but to see works of art in a particular environment mikunda 2005 2 120 sabine coelsch-foisner and johannes coelsch
visitor attractions follow a clear structure instead of the rigid alleys and av-
enues of older museum concepts there are compressed areas conglomerations and meeting points inter- active and recreational zones stations of varying size centres and margins this concentration on space as a vital means of creating at-
mosphere is what the current trend in museum culture owes to walt disney’s first leisure park the spatial layout of anaheim has the shape of a star the overall architecture provides for one entrance only with a main lavishly designed artery that sucks visitors into the main body of the park leading to a distribution centre to which the individual thematic zones are attached disney’s secret of success was the thematic consistency of the individual complexes each station pursuing a particular story-line the overall park creating the impression of a main plot refracted in a number of sub-plots in a modern attraction the visitor is made to enter a different world a three-dimensional simulacrum unified by an overarch-
ing theme it is essentially a ‘feeling world’ either prompted by a semi-fictional story as in warwick castle by minimal narratives attempting to recreate every-
day life as in the jorvik viking centre by a legend as in the hallstatt saltmines or by scintillating dreamscapes as in swarovski’s kristallwelten space is the key to creating this feeling world even in more information-ori-
ented attractions like science centres knowledge is communicated not through facts and data but becomes synonymous with experience made possible by what heinz rico scherrieb has described as an emotionalising process dabei muss der gast die möglichkeit erhalten seine eigene phantasie seinen erfahrungsschatz seine träume und vorstellungen einzubringen als wäre es ein märchen das sich in seinem geistigen auge gestaltet seine vorstellungskraft ist gefordert eine überhäufung mit daten fakten und namen entspricht zwar der scientific correctness eignet sich aber für die inszenierung und attraktivierung überhaupt nicht der besucher muss sich in eine andere stimmung und in eine stressfreie welt versetzen the visitor must have the opportunity to bring into play his or her own fan-
tasies experience dreams and mental images as if a fairy-tale was taking shape before the inner eye what is addressed is the visitor’s imagination providing a mass of data facts and names complies with scientific correct-
ness but is ill suited to the stage setting and to making it attractive the visi-
tor must enter into a different mood and into a stress-free world scherrieb 2000 78 our translation to appeal to the visitor’s emotions setting props and costumes will not do how-
ever great their impact on the visitor as they trigger visual auditory tactile even olfactory sensations the layout of the space its design and atmosphere reflect the dramaturgy of the attraction just as the division into acts or chapters is more than a breaking down of the quantity of a text 121visitor attractions space and dramaturgy
3 theme and plot
thematic consistency is crucial in visitor attractions before entering the actual attraction visitors are informed about its size fee and duration this orienta-
tion zone may be located either at the car park commonly a manned booth or lodge or outside the attraction in the form of information charts comparable to the telling covers of popular romance or the menu in a restaurant what is an-
nounced outside must be offered indoors this also applies to visitor attractions the orientation zone is particularly inviting where it offers visitors a view of the main building or visitor centre which is commonly a light and large room and shows exhibits or photographs of exhibits of spectacular rides or trips scary sights monsters or magically lit caves awaiting the visitor after he or she has passed through the turnstile such visual icons heralding pleasure are common in consumer culture restaurants lure tourists with pictures of meals and in popular magazines photographs of holiday resorts dashing outfits and appetising meals vie for the reader’s attention just as fancy pools and luxurious lounges dominate the booking sites of hotels prior to paying the visitor is lured by images that arouse his or her interest and predict pleasure in the familiar manner of the ad-
vertising industry visitor attractions like advertising like popular romance and magazines pursue a forward-looking stance suggesting that fulfilment lies ahead and that it is within easy reach provided visitors seize the opportunity and pass through the turnstile into the world of pleasure the turnstile embodies an almost ritual moment a rite of passage in some attractions celebrated like an initiation that fosters in the client a sense of sharing and ‘being part of it’ frequently accompanied by quasi-ritual acts of transfor-
mation putting on special garments a helmet or protective wear as in mines or industrial heritage sites the suggestion of potential danger also adds to the thrill the visitor can relish to the full the sensation of peril knowing that a safe return awaits him or her at the end of the journey this promise is a vital constituent of the pact between visitor and attraction wish-fulfilment at no risk the very first station must convince the client of the worth of his or her trip scherrieb 1988 117 119 readiness to take in information is particularly high at the beginning of the visitor’s journey not surprisingly many attractions locate in the first room an information zone with film or video presentations frequently in the form of extravagant multimedia shows information charts and posters often the first room looks like a cinema embedded in the props and scenery that confirm the theme an example being the pieces of sports equipment together with medals and cups exhibited in the big hall of the olympic museum in lausanne which prepare the visitor for the filmed history of the olympic games these opening films or shows tend to correspond to the current viewing behaviour of modern television audiences and take the form of feature documentaries simulation here works at multiple levels as in a theatre the visitor is confronted with a ‘stage’ but unlike the theatre-goer he or she enters the stage where there may be actors surrounding him or her and where a film is shown superimposing yet another layer of simula-
122 sabine coelsch-foisner and johannes coelsch
tion onto the simulating space of the stage experiencing space and experienced space overlap in a polyvalent enactment of the theme this multiple interweaving of real and imaginary spaces continues when the film ends after a carefully defined time and as is frequently the case leads over to the next station the visitor moves on his or her walk is more than reading one chapter after the other or proceeding from one act to the next when watching a play because he or she is part viewer and part actor − like alice in wonderland who is the prototypical visitor of a visitor attraction as she encounters a host of strange creatures in various stations significantly walt disney’s film version of alice in wonderland dating from 1951 anticipates in many ways the structure of the first disneyland opened 4 years later notably in its layout its frame structure and in alice’s clearly pronounced desire to enter a dream world here the film radically differs from lewis carroll’s original fantasy of 1865 cf coelsch-fois-
ner 2007 visitors rarely come as individuals they usually travel in groups families or friends hence visitor attractions are faced with entirely heterogeneous clients and different client expectations this ties in with observations in cultural theory that mass culture is homogenising culture appealing to widely differing tastes what is intriguing in visitor attractions is the fact that visitors move and while they move together in the first couple of rooms groups tend to disperse after the third or forth room attractions commonly meet this desire for individual experience by providing opportunities for visitors to break free from groups and experience total immersion special experience zones such as sound or visual corners with touch panels and hands-on installations coffee-shops or children’s play stations with simulators accessible to one person only visitors organise for themselves when and where they meet again such alternations between group- and indi-
vidual experience is unique in visitor attractions and distinguishes them markedly from the static community of theatrical audiences or audiences at poetry readings or stage shows on the one hand and from the individual act of reading fiction or poetry on the other hand in every attraction there must be some ‘tumult’ or ‘vortex’ a sensational point german wirbel 2 which means noise − and often shrieks on the part of the visi-
tors prime examples being the slides in saltmines the staged fighting scenes in warwick castle or the ever returning volcanic eruption in the french attraction vulcania or there may be an illusion cabinet or mirror-room which confronts visitors with an alien world a strategy which the american chain believe it or not” which builds visitor attractions has adopted as its central policy this ambition to produce a sensational point reached its peak when actors in the guise of officers on board the british museum ship cutty sark recently destroyed by fire ordered the children of visitors to scrub the deck if a child did not obey it was punished with a light kick and the official photographer took a picture of the sadistic officer and the children who showed great skill in imitating pain parents then could buy the photograph 123visitor attractions space and dramaturgy
if the dramaturgy for a visitor attraction provides for a shrill and noisy zone it also provides for the opposite the quiet zone or point of emotion a station where speed is decreased where no information is conveyed and where visitors may relax and experience the magic of sound and light or just an expanse of space in visitor questionnaires these stations are commonly described as the climax of the journey through the attraction the quiet zone may also take the form of an over-
size multimedia presentation as in the corporate lands of german automobile manufacturers a subterranean boat ride as in the seegrotte hinterbrühl a cave in lower austria which is no longer part of the attraction a simulated ride over the firths in the norwegian glacier museum from a bird’s eye view or the quiet zone in london’s millennium dome 2000 where in a white room measuring approximately 300 square metres the stillness of the place was enhanced by gen-
tle light effects another crucial element in many visitor attractions is the ‘crowd-pulling’ orig-
inal if everything is simulacrum at one point there must be the original at least this is what the customer is made to believe if only for the overall simulacrum to work so well the most striking original embedded in a carefully conceived dramaturgy is the london tower with the crown jewels for which visitors are carefully prepared for what accounts for the mystery of the original a couple of cleverly done short films dealing with the life of queen elizabeth severe guards the soundtrack which gets ever more imperial as the visitor approaches the cli-
mactic room and the long queue in front of the showcase which houses the crown jewels the violin mozart played as a child in mozart’s birthplace in salzburg fulfils a similar function as do the ore deposits in the schwazer silberbergwerk the schwaz silver mines the grave of a celtic prince in the archaeological museum of hallein near salzburg showing the real skeleton and funeral gifts or a glass case displaying sir winston churchill’s slippers in blenheim palace in a secular age the original functions like the holy relic attracting pilgrims to the shrines of saints a visitor attraction with many attractions ends in a memorable finale doors may open to rooms where visitors may experiment with hands-on touch screens or simulators there may be a quiz for children visitors may test samples or taste drinks like a glass of mead awaiting visitors of upper austria’s exhibition of the life and times of st severin in 1982 in the alternative a summary of all that has been seen may be offered after the grand finale visitor streams are channelled into the shop which is commonly situated in the visitor centre through which visitors initially entered the attraction the shop is light creates a friendly atmosphere and is organised according to a strict pattern articles relating to the attraction are commonly placed in the front area all that relates to the geographical surroundings is close to the cash desk every ‘good’ museum shop will offer little give-aways salt-
mines offer salt in vulcania visitors receive a little pumice stone and the danfoss universe in denmark offers visitors a little key pendant or pencil to remind them of their visit and invite them to return ‘buy me’ and ‘buy me again’ are the im-
124 sabine coelsch-foisner and johannes coelsch
plied slogans of all visitor attractions as of all leisure venues of popular culture the bigger the gift obtained in the shop the greater the client’s satisfaction the trophy in the plastic carrier does not only legitimate the visit it also legitimates the fee conclusion
visitor attractions constitute an important sector in popular culture both reflect-
ing and shaping consumer tastes and behaviour foregrounding experience both vicarious and sensational they form part of a postmodern trend towards mu-
seumization” spearheaded in post-war british consumer culture and spreading all over europe in the 1990s as a wide range of examples show visitor attrac-
tions are customer-oriented mostly privately funded and cover a wide range of institutions and activities connecting in varying degrees entertainment and in-
formation in a real space they are formulaic and follow a clear and consistent dramaturgy which develops along a spatial and a temporal axis and is essentially connected with dramatic and narrative forms of entertainment the overarching theme the spatial layout with turnstile zones and information clusters an emo-
tional point and a sensational vortex affiliated shops and restaurants are designed in an overall effort to meet client expectations and respond to the unique dynam-
ics of visitors moving both in groups and individually in and between stations and turning from spectators into actors in a richly simulated multi-media spectacle notes
1 all statistical figures mentioned in this paper were given to us by the respective providers or tourist boards 2 this term was used by andreas braun the director of the kristallwelten in a conversation we had in 2000 references
coelsch-foisner sabine 2007 ‘die disneyfizierung britischer literatur erlebniskultur romance und wunscherfüllungsästhetik am beispiel von alice in wonderland und peter pan’ the dis-
neyfication of british literature experiential culture romance and the aesthetics of wish-
fulfilment with the examples of alice in wonderland and peter pan in joachim brügge and ulrike kammerhofer-aggermann eds kulturstereotype und unbekannte kulturlandschaften salzburg verlag mueller-speiser humphrey richard 2003 ‘museumizing the museum the museum culture of postmodern britain in historico-cultural perspective’ in journal for the study of british cultures vol 10 1 101 23 lehnert gertrud 1999 mit dem handy in der peepshow die inszenierung des privaten im öffent-
lichen raum berlin aufbau mikunda christian 2005 ‘öffentliche wohlfühlmassagen’ in mq site magazin vienna july 1 2 125visitor attractions space and dramaturgy
prange oliver 2003 ‘interview mit christian mikunda’ in magazin der schweizerischen gesell-
schaft für marketing zurich october 1 8 scherrieb heinz rico 1988 ‘tagesausflugsverkehr und seine auswirkungen’ aiest associa-
tion internationale d’experts scientifiques du tourisme 29 109 13 scherrieb heinz rico 2000 ‘multioptionale erlebniswelten als antwort auf sich schnell wandeln-
de kundenwünsche’ in attraktionspunkte idt-hsg universität st gallen st gallen 74 84 scherrieb heinz rico 2001 ‘industrieerlebniswelten’ in kongressdokumentation kongress st gallen 1 16 prof dr sabine coelsch-foisner
university of salzburg
department of english
akademiestr 24
5020 salzburg
austria
sabine coelsch-foisner@sbg ac at
dr johannes coelsch
reichenhallerstr 24
5020 salzburg
austria
coelsch@aon at
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
jiří flajšar
the predicament of jewish american poetry
the identity of the jewish american writer has been often analysed through the prism of american fiction and nonfiction ie genres which many americanists consider to be the umbrella terms for all of jewish american literature criti-
cism of jewish american poetry especially its less orthodox proponents who have entered the canon of mainstream american literature has been quite rare this paper aims to analyse the presence of a distinctive jewish identity in twen-
tieth-century american poetry in english after a brief historical overview the poetics of several notable twentieth-century american poets of jewish origin will be discussed using sample poems the paper finally claims that jewishness is an essential presence in the poetry of twentieth-century american poets of jewish origin even if their work betrays more eclectic influences american literary criticism has long neglected jewish american poetry until recently under the omnibus category of jewish american literature” critics had focused exlusively on the fiction of jewish authors such as henry roth isaac ba-
shevis singer saul bellow bernard mallamud philip roth and others this is very puzzling since jewish american poetry has an almost two centuries long his-
tory within american literature moreover it is not defiled as david bleich docu-
ments by overused stereotypical themes of twentieth-century jewish american fiction namely the male complaints fulminations hand-wringing philosophi-
cal angst fear of persecution” 2000 179 jewish american poetry represents a corrective set of thematic options being an inquiry into history and society done privately and modestly with humor and dignity without frivolousness or solemnity within a tradition of american poetry that is already marginalized” bleich 2000 179 80 steven j rubin defines jewish american poetry in more general terms as the poetry that is written by jews about jewish subjects or themes” 2000 197 however a more complex question is how the jewish identity or jewishness of the poet might be identified and what the jewish subjects and themes are a related problem is the impulse of the reader critic and often even the poet to view jewish american poetry as marginal and unimportant 128 jiří flajšar
even major postwar literary scholar harold bloom and poet-scholar john hol-
lander have theorized about the unlikely existence of a viable jewish american poetic tradition that would give rise to american poets of major status bloom claims that the problem lies in the search for a usable past in american poetry for american-jewish poets from the 20’s down to the present day ie 1972 when the essay was published have found themselves in the dilemma of how can one accommodate one’s vision to the metric and rhetoric of eliot pound wil-
liams and their followers ” 1972 70 the peculiar problem of poetic influence” becomes impossible to solve for the jewish american poet who is forced to imi-
tate gentile precursors of displaced protestantism” a process which as maeera shreiber notes is a violation of a culture deeply commited to keeping its borders intact” shreiber 2003 149 the eleven jewish poets who are included in richard howard’s alone with america an important study of major american poets who rose to prominence from the 1950s to the late 1960s either evade or ignore their jewishness or they confront the fearful problem of expressing their cultural diversity in the essentially hostile idiom bequeathed them by the var-
ious modernist or post-modernist masters” bloom 1972 72 bloom concludes with the gloomy prediction that jewish american poetry in english will assimilate with mainstream american poetry of the 1970s to increasingly become a blend of a devotional strain and a late romantic visionary intensity” 1972 73 in a more recent essay john hollander also questions the existence of an origi-
nal jewish american poetic tradition but for him the problem lies not in the nature of jewishness but in the nature of poetry itself for the essence of true poetry is originality of a mode of expression that is poets will express or figure forth in language not only something totally unique in themselves but as a kind of general metaphor for the holiness of human individuality will thus reinvent expressing or poetic telling” 1994 38 hollander interprets the remark of ma-
rina tsvetayeva who claimed that all poets are yids” to mean that all poets are like jews in the diaspora alienated and in exile from something perhaps irrecov-
erable nevertheless having to live with and in and among the rest of society it is not merely that modern poets and jews are outsiders by nature itinerant no matter how locally rooted both jewish and gentile poets carry the burden of an absolutely inexplicable sense of their own identity and history 1994 40 the linguistic alienation is particularly painful for the jewish poet in america whose language is english whose wrestling grips are english hammerlocks and chanceries has the english bible built into the heart not only of the diction and syntax but also the poetics of his language the english bible is a polemically protestant translation of an orthodox christian book called the old testament which is itself a christian interpretative translation of the torah 1994 44 to return to bloom’s argument the jewish american poet writing in english or even yiddish for that matter wages an oedipal war with the protestant tradition that has alienated him or her from the idealized ancient sources of jewish culture for all his skepticism hollander implies that the jewish american poet stands to make a singular contribution to a larger american aesthetic” shreiber 2003 150 129the predicament of jewish american poetry
recognition of jewish american poetry as a major contribution to american literature has been part of the recent opening up of the american literary canon towards a greater inclusion of multicultural authors laurence goldstein sums up themes of poems included in steven j rubin’s groundbreaking 1998 anthology telling and remembering a century of american jewish poetry as follows 1 jews are obsessed with the history of their victimization from the earli-
est period described in the hebrew scriptures down to the holocaust and the arab-israeli conflict 2 the dead are ever-present to the extent that edward hirsch calls even flowers those blind faces of the dead thrust up out of the ground ” and the kaddish becomes the bass note of almost every meditation 3 the history of one’s family reaching back almost always into the old world of eastern europe russia or the sephardic culture of the mediterranean is both a source of joy and a burden upon the memory 4 the witnessing and inscribing of acts of persecution and of sinfulness as well as of the joyful moments in the historical and personal past that redeem the occasions of lamentation is a moral responsibility of the utmost urgency goldstein 2002 705 looking at sample poems by major jewish american poets of the twentieth century from charles reznikoff to jacqueline osherow we see that the goldstein summary of jewish american themes and identities forms the ideological backbone of the fol-
lowing sample of poems by significant poets of the last century in babylon 539 b c e ” the plain-spoken former objectivist charles reznikoff 1989 celebrates a history of jewish perseverance and survival skills in the face of great odds we jews are as dew
on every blade of grass
trodden under foot today
and here tomorrow morning 162 5 an old cracked tune” by stanley kunitz is a bittersweet lyric that likewise por-
trays a marginalized survivor who dances for the joy of surviving on the edge of the road” 7 8 muriel rukeyser offers a different view in her oft-quoted sonnet from her letter to the front” sequence she compares being jewish with a gift that enables full life” with pain and agony the gift is a painful one yet one to be desired and explored by the poet who is daring to live for the impos-
sible” 149 the bagel” a whimsical poem by david ignatow showcases an-
other major theme of jewish american poetry a unique kind of self-deprecating humor of the speaker who first pursues in vain then merges with a bagel that the wind keeps blowing away from his reach faster and faster it rolled with me running after it
130 jiří flajšar
bent low gritting my teeth and i found myself doubled over
and rolling down the street
head over heels one complete sommersault
after another like a bagel
and strangely happy with myself 6 13 the epiphany in the ignatow poem is not about the realization of loss—it is in the joyful recognition of one’s life as a series of such bagels to be lost every day while the only viable response is to make fun of the process gerald stern is another poet whose rich body of poetry might be simply read as testimony of bittersweet humor and optimism yet his short underground dancing” sounds the larger prophetic note of the jewish american poetry spectrum the speaker assumes biblical authority of voice that stands in contrast to the bleak images of death decay and greed that the obvious reading offers there’s a bird pecking at the fat there’s a dead tree covered with snow there’s a truck dropping cinders on the slippery highway there’s life in my backyard—
black wings beating on the branches greedy eyes watching mouths screaming and fighting over the greasy ball there’s a mole singing hallelujah close the rotten doors let everyone go blind let everyone be buried in his own litter 65 while the mole a lowly earth-digging animal sings hallelujah” and those who are righteous shall be buried in the filth of their own sinful acts the doors are opened to a new realization of the jewishness of the speaker and the reader stern transcends the drab and the everyday to give a proud and optimistic state-
ment in the tradition of the blakean visionary who sees the world in a grain of sand” while blending ”humor and sadness candor and irony” in a unique voice of utmost authenticity chametzky 2001 826 the self and the mulberry” by marvin bell is seemingly not a jewish poem at all however in the context of bell’s poetry which has been called an undersong of myself a reversal of the whitmanian poetics of expansive embrace one sees the familiar aspects of jewishness the joy at one’s proximity to the natural world the ironic undercutting of the sentimental wish of the romantics to merge with the trees and other natural manifestations bell first explores the romantic tradition of linking self to nature i wanted to see the self so i looked at the mulberry” 131the predicament of jewish american poetry
only to discard it by the end of the poem calling the impulse of the poet to identify with trees fake eluding the deep truths about love and other human emotions let nature take a turn at saying what love is ” 89 i end the impromptu anthology of twentieth-century jewish american poetry with a humorous extract from ch’vil schreibn a poem auf yiddish” a longer poem by jacqueline osherow even yiddish doesn’t have a word
for the greatness of my yiddish poem a poem so exquisite that if dante could rise from the dead
he would have to rend his clothes in mourning 21 4 in this bilingual poem which favors the english part of the gamble osherow undermines the attempt of the american poet to write a great poem in yiddish a once sacred jewish language of decreasing readership and importance in con-
temporary american literature allusions to the envy of dante are to be inter-
preted as commentary of the marginalized writer upon a tradition that excludes the jew from the literary discourse dante will not rise from the dead to envy the present poem yet his evocation plays a role in making us aware of the changing status of canonical works which increasingly include ethnic authors the question remains whether the authors discussed attain the rank of major american poets in the twentieth century what follows is an incomplete cata-
log of poets of jewish origin identity and poetics who have enriched american poetic tradition in this period from precursor 19th-century poets penine moise emma lazarus and gertrude stein who was a transitional figure american po-
etry entered the 20th century with poets who include in chronological order by date of birth the following charles reznikoff kenneth fearing carl rakosi louis zukofsky stanley kunitz george oppen muriel rukeyser karl shapiro delmore schwartz david ignatow howard nemerov anthony hecht shirley kaufman denise levertov louis simpson kenneth koch maxine kumin ger-
ald stern allen ginsberg irving feldman philip levine john hollander rich-
ard howard adrienne rich jerome rothenberg allen grossman linda pastan stephen berg marge piercy c k williams marvin bell alicia suskin ostriker richard kostelanetz robert pinsky irena klepfisz charles bernstein edward hirsch jacqueline osherow the list is far from exhaustive yet it includes all important generations of recent and contemporary american poets from the ob-
jectivist reznikoff who was born in 1894 to the postmodernist osherow born in 1956 take the work achievement and impact of these poets away and the edifice of american poetry of the last hundred plus years is going to crumble jewish identity themes and poetics should at last be recognized as an essential presence in the poetry of many major twentieth-century american poets of jewish origin even if their work aspires to eclecticism and mainstream canonicity that are often inimical to explicit poetics celebration of ethnicity as part of the multicul-
tural debate jewish american poetry in english has been a major player in the game of enriching the literary canon for over a century promoting the marginalized 132 jiří flajšar
other as a central trope for poetic if not literary existence and tradition in america as david bleich argues poetry written by american jews is part of a redefi-
nition of jewish culture in a friendly society” 2000 178 more attention to jewish american poetry in english might not only help us understand the peculiar nature of the jewish american identity it also corrects a long-term error of genre discrimi-
nation that has been committed by major critics of twentieth century american literature after all as edward rothstein 2001 reminds in a review the canonical works should be latent with interpretive possibility” and there is no lack of diverse and worthwhile interpretations that jewish american poetry in english offers references
bell marvin 2000 nightworks poems 1962 2000 port townsend wa copper canyon bleich david 2000 ‘learning learning learning jewish poetry in america’ in barron jonathan and selinger eric eds jewish american poetry poems commentary and reflections hanover nh u of new england p 177 93 bloom harold 1972 ‘the sorrows of american-jewish poetry’ commentary 53 3 69 74 chametzky jules john felstiner hilene flanzbaum and kathryn hellerstein eds 2001 jewish american literature a norton anthology new york norton chapman abraham ed 1974 jewish-american literature an anthology of fiction poetry autobiography and criticism new york new american library goldstein laurence 2002 ‘arguing what else about jewish-american poetry’ michigan quarterly review 41 701 20 hollander john 1994 ‘the question of american jewish poetry’ in wirth-nesher hana ed what is jewish literature philadelphia jewish publication society 36 52 ignatow david 1968 rescue the dead middletown ct wesleyan up kunitz stanley 1995 passing through the later poems new and selected new york norton osherow jacqueline 2001 ‘ch’vil schreibn a poem auf yiddish’ in chametzky jules felstiner john flanzbaum hilene and hellerstein kathryn eds jewish american literature a norton anthology new york norton 1132 reznikoff charles 1989 poems 1918 1975 the complete poems of charles reznikoff ed sea-
mus cooney santa rosa ca black sparrow rothstein edward 2001 ‘a jewish canon yes but not set in stone’ new york times 24 feb 2001 a15 rubin steven j 2000 ‘poets of the promised land 1800 1920’ in barron jonathan and selin-
ger eric eds jewish american poetry poems commentary and reflections hanover nh u of new england p 197 215 rukeyser muriel 1978 the collected poems new york mcgraw-hill shreiber maeera y 2003 ‘jewish american poetry’ in wirth-nesher hana and kramer michael p eds the cambridge companion to jewish american literature cambridge cam-
bridge up 149 69 stern gerald 1998 this time new and selected poems new york norton mgr jiří flajšar ph d department of english and american studies
faculty of arts palacký university
křížkovského 10
olomouc 77180
jiriflajsar@centrum cz
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
zuzana fonioková
the selective narrator construction of the past in kazuo ishiguro’s an artist of the floating world
1 introduction
this paper deals with the first-person narrator of kazuo ishiguro’s second novel an artist of the floating world as masuji ono a former painter looks back on his life it becomes apparent that certain episodes from his past had harmful con-
sequences indeed his nationalism seems to have contributed to the horrors of the second world war i will analyze the ways in which ono both discloses and hides these parts of his life story and how he comes to terms with the fact that he has lost the status that he held in the pre-war society as in his other novels ishiguro lets his narrator tell a painful story which makes him hesitate between revealing and concealing the significance of his past first i will outline what i consider the three main aspects of the manner in which ono narrates his story that is his frequent digressions his indirectness and his metanarrative comments these features provide the reader with clues about how to read the narrative in that they show ono as an unreliable or more specifically selective narrator whose aim is to tell his story and at the same time evade some of its parts the analysis of ono’s attitude to his past will examine the narrator’s motives for this strategy it will demonstrate that apart from two forces steering ono’s remembering his nostalgia and his fear of the past’s im-
pact on the present happiness of his family there exists another reason for the character’s plunging into memory his attempt at self-justification in the end ono manages to convince himself that the mistakes he committed in the past were inevitable and that accepting these mistakes justifies his past behaviour however i argue that the effect of this wish for self-justification amounts to the narrator’s avoidance of the pieces of his story that would provoke his feelings of guilt and regret while the painter successfully deceives himself in order to achieve self-satisfaction and contentment regarding his past and present life the reader can discover the narrator’s silences that betray ono’s confession as incom-
plete therefore the determination of the stimulus of ono’s remembering as his struggle for self-justification leads us back to the narrative technique of the text to the selective narrator 134 zuzana fonioková
2 specific features of the narrator’s account
digressions it is perhaps a sign of my advancing years that i have taken to wandering into rooms for no purpose ” says ono drawing attention to his lack of concentra-
tion 40 this roaming through the house seemingly aimless has a parallel in ono’s manner of narration he is drifting through various stories without obvious intent digressing from one topic to another in no apparent order ono’s account of the events present or recent at the time of the narration more precisely at the four different times is thus often interrupted by excursions into his past digres-
sions in a narrative are often connected with what monika fludernik drawing on tamar yacobi’s ideas labels exegetical deflection” which involves the nar-
rator’s providing excessive information about marginal issues and insufficient treatment of what the reader constructs as crucial topics” fludernik 1999 76 in this way the reader of an artist gradually starts to notice that ono withholds some facts and feelings concerning the negative aspects of his past while he of-
ten digresses to stories which present his past in a favourable light for example he digresses to the story of his revolt against his father speaking at length about his ability to make decisions opposing authority’s opinion instead of reporting a recent conversation with his daughter which contains implications of his guilt however i see i am drifting my intention had been to record here that conver-
sation i had with setsuko last month” 48 on the other hand some of the deflec-
tions betray just what ono tries to hide in other cases such as the consequences of his denunciation of kuroda see 181 84 what leads the narrator to these kinds of digressions is it a compulsion to speak about or avoid certain topics an analysis of the character’s attitude to his past will show that these two types of motivation do not exclude each other on the contrary both aspects are present in ono’s narration ono’s struggle both to reveal and to veil meaning” wong 1995 130 mani-
fested particularly by his perpetual deviation and drifting from not yet concluded topics undermines ono’s authority as a narrator it signals to the reader that the narrator’s account of the narrated events and of their implications is probably distorted in other words ono’s deflections arouse suspicions that the novel fea-
tures an unreliable narrator furthermore gaby allrath argues that digressions in unreliable narration also draw attention to the narrators’ passion for themselves the narration centres upon them and their own experience and views 1998 66 thus even when they speak about the other characters they really give informa-
tion about themselves often in the form of projecting their own characteristics or states of mind allrath 1998 66 as will be shown later self-projection is an important feature of ono’s narrative his frequent asides about other people seemingly unrelated to the main topic gain their meaning as demonstrations of ono’s own actions feelings opinions and self-assessment 135the selective narrator construction of the past
indirectness and incompleteness
the way the characters especially ono himself and the members of his family communicate with each other reflects another characteristic of ono’s account their conversations are mostly full of insinuations instead of direct imparting of the message for example when ono’s elder daughter setsuko bids her father to ensure that the mistakes he made in the past do not interfere with her sister noriko’s marriage negotiations she does so in oblique hints i merely wished to say that it is perhaps wise if father would take certain precautionary steps to ensure misunderstandings do not arise after all noriko is almost twenty-six now we cannot afford many more disappointments such as last year’s” 49 conversations such as this one contain many unspoken messages gaps that the addressed characters fill in these gaps leave much space for one’s own interpre-
tation of the utterance’s meaning ono is not always sure what other people’s speeches mean he comments on his confusion for example as follows indeed it is possible i misinterpreted entirely what she actually said” 158 more often than not these gaps stem from the speakers’ avoidance of unpleasant topics and statements that might lead to conflict by its indirectness ono’s narrative strategy resembles these conversations he approaches many topics but stops before going into detail about certain parts of his past importantly he keeps mentioning some mistakes that he made in the past yet never really reports any specific deeds ono’s evading a description of his actions that shed a negative light on his past is expressed in the most obvious way in his comment on his treatment of a former colleague certainly what we did to sasaki following his dispute with our teacher was quite unwarranted and there seems little to be gained in my recalling such things here” 142 however frequently ono disguises these uncommunicated parts of his story more effec-
tively he does not directly warn the narratee about the gaps in the narration nevertheless the reader notices the absence of some information and feelings like the characters in the case of the evasive conversations the reader gets an opportunity to fill in these gaps in the way he or she understands the message of the narration when the reader detects the meanings hidden in the narrative’s absences he or she gets a version of the story different from the one ono tries to present in my interpretation of ono’s viewpoint as regards his past i will show that what motivates the indirectness and incompleteness of the narration is the narrator’s avoidance of those parts of the past that would arouse his regrets metanarrative comments
the third feature that reflects ono’s way of narrating is his scepticism concern-
ing the correctness of his account and the reliability of his memory expressed both directly and indirectly once he airs such doubts in the following comment these of course may not have been the precise words i used that afternoon at 136 zuzana fonioková
the tamagawa temple for i have had cause to recount this particular scene many times before and it is inevitable that with repeated telling such accounts begin to take on a life of their own” 72 this assumption can be applied to more in-
stances than just this particular one as ono often admits returning to an event or statement and reassessing its implications for example as i pondered over the whole business during the days which followed a new idea struck me” or i am obliged to think back yet again to that encounter to turn it over from yet another perspective” 54 under these circumstances the narrator’s acknowl-
edgement that accounts that are dealt with repeatedly might not be entirely ac-
curate that they might ‘take on a life of their own’ leads the reader to distrust some parts of the narrative it is by these metanarrative comments that the text self-consciously raise s the question of the narrator’s unreliability” as nünning 1997 98 says generally about works employing unreliable narration in other words the narrator himself provides the reader with a clue about how to read his tale in that he displays himself as not a fully trustworthy narrator another clue of this kind though somewhat less apparent can be detected in ono’s opinion of a self-portrait as a necessarily subjective painting i cannot recall any colleague who could paint a self-portrait with absolute honesty how-
ever accurately one may fill in the surface details of one’s mirror reflection the personality represented rarely comes near the truth as others would see it” 67 ono’s account mostly deals with the narrator himself it revolves around his own person consequently the narrative as a whole amounts to a kind of self-portrait bearing this in mind one can interpret ono’s observation about self-portraits as another of his metanarrative reflections that help the reader discover the subjec-
tivity of the narrated tale as allrath 1998 68 points out remembering does not correspond to eine rekonstruktion des vergangenen geschehens ” a reconstruction of past events but to eine aktive durch die momentane umstände geprägte vergangenheit-
skonstruktion” an active construction of the past affected by the present circum-
stances my translation therefore the metanarrative comments provide infor-
mation about the narrator’s viewpoint at the time of the narration and not at the time of the action allrath 1998 68 this presupposition applies to ono as well his account of the past is distorted by his present state of mind 1 as he says still in connection with his reflection on self-portraits each of us it seems has his own special conceits” that twist our own view of ourselves allrath 1998 67 what are ono’s present conceits that deform his picture of himself and of his own past this is another question that i intend to answer in my analysis of the character and his standpoint further on the three features of ono’s narration discussed above are interrelated his frequent digressions facilitate his avoiding certain pieces of information and thus contribute to the indirectness and incompleteness of his discourse and omitting parts of the story leads to a distortion of the account to which the metanarra-
tive comments draw attention the combination of these features enhances the 137the selective narrator construction of the past
implication of narratorial unreliability already present in the individual aspects to specify the narrator’s category more closely one could use david hidgon’s term the reluctant narrator who is often quite learned and perceptive but who has seen experienced or caused something so traumatic that he must ap-
proach the telling of it through indirections masks and substitutions” qtd in petry 1999 ono talks around certain facts implies them but does not speak about them directly the narrator of an artist can also be labelled a ‘selective nar-
rator’ because he be it consciously or unconsciously chooses to convey some parts of the ‘whole truth’ and to withhold others an analysis of ono’s emotions and viewpoints in relation to his past will reveal the source of his selections his silences on the one hand and the instances of garrulousness on the other hand it will demonstrate that the narrator’s selectivity stems from his attempt to avoid the topics and memories that threaten to give rise to his regrets and sense of guilt and thus endanger the success of his struggle for self-justification 3 ono’s attitude to his past
nostalgia and fear
examining ono’s attitude to the pre-war era one discovers a struggle between two opposing forces his nostalgia and his awareness of his own mistakes ono enjoys remembering the high social status he held in the pre-war era this predi-
lection is symbolized by ono’s relationship to his former pupil shintaro he likes meeting shintaro because there is something reassuring about finding shintaro sitting up there at the bar just as one may have found him on any evening for the past seventeen or so years it really is as though nothing has changed for shintaro he will greet me very politely as though he were still my pupil and throughout the evening however drunk he may get he will continue to address me as ‘sensei’ and maintain his most respectful manner towards me 21 22 2
ono admits that it is probably this very quality of shintaro’s this sense that he has remained somehow unscathed by things which has led me to enjoy his company more and more over these recent years” 23 in the environment hostile to the patriotic sentiments of the pre-war period and to their former proponents shintaro’s persevering respect provides ono with a feeling of importance that he otherwise misses ono’s longing for the times when he occupied a high position in society is further reflected in his nostalgia for the pleasure district in which he spent a great amount of time in the ‘old days’ and which therefore represents the era in ono’s mind he keeps returning to mrs kawakami’s bar which has remained in the area as the last element of what once used to be the pleasure dis-
138 zuzana fonioková
trict and which can be considered an oasis of the old times in a desert of modern development and thinking hostile to ono’s pre-war doings for all the changes which have transformed the world around it mrs kawakami’s remains as pleas-
ing as ever” 26 when ono looks over the rubble surrounding this last bar sees two columns of smoke rising from the rubble ” becomes lost in a melancholy mood” and views the columns like pyres at some abandoned funeral ” he is actu-
ally mourning over his lost position 27 28 an analogical situation appears in ono’s position within his family we get to know through his daughter noriko that earlier her father was a tyrant and ordered his family all around” 13 at the time of the narration his place in the family is by contrast rather subordinate noriko shows her disrespect in imper-
tinent statements such as he does take a lot more looking after moping around the house all day” 13 more importantly the daughters enforce their will in two family disputes in the first one their suggestion of a trip to the deer park wins over their father’s plan to go to the cinema and in the other one the daughters prevent ono from serving sake to his grandson ichiro ono shows his disapproval with the current state of affairs by remarks aimed to play down the importance of these events such as there is nothing to get upset about we can’t have the women ruling over us can we ” 39 ono’s reluctance to admit the change in the division of authority in his family is another sign of his yearning for the old times he misses his important position in society and he similarly misses his role as the patriarchal head of the family in addition the nostalgic stream in ono’s narrative manifests itself in his dis-
like of modern developments and especially importation from the usa his aversion becomes obvious in ono’s reaction to his grandson playing cowboys it’s more interesting more interesting by far to pretend to be someone like lord yoshitsune” 30 this revival of ono’s patriotic feelings contrasts with setsu-
ko’s husband suichi’s opinion suichi thinks the american heroes are the better models for children now” 36 as a similar clash of ono’s and suichi’s opin-
ions occurs more often suichi becomes a representation of modern thinking and of americanization of the younger generation” with its bitterness for their elders” 59 therefore when ono voices his sense of irritation directed against her setsuko’s husband ” he expresses his antipathy not only to su-
ichi but to the whole generation of young people who are critical towards ono’s generation and their convictions that have proved wrong 50 the opposite force that guides ono’s perspective in regard to his past and that determines his selectivity as a narrator grows out of his present fear of the reper-
cussions his past deeds might have on his younger daughter noriko’s marriage negotiations this stimulus leads him to ponder over the negative aspects of his personal history at the first point in his narration october 1948 ono seems to be reluctant to acknowledge the danger springing from his past and from the mistakes he once made as setsuko his elder and already married daughter in-
sinuates that ono might have an idea about the reason for the failure of noriko’s previous marriage negotiations the father senses an accusation in this implica-
139the selective narrator construction of the past
tion and defends himself my own guess is that there was nothing so remarkable about the matter” 18 instead of examining the connection of the family’s mo-
tives to his past he argues that it was simply a matter of family status the mi-
yakes were just the proud honest sort who would feel uncomfortable at the thought of their son marrying above his station” 19 ono combines his nostalgia for his lost reputation with his avoidance of facing the bad consequences of his past in the same context he reports a recent incident proving shintaro’s belief that ‘a recommendation from a man of sensei’s standing will command respect from anyone ’” which reminds me of the rather high esteem in which i am held” 19 this incident serves as a means to hide ono’s situation as a fallen hero note the present tense in in which i am held” and at the same time supports his view of his respectable position as the explanation for the miyakes’ withdrawal from the marriage arrangements the way he clings to his pre-war reputation is il-
lustrated by ono’s remark that shintaro likes to believe he is still the idealistic young artist i first took under my supervision” he expresses his own longing for his lost status by projecting the nostalgia onto his pupil 22 at the later points of his report ono seems to become aware of the existence of the problematic parts of his past the stories attesting to his good social status are substituted by incidents indicating the negative elements of his former life his stance changes from refusing responsibility for his wrongdoings to ostentatiously admitting to his mistakes there are some who would say it is people like myself who were responsible for the terrible things that happened to this nation of ours as far as i am concerned i freely admit i made many mistakes i accept that much of what i did was ultimately harmful to our nation that mine was part of an influence that resulted in untold suffering for our own people i admit this you see dr saito i admit this quite readily 123 this shift in ono’s point of view is reflected in the modification of his approach to the pleasure district of course the old district had been fine we had all enjoyed ourselves and the spirit had never been less than sincere but then perhaps that same spirit had not always been for the best like many things now it is perhaps as well that that little world has passed away and will not be return-
ing” 126 27 compared to his earlier melancholic view of the area that used to be the pleasure district as a graveyard these lines emphasize the artist’s move from nostalgic yearning for the old days to accepting the modern period with its repudiation of pre-war sentiments absences in the narrative
yet for all his boasting about the acceptance of his mistakes ono fails to provide a direct account of those faults nor does he show any regret or feeling of guilt 140 zuzana fonioková
this absence becomes particularly visible in ono’s recounting of the incident that resulted from his reporting of his former pupil kuroda’s ‘unpatriotic activities’ to the authorities seeing the harsh consequences of his action he defends himself ‘i had no idea’ i said ‘something like this would happen’” 183 yet as wong 2000 46 notices ono shows no remorse for what happened to kuroda ” which is further demonstrated by his lack of compassion when recording kuroda’s shab-
biness on a different occasion after the war when he meets him in the street moreover we learn about ono’s act of betrayal only indirectly through his direct speech to one of the officers and he refuses to remain in the dangerous area of these memories for a long time but this is all of limited relevance here” 184 ono’s attitude to kuroda can be seen as a good example of the narrator’s treatment of his mistakes he talks more around them than about them by care-
fully selecting the memories to be recalled he manages to escape his sense of guilt and remorse and simultaneously fails to really acknowledge his mistakes to himself in addition he keeps excusing his mistakes by relativizing them he sees his situation as similar to that of the hirayama boy ” a local fool who is beaten for singing the same patriotic songs that brought him popularity before the war 61 ono too is being criticised for the same things for which he was once admired he justifies his deeds by having acted in good faith” 123 this kind of defence is another sign of ono’s avoidance of the actual acceptance of the wrongfulness of his pre-war actions what is more he actually praises his ability to make decisions to go against the stream notwithstanding the consequences these decisions brought about cf wong 2000 41 2 digressions to other people’s fates betray ono’s positive as-
sessment of his own achievements whenever i find myself wandering around kawabe park these days i start to think of sugimura and his schemes and i confess i am beginning to feel a certain admiration for the man for indeed a man who aspires to rise above the mediocre to be something more than ordinary surely deserves admiration even if in the end he fails and loses a fortune on account of his ambitions 134 ono speaks highly of the likes of him who had big plans and attempted to do something exceptional even though their efforts turned out wrong and denounc-
es the ‘tortoises’ who never had the courage to step out of line in this way he tries to justify his behaviour in the pre-war period another feature of the painter’s account appears as a particularly striking one the absence of a manifest grief for his wife and son lost in the war according to wong 2000 49 t oo much explicit grievance over their deaths may begin a process of self-blame and regret that may be more than ono can bear after all he supported sending young men like his own son to fight for japan and he re-
mains proud of the sugimura house in which michiko was located when the freak 141the selective narrator construction of the past
bombing killed her” this implies that ono tries to evade regrets about his past actions and all the above-mentioned attempts to excuse his conduct thus amount to an effort to justify his actions in the face of his own accusations to be able to accomplish this self-justification he constructs a version of his past that presents him as a man doing the best under the given circumstances the consistency of this version would be jeopardized if ono really acknowledged his mistakes to himself yet the same wish for self-justification forces him to recall some events that hint at his wrongdoings both the need to tell and the necessity to avoid some parts of the truth lead to the digressions and indirectness in the account ono runs to and from certain recollections in an attempt to render an acceptable picture of himself and his past this wish forces him to omit some parts of the story and thus makes him a selective narrator furthermore ono wants to find some compensation for his present insignifi-
cance succeeding the loss of his former position he does so by looking back to his past and reminiscing about his achievements such as receiving the shig-
eta foundation award that had resulted in a moment or two of real satisfac-
tion” 204 again he has to repress the knowledge of the consequences of such achievements so that regrets do not mar the pleasure these memories yield in this way he feeds his ‘conceits’ about whose distorting effect on the self-portrait ono warned us in the aforementioned metanarrative comment in the end ono succeeds in creating a picture of his life with which he can be satisfied because it shows an admirable person who made use of all the opportunities he was of-
fered 4 conclusion
ono’s manner of narrating characterized mainly by his digressions to different topics his indirect way of conveying a message and his metanarrative comments that hint at his narratorial unreliability reveal him as a selective narrator who does not say everything but chooses what to tell and what to withhold this qual-
ity of ono as a narrator originates in his wish for self-justification provoked by his present situation especially his being considered a traitor and his lack of pa-
triarchal power in the family more specifically his desire to plunge into his past and to vindicate his own life is led by his fear of the repercussions of his past on his daughter’s happiness and by his nostalgia for the pre-war years in which he was held in high esteem consequently ono constructs his past in order to create a positive picture of himself by selecting only the suitable parts of his story he deceives himself into believing that he lived a good life and does not let feelings of guilt and regret arise in other words the narrative technique of the selective narrator results in ono’s composing a self-portrait that reflects his illusions more than the way other people see him 142 zuzana fonioková
notes
1 in fact the ‘present’ of ono’s narration corresponds to four moments as if diary notes con-
sequently four different points of view are presented which vary in regard to the narrator’s attitude to his past ishiguro says about this feature of his novel that the strength of a diary narrative is that each entry can be written from a different emotional position what ono writes in october 1948 is actually written out of a different set of assumptions than the pieces that are written later on so we can actually watch his progress” qtd in wong 2000 38 2 sensei is a japanese word used to address a teacher in the novel it applies specifically to a senior painter leading a group of younger artists who admire him and imitate his style references
allrath gaby 1998 ‘‘but why will you say that i am mad ’ textuelle signale für die ermittlung von unreliable narration’ in nünning ansgar ed unreliable narration studien zur theorie und praxis unglaubwürdigen erzählens in der englischsprachigen erzählliteratur trier wvt 59 79 fludernik monika 1999 ‘defining in sanity the narrator of the yellow wallpaper and the question of unreliability’ in grünzweig walter and solbach andreas eds grenzüberschrei-
tungen narratologie im kontext transcending boundaries narratology in context tübingen narr 75 95 ishiguro kazuo 1986 an artist of the floating world london faber and faber ltd nünning ansgar 1997 ‘‘but why will you say that i am mad ’ on the theory history and signals of unreliable narration in british fiction’ arbeiten zu anglistik and amerikanistik 22 83 105 petry mike 1999 ‘‘narratives of personal pasts’ kazuo ishiguro in the context of postmodern british fiction’ narratives of memory and identity the novels of kazuo ishiguro frankfurt am main lang 14 nov 2006 http www gradnet de papers wong cynthia f 1995 ‘the shame of memory blanchot’s self-dispossession in ishiguro’s a pale view of hills’ clio a journal of literature history and the philosophy of history 24 2 127 145 wong cynthia f 2000 kazuo ishiguro tavistock northcote house publishers mgr zuzana fonioková
department of english and american studies
faculty of arts masaryk university
arna nováka 1
602 00 brno
zuzuzuzu@email cz
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
martina horáková
alternative hi stories in stolen generation and residential school narratives reading indigenous life writings by doris pilkington and shirley sterling
the article analyzes two life writing narratives by indigenous women writers from australia and canada in order to demonstrate the ways in which they present alter-
native hi stories of removed indigenous children doris pilkington’s follow the rabbit-proof fence 1996 and shirley sterling’s my name is seepeetza 1992 for-
mulate an effective counter-discourse which undermines the power of the australian and canadian authorities to exercise absolute control over the lives of indigenous children and their families in her account pilkington celebrates active resistance in the form of a seemingly impossible escape from the river moore native settle-
ment and records the symbolic journey home her alternative hi story consists in interweaving the pre-contact early-contact history of indigenous people in western australia and the nationally accepted history of european settlement in australia as well as in appropriating official archival materials and creating a counter-ar-
chive of traditional aboriginal knowledge similarly sterling’s narrator asserts her cultural identity through a series of juxtaposed contrasts between the abusive residential school regime and the harmonious functional family environment at home contrasts that bring to the foreground the memories of times spent with the extended family the daily activities ensuring the survival of the community and generally the happy moments outside the range of state intervention it has long been acknowledged that history plays a fundamental role in in-
digenous writing worldwide both fictional and non-fictional although telling history” was a common practice in pre-contact indigenous storytelling it is pri-
marily the history of colonization and long-term racist oppression that permeates implicitly or explicitly most indigenous life writing narratives today from the very beginning of the colonization of australia and north america indigenous peoples of both continents have attempted to tell their experiences of history bain attwood an australian historian working on issues related to aboriginal history notes that indigenous people have often worked up histories histori-
cal interpretations in order to explain their plight to themselves and so helped 144 martina horáková
themselves to survive” attwood and magowan 2001 xii indeed the notions of history memory and survival are the key issues that have shaped indigenous writ-
ing in general until recently however the mainstream population in the settler colonies has refused to recognize indigenous versions of history and only the last few decades have witnessed progress in providing the other rather unfavourable side of the story of settlement in australia and north america in a reaction to the invisibility and silenced voices of indigenous peoples contemporary indigenous life writing is driven by the desire to have the hidden histories written on paper as a result these narratives frequently communicate perspectives that displace official histories of white settlement and re-write history in the sense that they fill in the gaps with previously repressed hi stories and or provide alternative versions in this way such texts formulate a kind of historical counter-narrative that significantly problematizes the nationally accepted stories of european set-
tlement and the myths of nation-building one of the most traumatic issues that have plagued indigenous communities until today is the removal of indigenous children mostly of mixed parentage by state authorities in the settler colonies in order to gradually assimilate the in-
digenous population into mainstream society these policies based on the then widespread racist theories of the inferiority of indigenous peoples have founded a system of total control over indigenous lives the impact of which has led to cultural alienation confusion of identity internal conflicts and traumatic experi-
ence of indigenous peoples educational institutions have played a crucial role in this system with the help of state legislation a network of the so-called missions also known as native settlements in australia and residential schools in cana-
da was established 1 both systems have been instrumental in the breakdown of the family causing strain and mistrust as language barriers arose and children were taught to devalue their cultural traditions” young qtd in grant 1994 46 and have remained part of a deeply embedded trauma among indigenous peoples until today with many survivors and eyewitnesses speaking out about the abuse and maltreatment they experienced indigenous life writing plays a significant role in recording this process of family separation the brutal treatment of removed children in the institutions and their cultural survival in the face of assimilationist pressures specific types of indig-
enous life stories the stolen generation narratives in australia and residential school narratives in canada have developed in order to both bear witness to and creatively re-work the repressed history this is done not only through the actual presenting of historical events and individual life stories from the indigenous point of view but also through employing a range of resistance strategies from incorporating untranslated fragments of indigenous languages through celebrating traditional tribal knowledge to inscribing cases of both open and latent resistance of the protagonists to institutional assimilation indigenous women’s life stories in particular have been successful in reframing the dominant society’s effort to break up indigenous familial kinship and communal bonds frequently even though not exclusively they map the indigenous family as what anne brewster 1996 9 145alternative hi stories in doris pilkington and shirley sterling
calls a site of resistance” which acknowledges indigenous women’s productive role in the process of nation- and economy-building and sustaining” grossman 1998 178 such stories then draw attention to the role that extended family and community play in physical and cultural survival doris pilkington’s follow the rabbit-proof fence 1996 and shirley sterling’s my name is seepeetza 1992 which are the focus of this article are the examples of indigenous women’s life writings that formulate an effective counter-discourse with the intention of un-
dermining the power of the australian and canadian authorities to exercise total control over the lives of indigenous children and their families doris pilkington’s follow the rabbit-proof fence helped bring about a second wave of interest in aboriginal women’s life writing published in the 1990s and proved that the popularity of this specific genre has not yet waned 2 together with sally morgan’s my place 1987 it is perhaps the most internationally recognized aboriginal life story partly thanks to a widely discussed transfer of the written narrative onto the screen under the title rabbit-proof fence 2001 dir phillip noyce pilkington’s narrative is a generic boundary-crosser it encompasses ele-
ments of an adventure story focused on an escape of the author’s mother and aunts’ biography of a collective pre-contact history of the nyoongar people of western australia and of a history of the aboriginal-settler relationships from the earliest period until the 1930s the text also draws heavily on oral traditions and storytelling techniques since pilkington transcribed oral histories that her family had told her attempting to negotiate aboriginal oral traditions and eu-
ropean literary conventions in addition follow the rabbit-proof fence forms a kind of a preview memoir to pilkington’s next book under the wintamarra tree 2002 which gives a third-person autobiographical account of pilkington’s own separation from her family and how she was taken to the very same moore river native settlement that her female family members had managed to escape from decades earlier in this way pilkington’s own story is already inscribed in follow the rabbit-proof fence lending it an autobiographical air follow the rabbit-proof fence is primarily a historical account of aboriginal lives both collective and individual as such it redresses the long-term invis-
ibility of local indigenous groups and supplies a previously missing perspective pilkington contributes to the re-creation of aboriginal history in western aus-
tralia as she starts her narrative with a mytho-fictional account of the pre-contact and early-contact history of the nyungar people the history that is portrayed as idyllic imagined and decolonized space interestingly enough this part is not re-told as an objective” historical account in the western tradition but rather of-
fers a dramatized history including fictional dialogues referring to the oral tradi-
tions and the stories told by aboriginal people over the generations the result is a picture of aboriginal history as it might have been” the larger portion of the narrative however follows the lives of pilkington’s mother molly and her two 146 martina horáková
cousins sisters daisy and gracie who were together removed from their home in jigalong in north-eastern western australia to the infamous moore river na-
tive settlement at the other end of the state this part shows and scrutinizes the full impact of the department of native affairs’ policy of removing half-caste” children in the 1930s overseen by the notorious a o neville then the chief protector of aborigines as the last third of the account tells of the three girls’ es-
cape their setting out on the journey home walking along the rabbit-proof fence that runs north-south across the state it celebrates the traditional knowledge that helps the girls survive in the bush and at the same time condemns the monstrous apparatus that is mobilized by the authorities in their persecution the technique that pilkington draws on when re-writing the history of colo-
nization in western australia is mainly the principle of synthesis which allows her to combine effectively both aboriginal and european historical sources and to echo what bob hodge and vijay mishra 1991 when analysing a play by the aboriginal playwright jack davis called dual principle” by using this dual principle of organization davis was able to fuse what have sic been seen as the two opposing kinds of history linear european and circular aboriginal to represent both the continuities across time and the different possibilities offered by different circumstances” 103 in my view pilkington’s text gets close to this principle in the sense that it fuses” two historical perspectives and two means of recording history one is based on archival written materials such as documents describing the first landings on the western australian coast the early expedi-
tions the founding of military bases and government depots and later also the correspondence and records related to the girls’ escape the other perspective is based on aboriginal hi stories of the first contact partly recorded via oral tradi-
tion partly fictionalized by pilkington an example of such historical synthesis appears early in the book when pilkington juxtaposes two means of recording one event the establishment of the first military base on the western coast in the first half of the 19th century the first description obviously relies on a european historiographical source reminding readers of typical early colonial narratives such as navy officers’ journals major edmund lockyer with a detachment of eighteen soldiers from the 93rd regiment and fifty convicts were sent to king george sound where albany is now situated by governor darling in new south wales to es-
tablish a military base their aim was to deter renegade convicts whalers and sealers they sailed in the brig amity and had been anchored offshore in king george sound for over a month on a hot summer day in 1826 major lockyer and two of his officers went ashore and climbed the cliffs and explored the harbour they were delighted with the beauty of the coastal region but were not impressed with the soil 5 several paragraphs later however readers get to know the aboriginal perspective of the same event voiced through a group of aborigines living in the area 147alternative hi stories in doris pilkington and shirley sterling
suddenly they aborigines heard voices of men shouting loudly and yell-
ing back and forth kundilla and his sons became alarmed they clambered up the cliffs and hid behind the thick bushes on the rocky ledge lying on their stomachs they peered over the edge they were not prepared for the sight that greeted them they were confronted not with shouting cruel men but different men wearing strange scarlet jackets and others in white coarse cotton suits all these men were very pale ‘surely they must be gengas ’ whispered kundilla as he moved closer to the edge of the cliff 5 6 these doubled” passages abound in pilkington’s narrative suggesting that such a strategy may offer a true synthesis of the two histories by placing these two segments side by side the author draws attention to two different modes of re-
cording history 1 the western source providing exact names and dates and es-
tablishing objective” linear depiction 2 the aboriginal perspective which is partly fictionalized and employs a dialogue that is simply told as a story pilk-
ington alludes here to the common western practice of privileging the former as a more credible account taken for granted and of excluding the latter version as lacking historical evidence” another example of the many ways of interweaving the explorers’ and aborig-
inal histories is the theme of the entire narrative the journey across the outback desert through a difficult terrain that was often described by the first explorers as inhospitable barren and unwelcoming the trek the three little girls make is pre-
sented as a heroic deed and alludes to the journeys of the first european explorers such as the famous 1860 burke and wills expedition to cross the continent from the south to the north in which the two main protagonists died from starvation in the territory where aboriginal people had lived for centuries the fact that the aboriginal girls aged 8 11 and 14 successfully completed a journey of some 1 600 km to their home after escaping from a government institution therefore offers an alternative perspective that counterbalances the celebrated expeditions of australian heroes that led to the subsequent colonization of the area the girls’ journey home in spite of the distance thus epitomizes the failure of the depart-
ment’s effort to deterritorialize aboriginal people in other words to destroy their bonds to land and kinship a specific strategy that pilkington employs when presenting the two historical perspectives is her use and appropriation3 of the official archival materials in her article on follow the rabbit-proof fence and the effects of globalization anne brewster 2002 characterizes the notion of the archive and pilkington’s use of it in the following quote the inclusion of these archival excerpts points to an awareness of the ap-
paratus of the archive not so much as a specific institution as an entire epis-
temological complex for producing a comprehensive knowledge within the domain of the british empire and its subsequent legacy in the governance of the recently federated states of australia the archive was a prototype for 148 martina horáková
global and national systems of dominance an operational field for control-
ling territory by the production and distribution of information about it in the forms of files dossiers censuses statistics maps reports letters telegrams and memoranda these technologies of surveillance were derived from the demographic and ethnographical practices devised by various disciplines of learning geography medicine sociology linguistics etc in pilkington’s narrative the archive is depicted as an important means through which the colonizers exercised power in the form of controlling aboriginal peo-
ple’s lives by monitoring their movements employments family connections relationships and marriages this information was recorded in the files of the department of native affairs in perth and through the correspondence of the authorities throughout follow the rabbit-proof fence pilkington uses docu-
ments’ excerpts that are clearly a result of her research in the archive and in-
corporates them either directly or indirectly into her narrative 4 these include newspaper reports 17 102 early settlers’ diaries 16 station reports addressed to the department of native affairs 39 41 police records 46 105 112 124 original photocopies of telegrams sent back and forth by the authorities 51 53 transcripts of correspondence between a o neville the chief protector of abo-
rigines and his informants 124 26 128 129 and the map of the girls’ journey from jigalong to the moore river native settlement and the trek back home x the motivation for incorporating the archival materials is at least two-fold first pilkington uses the archive to do what linda tuhiwai smith calls research-
ing back” 7 which in this case means employing the archival knowledge for the author’s own purposes in particular to show the monstrosity of the system of state intervention encoded in the policy of eugenics and to expose the inhu-
man treatment of the half-caste” people by the government second by showing histories and life experiences which inhabit the space outside” of this archival material for example the life at the moore river native settlement from the abo-
riginal point of view or the traditional knowledge helping the three girls to read” the landscape around them and to survive in the outback pilkington successfully provides readers with the alternative to the system of surveillance resistance to the official archive is also demonstrated through the language pilkington employs which again exposes the discrepancy between the aborigi-
nal and settlers’ political systems for example a paradoxical ambiguity appears in the notion of protection” on the one hand the authorities through rheto-
ric such as we are very anxious that no harm may come to them in the bush” 102 or i fear for their safety” 113 used in correspondence and newspaper reports establish a sense that the girls need to be protected” in this way the mobilization of police in search of the three runaways is justified on the other hand there is the reality in which the girls quite capable of not only surviving in the outback but also of turning the environment to their advantage know they must escape this protection” which in their vocabulary stands for persecution in other instances pilkington contrasts official euphemisms such as native set-
149alternative hi stories in doris pilkington and shirley sterling
tlement” school” and students” with her own vocabulary where the native settlement is a concentration camp” and the children are inmates” 72 in ad-
dition pilkington frequently incorporates mardujara words into her text leaving them untranslated and so challenging the prohibition to speak aboriginal lan-
guages pilkington’s strategic use of the archive leads to the establishment of what brewster 2002 calls a counter-archive” that consists of formerly largely oral aboriginal knowledges and practices such as hunting birthing and mourning practices food drinks and medicines marriage and skin customs and spiritual beliefs” brewster continues to assert that this counter-archive is not however an archive that confines a total knowledge under the purview of the state but one that enables that knowledge to be mobilised in everyday life in the service of a resistant identity formation” thus the appropriation of the archival material and formation of the counter-archive in pilkington’s narrative emphasizes the fact that this type of indigenous women’s life writing combats the assumption that the archive completely defines indigenous people after all in follow the rab-
bit-proof fence the aboriginal girls manage to escape against all odds in spite of the entire official apparatus that is mobilised in the search for them from an aboriginal point of view the story of the three girls’ escape can be read as a story of outwitting the dominant power and as a celebration of aboriginal abilities to survive in the face of extermination policies shirley sterling’s my name is seepeetza can be compared to follow the rab-
bit-proof fence in its effort to juxtapose canadian and indigenous histories and to provide what kateri damm calls an alternative perspective of the history of canada” which means to affirm and preserve native views native realities and native forms of telling while actively challenging and redefing dominant concepts of history truth and fact” damm 1993 95 using a genre untypical for indigenous life writing a diary form and a child narrator sterling com-
municates one of the many accounts of the residential school system in canada established by the indian act in 1876 for the children of mostly mixed parentage kuokkanen 2003 702 although the narrative set in the late 1950s is strongly autobiographical based on the author’s own experience in the kamloops resi-
dential school in interior british columbia sterling also incorporates her sis-
ters’ and friends’ experience of the same institution and fictionalizes the whole account the persona of a twelve-year-old n’laka’pamux girl named seepeetza by her family but later renamed martha stone by the school staff gives sterling a vehicle for presenting the story through innocent eyes” and reveal seemingly unconsciously the practices of the evil system the heroine is separated from her family at the age of six to spend each year with the exception of the two summer months at the fictional kalamak indian residential school in her dia-
ry entries seepeetza records the events and details of residential school life in-
150 martina horáková
cluding the memory of her first day of grade one marked by the trauma of being parted from her family and having to succumb to the strict regime of the school from the very beginning sterling’s narrative is presented as a series of con-
trasts that can be summarized under the heading school versus home” the diary reveals a pattern in the structure of the entries which frequently start with an event or detail from the school’s life which in turn triggers a memory of a sim-
ilar event or activity from the family circle in addition these contrasts are not only implicitly encoded in the text but they are consciously placed side by side by the narrator herself as in the following quote when we’re at home we can ride horses go swimming at the river run in the hills climb trees and laugh out loud and holler yahoo anytime we like and we won’t get in trouble at school we get punished for talking looking at boys in church even stepping out of line i wish i could live at home instead of here” 13 14 similar passages show the depth of the narrator’s trauma from the separation and the impossibility to justify in any way the officially established assimilationist system especially since the story foregrounds a picture of a functional native family which is loving caring and self-sufficient devoid of stereotypical images of domestic violence alcoholism and neglected children for example seepeetza’s family is provided for by the father who apart from having a job as a court interpreter due to his knowledge of six native languages is also a hunter and rancher working on his own farm 67 65 and it is implied that he is also involved in activism promoting social justice for indigenous people 67 generally seepeetza’s life at the joyaska ranch is characterized by the circle of extended family members by joy freedom and various little incidents and humorous episodes such portrayal of an indigenous family significantly resists some of the most common representations of dysfunc-
tional indigenous families that have become a target of both welfare policies and many literary representations this deliberate strategy i e depicting the harmoni-
ous family environment in my name is seepeetza makes it all the more difficult for readers to comprehend the rationale behind the forced separations the images of home are placed against the strict almost military regime at the residential school as the narrator moves back and forth in time and space the contrasts between the two environments are found on all kinds of levels from differences in food to physical violence it is repeatedly suggested that the school provides insufficient miserable and unhealthy meals and the children frequently suffer from hunger 87 this is juxtaposed with descriptions of home-made food which is abundant healthy rich in taste and always shared for example when the meat seepeetza’s father brings home from his hunting trips is taken to old people in the community 66 while the work at home is meaningful done for the ben-
efit of all the family and in accordance with seasonal cycles the work assigned to children at the school is hard and sometimes inadequate consisting mainly of useless cleaning polishing scrubbing waxing and washing a contrast is also made between the mostly physical outdoor activity at the ranch e g seepeetza helps her father with haying rides horses takes care of domestic animals and generally spends most of her free time outdoors and the strictly indoor domestic 151alternative hi stories in doris pilkington and shirley sterling
labour at the school in this respect it is necessary to take into account that one of the aims of residential schools in canada similarly to mission schools in aus-
tralia was to train indigenous girls in domestic service so that they could be later employed in white families or various institutions another stark contrast concerns the emotional development of the children and the methods of educating” them while seepeetza’s family encourages emotional expression and provides freedom for children to run around and play together the school’s environment is explicit in its lack of affection and care signs of which are suppressed and eventually punished physical violence and corporal punishment become tools for maintaining control and the status quo in the school’s power relations against seepeetza’s firm statement that my mum and dad never hit us” 83 stand repeated incidents of pushing beating and get-
ting the strap” which are reported as so common that children even get used to it” 18 it is precisely the recorded accounts of physical and psychological abuse that contribute to creating a powerful counter-narrative which questions not only the national account of the treatment of indigenous people in canada in the form for example of official reports from residential school principals but also the image of the beneficiary” impact of churches and missions which frequently ran the residential schools in seepeetza’s narrative four hundred indian students are under the supervision of the school’s principal father sloane six other priests and the nuns who are responsible for teaching and managing children’s free time several times seepeetza illustrates both directly and indirectly the power relations in the school where the nuns and priests use humiliation and force to undermine the children’s connection to their culture the children are forbidden to speak their own languages denied the right to be called by their traditional names and prevented from maintaining emotional ties with their siblings when discussing sterling’s critique of the residential school system and the complicity of the missionaries it is interesting to note her use of the child nar-
rator which helps her to play down seepeetza’s brutal reality one of the rea-
sons for using this device may be the young readership to which the book is addressed5 another that sterling’s aim is to avoid a strictly historicizing mode of writing that is common in indigenous life writings and present a more fic-
tionalized account so while the narrative does reveal the trauma of separation and the sense of alienation and loneliness at the residential school it never actu-
ally describes openly the physical and sexual abuse the children suffered leav-
ing space for readers’ interpretation reading about the systematic oppression through the child narrator who has a limited knowledge of the impact of what is happening around her certainly offers a different angle as the effect is often intensified precisely by subtle hints nobody from the school staff is spared the author’s critique and latent accusations examples include father sloane who is said to be interested” in girls which is manifested by the frequency of his visits in the girls’ gym and by his teasing them 93 and the priests who are accused of doing something bad” to several boys who subsequently decide to run away 12 13 and are severely punished afterwards the viciousness and hypocrisy 152 martina horáková
of the sisters is also evident for example in the description of sister superior who is known for carrying a strap in her sleeve all the time and hitting children’s hands whenever someone is bad” 18 or in situations such as when seepeetza is humiliated by one of the sisters in front of others for bed-wetting 19 one of the supervising nuns sister theo is described as the wicked witch in the wizard of oz” which is underscored by the detailed description of her black robe and veil big nose and small shiny eyes and the sinister clicking of her rosary beads hanging from her waist which makes all children run away at her approach 51 this fearful image of the nun is however suddenly dissolved in the next image depicting seepeetza’s mother both in her physical appearance her beauty long black hair and big brown eyes and kindness she speaks softly smiles a lot and shows affection 51 52 this contrast again places side by side atrocious reality and idyllic memory asserting seepeetza’s ability to see through” what has been imposed on her sterling’s narrative is most instrumental in combining the strategies of resist-
ance and adaptation to the residential school system in what rauna kuokkanen drawing on the native american writer and critic gerald vizenor calls surviv-
ance” which weaves together the concepts of resistance and survival in an ef-
fort to challenge dualistic notions of dominance and victimhood” kuokkanen 2003 700 compared to pilkington’s account of open and active resistance in the form of escape seepeetza’s resistances are more strategic subtle and hidden one of many examples concerns bringing aspects of indigenous cultural practices to school helping the children remain anchored in their own traditional culture when the girls have to peel corn after classes this simple domestic task immedi-
ately evokes the memory of native women doing similar work at home and the joking laughing and storytelling it is related to while it also strengthens the soli-
darity among the residential school attendees then we all started to get happy even the big girls we started joking and laughing like mum and aunt mamie and yah-yah do when they’re cleaning berries or fish together at home they tell stories and laugh all day while they’re working” 14 in this case instead of complying with the school rules the girls spontaneously imitate what they were exposed to at home and saw as natural and in this way they manage to slip away from the school’s pervasive regime another set of examples relates to the issues of language and naming it is well-
known that children in mission and residential schools were strictly forbidden to use indigenous languages both pilkington and sterling depict this strategy as a traumatic experience for the children and a severe cultural loss however both narratives also provide many instances of strategic uses of indigenous languages either in situations when the children do not want to be understood by others or when they want to deliberately reminisce about their homes and families in my name is seepeetza the symbolic title alludes to one of the first internal conflicts seepeetza encounters at school 153alternative hi stories in doris pilkington and shirley sterling
after that sister maura asked me what my name was i said ‘my name is seepeetza ’ then she got really mad like i did something terrible she said never to say that word again she told me if i had a sister go and ask what my name was i went to the intermediate rec and found dorothy lying on a bench reading comics i asked her what my name was she said it was martha stone i said it over and over 18 seepeetza is therefore deprived of her traditional name given to her by her father after a community elder which reflects her indigenous identity and anchors her existence in the community at the same time however sterling titles her nar-
rative with the little girl’s assertive statement my name is seepeetza” and in doing so confirms seepeetza’s connection to the culture that the residential school system tried to deny her in addition seepeetza remembers not only her own traditional name but also the names of her siblings and occasionally uses indig-
enous words to name important concepts such as shamah for a white person” 100 rituals such as potlatch for a big gathering 121 or favourite pastime ac-
tivities such as lahal for a stick game 123 similarly writing the journal is itself an act of resistance for seepeetza as she can not only put down her memories of happier times but also record the names and wilful acts of the school staff in this way she actually manages to provide a written report” of the ideology upon which the residential school operates the use of the child narrator allows sterling to undermine occasionally the grave tone of the whole narrative sometimes seepeetza records in her diary vari-
ous little humorous episodes and family jokes stemming mostly from the periods spent at home playing with her siblings and cousins at other times seepeetza in her childhood naivety unconsciously subverts the imposition of christianity on indigenous people by fusing the sublime” of the church and the daily routines of the school such as when she comments on obligatory attendance at sunday masses on sunday morning we go to high mass the girls have to wear navy blue tams at home the women wear kerchiefs father sloane wears gold and white vestments i like sunday mornings because we get cornflakes for break-
fast” 26 as in many indigenous narratives christianity and missionary activi-
ties are treated with suspicion but also with a sense of humour yet in spite of the narrator’s honest sometimes naive tone the themes of the text are grave even though the narrative ends with a nostalgic and quite idyllic picture of seepeet-
za’s family’s happy reunion during summer it is acknowledged that the narrator will be returning to school to face yet another year this makes it difficult for the reader to reach an optimistic conclusion this aspect alludes to pilkington’s text since follow the rabbit-proof fence in a similar way subverts its seemingly happy ending” although the girls manage to return to their homelands and are reunited with the family it is suggested that molly and even her daughter doris were repeatedly placed in the moore river native settlement 154 martina horáková
in conclusion an analysis of pilkington’s stolen generation and sterling’s residential school narratives helps readers gain an insight into how contemporary indigenous women’s life writing constructs counter-histories that disrupt the ho-
mogeneity of western historiography concerning the colonization of the new” territories and how it foregrounds previously subjugated alternative hi stories the narrativization of indigenous women’s personal collective memories to-
gether with its historicizing imperative may also provide an alternative site for articulating histories of subaltern women who are still often excluded from the marginalized groups themselves pilkington’s strategies of voicing alternative hi stories consist mainly of juxtaposing the nationally accepted and aboriginal versions of historical events leading to the 1930s state policy of removing half-
caste” children the discrepancy between the language of the state apparatus and reality is illustrated in pilkington’s choice of a different vocabulary register ster-
ling’s residential school narrative resists the policy of assimilation by showing the functional non-stereotypical indigenous family and its everyday activities little details that like a mosaic make up a picture of a native community in canada in the 1950s her series of contrasts between the images of home and school manifests fully the uselessness and absurdity of the residential school sys-
tem in which children were supposed gradually to forget about their indigenous background and assimilate into the dominant society but instead developed an even stronger connection to their cultural heritage represented by the family lan-
guage and community-oriented life-style apart from recording instances of open as well as latent resistance to the as-
similationist system and in spite of being to a certain extent examples of resist-
ance writing themselves both narratives show however a significant synthesis of the two systems of knowledge indigenous and western thus for example molly can successfully find her way home not only through her traditional abo-
riginal knowledge of the bush but also with the help of the invention of western technology the rabbit-proof fence which paradoxically becomes a symbol of homecoming pilkington also skilfully synthesizes the two different means of recording history by referring to official archival materials on the one hand and by textualizing oral accounts of her relatives on the other similarly sterling’s narrator as well as her family acknowledges the importance of education for her future survival in mainstream society in addition sterling’s choice of the literary form and her play on the typically western genre of autobiography suggest her intention to weave together both traditions of telling a story in follow the rabbit-proof fence and my name is seepeetza as in many other indigenous life writings telling history and telling peoples’ lives seems to be in-
trinsically related both forms originate in the tradition of storytelling which has been a primary mode of passing knowledge maintaining community resisting government control and sharing the burden of hardship” for indigenous people schaffer and smith 2004 101 the confusion of the boundaries between his-
toriography and life writing results in a genre which has become an important vehicle for both remembering the past and maintaining the storytelling tradition 155alternative hi stories in doris pilkington and shirley sterling
since these types of life stories are frequently based on oral accounts they strug-
gle to be recognized by mainstream historiography recorded in written docu-
ments yet as hodge and mishra 1991 102 observe their cumulative weight has carried a particular grand narrative into general circulation as a theme that the dominant history for many years ignored but now acknowledges as valid” therefore these accounts even if they focus on individual life stories actually reveal a collective portrait of the stolen generation in australia and residential school victims in canada most significantly these stories are empowering be-
cause they tell of those indigenous people who in spite of having been separated from their families and forced to go through institutional systems imposing alien values managed to resist the pressure and instead of assimilating developed an even stronger connection to their indigenous identities thus the analyzed nar-
ratives actually show cases in which the system of state intervention failed as a result these life stories perform collective resistance to the forced separation and assimilation policies regarding indigenous people in australia and canada notes
1 the terminology differs to some extent in australia and canada while aboriginal people in australia refer to the institutions their children were sent to as missions sometimes also called native settlements first nations in canada talk of residential schools both systems were originally disguised as educational institutions but mostly served as training places for future domestic servants and farm workers in australia aboriginal people who were systematically removed as children between 1910 and 1970 are referred to as the stolen generation sometimes also stolen generations to suggest that more than one generation altogether up to 100 000 children was affected by this government policy the residential school system in canada started officially in 1879 and was usually administered jointly by the state and various churches most residential schools ceased to operate by the mid-1970s kuokkanen 2003 702 it is estimated that there are about 80 000 people alive today who have attended residential schools in canada see the indian residential school resolution’s website http www irsr-rqpi gc ca english history html 2 for an exhaustive overview of aboriginal women’s life writing published in australia since the 1970s and the suggested reasons for the popularity of the genre see anne brewster’s reading aboriginal women’s autobiography 1996 3 by the term appropriation” in the context of pilkington’s narrative strategies i understand the author’s effort to destabilize the power of the archive reject its privilege as the official nationally established body of knowledge and at the same time re-work parts of it for new purposes in follow the rabbit-proof fence pilkington appropriates specific archival mate-
rials with the intention of undermining their credibility in order to foreground the indigenous perspective on the system of state surveillance which the archive helped to establish 4 many aboriginal writers writing life stories present information researched in the archive which was however for a long time inaccessible to them archival documents and records are frequently the only means for aboriginal people in australia to trace their ancestors and look up information about their relatives since sometimes their removal to the farthest pos-
sible area from their own land meant severe rupture of family ties 5 my name is seepeetza was originally published for the juvenile market it won the 1993 sheila a egoff children’s book prize and was short-listed for the governor general’s award 156 martina horáková
for children’s literature although the work has since then found an adult readership as well reder shirley sterling” references
attwood bain and fiona magowan eds 2001 telling stories indigenous history and memory in australia and new zealand crows nest allen & unwin brewster anne 2002 ‘aboriginal life writing and globalisation doris pilkington’s follow the rabbit-proof fence’ australian humanities review 25 accessed 6 jan 2007 www lib latrobe edu au ahr archive issue-march-2002 brewster html brewster anne 1996 reading aboriginal women’s autobiography sydney sydney up damm kateri 1993 ‘dispelling and telling speaking native realities in maria campbell’s half-
breed and beatrice culleton’s in search of april raintree’ in armstrong jeannette ed looking at the words of our people first nations analysis of literature penticton theytus books 93 114 grant agnes 1994 ‘reclaiming the lineage house canadian native women writers’ sail 6 1 43 61 grossman michele 1998 ‘out of the salon and into the streets contextualizing australian indig-
enous women’s writing’ women’s writing 5 2 169 92 hodge bob and vijay mishra 1991 dark side of the dream australian literature and the post-
colonial mind north sydney allen & unwin kuokkanen rauna 2003 ‘ survivance” in sami and first nations boarding school narratives reading novels by kerttu vuolab and shirley sterling’ american indian quaterly 27 3 4 697 727 pilkington doris nugi garimara 2002 follow the rabbit-proof fence 1996 st lucia u of queensland p reder deanna ‘shirley sterling’ accessed 6 jan 2007 http research2 csci educ ubc ca indi-
genation indian_reactions indian_reactions shirleysterling htm schaffer kay and sidonie smith 2004 human rights and narrated lives the ethics of recogni-
tion new york palgrave macmillan smith linda tuhiwai 1999 decolonizing methodologies research and indigenous peoples london zed books sterling shirley 1992 my name is seepeetza toronto groundwood books mgr martina horáková ph d department of english and american studies
faculty of arts masaryk university
arna nováka 1
602 00 brno
karenin@centrum cz
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
tomáš kačer i am britannia the spirit of our age” time shifting as a study of the idea of progress in tom stoppard’s arcadia and shelagh stephenson’s an experiment with an air pump
the article compares two plays by contemporary british playwrights arcadia 1993 by tom stoppard and an experiment with an air pump 1998 by shelagh stephenson it focuses on the use of time changes in the two plays and shows how they contribute to developing the detective-style plots and what role they play in presenting the included scientific topics it shows how ethical issues influence the view of scientific progress in the plays and how decay is dealt with on the stage there are several reasons for dealing with tom stoppard’s arcadia and shelagh stephenson’s an experiment with an air pump together and comparing the ways in which they use the technique of time shifting the plays belong to the same genre which may be called theatre of science they were produced within the span of five years in 1993 and 1998 respectively and their plots take place in two almost identical periods of time in history the ways in which time shifts are used in the plays have a crucial role in the construction of the characters’ personalities as well as the development of the plots while arcadia leaps between two time periods to help elaborate the intellectual play with scientific and literary topics an experiment with an air pump uses them to contrast two different scientific eras and develop the detective plot both plays however show through their use of time shifts that ideas such as scientific concepts change but people remain the same progress or decay notwithstanding in other words the characters’ de-
cisions concerning their moral values and scientific integrity are of a personal nature independent of time or stages of scientific development arcadia by tom stoppard was written in 1993 and is the second play in which the playwright deals with scientific issues see kelly 2002 in the first hapgood 1988 stoppard cultivates the artistic potential of quantum mechanics and in the five years younger while five years more mature arcadia he broadens the field to primarily deterministic chaos but does not evade mathematics nor other disciplines of physics such as thermodynamics see demastes 1998 disciplines of the humanities present in the play are among others literary history and the 158 tomáš kačer
history of landscape architecture the plot unfolds in two periods divided by two centuries in 1809 in the past and in the less clearly specified present” an experiment with an air pump by shelagh stephenson appeared five years after arcadia in 1998 to a great degree the play may be considered a response to stoppard’s successful work as a recent reviewer puts it it brazenly pays hom-
age to mr stoppard‘s masterpiece in its silken shifting between centuries and is breathtakingly similar in its mingling of erudition and emotion” blanchard 2006 the scientific issues that air pump employs are medicine and genetics and questions of medical research ethics its plot also covers a span of time simi-
lar to that of arcadia two centuries exactly the scenes from the past take place in 1799 while the present” is specifically set to the then future in 1999 besides the time setting the space where the action takes place is another unifying element of the two plays both plays switch eras but each of them takes place in one space the plot of arcadia is enacted in a very large country house in derbyshire” arcadia 1 in sidley park similarly everything happens in one house in newcastle for the whole of air pump it is a big plain solid house that is not quaint or charming” air pump 29 both settings can pride them-
selves with a distinguished fictional history concerning their past visitors lord byron was among the guests of sidley park in 1809 with his name well recorded in the game books and his figure’s presence and departure being a source of one of arcadia’s plot lines lavoisier and tom paine made visits to the newcastle edifice and most significantly peter mark roget later of thesaurus fame ” as the list of characters describes one of the main characters of the play is present in the 1799 plot line of air pump the reasons why these specific times are set differ in the two plays in arcadia the year of 1809 is connected precisely with the above mentioned visit of lord byron to the mansion which is curiously enough also the year of his departure from england although byron is not among the characters of the play he is mentioned on various occasions and substantially influences the story bernard nightingale a present day byron scholar arrives at sidley park to meet hannah jarvis the author of a study on romantic landscape and literature in 1750 1834 due to the discovery of a note in a copy of a book of poetry written by another guest at sidley park ezra chater bernard becomes convinced that byron killed chater in sidley park in 1809 and as a consequence had to leave the country a discovery that would earn him a name in the circles of distinguished byron scholars it can thus be stated that 1809 is a functional time setting that allowed stoppard to intertwine various other concepts mainly the scientific issues and the landscape architecture reconstruction of the mansion’s garden with the byron motif the functionality is manifested further in the fact that as soon as the mys-
tery of byron’s departure is solved he did not kill chater after all the time in the past moves on to 1812 when the main character of the play thomasina dies asleep in flames on the night of her fourteenth birthday this happens after she has waltzed with her tutor septimus hodge who turns out to be the central figure of hannah’s interest in the park’s mysterious hermit of the 19th century 159 i am britannia the spirit of our age”
while 1809 is firmly set and depends on the year of byron’s departure the present can remain quite undefined there is only one occasion that approximates the time hannah’s quasi-fiancé valentine who is a mathematician finds it sur-
prising that thomasina used iterated algorithm in her maths primer when she was geometrically expressing the shape of a leaf he says about iteration it’s the technique i’m using on my grouse numbers and it hasn’t been around for much longer than well call it twenty years” arcadia 44 thus he approximately defines the present the technique was used for the first time in los alamos in 1971 gleick 1988 167 the exact date is only known to the deterministic chaos theory enthusiasts but should be altered in productions to reflect the ageing of the technique i e in 2007 valentine would call it thirty-six years” the present is thus only approximately set and the present of the play is the present of the performance while in arcadia there is only the past of the early 19th century which was precisely defined in air pump both the past and the present are firmly set to 1799 and 1999 in the former play the past is determined by historical fact and the present is unfixed in the latter both times have been chosen for symbolic reasons associated with the beginning of new eras and there are no historical events as-
sociated with them air pump swings between two epochs 1799 the dawning of the industrial revolution and 1999 the eve of a new century in which man has unlocked the secrets of the d n a and holds the power to lord over nature” blanchard 2006 there are expectations associated with the two eves of new centuries” the outlooks for the future are bright the mistakes of the past seem soon to be cut off by the imaginary borderline of the coming centuries but 1999 is in a naturally advantageous position compared with 1799 because it is aware of the latter’s drawbacks and of the fact that the future was not as bright as it was envisioned back then furthermore in 1999 a homicidal crime from 1799 is revealed which casts a shadow on the idealist notion of the glamorous past of the edifice what looked as a bright future back then is not as the past as bright anymore there is a clear message concerning optimism about the future for 1999 and the characters get it none of them is a hundred per cent hopeful about the 21st century although the changes that have taken place between the two periods have contributed to scientific progress immensely the notion of progress is another motif which cannot be avoided when dealing with the two plays on the one hand progress is a concept inseparable from sci-
ence and therefore the plays which deal with scientific issues have to reflect upon it it will be shown how time switches efficiently enable to picture the notion of progress on the other hand there are the interpretation of scientific progress i e the answer to the question of what has been achieved the means that scientists use to achieve progress how was it achieved and the goals they pursue why was it achieved as well as the effects what will happen next it will be shown that the time switches may function as interpretative keys which help the audi-
ences to find answers to these questions 160 tomáš kačer
the shifts in time allow audiences of both plays to see two different stages in the development of science side by side they also portray classical fields from the 18th and 19th centuries vis à vis contemporary disciplines valentine of ar-
cadia is therefore much surprised when he concludes that thomasina may have used the technique of iteration valentine when your thomasina was doing maths in 1809 it had been the same maths for a couple of thousand years classical and for a century after thomasina then maths left the real world behind just like modern art really nature was classical maths was suddenly picassos but now nature is having the last laugh the freaky stuff is turning out to be the mathematics of the natural world 45 further valentine explains why he considers it impossible that thomasina used iteration and not only because this technique was not around at that time the necessary technology was not available at that time either valentine explains the role of electronic computing devices for the development of the technique the electronic calculator was what the telescope was for galileo” 51 the play also visualises the technological development the audiences can on many occa-
sions see thomasina sitting with her primer and a notebook and a pen the less developed instruments of theoretical science then in the same room nearly two hundred years later there is valentine doing an identical mathematical operation using his laptop computer his work is faster and much more effective due to sci-
entific progress both thomasina and valentine are though driven towards the same goal to come up with an equation which would express an irregular pat-
tern in nature thomasina is plotting out a leaf valentine is mapping the grouse population as such they are partners in the human race’s striving for discovery connected by the idea and separated by a time gap the stage is the laboratory they share there is not such a direct stage image of progress in air pump however a clear image of the advancement of medicine is central to the play in 1799 arm-
strong longs to perform a dissection on the hump back of maid isobel that would in his view ensure progress in the field of anatomy in 1999 medical science has shifted in its research pursuits to genetics and cloning ellen is the contemporary scientist dealing with the genetic diagnosing of the fetus her friend kate sees a great deal of progress in ellen’s latest invention and tries to persuade the down-
to-earth phil of its worth kate if very early in your wife’s pregnancy you were able to discover in your child the gene for say alzheimer’s disease or asthma or maybe something more alarming like schizofrenia would you be grateful for that information phil er i’m not sure kate ellen’s team have perfected a technique that does this it’s completely 161 i am britannia the spirit of our age”
safe and it can be done very very early and the most important thing is it’s non-invasive so there’s no risk to the foetus it’s pretty radical stuff wouldn’t you say this was a good thing phil aye i suppose so 36 37 progress thus entails that the results of the sciences are better more accurate friendlier to life and truer to nature scientists of both eras believe in progress but the ones of the present era are not as naive in their expectations as their predeces-
sors but this again is progress of ideas the loss of naivety is a sign of progress in itself arcadia’s thomasina is absolutely sure that her new geometry of ir-
regular forms” will lead to the desired goals the possibility to express natural shapes more accurately than classical geometry can thomasina god’s truth septimus if there is an equation for a curve like a bell there must be an equation for one like a bluebell and if a blue-
bell why not a rose do we believe nature is written in numbers septimus we do 37 by contrast valentine in the present is more skeptical about his abilities and about the possibilities of his mathematical technique he even considers giving up his research valentine i’ve given up on the grouse hannah you haven’t valentine valentine leaving i can’t do it hannah why valentine too much noise there’s just too much bloody noise 62 bernard a literary scholar is the most radical in his views of the meaningless-
ness of scientific progress in arcadia he is skeptical about its nature and its sig-
nificance not everyone is impressed ‘quarks quasars big bangs black holes who gives a shit ’ asks the literary academic ‘if knowledge isn’t self-knowledge it isn’t doing much mate ’” karwowski 2005 163 the reason that he is not as enthusiastic about progress is that he works within the humani-
ties it is thus understood that a little of restraint from the hard sciences is almost compulsory in his case fenwick is the main propagator of the enlightenment in air pump in 1799 he is a true believer in progress he cannot contain his hopes for scientific advance even if his faith in the future involves immediate neglect of his wife” the pit-
falls of progress” 20 he awaits the new century with hope and enthusiasm such is too the very last line of the play on the occasion of the new year’s eve here’s to whatever lies ahead here’s to uncharted lands here’s to a future we dream about but cannot know here’s to the new century” 96 although his toast has a double meaning to the audience who knows about the moral duplici-
162 tomáš kačer
ties of the scientific progress as of 1999 it is certain that he means it in a positive way fenwick’s guest at the house armstrong is a physician who is also convinced about the idea of scientific progress and he goes further than just believing he is willing to take action in the name of scientific progress despite the possibility of it being unethical in fact he does not consider ethics to be a relevant issue if tottering out of the dark ages” is in question when he knows that a person is a suitable object for a dissection after their death he tracks them until they die in order to get hold of their body armstrong we’ve got an eye on an undersized fellow about three foot tall he’s not at all well he’ll not see out the winter roget you seek out potential cadavers before they’re even dead armstrong needs must we can have any number of average everyday corpses they’re two a penny literally at this time of year when people are dropping like flies but an unusual specimen must be ordered in advance i thought you knew that roget d’you never have qualms d’you exist solely in the burning fires of certainty armstrong digging up corpses is necessary if we’re to totter out of the dark ages you can dissect a stolen body with moral qualms or with none at all and it won’t make a blind bit of difference to what you discover discov-
ery is neutral ethics should be left to philosophers and priests 70 71 in 1999 the two female characters are the ones who deal with hard science genetics kate is absolutely convinced that scientific research which is a pre-
requisite for progress is a good thing irrespective of its moral dimension tom tells her you’re unscrupulous ambitious and you’d dissect your own mother if you thought it might give you the answer to something ” kate yeah i prob-
ably would but only if she was dead already ” 88 in her own words kate is hooked on the future” 89 in fact it is ethics or rather uncertainty about the value of the results of genetic research that causes ellen’s doubts and leads her to consider leaving her job in the field of prenatal genetics her boyfriend tom a literary scholar and a lecturer of english has doubts about her discipline which makes her doubt the sense of her work even more she says to tom but you stirred up questions in me and i blamed you for it i’d never felt unconfident before not about work anyway the bottom line is i don’t think science is value free i don’t think it’s morally neutral” 88 the switches between different times in the play’s scenes allow the audience to see the differences between the scien-
tists’ approaches towards progress especially in its moral dimension while in 1799 armstrong does not consider it unethical to act against morals in the name of scientific progress ellen of 1999 has a serious moral qualm about her work armstrong would find his unscrupulous counterpart in kate in the present and 163 i am britannia the spirit of our age”
ellen would find a doubtful partner in septimus in 1809 development in the sciences does not mean a radical change in people’s thinking about them there are proponents as well as adversaries the characters’ positive or doubtful ideas concerning progress are not connected with their scientific fields rather they are of a personal quality an individual’s attitude depends more on his her personal-
ity than on the activities he she is engaged in the plays also succeed in showing decay in a sense the opposite of progress which depends on the progression of time while the sciences have come a long way and have progressed a great deal over the two centuries in both plays the places have taken the opposite direction towards decay neither houses are so magnificent anymore they have lost their past importance only mediocre sci-
entists researchers e g valentine and bernard in arcadia and unsuccessful or terminating ones tom and ellen respectively in air pump are there in the present parts sidley park in arcadia began to change in 1809 when mr noakes a landscape architect was invited to the mansion to change the classical layout of the garden into a picturesque” one that meant to change its organized shape into a disor-
ganized and irregular one captain brice expresses his horror at the change is sidley park to be an englishman’s garden or the haunt of corsican brigands ” 10 lady croom describes the decay which is about to happen to the garden’s organization where there is the familiar pastoral refinement of an englishman’s garden here is an eruption of gloomy forest and towering crag of ruins were there was never a house of water dashing against rocks were there was neither spring nor a stone i could not throw the length of a cricket pitch my hya-
cinth dell is become a haunt for hobgoblins my chinese bridge which i am assured is superior to the one at kew and for all i know at peking is usurped by a fallen obelisk overgrown with briars 12 there is another metaphor that stoppard used to illustrate the destructive effect of time the objects that are brought in the room are gradually as the play goes on piled up on the table and around the stage this is a visual metaphor to the second law of thermodynamics which the play deals with see demastes 1998 the law says that the general level of entropy i e disorganization increases that is to say that on a general level things fall apart thomasina calls it the french mathematick” according to the law physical processes cannot be expressed in equations without the element of the flow of time as expressed in newton’s i e english physics she tells mr noakes the bad news from paris” it concerns your heat engine improve it as you will you can never get out of it what you put in ” 86 similarly the influx of objects into the room causes an increase in disorganization as objects pile up on the table entropy rises on the stage the intention is made clear in the stage directions to act i sc 2 by the end of the play the table has collected an inventory of objects” 15 things stay there and 164 tomáš kačer
should be present in their old and new versions” 15 thus the illusion of the disintegration of organization is achieved visually realm too the play’s structure follows the second law of thermodynamics i e it de-
cays” due to the influence of time the scenes gradually fall apart while at the beginning of the play the cuts between the two periods are clear as the play pro-
ceeds they become more and more abrupt and at some points towards the end characters from both periods are present on the stage having worked out the ultimate equation for the disintegration of order for cosmic chaos thomasina invites septimus to dance and now past and present merge as couples from each era waltz around the room” steyn 1995 there is an ominous prospect in the peaceful dancing scene as we know from the present scenes thomasina is danc-
ing with septimus on the night when she is about to burn to death and thus die a symbolic heat death” which according to the second law of thermodynamics the whole universe may end with a state when entropy predominates and the sum of all energy relatively descends below a critical limit the ravaging effects of time are present in a scene from 1999 in air pump where the house is undergoing deteriorative changes from a stylized picture imitating joseph wright’s painting an experiment on a bird in the air pump1 at the end of the first scene the characters are situated on the stage around the ex-
perimental equipment as in the picture the room changes into an uncomfortable storeroom for boxes as suggested by the stage direction a single electric light bulb casts a thin light tea chests are scattered round the room some full some still in the process of being packed piles of books and clothes” 27 later it is shown that the house is about to be sold because its inhabitants are not as wealthy as their predecessors and cannot afford to keep the house anymore the equip-
ment of the house is devastated the pipes in the basement need to be changed the future owners plan to renovate the house completely ellen what’s the plan for this room then phil corporate hospitality private bar in here private conference facilities through there private gym private sauna for the scandinavians 28 the glamorous past of the house presented in the scenes from 1799 is thus com-
pletely demolished the switches between 1799 and 1999 present two alternative futures of the house 1799 offers a glamorous one full of intellectual development 1999 is full of despair and no future for the house serving as a symbolic manifestation that distinguishes the two time periods the house owners’ expectations of the future fenwick’s optimism and ellen’s pessimism apply both to the future of scientific development at an abstract level and to the future of the house in the material world arcadia and air pump both contain elements of a detective story in fact the detective element dominates the plot of the latter times shifts help to clarify the crimes of the past passion for new discoveries may lead people astray make 165 i am britannia the spirit of our age”
them blind in the past as well as in the present arcadia’s bernard sets out on an investigation of a supposed murder that in his opinion took place at sidley park lord byron he says killed ezra chater in a duel in 1809 the play unfolds the mystery of byron’s supposed crime with masterful precision letting bernard and the audience remain convinced for a long time that the duel scenario is plausible again it is the time switches that make this possible when bernard of the present starts elaborating upon his ideas the following scenes from 1809 contain lines confirming byron’s presence at sidley park as well as his liking for guns on the other hand it is made clear to the audiences that the clues which bernard considers persuasive that byron corresponded with chater about a duel as a reaction to the infidelity of his wife are false septimus is shown writing the notes there is a strong comic potential in this the scenes of 1809 serve as evidence for the audience that bernard is wrong and that he is inevitably heading towards academic disgrace only after bernard sends off his revolutionary article to the byron society’s journal is the truth revealed the truth already known to the audiences who could watch the development before their own eyes thus hannah who learns from the house’s papers what the audiences know from the scenes from the past can prove to bernard that chater was not killed by byron in 1809 it means that ezra chater of the sidley park connection is the same chater who described a dwarf dahlia in martinique in 1810 and died there of a monkey bite” 89 bernard’s argument remains v ery possible persuasive indeed” 89 but at the same time very wrong the crime that he was investigating never took place just like chater in 1809 bernard suffers from a personality distortion he is so self-assured about his infallibility as chater is about his artistic genius that he cannot accept mistakes neither can see the wood for the trees both are considered fools by their contemporaries time changes help to unfold the detective plot of air pump too a skeleton is discovered when the pipes in the basement are renewed it is described as one with a deformed spine it is a skeleton of a hunchback possibly of a short wom-
an or a child there is one character in 1799 that fits the description the scottish maid isobel the switches in time serve to raise the suspense the audiences become more sure that it is indeed isobel’s corpse armstrong’s proclaimed wish to perform a dissection on her cadaver makes the audiences pity the girl who is portrayed as a very likable character unhappy in love and destiny although she is gifted with language skills she contests with roget the future thesaurus maker in the number of synonyms of maid she knows and eventually wins the battle and thus would make a perfect match for roget she surrenders to the dishonest desires of armstrong and is hurt armstrong you gave me a ravishing smile isobel now you are most definitely making fun of me armstrong but it is a most beautiful transforming smile like sunlight on a glacier 166 tomáš kačer
isobel stop it please i am not used to such remarks they do not make me happy as you no doubt believe they make me confused he takes hold of her turns her round covers her twisted back with kisses and caresses fascinated and bewitched by it 51 but the audiences know this is a pretence he is not in love with isobel he is fas-
cinated with her back as a potential object for his study so the question of how the skeleton appeared in the basement becomes urgent not only do the characters of 1999 ask the question but the increasing suspense causes the audience to be-
come ever more certain that it must be isobel’s corpse their sympathy for isobel and their awareness of armstrong’s wish to dissect her were she dead cause the audience to become suspicious about how exactly she died unfortunately as soon as the 1999 characters come to the conclusion that it is simply a corpse used for scientific purposes a conclusion that the audiences are also willing to adopt isobel attempts suicide because she learns the true nature of armstrong’s affec-
tion armstrong finds her on the rope she is still alive but then he puts his hands over her nose and mouth presses down her heels flutter almost imperceptibly in a second it is over” 92 the suspense has reached its climax the question of whether a physician is capable of murder in the name of scientific interest which indeed is one of the central questions of the play is answered in an alarming way and the fear that it is so proves correct both plays skilfully and effectively portray scientific progress and its inevi-
table counterpart decay using a detective-like backdrop and switches in time to illustrate them however the characters are portrayed in such depth that it becomes obvious that the ultimate moral message of both plays lies in showing that people’s abilities do not progress together with the sciences nor do they deteriorate in the passing of time in arcadia the mathematical technique of it-
erated algorithm has evolved immensely yet valentine’s quest for the equation is comparable to thomasina’s bernard is a scholar of the contemporary period and yet he is no less naive about his own abilities as chater the message that there is a threat within the progress is clear in air pump armstrong is capable of murder in the name of the bright future he imagines and ellen quits her job because she is afraid she would eventually follow in his murderous footsteps in her own field of genetic engineering people do indeed learn from the past and progress helps them to achieve greater goals computing is incomparably faster and medical research has moved from the dissecting room to dna laboratories still when confronted with their day-to-day realities the characters make their choices based on their personal preferences and natural inclinations moral issues are independent of scientific progress as the plays switch back and forth in time they picture how the libraries of human knowledge grow and how time deterio-
rates the material world however people act according to their inner inclinations which are independent of these circumstances 167 i am britannia the spirit of our age”
note
1 wright joseph an experiment on a bird in the air pump national gallery london references
blanchard jayne 2006 ‘science passion at play’ the washington times 7 dec 2006 demastes w w 1998 theatre of chaos beyond absurdism into orderly disorder cambridge cup gleick james 1988 chaos new york penguin karwowski michael 2005 ‘dramatic revelations the science of art’ contemporary review 283 1670 163 69 kelly k e 2002 the cambridge companion to tom stoppard cambridge cup ‘the pitfalls of progress’ financial times london edition 19 oct 1998 20 stephenson shelagh 1998 an experiment with an air pump london methuen steyn mark 1995 ‘rolling backward’ new criterion 13 9 stoppard tom 1993 arcadia london faber and faber mgr tomáš kačer
department of english and american studies
faculty of arts masaryk university
arna nováka 1
602 00 brno
kacer@phil muni cz
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
kateřina kotačková
václav renč and the influence of otokar fischer on his work
václav renč 1911 1973 was a czech poet dramatist and translator who in spite of suffering both personally and professionally at the hands of the czecho-
slovak regime in the 1950s managed to make a significant contribution to schol-
arship in czech literature and translating václav renč was born in vodochody in the roudnice region on the 18th of no-
vember 1911 he studied philosophy and linguistics at the faculty of arts at charles university in prague graduating with the degree of doctor of philosophy in 1936 václav like his father belonged to the czechoslovak church though during his student years he converted to catholicism which strongly influenced his later work in his university years he met josef kostohryz františek lazecký and other writers with whom he formed an association publishing the magazine řád in 1933 renč published his first collection of poems jitření and two years later another called studánky both of which were well received by literary reviewers such as renč’s professor f x šalda in the years 1933 36 renč became a pro-
motional editor of the booksellers and publishers union of the czechoslovak republic and together with františek halas published the magazine rozhledy renč continued publishing other collections of poems until the end of the second world war such as sedmihradská zem 1937 vinný lis 1938 and trojzpěvy 1940 as well as theatre plays like císařův mim 1944 along with translations from french german and polish after the war the family moved to olomouc where renč began work as dra-
maturge and stage director at the olomouc theatre then two and half years this article was written as part of the research on the kapradí project http www phil muni cz kapradi financed from the grants given by gaav čr grant agency of the academy of sciences of the czech republic elektronická knihovna překladů anglických dramat” electronic library of czech translations of english drama no b9164305 and elektron-
ická knihovna novějších překladů anglických dramat” electronic library of recent czech translations of english drama no b901640501 170 kateřina kotačková
later renč accepted an offer to work at the national theatre in brno as a lecturer and stage director in may 1951 renč was arrested by the secret police and in 1952 sentenced to death the sentence later commuted to 25 years imprisonment it was a sham trial labelled zelená internacionála by the state court during which renč was accused and convicted on the basis of fabricated evidence although renč was forbidden to write anything in the first years of his imprisonment he found ways to spread his thoughts verses even whole poems beyond the prison walls he created verses in his head and taught them to other prisoners who learned parts of the poems by heart and recorded them after they had been released this is how the poems popelka nazaretská or pražská legenda were created in 1962 renč was finally freed on probation” and with the obligation to pay off the unsettled prison costs for the duration of his sentence for the next several years he returned home mentally and physically weakened he began work in a factory until the director of the olomouc theatre of oldřich stibor světozar vítek offered him position of a dramatic adviser at the time of the first achieve-
ments as a poet and dramatist renč left the olomouc theatre and started cooper-
ating with theatres in brno praha hradec králové zlín formerly gottwaldov české budějovice cheb jihlava and other towns he collaborated with profes-
sor zdeněk stříbrný the head of the english department at charles university in prague with vojtěch gaja from olomouc who helped him with translations from danish and other translators and dramatists as regards his translations renč translated with great vigour mainly plays by william shakespeare but also poetry for example dračí křídlo stesku published in 1965 as an anthology of lyrical work by s t coleridge renč’s translations of shakespeare’s plays and their performances were well received both by the public and by reviewers he translated the plays mainly at the request of certain theatres he achieved a fa-
vourable response in 1963 with the opening night of jak se vám líbí as you like it and makbeth in 1964 with troilus a kressida in 1965 with půjčka za oplátku measure for measure in 1966 with dva veronští šlechtici two gentlemen of verona in 1967 with král richard druhý the tragedy of king richard ii antonius a kleopatra and hamlet in 1968 with bouře the tempest aprílová komedie aneb cokoli chcete twelfth-night or what you will and konec vše napraví all’s well that ends well in 1969 with sen svatojánské noci a mid-
summer-night’s dream and in 1971 with jak ochočit divošku the taming of the shrew the only renčs translation that has been published in book form was půjčka za oplátku measure for measure published by odeon as a part of the collected translations of shakespeare’s work komedie iii in 1967 edited by zdeněk stříbrný in 1970 renč’s name was entered on the list of banned authors and from that time it was forbidden to either publish or perform his work on 30th april 1973 václav renč died eventually becoming rehabilitated in 1990 171václav renč and the influence of otokar fischer on his work
renč as fischer’s follower václav renč’s translation work is mainly grounded on the theoretical and practical work of his university lecturer and life inspiration otokar fischer whose trans-
lation philosophy he often quoted in his articles as well as put into practice in his translations otokar fischer was a literary historian a theatrical reviewer and theoretician a translator from german french english and flemish a poet and a dramaturge who was interested in the problems of czech-studies and comparatistics and the stylistic and psychological analysis of a literary work as regards translation studies his focus was mainly on creating a modern czech translation the theatre was his lifelong interest he worked as a dramaturge at the national theatre in prague where he became a stage director in 1937 before achieving this post he worked as a lecturer and a professor at the faculty of arts of charles university in prague where václav renč first met him as a student and became one of his admirers one of fischer’s principal thoughts which renč was inspired by and which he paraphrases in his records is the characterization of the ideal of poetic translation překladatel by měl splynout s dílem a s jeho autorem tak aby výsledek jeho interpertace se jevil jako by autor dílo napsal kdyby žil dnes a jeho mateřštinou byla dnešní čeština jen tím lze dosáhnout maxima vnitřní shody mezi původním dílem a jeho českým převodem a vzbudit nezbytný dojem že jde o dílo v jeho svěží původní podobě bez těžkopádných švů nebo zase lehkovážných přeskoků mezi originálem a překladem renč 1971 a translator should merge with the work and its author in such a way that the result of his interpretation would sound the same as if the author himself wrote his work today and his mother tongue was today’s czech this is the only way in which the maximum of the inner unity between the original and its czech translation can be achieved and the essential impression can be evoked that the concern is for the work in its fresh original shape without any ponderous joints or carefree jumps between the original and the transla-
tion as fischer himself puts it contemplating the translation of poetry musím se vmyslit do situace že by básník měl výhody i nevýhody materiálu mého tj že by byl psal česky že by byl tvořil z ducha češtiny” i must put myself into the situa-
tion as if the poet had the advantages and disadvantages of my material i e as if he wrote in czech and created out of the spirit of the language fischer 1982 10 building on fischer’s philosophy renč further believed in the need for the poet-translator to be able to ztotožnit se se ‘svým’ básníkem jen tehdy když to je aspoň v některém ohledu opravdu ‘jeho’ básník buď že si jsou bytostným typem blízcí nebo že by překladatel právě někým takovým jako ‘jeho’ 172 kateřina kotačková
autor být chtěl ” to identify himself with ‘his’ poet only in the case that he is really ‘his’ poet at least in some respect either they have something in common in their essential being or that the translator would like to be someone just like ‘his’ author heyduk 1967 3 efforts as for instance those of josef václav sládek to literally translate shakespeare trying to be faithful to the exact meaning and form of the original were subjected to severe criticism by fischer and his new translation school who attacked sládek’s antiquated language and theatrical aesthetics stříbrný 2005 315 as well as his translations for being primarily academic not theatrical levý 1957 582 fischer holds an opinion that b ýti věrným překladatelem to nejenom nevyžaduje překladu doslovného nýbrž naopak vylučuje jej být věren duchu a ne liteře celku a ne vždy detailu rytmu a ne floskulím náladě i atmo-
sféře a ne každému nenapodobitelnému výrazu ” to be a faithful translator does not merely require a literal translation but on the contrary it excludes it to be faithful to the spirit and not the word to the whole and not always to the detail to the rhythm not the rhetoric to the ambience and the atmosphere not to every inimitable expression fischer 1947 106 renč agrees with his view although he himself appreciates sládek’s translation strategy as creative and most signifi-
cant unlike fischer who shledával sládkův přímo objevitelský čin nedost shakespearovským právě z hlediska vnitřní autentičnosti a stylové přiměřenosti” found sládek’s almost path-breaking deed not shakespearean enough from the inner-authenticity and stylistic-adequacy point of view renč 1968 when fischer himself tries to define a good translation he uses a metaphor from fine art explaining that translating is not the same jako když se v galérii kopíruje starý mistr” as when the old masters are copied in the galleries neither as odlitek” a casting nor napodobení” an imitation according to fischer translating a lyrical or a dramatic work means přenášet je do jiného materiálu do materiálu který si zčásti diktuje své vlastní nové podmínky a zdůvodňuje tudíž i nutné odchylky od předlohy” to transmit it into another material into material which partially dictates its own new conditions and therefore justifies the necessary deviations from the original as well fischer 1982 9 renč’s transla-
tions seem to comply with such requirements for a good translation which is sup-
ported with the actual examples of the dramatic language he used in his translati-
ons into the czech of the second half of the twentieth century apart from being modern and lacking the possibly archaic sound the language encompasses the necessary deviations from the original” which arise during the transfer from one language into another with the effect of allowing the language to sound as if the play was originally written in czech this and the desire to create a translation as a new work of art are fischer’s as well as renč’s aims when translating from any foreign language původní báseň je nutno znovu vytvořit z ducha nového jazyka zato má překlad uměleckého díla platnost a oprávněnost tehdy je-li uměleckým dílem sám ” it is necessary to create an original poem again out of the spirit of a new language whereas the translation of a work of art is valid and justified only if it is a work of art itself fischer 1982 7 173václav renč and the influence of otokar fischer on his work
unlike fischer renč does not criticize the ‘older’ translators including sládek or vrchlický and sometimes he even looks for inspiration in their work despite his looking into older translations for inspiration and adopting some of the ideas other translators have come to renč strives to make new translations with the use of modern language therefore he is definitely against using or adopting any archa-
ic expressions which previous translators used in an attempt to be as faithful as possible to the original renč knows that modern czech has more alternatives and he uses it to draw the original nearer to the understanding of today’s audience in an interview for the lidová demokracie newspaper renč declares his funda-
mental interest in the translation of macbeth by otokar fischer and also expresses his admiration for and inspiration he finds in fischer’s zásad ě funkčního pře-
kladu vzhledem k čemu pro koho který je kusem tvorby” principle of func-
tional translation depending on what for whom which is a part of creation heyduk 1967 3 václav renč just like his precursor otokar fischer feels it is necessary to clearly identify one’s aims and objectives in translation an idea which fischer supports saying bylo by povážlivé a přeceňující chtít překlá-
dat pro nesmrtelnost spokojme se tím abychom překládali pro současnost” it would be alarming and over-ambitious to want to translate for eternity let us be satisfied with the fact we can translate for the present fischer 1982 11 two translations of macbeth inspiration and imitation the greatest example of fischer’s influence on václav renč can be found in renč’s translation of shakespeare’s play macbeth which is the main translation work influenced significantly by his teacher renč declares on several occasions that when translating he does not hesitate to look for inspiration in older transla-
tions of a literary work and when he finds a well-translated verse or expression he adopts and uses it in his own translation rather than creates a worse equivalent he expresses this strategy in the programme to the performance of his translation of troilus and cressida a kdekoli jsem našel takové překladatelské řešení které je možno považovat za zdar blízký definitivnosti vědomě jsem takový detail přejal pokládám to za poctivější službu překládanému dílu než se úporně snažit o odlišení stůj co stůj” and wherever i found such a solution for a transla-
tion which could be considered a success close to definitiveness i adopted this detail deliberately i regard it as a more honest favour to the translated work than trying hard to distinguish it at all costs his translation of macbeth inspired by fischer’s translation demonstrates renč’s views about incorporating parts of older versions into his own work at the very beginning of macbeth a translator translating the witches’ con-
jurations has to keep the same rhythm and effectual rhyming of the original that witchcraft is often marked by in literature in order not to spoil the magical atmo-
174 kateřina kotačková
sphere and according to his own conviction renč adopts the same expressions especially the rhymes which fischer has invented rather than substituting them with new translations to lesser effect shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
first witch where the place prvá kde se sejdem první kde se sejdem second witch upon the heath druhá na pláni druhá na pláni third witch there to meet with macbeth třetí s makbethem slavit setkání třetí to bude s mak-
bethem setkání all fair is foul and foul is fair hover through the fog and ﬁlthy air 1 1 1 13 všechny hnus je krása krása hnus slizkou mhou hej hola v let a klus všechny jen hnus je krása a krása hnus teď tmou a mhou se dejme v klus in an effort to maintain the same rhythm of the original and to choose the best possible translation renč uses much of fischer’s version we can see that in this very place it is fischer who does not adjust the rhythm to his own feeling and in the last verse of the witches’ incantation in unison he preserves the same ir-
regular rhythm breaking the regular iambic metre as shakespeare has probably intended hover through the fog and filthy air ” 1 1 13 slizkou mhou hej hola v let a klus ” renč’s translation of the witches’ charming in almost all the following scenes where they appear is again more or less influenced by fischer together with many other verses especially the rhymes the refrain of the three witches’ conjuration over the potion they are preparing preceding macbeth’s entering their cavern is repeated three times in the same reading in renč’s and fischer’s translations both conspicuously resembling each other renč probably admires the briefness and the dynamics of fischer’s translation so much that he himself abandons the idea of trying to find a better solution shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
all double double toil and trouble fire burn and caul-
dron bubble 4 1 10 11 všechny páro pař se prá-
ce dař se ohni hoř a kotli vař se všechny páro pař se dílo dař se ohni hoř a kotli vař se in this scene the whole passage in renč’s translation differs from that in fischer’s translation only in several places when renč finds a better rhyme or rhythmical collocation which gives the speech a more dynamic cadence when pronounced on the stage despite the high quality of fischer’s translation which renč ad-
mires renč presents an even more immaculate work with the choice of rhymes and rhythm czech has to offer renč’s use of most rhymes also contributes to the generally more impressive poetical result of his translation of the witches scenes” e g močálu pomalu 175václav renč and the influence of otokar fischer on his work
krk brk ašanta parchanta in contrast to fischer’s use of assonance in some places e g močálu žahadlu psí ještěrčí ret teď which may break the regular rhythm of the rhyming verses on the other hand both fischer and renč strive hard to use mostly monosyllabic or two-syllable words to keep the dyna-
mics similar to that of shakespeare however this technique can cause problems when translating from english into czech as the latter lacks the number of such expressions compared to english one might suggest that from this point of view both translators more or less succeed in remaining faithful to the original both in meaning and form shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
second witch fillet of a fenny snake in the caul-
dron boil and bake eye of newt and toe of frog wool of bat and tongue of dog adder’s fork and blind-
worm’s sting lizzard’s leg and howlet’s wing for a charm of powerful trou-
ble like a hell-broth boil and bubble druhá ledví hada z močálu šťáva v štířím žahadlu oko mločí žabí prst k tomu netopýra srst jazyk zmije jazyk psí soví brk hnát ještěrčí v čarodějnou kaši svař se syč jak peklo pec a škvař se druhá ledví hada z močálu škvař a vař se pomalu mločí oko žabí prst shnilou netopýří srst tlamu psí a vraní krk zmijí jazyk soví brk svařme v čarodějnou kaši ať puch pekel se tu vznáší all double double toil and trouble fire burn and cauldron bubble všechny páro pař se práce dař se ohni hoř a kotli vař se všechny páro pař se dílo dař se ohni hoř a kotli vař se third witch scale of dragon tooth of wolf witches’ mummy maw and gulf of the ravin’d salt-sea shark root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark liver of blaspheming jew gall of goat and slips of yew sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse nose of turk and tartar’s lips finger of birth-strangled babe ditch-deliver’d by a drab make the gruel thick and slab add thereto a tiger’s chaudron for the ingredi-
ents of our cauldron třetí z mumie mok a z draka chlup z kozla žluč a vlčí zub ze žraloka bachor chřtán blín jenž v noci vykopán játra z žida pohana větev tisu trhaná při zatmění měsíce aby zhoustla směsice tatarův tam hodím ret z turka nos a malík teď děcka jež sotva je povila běhna na hnůj hodila také tygří ka-
ldoun vař se a to všechno v hrnci škvař se třetí dračí hřeben vlčí zub z mrtvoly mok a krysí trup chřtán a ba-
chor žraločí pomočené klokočí játra z žida po-
hana větev tisu trhaná při zatmění měsíce a teď do té směsice turkův nos pysk ašanta a teď malík z parchanta co ho běhna opilá na hnojiště hodila k tomu tygří kaldoun přidej a teď v kotli kaši hlídej all double double toil and trouble fire burn and cauldron bubble 4 1 12 36 všechny páro pař se práce dař se ohni hoř a kotli vař se všechny páro pař se dílo dař se ohni hoř a kotli vař se 176 kateřina kotačková
in the example presented above the rhyming expressions at the end of each line are marked by italics in order to emphasize the similarities and differences between the original and the two translations whereas fischer’s attempt is to keep to the original structure especially the connection between the last two lines and rhymes of the speech and the chorus renč seems to proceed with creating new unusual rhymes in each pair of verses that follows some of the expressions that carry an important meaning appear in the chorus of shake-
speare’s version such as for a charm of powerful trouble like a hell-broth boil and bubble” 4 1 18 19 or add thereto a tiger’s chaudron for the ingre-
dients of our cauldron” 4 1 33 34 the essential rhyming expressions of which repeat as an echo in the chorus double double toil and trouble fire burn and cauldron bubble” 4 1 20 21 4 1 35 36 fischer preserves a similar structure to that of shakespeare in the same verses connecting the lines v čarodějnou kaši svař se syč jak peklo pec a škvař se” into enchanting puree boil down hiss as a hell roast and fry 4 1 18 19 and také tygří kaldoun vař se a to všechno v hrnci škvař se” also a tiger’s chaudron boil and all that in a pot fry 4 1 34 35 with the chorus páro pař se práce dař se ohni hoř a kotli vař se” steam steam work flourish fire burn and cauldron boil 4 1 20 21 4 1 36 37 he manages to do so by repeating the same or rhyming similar expressions especially in the form of the czech reflexive verbs svař se malt škvař se fry vař se boil and dař se prosper renč on the other hand uses a variety of expressions though some of them with more than one syl-
lable making the speech slightly less dynamic though more poetical svařme v čarodějnou kaši ať puch pekel se tu vznáší” let’s boil down into enchant-
ing puree let the infernal stench hang in the air 4 1 18 19 k tomu tygří kaldoun přidej a teď v kotli kaši hlídej” to that a tiger’s chaudron add and now the puree in the cauldron watch 4 1 34 35 although he deviates from the intended effect of the original form he makes a translation richer from the lexical and poetical point of view though maybe with less of the mystical ef-
fect of the whole passage created by the dynamic repetition and monosyllabic words in fischer’s version updating shakespeare’s and fischer’s language although fischer’s approach to translation was revolutionary and although renč drew a great deal of inspiration from his work a lot of work had still to be done as the language had changed in the course of the fifty years between fischer’s and renč’s translations of macbeth in renč’s time the audiences were presented mostly with new translations by saudek or renč’s contemporaries yet some ‘older’ translations like those by fischer especially his makbeth were awarded a high value and appreciated long after fischer’s death as a watershed in the his-
tory of czech translation renč was aware of this fact but in spite of his admira-
tion of fischer’s work when using his translation of makbeth to create a new one 177václav renč and the influence of otokar fischer on his work
for his contemporaries he had to modernize the form as well as update the lexical choice of the text by the 1960s when renč’s translation of makbeth was created the inversions of czech sentence structures were no longer being used as much as they had been in the 19th and the first decades of the 20th centuries in poetry some of the inverted syntactical structures remained acceptable even in the second half of the 20th century as some exceptions were needed to serve the rhythm of the whole however most of those structures commonly used fifty years before could be felt as unnatural by renč’s contemporaries as for example the expected word order of adjective noun e g v čerstvém lesku in newest gloss renč inverted to the structure of noun adjective v lesku zcela čerstvém in gloss quite newest or inversions such as vražda svatokrádežná murder sacrilegious rukama katanskýma hands murdering fischer shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
this diamond he greets your wife withal by the name of most kind hostess 2 1 15 16 ten démant tvé choti posílá zva převlídnou ji hostitelkou a tento démant posílá tvé choti co vzorné hostitelce as they had seen me with these hangman’s hands 2 2 29 jak s těma rukama by ka-
tanskýma mne viděli jak kdyby byli viděli mé ruce most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope the lord’s anointed temple 2 3 73 74 rozbila vražda svatokrádežná chrám posvěcený pánu
do chrámu páně vloupala se vražda ta nejrouhavější
which would be worn now in their newest gloss 1 7 34 to chci teď v lesku zcela čerstvém nosit
chtěl bych jí teď užít a v čerstvém lesku vychut-
nat
however even more complicated inversions appear in fischer’s translation as for example zva převlídnou ji hostitelkou calling the most kind her hostess where the pronoun ji her is expected after the verb zva calling or jak s těma rukama by katanskýma mne viděli as with those hands if murdering they saw me where by if is expected to connect jak as with mne viděli they saw me and the already mentioned adjective katanskýma murdering is expected before the noun rukama hands the last mentioned example could be perceived by renč’s audience as much less comprehensible than the structures commonly used by modern translators renč is careful to resist the temptation of using too many inversions after he has studied fischer’s translation of macbeth or the original play in which shakespeare also tends to use inversions in some places e g this diamond he greets your wife withal” the following illustration comparing translations of three translators of diffe-
rent periods of time gives us a picture of the way a language changes in the cour-
se of time the use of the word zdoba ornament would be quite common in the 178 kateřina kotačková
last two decades of the 19th century sládek’s translation as well as the first two decades of the 20th century fischer’s translation which means that the formal structure of the word did not change over a period of some 40 years however the fifty years between fischer’s and renč’s translations replaces the expression zdoba with the more modern ozdoba renč updates this word to sláva glory to serve the more common collocation sláva života the glory of life excluding the more archaic collocation zdoba života the ornament of life similarly renč completely avoids the archaic word čivy nerves senses employed by both sládek and fischer though no longer used in renč’s time and eliminates the words in the sentence preserving a similar meaning however none of the mentioned translators was probably aware of the exact meaning of the word nerves in the elizabethan english being in fact muscles only renč avoids the possible ambiguity caused by inaccurate translation by omitting the expres-
sion and substituting it with the pronoun já i a já se nezachvěju” and i will not tremble which makes his translation closest in meaning to the original in the third example fischer uses an older form of the word klít or proklít used by renč in the 1st person singular prokleju klnout used by fischer in the 1st person singular klnu which would probably not be quite understood by audiences half a century later shakespeare sládek’s translation fischer’s translation renč’s translation
wouldst thou have that which thou esteem’st the ornament of life 1 7 41 42 a chtěl bys míti to co vážíš jako zdobu života
přeješ si mít to v čem vidíš zdobu života
chceš mít v čem vidíš slávu života
and my ﬁrm nerves shall never tremble 3 4 102 103 a pevné čivy mé se nezachvějí
pevné čivy mé se neotřesou
a já se nezachvěju
deny me this and an eternal curse fall on you 4 1 104 105 to odepřte a věčná kletba vám odmítněte ji a na věky vám klnu když odepřete já na věky vás prokle-
ju renč is aware of the long interval between his and fischer’s translation and care-
fully attempts to update those expressions found in the original and in fischer’s and his predecessors’ translations which could sound archaic to his audience he tries to update not only the individual words and expressions but also the length and structure of a text so as to bring the meaning of the speech closer to his audience comprehensibility and explaining in an effort to bring the play closer to the audience of the 1960s renč does not shun changing the wording of the original or rephrase the verses he prefers the 179václav renč and the influence of otokar fischer on his work
speech to sound as natural as possible and in order to achieve this he restructures the text without actually changing the meaning of the original text compared to those by fischer renč’s translations often include less complicated and more po-
etical structures which the spectator does not get lost in and which flow from an actor’s mouth more easily for example renč simply swaps two clauses trans-
lated by fischer as zlé sny se derou k spánku jenž zastřen rouškou” and reduces the number of words k spánku jenž zastřen rouškou” to the dream which is covered by a veil to za oponu spánku” behind the curtain of the sleep to avoid the clumsiness that is imminent in the process of translation shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
now o’er the one half-
world nature seems dead and wicked dreams abuse the curtain’d sleep 2 1 49 51 teď v půli světa mrtva je příroda zlé sny se derou k spánku jenž zastřen rouškou jedna půlka světa je teď jak mrtva za oponu spán-
ku zlé sny se kradou similar examples of renč’s success at finding a better solution to a translation from the poetical and syntactical point of view are presented below he substi-
tutes fischer’s solution of translating ravell’d sleave of care” as zdrhnutou tkáň strastí” a frilly tissue of sorrow with the more poetical and more easily pro-
nounceable klubko strastí” a knot of sorrow in the other example renč again avoids translating a word robe translated by fischer by a rather archaic word háv and again changes the structure of the two last clauses his translation flows better than fischer’s having employed a different form of imperative clause from that used by fischer shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
the innocent sleep sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care 2 2 37 38 spánek nevinný jenž zdrh-
nutou tkáň strastí rozplétá spánek nevinný jenž klub-
ko strastí jemně rozplétá well may you see things well done there adieu lest our old robes sit easier than our new 2 4 37 38 ať se tam dobře zdaří vše buď zdráv hůř nesluš zánovní než starý háv buď zdráv kéž projde všechno se zdarem ať není v novém hůř než ve starém in spite of renč’s efforts to translate the text as naturally as possible one might suggest that in some places he unintentionally manages to translate shakespeare’s verses more poetically than they actually sound by doing this he often brings one or two more meanings to the original which renč also uses to explain the situation or the atmosphere better in the following example the colour in shake-
speare’s expression a heart so white” is translated by fischer as bělosti” white-
ness and by renč as zsinalé” pallid livid the latter carrying at least two possible meanings which renč might have wanted to employ in this verse one 180 kateřina kotačková
explanation of the expression srdce zsinalé” pallid livid heart can be that lady macbeth sees her husband’s heart as white as a sheet being too innocent to be able to commit a murder which she despises another view of renč’s translation can also imply the possible lividness or cowardliness of macbeth being too afraid to complete the committed crime shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
my hands are of your col-
our but i shame to wear a heart so white 2 2 65 66 mám ruce barvy tvé mé srdce však tvé bělosti se štítí mám ruce jako ty a bylo by mi hanba mít srdce zsinalé jak ty máš returning to the witches’ scenes” another interesting solution to the transla-
tion of a rather ambiguous speech can be noticed one of the witches plans to punish the husband of a mean woman and finishes her speech by enouncing her idea to get on his boat in the image of a rat and do something to him it is not very clear from the original what her action as a rat would actually be however renč chooses to translate the verb do in the line i’ll do i’ll do and i’ll do” by the czech verb hryzat gnaw implying by this one of the most irritating things a rat can do to a person to bite or gnaw him fischer solves the magical rep-
etition in this line by merely repeating the word myš mouse implying no other action the witch is going to take in the mouse’s rat’s image than approaching the man i would more agree with this solution if a translator should strive for the fidelity to the original the original of this part does not mention exactly the action of biting or gnawing rather it states that the rat is going to do something unspecified shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
but in a sieve i’ll thither sail and like a rat without a tail i’ll do i’ll do and i’ll do 1 3 8 10 já se mu v cestu připletu popluju za ním v řešetu jak myš jak myš jak bez ocasu myš popluju za ním v řešetu změním se v bezocasou myš hup za ním na loď blíž a blíž a hryz a hryz a hryz other examples of renč’s adjusting the translation to his own perception of the original can be seen in his giving the word guilt a deeper meaning when lady macbeth calls the servants whom she made seem guilty ďábli devils in renč’s translation instead of vinníci culprits which was fischer’s solution renč shifts the idea of being guilty further giving the guilty servants a kind of ultimate im-
age of guiltiness renč often tries to explain a particular scene better by adding a different meaning he feels is offering itself in the situation depicted sometimes though overpoeticizing the actual text such as in the following example the phrase recompense is slow to overtake thee” is translated by fis-
cher as odměna tě už nedolétne” recompense will not reach you any more or by renč as odměna za tebou kulhá” recompense limps behind you 181václav renč and the influence of otokar fischer on his work
using a more expressive word kulhat to limp as a way of explaining the inability of duncan to reward macbeth enough for his merits shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
i’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal for it must seem their guilt 2 2 57 58 tvář sluhů zbarvím krví tou jak vínem by vinníky se zdáli já sluhům celé tváře pomažu ať jsou jak ďábli thou art so far before that swiftest wing of recom-
pense is slow to overtake thee 1 4 16 18 tys předhonil nás tak že odměna tě sebe rychlejší už nedolétne tys předhonil nás tak že odměna i kdyby křídla měla za tebou kulhá theatricality and theatrical speech the quality of renč’s translations most appreciated by the public as well as re-
viewers was the ability to create a translation which would be possible to use mainly for the purpose of theatre performances alois bejblík preparing an an-
thology of czech translations of shakespeare’s plays in the 1960s chose the translations by václav renč for this purpose appreciating especially renč’s styl mluvní pracující s respektem k hereckým možnostem artikulace” fluent style working with respect to the actor’s ability to articulate oľga kovačičová distinguishes two types of drama translation the text of a play” and the text of a performance” hrala 2005 159 kovačičová perceives the text of the performance” as having charakter intersemiotického prekladu textu drámy” the trait of the intersemiotic translation of the drama text such a translation has according to her theory two stages 1 medzijazykový preklad” interlanguage translation from one language into another and 2 intersemi-
otický preklad” intersemiotic translation from the language” of the text into the language” of the theatre hrala 2005 162 this view suggests the necessity of adjusting the translation of a theatre play to the theatre stage the actors and the perception of the audience which can be achieved through cooperation of the translator with the stage director and possibly the actors václav renč had gift for translating plays as well as for directing some of the plays he himself had translated he seems to fully understand the call for intersemiotic translation” and his work in this area meets the requirements of the theatre translating mac-
beth he adjusts the text to the theatrical speech cutting long sentences into short clauses using like fischer many exclamatory sentences and direct questions in the study of fischer’s translating rené wellek points out the way fischer zkra-
cuje zhušťuje rozbíjí větné vztahy uchyluje se k zvolacím větám k otázkám ” shortens condenses breaks up sentence structures tends to use exclama-
tory sentences questions wellek 1933 92 in the following examples renč can be seen shifting the theatrical transla-
tion even further than fischer renč recognizes the lack of stage direction in 182 kateřina kotačková
shakespeare’s plays and the need for the action to be expressed through the actu-
al speech he therefore uses many rhetorical direct questions and describes the vivid happenings by short and expressive exclamations whereas fischer uses two or three longer sentences to describe macbeth’s terror at seeing the instru-
ment he is about to use as a murderous weapon renč divides the same into six brief sentences in order to express the shock hesitation and determination gran-
ting the whole speech a more dynamic atmosphere shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
is this a dagger which i see before me the handle toward my hand come let me clutch thee i have thee not and yet i see thee still 2 1 33 35 je dýka to co vidím před sebou s tím jílcem jenž se tiskne v moji dlaň pojď sevřu tě já jsem tě nechyt posud však tě zřím ach co to vidím dýku jilcem ke mně tak právě do ruky pojď vezmu si tě ne uhnula a přec tě vidím dál similarly renč shortens lady macbeth’s speeches leaving out some of the words he considers unnecessary to translate literally and expresses the meaning in a more concise text in the text below the construction and shallt be what thou art promis’d” is completely omitted in renč’s version and is expressed by the simple a budeš víc” and you shall be more whereas fischer remains faith-
ful to the original version with the translation a budeš tím co slíbeno” and you shall be what you are promised in the following excerpt fischer even prolongs the original wording of lady macbeth’s exclamation whereas renč again reduces the number of words in order to give the actor more space and freedom to express the emotions of the character shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
glamis thou art and cawdor and shallt be what thou art promis’d 1 5 16 17 jsi glamis cawdor jsi a budeš tím co slíbeno jsi glamis cawdor jsi a budeš víc come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts unsex me here 1 5 41 42 přijďte duchové vy kteří smrtonosných myšlenek jste průvodci a ženství zbavte mne přijďte duchové smrtících myšlenek ať nejsem žena the final examples show the importance of the use and understanding of stage directions which are scarce in shakespeare’s play in order not to change the meaning of the scene or speech i take the liberty of claiming fischer’s transla-
tion of look to the lady” twice as hle co je s lady ” lo what is wrong with the lady as being inaccurate especially comparing the utterance with the following stage direction lady macbeth is carried out ” the stage direction sug-
183václav renč and the influence of otokar fischer on his work
gests clearly what macduff and later on banquo required the staff to do with lady macbeth renč translates look to the lady” in other words look after the lady or take care of her correctly as odveďte paní ” take the lady away in other words be at her service look after her the stage direction is completely omitted by fischer in the next example he does not specify what macbeth is referring to when saying toť smutný pohled” this is a sorry sight by which he rather insinuates that it is donalbain talked about before that is the sorry sight renč preserves the stage direction in the right place saying that macbeth first looks at his hands covered with blood and then expresses his feeling about the sight of them shakespeare fischer’s translation renč’s translation
lady macbeth help me hence ho macduff look to the lady banquo look to the lady lady macbeth is carried out 2 3 125 132 lady makbethová och pomoc makduff hle co je s lady banquo co je to s lady odvedou lady mak-
bethovou lady makbethová och pomoc makduff odveďte paní banquo odveďte paní odvádějí lady makbetho-
vou macbeth who lies i’ the second chamber lady macbeth donalbain macbeth looking on his
hands this is a sorry sight 2 2 21 22 makbeth kdo leží v síni vedle lady makbethová don-
albain makbeth toť smutný pohled makbeth pst kdo leží vedle lady makbethová don-
albain makbeth si hledí na ruce truchlivý pohled václav renč’s translation of macbeth is influenced by otokar fischer whom he admired as a translator and a theoretician and whose translation of macbeth renč looked to in order to draw inspiration from it despite adopting many of fischer’s solutions even complete verses renč created a unique translation which could be used for theatrical purposes and address renč’s audience better than a half-
century older translation by otokar fischer after having analysed two of renč’s translations of shakespeare’s plays ham-
let and richard ii alois bejblík in his letter suggesting that václav renč should translate shakespeare’s plays for publishing criticises renč’s přílišn ou uhla-
zenost pravidelnost veršov ou ” excessive suavity regularity of the verses and his over-reliance on the works of older translators despite his criticism bejblík considers renč’s work the best to suit the needs of modern theatre bejblík espe-
cially appreciates renč’s slovní rytmick ou i větně skladebn ou věrnost orig-
inálu a nenásilný způsob vyjadřování co do slovosledu i volby slov” lexical rhythmical and syntactical fidelity to the original as well as the natural way of phrasing as regards the word order and the choice of expressions 184 kateřina kotačková
last but not least it is particularly renč’s theatricality his ability to create a truly theatrical translation and his ability to integrate both requirements for such a translation the interlanguage translation and the intersemiotic translation which makes his translations some of the best to serve the purposes of the theatre acknowledgements i would especially like to thank dr pavel drábek for his valuable advice and introduction to the context of czech translation studies i am also greatly indebt-
ed to dr jaroslav novák renč’s son-in-law and his family who provided me with valuable information about václav renč and his life and with renč’s notes articles and translations i would like to thank professor zdeněk stříbrný from charles university who was renč’s aide and collaborator dr světozar vítek his former employer at the moravské divadlo in olomouc and other people willing to help me find out more about václav renč whose name has been almost forgot-
ten throughout the years references
bejblík alois 1967 návrh na vydání překladu souboru shakespearových her bejblík alois n d posudek o shakespearovských překladech dr v renče fischer otokar 1982 o překládání básnických děl praha odeon 1982 heyduk josef 1967 tvorba nevzniká až na papíře praha lidová demokracie hrala milan 2005 český překlad ii 1945 2004 praha univerzita karlova filozofická fakulta janoušek pavel 1998 slovník českých spisovatelů od roku 1945 praha brána levý jiří 1957 české teorie překladu praha státní nakladatelství krásné literatury hudby a umění menclová věra 2000 slovník českých spisovatelů praha libri opelík jiří 2000 lexikon české literatury praha academia renč václav n d na okraj překladu troila a kressidy and other unpublished notes rotrekl zdeněk 1991 skrytá tvář české literatury brno blok shakespeare william 1916 makbeth translated into czech by otokar fischer praha b kočí shakespeare william 1963 makbeth translated into czech by václav renč shakespeare william 1967 komedie iii praha odeon shakespeare william 1993 the complete works london magpie books stříbrný zdeněk 2005 proud času praha karolinum vrána karel 2000 poslání a pokušení spisovatele svitavy trinitas wellek rené 1933 otokar fischer kniha o jeho díle praha a srdce bc kateřina kotačková
department of english and american studies
faculty of arts masaryk university
arna nováka 1
602 00 brno
k kotackova@gmail com
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
tomáš pospíšil
sam and me masala and double happiness multicultural experience in canadian film of the early 1990s
the article examines the representation of multicultural experience in canadian film of the early 1990s using three case studies of feature films made by asian-
canadian filmmakers sam and me deepa mehta 1991 masala shrinivas krishna 1991 and double happiness mina shum 1994 the text focuses on how up and coming minority filmmakers cinematically addressed various aspects of diasporic identity and identity formation introduction
the canadian multiculturalist films of the early 1990s of which sam & me masala and double happiness are the most well-known examples offered im-
portant reformulations of the earlier cinematic depictions of the various ethnic and racial entities they articulated a position of resistance to the earlier attempts at an easy categorization along the traditional lines of racial and ethnic stereotyp-
ing in contrast to the prejudicial treatment of minority experience in earlier ca-
nadian films such as secrets of chinatown 1935 or the propaganda documentary of japanese descent an interim report 1945 gittings 2001 54 75 these films offered crucial alterations to the earlier dominant discourse the marked change consisted particularly in the fact that the portrayed characters and their communities were no longer subject to a kind of ethnographic study neither were they viewed from without as an indistinguishable anonymous mass their expe-
rience was narrated from a position within the community and their world was populated by a range of diverse nuanced and for the most part believable human characters the appearance of this group of films along with clément virgo’s rude 1995 which deals with the african canadian experience can be related to the canadian policies of multiculturalism particularly following the passing of the multicultural act of 1988 without public subsidy from institutions such as 186 tomáš pospíšil
the ontario film development corporation telefilm canada and ontario arts council none of the films would have been made this obvious connection has led to complaints that these institutions were increasingly politicized funding so-called ‘hyphenated canadians’ and novices to boot” yet as eugene walz put it this can just as easily be regarded as a canadian version of what hollywood calls ‘niche-marketing’ moreover one can also argue that it is the very achieve-
ments of mehta krishna and shum that render such charges unfounded even a casual viewer of their films will notice that the filmmakers developed mature and complex narratives transcending the narrow definitional confines of an eth-
nic feature” made by a striving hyphenated dilettante for instance their multi-
faceted treatment of the theme of individual and group identity goes beyond the mere depiction of problems of ethnic subjects who struggle against the usual odds of economic hardship prejudice and racism furthermore their ingenious com-
bining of elements from diverse film traditions the canadian realist tradition hollywood and bollywood etc indicates a deep cross-cultural awareness pub-
lic support was indeed vital for the making of the films however in the service of what might be regarded as a politically correct cause their creators did not feel obliged to produce uncritical pieces of sycophantic propaganda all three films suggest some quite uncomplimentary things about the life options of members of visible minority groups in canada as well as about the general nature of canadian commitment to multiculturalist principles a discussion of identity and identity formation in film obviously requires a definition of its central term a person’s identity is understood as shaped by the intersecting aspects of one’s class education gender age ethnicity race sexuality and religion as well as by one’s relationship to the place where one is located by its very nature subjective never entirely fixed identity is constantly in the making predicated on a complex process of struggle over meaning within the larger social fields of interpersonal and institutional relationships such as those between oneself and the other oneself and one’s family and community and oneself and one’s company or country a discussion of the nature of identity is impossible without due attention to the wider question of its discursive forma-
tion by means of language and representation in the article the following questions will be asked what identity problems are highlighted as important for these hyphenated canadians and what are their suggested solutions how do the filmmakers describe their characters’ relation-
ships to their respective families and communities as well as their interaction with mainstream society what are the principal tensions between their personal and collective identities and furthermore what particular bearing do the films have on our general understanding of the canadian nation 187sam and me masala and double happiness
synopses
sam and me premised on a driving miss daisy tale with no back seat” banning 1999 294 this slice-of-life narrative captures the experience of a variety of toronto eth-
nicities and contrasts the modest lives of recent immigrants from india with the experience of the more traditional and well-to-do jewish family at the center of the narrative we find the relationship of the twenty-five-year-old nikhil ranjit chowdhry with the aged and mentally unstable jewish entrepreneur sam cohen peter boretski fresh from the plane nick is hired by sam’s son maurice co-
hen to look after his father who has the dangerous tendency to wander aimlessly through the night let unlimited quantities of water run across the floor or dance naked in the rain on the suburban lawn outside the house in the course of the film sam and nick’s mutual distrust morphs into affectionate friendship sam discov-
ers in his schwarze” companion a surrogate grand son someone who is capable of taking up the vacated emotional place previously occupied by his estranged son meanwhile the gentle and sensitive indian is capable of discerning that un-
der sam’s antics lies a tender soul sam paradoxically becomes the closest per-
son he has in the new promised land if nick initially resents being a nurse and accepts the job only upon the insistence of his sponsoring uncle in the course of the narrative he develops a fond attachment to the unhappy senior being left to themselves for a night nick takes sam to a lively party in the house where he stays the white-haired guest has a wonderful time but consequently faints and nearly dies nick is immediately fired and told to stay away however he deeply regrets the separation several days later sam dies in a traffic accident inciden-
tally looking for nick in the streets of his neighborhood mourning over the loss of his elderly friend nick comes once again to the cohens’ house to express his condolences but is confronted only with maurice’s prejudice and hostility in the final sequence of the film we see him defying his uncle chetan om puri who had originally sponsored his flight to canada nick decides to pursue happiness in the new context on his own terms free from chetan’s narrow-minded and somewhat selfish guidance masala
as can be inferred from the title shrinivas krishna’s film masala focuses likewise on the life of canada’s indian community in toronto the fast-paced ironic and at times eccentric satire involves the experience of an extended three-branch family that encompasses a variety of class affiliations the savvy sari merchant lallu bhai solaski saeed jaffrey is politically well-connected and very prosperous while his brother-in-law hariprasad tikkoo likewise saeed jaffrey represents the less successful side of a potential canadian career working at a post office caring only for his stamp collection mr tikkoo is drawing dangerously close toward eviction 188 tomáš pospíšil
the third branch of the family is represented by krishna shrinivas krishna the only surviving member for his immediate kin lost their lives in the 1985 mid-air explosion of an air india plane krishna is a hip young anti-establishment figure with an identity problem unlike the other members of the family who lead for the most part purposeful lives krishna is a mere drifter not well adjusted to his environment it is only through his emotional attachment to mr tikoo’s attractive daughter rita sakina jaffrey that he appears to overcome his survivor’s guilt and finds a way out of his restlessness however it is impossible to tell whether this was meant to represent a permanent turning point in his life for toward the end of the film he is killed in the street by a teenage racist in the multitude of colorful characters populating the world of masala three more characters deserve to be mentioned grandma tikkoo zohra sehgal mother of the passive postman hariprasad lord krishna likewise saeed jaf-
frey blue-skinned comic book version of the most venerated hindoo deity and the minister of multiculturalism gerald les porter a pragmatic white politi-
cian when grandma asks krishna to help the tikkoos out of their financial diffi-
culties the good-natured god arranges for the tikkoos to receive a dead letter with an ancient canadian beaver stamp worth five million dollars initially mr tikkoo resists the authorities and refuses to relinquish the stamp for the benefit of the national heritage collection later however he consents to its permanent display at the newly erected museum of multiculturalism a building designed as the minister of multiculturalism puts it to truly celebrate canadian diversity” double happiness
this coming of age story differs somewhat from the preceding films as it deals with the life of the local chinese community set in vancouver on the opposite coast double happiness is a heartwarming tale populated by life-like characters at the center of the narrative we find a family of four where typical conflicts be-
tween first and second generation immigrants are played out the main protago-
nist is the twenty-one-year-old jade li whose problems and life choices share numerous features with the actual experience of the director shum jade in an excellent genie-winning performance by sandra oh dreams of becoming a famous actress while her parents would like her to marry a prosperous chi-
nese suitor from a good family jade and her younger sister pearl speak without an accent and outside of their family world embrace the attitudes and values of mainstream society at home however they play by the traditional rules and obey their autocratic father dad li thus a conflict is in the making and erupts openly when jade starts having an affair with mark a white university student unable to act according to her parents’ traditional values the likeable protago-
nist leaves her family the final shots of the film present her in her newly rented empty studio unsponsored but free facing an uncertain future a related and highly relevant theme is the question of the mental images of one’s original country and its values that one takes and cherishes while in the diaspora 189sam and me masala and double happiness
for many expatriates time in their country of origin stops at the moment of their departure only to be further worked upon by the distortions of memory jade’s father thus maintains quite outdated notions about proper family arrangements based on his idealized version of the working of chinese patriarchy but his beliefs are revealed as obsolete not only by the next generation in the host country but also by his brother uncle ah hong who visits from china the fact that his brother is married for the second time and has a child with his much younger wife shows that family structures are no longer what dad li believes them to be the insiders the outsiders and the struggling
characters like people are created to ask themselves the same set of age-old questions who am i what do i want where have i been where am i going how should i live the prosperous upper middle class characters are portrayed as overcoming any possible racial or ethnic stigmatization of belonging to a visible minority krishna’s uncle lallu bhai solaski runs an upscale sari shop and maintains warm political ties with the new multicultural establishment being on first name terms with the minister of multiculturalism lallu bhai in fact uses his minority status to further his own prosperity and to secure a successful future for his family in the final sequences of the film we see him planning his son anil’s career in which he wants anil to become the next minister of multiculturalism jade’s well-to-do arranged dates also seem to suffer more from the conservative expectations of their parents than from any negative feelings from majority society the prob-
lem of one of them for instance is his homosexuality which his traditionally-
minded parents find difficult to accept paradoxically the now whitened” ethnic character of maurice cohen who runs a successful medical supplies business suffers from the anxiety of not fitting in no matter how comfortable his present economic arrangement is he is a little paranoiac toward what he perceives as the white policemen’s anti-semitism when in fact one of them only asks in a more or less neutral voice whether the song his father is singing is jewish if the wealthy characters can acquire all the attributes of success in their new country and thus for the most part overcome any possible stigmatization la-
llu bhai i know the world is unfair but what’s the point of vengeance look what you have in this country ” krishna script 41 the outsiders are denied such a possibility incidentally their list is much longer typically presented as working class their life options are circumscribed by their minority status class affilia-
tion and education father li works as a porter or a security guard mr tikkoo is a postal worker respectable jobs to be sure but a far cry from the ambitions and prosperity of the promised land of yesteryear father li’s dream was to become an architect but the typical first generation problems interfered language dif-
ficulties the necessity of providing for the family etc nick fresh after arrival starts working at the bottom of the social scale as a nurse and servant one might 190 tomáš pospíšil
hope that his standing will improve in time but a casual look at nick’s lodging community tells a different story although these characters have been in canada for years the community consists largely of social outsiders and economic losers an indian cabdriver a struggling would-be actor who works as waiter a chinese takeout owner none of these characters seems to be ascending along the mythical trajectory of success but merely moves in circles waiting for a miraculous twist of fate nick’s uncle chetan gives voice to the disenchantment that the level of their material well-being provokes they dream of making it but look at them as far as their future is concerned he remains skeptical reacting to nick’s plan to work hard and make enough money for the air ticket for his mother he asks angrily why nick would be so foolish to do so what for to clean the airport toilet to become a servant to people who do not know you and do not want to know you ” according to uncle chetan’s canadian experience the immigrants from asia have to accept the meanest menial jobs regardless of their education or skills therefore he plans to work hard for five years and with the earned money return home upon arrival so his dream goes he would be greeted with admiration deepa mehta does not succumb to the temptation to single out nick from his immigrant community as an obvious candidate for success in the final shots of the film we see him having defied his uncle mourning the loss of sam contem-
plating the significance of this experience and perhaps thinking about the future if there is hope he is young sensitive honest hardworking so there may be some after all it is uncertain at best an important figure among the outsiders is krishna his social position has not been forced upon him by his minority status or by his lacking talent his character suffers from a very bad karma krishna notes this manifests itself in various ways by his restless nature that makes him singularly incapable of working at a regular job by the feeling of guilt for having escaped certain death with the rest of his family by the ineptitude he shows in failing to compromise and accept the well-meant options offered to him by his well-meaning relatives it is wholly in tune with his youth rebel nature that he dies stabbed in the back by a paki-hating” racist located between the extreme poles of prosperity and failure are the charac-
ters of rita and jade li rita works as a clerk in a travel bureau but talking calmly to capricious customers is hardly her idea of a permanent occupational pursuit likewise jade only temporarily complies with her father’s wishes but as her ambition radically departs from his plans for her she does not want to take a business course at the community center nor does she want to get married to a husband from a good family rather she dreams of succeeding on her own be-
ing able to determine her own life-choices both professional and sexual is her most important desire 191sam and me masala and double happiness
ambitions desires dreams
although rita’s and jade’s ideals have been severely tested at times they have not given up trying and their ambitions soar high rita cherishes the dream of taking up flying lessons jade wants nothing less than an academy award if the former challenges the gender stereotype i e the false assumption even on the part of her family about female incapacity of becoming a pilot the latter con-
fronts racism in the media i e the stereotypical media requirement of a particular look for a film star not so distinctly asian preferably white someone like mari-
lyn monroe both girls face uncertain futures but success no matter how distant still remains a possibility viewed through the prism of these characters how-
ever canada is a country without any guarantees alongside quite mundane and predictable wishes such as lallu bhai’s desire to become even more prosper-
ous the minister’s desire to get re-elected grandma tikkoo’s desire to equip her household with every thinkable electric gadget these are wishes that i would venture to call symbolic rita’s desire to fly can obviously be interpreted meta-
phorically just as jade’s dream of becoming a respected star one character ex-
presses a related wish quite literally having magically acquired the rare historic stamp hariprasad tikkoo is not interested in the money it can bring rather he wants respect a planeload of people blow up and nobody in this country seems to care i am beaten up on the street and nobody cares but when i hold this stamp in my hands people care” krishna script 67 the characters’ dreams desires and ambitions not only depend on their class or ethnic affiliations they also depend on their ages in sam and me a contradictory trajectory of desires between the two principal characters regarding the concept of the promised land can be discerned for the newly arrived nick it is canada the idea of freedom security prosperity the usual ” for the well-established ageing sam it is israel the idea of the full circle” while one character wants to settle permanently in the country the other regards as prison in other aspects they are quite complementary if nick lacks a father sam lacks a son sam’s estranged son maurice unfortunately no longer counts the connection between them was lost somewhere in the past under the strains of economic struggle in the new land to make matters worse maurice cannot come to terms with the idea that in the world of sam’s heart he has been replaced by the schwarze” boy sam is not the only character to cherish an idealized picture of his country of origin similarly jade’s father looking back at the time of his youth embraces an idealized mental image of the land of his ancestors to be sure he is not fond of the chinese revolution when his family’s farm was confiscated his admiration belongs to his father who ran the farm well and supposedly understood every-
thing whatever he did was right father li falls back on this idealized image be-
cause in his own family such strict patriarchal dominance is continually contested as his children embrace a different set of attitudes toward gender roles and the distribution of power within the family their values shaped by their new host country are much more democratic and egalitarian 192 tomáš pospíšil
whereas in the older characters who in a sense have failed sam sold out to his estranged son maurice and is quite dependent on him father li lost two children and failed to become an architect the idea of the country of origin at-
tains larger than life proportions the younger characters do not subscribe to such illusions although his canadian experience may have fallen short of his expecta-
tions nick does not intend to return home on the contrary he attempts to pay for his mother’s trip to canada for all the problems with dislocation alienation and adaptation india is simply no longer attractive enough the conflict of cultures defying the father figures
like dh the other two films also portray hyphenated canadian families as thor-
oughly patriarchal the negotiation of one’s relationship to the dominant father figure functioning as the source of the films’ principle narrative tension it is an-
other important piece in the construction of one’s identity nick arrives in canada deeply indebted to uncle chetan who works for the cohen’s medical supplies company chetan becomes nick’s chief advisor employment agent and virtual boss however not sharing chetan’s rather egocentric world view nick repudi-
ates him in the final sequence of the film similarly jade defies her father for which she has to leave her family both characters pay for their resistance with initial loneliness as they are portrayed alone in their rooms however their isola-
tion is not likely to last the rebellious krishna too defies his prosperous uncle lallu bhai he intentionally embarrasses him in his social circles neither heeding his advice nor taking advantage of his social or political connections resistance on the part of the second generation to the first generation represented solely by father figures seems to be the crucial thematic element these features share at the heart of the conflict of traditions and the resistance to patriarchy in the new cultural setting we find the institution of marriage and the process of marriage formation both masala and in a somewhat more subdued form dh present struggles over the practice of arranged marriages the parents in both films favor it as they are convinced that only their superior judgment can secure their offspring’s stable economic social and to a lesser degree sexual future krishna in masala debunks the practice by portraying the two families as engaged in a straight-faced bargaining that reminds us less of a meeting of concerned parents over the emotional well-being and mutual future of their chil-
dren than of a company merger or even a more dignified version of a cattle market dh ridicules it subtly in two highly stylized scenes which present jade entering in slow motion her prearranged dates’ suv and mercedes benz respectively with jade disappearing into the sunset while the family is politely waving goodbye one cannot miss the irony an ordinary girl being taken away by a prosperous prince charming with a law degree and a potentially substantial checking account however having been brought up in a wider context where the pursuit of individual happiness is as legitimate a goal as the pursuit of financial 193sam and me masala and double happiness
security the children do not acquiesce the superb bride in masala refuses to get married to the intellectually feeble anil and dh’s jade falls in love with the white and obviously not so prosperous student mark more often than not questions of marriage and questions of sex are related jade’s one night stand with mark is an act of resistance par excellence also krishna and rita go after their mutually shared carnal pleasures regardless of the wishes or concerns of their family both films suggest that the right to have sex with a partner of one’s choice is a fundamental bone of contention in the struggle between first and second generation minority canadians and how does sexuality function in the world of sam & me in certain respects mehta ventures one step further for she hints at homoerotic practices in nick’s all male community yet in her film sex does not stand for individual liberation on the contrary it signals moral corruption the film opens with a daring scene of passionate lovemaking between uncle chetan and his younger indian lover nick on the other hand remains remarkably chaste throughout the whole narrative his startling lack of interest in the opposite or same gender is explained in the final showdown with chetan it is precisely nick’s chastity that provides him with the high moral ground from which to belabor his uncle it is then that we discover that chetan is married and is in fact being unfaithful to his wife who remained home in india he does not even bother to read her letters thus the realism mehta opted for in her approach to her secondary characters was not matched by her ap-
proach to the protagonist considering the fact that nick is a healthy young man aged twenty five his asexuality makes him in this particular respect cinemati-
cally pleasing but somewhat lacking in authenticity the films further demonstrate that the dominance of parental authority figures only results in massive doses of hypocrisy and repression this is most visible in dh the girls are forced to deceive father li with pearl’s counterfeited school records they have to lie about their activities outside the house whoever fails to participate in the game of make believe is banished and erased from the family and its memory first brother winston then jade herself the amount of pretense in the li family is striking one in fact is forced to pretend that the disavowed son has never existed then upon the arrival of his uncle one invents a fake story about him being a successful businessman in the united states the same amount of pretense is noticeable in the character of uncle ah hong seeing this perfect family he claims to have quit smoking which in fact he has not and he never confides to his brother about his actual marital condition canada the land of the future
the films contain a critique of patriarchy within the traditional ethnic family but the filmmakers also target the more traditional read ‘white’ canadian main-
stream the attitudes of white canadians range from the rather exceptional open-
ness through indifference to open hostility all three films address the painful 194 tomáš pospíšil
experience of racial stereotyping shum mehta and particularly krishna stress that underneath the polished discourse of multiculturalism with its high sound-
ing and predictable rhetoric sympathetic smiles temple opening ceremonies and support for colorful street festivals the same prejudiced attitudes still exist they articulate that members of visible minorities face not only stereotyping but sometimes even downright racism waiting for a bus jade is approached by an elderly white passer-by who tries to practice his sparse knowledge of cantonese airplane airplane” he babbles aggressively airplane to you sir” replies jade and catches a taxi to avoid further entanglement in this meaningless conversation when jade attempts to enter a discotheque she is not admitted by the guards while other people can walk in freely under the pretext they are on the guest list the probable reason is her visible minority status the indian taxi driver in s&m complains about being tired of the same set of questions have you seen the ghandhi picture great eh indian food hot eh ” s&m an entertaining twist in this tale is that when the taxi driver attempts to demonstrate the repetitive monotonousness of a predictable conversation based on his indian origin the experiment fails the white passenger remains silent sam is initially mistrustful of his schwarze” nurse and it takes several impor-
tant scenes for him to discover nick’s selflessness and sense of humor and to develop a liking for his companion the narrative of s&m also suggests another important point there is no such thing as interracial solidarity among the various visible minority groups nick’s housing community plays cricket in the yard unconcerned about the black ca-
nadian living in the attic later in the film we find out he is also a cricket fan yet his neighbors have shunned him never inviting him to play along on the grounds that he is not one of them while being victims of racial stereotyping the indians are guilty of the same offence of all the three films masala is the most radical one krishna’s nephew and uncle are openly shouted at and harassed in the streets by white racists it is at the hand of one of them that the hero finally dies the future opportunities of the main characters are minimal in s&m uncertain in dh and undesirable in masala here in a mock happy ending we see the great satisfaction of everyone concerned when a new multicultural museum is opened the only exception being rita who still misses krishna the irony of the happy ending consists in the renewed alliance between the multicultural establishment represented by the minister on the one hand and the social-climbing lallu bhai on the other this alliance has proved flexible enough to contain mr tikkoo’s principled challenge by incorporating its concerns into its agenda thus the stamp gets where it belongs mr tikkoo is satisfied for now he has gained respect and canadian diversity can be celebrated again although the filmmaker krishna ridi-
cules the shallow pragmatic nature of such a compromise it might still be viewed as a strength rather than a weakness of the canadian system significantly the more anarchic resistance represented by the character of krishna cannot be 195sam and me masala and double happiness and is not contained in such a manner it is thus ignored abandoned left to its own destruction liminal spaces
speaking about dh mina shum said not only was i hoping to describe the characters’ new lives in a new language and culture but i was trying to offer a meaningful and compassionate portrait of what it means to live in between” and to move within the liminal spaces between canadian and chinese cultures” this wish can be shown in a number of ways father li adheres to traditional chinese ways while at the same time following the daily stock market reports on television the chinese spiritualist examines the household and suggests the proper alignment of furniture but unable to change their unsatisfactory emotional lives decides to give them a twenty percent discount” in the same vein masa-
la’s grandma tikkoo insists on acquiring all state-of-the-art kitchen utensils so she can grind a perfect mix of spices and when she starts communicating with lord krishna via her vcr she demands dollars cash on the nail perhaps the most painful liminal experience is inscribed into the character of jade who tries to conform to her parents’ plans and play by the rules of the house at home while her desires in fact reveal her embracing a different set of val-
ues mina shum’s script and particularly sandra oh’s performance provided a powerful demonstration of how complex uncertain and at times agonizing life can be in this region in between” in jade’s character shum inscribes a profound identity dilemma so typical for displaced immigrants growing up in a new cul-
tural context at a crucial point in the film we find out she cannot read chinese characters born in hong kong raised in vancouver in a chinese family not being able to read the script can she still plausibly hang on to the status of being chinese language in this particular instance ability to read chinese script is coded as an important piece in the edifice of one’s identity construction while the older generation whose identity is more traditionally chinese speaks with an accent and their body language is also chinese jade and her younger sister pearl have no accent and their body language and spatial practices correspond to the north american mainstream” this paradoxically makes them more uncertain about who they are and where they belong as their cultural software” language cul-
tural know-how operates in hardware i e the body that is marked by the adher-
ence to a visible minority when mum li discovers that their estranged son winston is living with a woman who does not even speak chinese she is devastated the fact that in reality this woman is an asian-canadian does not help having lost her language in mum li’s eyes she now counts as white shum also supplies a fine illustra-
tion of how misleading language or in this particular instance lack thereof can be in assessing somebody else’s identity the first encounter between jade and mark takes place in a line outside a night bar mark assumes jade does not speak 196 tomáš pospíšil
english well and jade plays along pretending to be a shy insecure and function-
ally mute asian girl then she switches register and in perfect canadian english challenges the surprised suitor to have sex with her this very evening mark’s ex-
pectation of jade’s lacking language skills and appropriate gender role is a telling case in point about how difficult it is to shed one’s preconceived notions of the other he is not a racist yet he can’t escape the numerous stereotypes his culture has equipped him with in appiah’s terminology he is a racialist” the frequently strained transition between one’s original culture and the host culture manifests itself quite notably in the change of religious practices masa-
la’s lord krishna complains what happens when indians go to foreign lands baba they lose their grace and composure they pester me for explanations they should spend more time worshiping ” it is symptomatic for shrinivas krish-
na’s all-out sarcasm that he constructs the traditional maternal authority figure grandma tikkoo as the most graphic illustration of lord krishna’s complaint she is not the usual reservoir of ancient maternal wisdom she is the most ma-
terialistic member of the tikkoo household when talking to the deity she seeks neither spiritual uplifting nor revelation instead she bargains hard with his tv image demanding immediate assistance in the form of fast cash the practical aspects of religious worship in the new world” are also articulated in dh when mother li retires to her niche to pray she asks for her banished son’s well-be-
ing and for advice whether to put fertilizer on the garden diasporic religion at its most traditional can thus be discerned in the all-male community of s&m with religious posters on the wall burning incense and indian music in the air the poorly equipped cramped house becomes a little indian island in the sea of canadian otherness one of the cross-cultural highlights of the playful narrative of masala is the manner lord krishna chooses to aid the tikkoo family clad in the toronto ma-
ple leaf uniform the blue comic-book deity shoots the puck in the direction of the oncoming postal van the driver horrified by the extraordinary apparition crashes the car letters are scattered all over and one of them magically driven by the wind reaches the house of the tikkoos it is the letter with the rare beaver stamp a focus on questions of cultural hybridity can also be discerned at the level of genre both indian canadian features make use of the bollywood tradition of dance numbers while in masala this happens twice in the classical bollywood fashion the narrative development stops and the characters are taken into the magic colorful dream world of music and dance in s&m this happens intradi-
egetically at the party in nick’s community here one of the characters cross-
dresses and performs a seductive dance to the sound of a mumbai hit mehta’s decision not to interrupt the flow of the narrative with an artificial break which most western viewers would regard as unnatural or culturally alien was in-
formed by her obvious intention in this case to make a serious true-to-life state-
ment about the immigrant experience the artificial mixing of genres or borrow-
ing from other cinematic styles such as bollywood would have highlighted the 197sam and me masala and double happiness
viewers’ awareness of the film’s constructed nature and thus would have sub-
verted the film’s realistic ambition in the post-modernist world of masala on the other hand it is precisely the mode of realism that is discarded with the purpose of creating a vibrant narrative of multiple ironies the bollywood dance numbers represent but a fraction in an unstable idiosyncratic genre mix that further in-
cludes social satire crazy comedy youth culture cult movie and family drama the chinese-canadian dh has its entertaining song number as well this scene also highlights the theme of cultural hybridity while refraining from calling into question the film’s genre characteristics a realistic coming of age story it is the moment when uncle ah hong organizes a family karaoke party and makes his brother sing in a remarkably stiff manner an american 1950s song summary & conclusion
as the films suggest the characters face a whole array of problems ranging from the necessity to define one’s identity and choose one’s course of life according to one’s values and preferences to the banal question of how one is going to earn one’s living in the context of canadian capitalism the films present the relationships within one’s family and community as in no way unproblematic for they highlight a great number of fissures and fracture lines within those entities lines that are informed by the characters’ age gender class religion sexual ori-
entation and life experience etc the source of the principal tension within the family in these films however is the generational struggle in which a younger protagonist endeavors to live his or her life on his or her own terms defying the wishes of a dominant father figure likewise problematic for ethnic canadians the filmmakers tell us is the interaction with the society outside of one’s com-
munity in spite of the fact that canada has officially embraced the principles of multiculturalism for which the very existence of the films provides ample evi-
dence the films emphasize countless examples of racial and ethnic stereotyping prejudice harassment and even violence a discussion of the liminal spaces” these characters occupy indicates how elusive and internally painful the definition of one’s identity can be in today’s multiethnic canadian context marked by a mixing of cultures values and tra-
ditions in various ways and on various levels the films visualize the at times extreme degree of cultural hybridity among the hyphenated-canadians their focus on individuals located on the margins of society allows the viewer to cast a sideways look at the nature of the canadian mainstream and possibly reassess its nature the diasporic experience articulated in the above films thus calls into question the traditional homogenizing and assimilationist view of the canadian nation as predominantly white and draws attention to the plurality of cultures and traditions within this context 198 tomáš pospíšil
references
banning kass 1999 ‘playing in the light canadianizing race and nation’ in armatage kay banning kass longfellow brenda marchessault janine eds gendering the nation cana-
dian women’s cinema toronto buffalo london university of toronto press gittings c e 2001 canadian national cinema ideology difference and representation new york and london routledge krishna shrinivas 1991 masala unpublished production notes toronto krishna shrinivas 1991 masala unpublished script toronto levitin j 2002 ‘deepa mehta as transnational filmmakers or you can’t go home again’ in beard william and white jerry eds north of everything english-canadian cinema since 1980 edmonton alberta university of alberta press shum m 1994 double happiness unpublished production notes toronto waltz eugene p 2002 ‘introduction what is canadian cinema ’ in waltz eugene p ed cana-
da’s best features critical essays on 15 canadian films amsterdam and new york rodopi waugh t 2002 ‘home is not the place one has left or masala as ‘a multicultural culinary treat’ ’ in waltz eugene p ed canada’s best features critical essays on 15 canadian films am-
sterdam and new york rodopi films
double happiness 1994 dir mina shum masala 1991 dir shrinivas krishna sam and me 1991 dir deepa mehta phdr tomáš pospíšil dr department of english and american studies
faculty of arts masaryk university
arna nováka 1
602 00 brno
tomas pospisil@phil muni cz
sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity
studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis
s 13 2007 brno studies in english 33
reviews
kaylor michael matthew secreted desires the major uranians hopkins pater and wilde brno masaryk university 2006 497 pp isbn 80 210 4126 9 michael kaylor’s book secreted desires the major uranians hopkins pater and wilde is a major contribution to victorian scholarship which has neglected the study of some of the most important literary figures in terms of the uranian approach” ever since timothy d’arch smith’s love in earnest some notes on the lives and writings of english uranian” poets from 1889 to 1930 1970 kaylor argues that as gerard manley hopkins walter pater and oscar wilde were educated at eton and or oxford during the greats curriculum” based on greek and latin texts they shared an appreciation for the ancient world where paederasty was a valued pedagogical instrument surrounded by the straight-laced morality of victorian society their paederastic desires became sublimated into their literary writings in the form of four strategies a stylistic complex-
ity a multi-faceted psychology an uncanny audience-awareness and a sense of daring and irony” xxvii kaylor positions his work within the scope of not only literary but also social and cultural history as he demarcates the distinctly paederastic features in hopkins’s pater’s and wilde’s writ-
ings kaylor opposes critics such as michel foucault eve kosofsky sedgwick david halperin and linda dowling and claims that it is not anachronistic to think about nameable masculine desire” before 1870 kaylor is not concerned with homosexuality or homosocial behaviour like the above-
mentioned critics but strictly with paederasty in the greco-roman sense and attempts to establish a uranian continuum” i e a conscious tradition stretching from ancient greece and rome through the renaissance and victorian eras to the contemporary fiction of guy davenport kaylor points out that the most important figure that is open for not only present but also future uranian scholarship” is gerard manley hopkins given the biographical material on wilde and pater it is understandable that kaylor argues for the paederastic inclination in their writings how-
ever the case of gerard manley hopkins as kaylor approaches it in ‘a parcel of underwear’ hopkins and issues of identity” 121 133 is much more precarious hopkins’s life is full of un-
explored areas that incite not only further research but also speculation following a strictly logical line of thought these holes in the hopkinsian fabric” of biographical material yield an assump-
tion that what was unsaid is supposed to stay hidden from the eyes of not only the public but also everybody else except hopkins’s own selfbeing” even though kaylor is not the first scholar to focus on homoerotic imagery in hopkins’s poetry he pursues his hypothesis about the paederastic desire not only by interpreting hopkins’s poetry but also by inspecting his holey” biography and this is exactly where kaylor’s work becomes thought provoking he analyses hopkins’s dark sonnets” and comes to the conclusion that the uncapitalized he” and him” in the poems do not refer to christ but to digby mackworth dolben a dead young poet hopkins’s inspiration for his poetry was not then christian devotion but a paederastic desire and unrequited love for a nineteen-
year-old boy kaylor’s assertion will definitely cause a stir in christian especially roman catholic circles gerard manley hopkins alongside john henry cardinal newman has always been considered the core of the roman catholic priestly” literary tradition in britain if either of these two figures’ 200 reviews
literary motivations are deconstructed from spiritual enlightenment to carnal yearning would it not meet resistance from the roman catholic camp of possible readers the intersection of sexuality and christianity has always posed serious problems and kaylor’s claim that hopkins is defiantly challenging traditional church teaching on the immorality of homoerotic and paederastic acts” is very likely to pour petrol on a hotly debated issue linking celibacy homosexuality and sexual abuse 128 9 christianity has always relied on the masculine feminine binary being fulfilled in the ideal of happy marriage when it comes to homosexuality about the most tolerant approach found in ro-
man catholic teachings views it as an ordeal from god that has to be resisted in the name of chastity and mastery of the will this approach is however possible only when it comes to the laity the clerical profession requires sexual asceticism the absolute denial of the sin of the flesh which results in the viewing of priests as asexual creatures who know very little about sexual pleasure orthodox roman catholic readers will thus condemn any sexual interpretation of hopkins’s life and poetry no matter whether only” homoerotic or paederastic on the other hand the traditional teachings of the roman catholic church have recently been challenged by a growing number of progressive lay movements these include for example increasing feminism among catholic women who believe that the church marginalizes female experience protest against celibacy from those who believe that being sexually fulfilled and spiritually daring” are not mutually exclusive and the activism of gay and lesbian catholics who demand that the church acknowledge both their sexual orientation and spiritual experience all these people would welcome an interpretation of hopkins as a homosexual however the portrayal of hopkins as a paederast albeit only on the level of desire who does not fantasize about equal partnership but about exploitative sexual acts is likely to meet with disgust yet again moreover kaylor’s portrayal of hopkins as not only a priest but also a troubadour of homoerot-
ic paederastic love is very likely to evoke the many recent scandals involving catholic priests accused of sexual abuse even more significantly the fact that hopkins was a jesuit priest and the jesuits have always formed the foundation of catholic education provokes the assumption that roman catholicism is rotten to the root” that its children were and still are brought up to ap-
preciate paederastic love and therefore encouraged to impose such love” on their successors kaylor’s interpretation of hopkins thus runs the risk of stirring up enormous resistance to the idea of abandoning the priest-poet idyll as well as the risk of being accused of reading too much into and exaggerating the biographical holes in hopkins’s life on the other hand history is far from fixed and is open to continual reinterpretation in terms of various topical or temporal contexts as kaylor notes since the publication of hopkins’s facsimi-
les 1989 91 it has become impossible to avoid the issue of hopkins’s eroticism and paederastic inclinations both in his poetry and in his life kaylor’s hopkins whose identity is put under scru-
pulous inspection is not a rigid historical and literary figure but possesses multiple identities he is not only the traditional devotional priest-poet of the 19th century but also a decadent whose erotic desire proved to be as important an inspiration for his poetry as his religion gerard manley hopkins however is not the only uranian that kaylor deals with walter pater through his marius the epicurean is presented in this study as an advocate of paederastic peda-
gogy” understood as a heightened form of friendship which combines platonism paederasty and aesthetic instruction to support this view kaylor contrasts pater with oscar wilde first he uses the case of pater’s unfavourable review of the picture of dorian gray to prove that pater distanced himself from wilde’s lack of discretion and eccentric public behaviour second kaylor analyses one of wilde’s tales the young king” in terms of paederastic instruction to young children i e wilde’s own sons pater and wilde are then examples of two uranian paths” pater stands for the elevated and refined uranian love” and wilde represents the low and shallow path of priapic lust” michael kaylor’s secreted desires is a pioneering work that presents a corrective approach to victorian literature kaylor does not shrink away from the challenge of exploring a topic which pre-
vious scholars treated only very cautiously or with evident embarrassment the theoretical scope of the book is vast as it not only concentrates on literature but also reaches out into the fields of social 201reviews
history and sexual psychology the volume of meticulous research and the abundance of carefully-
chosen visual material are equally impressive secreted desires is unquestionably a major contribu-
tion to the long list of academic works published by masaryk university martina vránová
michal peprník topos lesa v americké literatuře the topos of the forest in american litera-
ture brno host 2005 252 pp isbn 80 7294 153 4 the title of michal peprník’s study suggests a comprehensive overview of the ways in which amer-
ican authors have portrayed the theme of the forest however even a preliminary scan of the table of contents indicates a much narrower focus the historical period covered is mostly early ameri-
can literature and the only author discussed in any depth is james fenimore cooper this limitation in scope is not a problem in itself of course but it may cause some disappointment to readers hop-
ing for what the title promises the brief introduction may also be somewhat misleading its witty style unencumbered by jargon and multiple explanatory footnotes will appeal to a broad range of readers while occasional echoes of this style do recur in the following chapters the text quickly becomes a scholarly analysis peprník’s book clearly targets czech college students and may be quite helpful as a supplemen-
tary text in introductory courses on american literature the frequent references linking certain elements in american and czech cultures are peprník’s most valuable contributions they draw the czech reader into the discussion and they allow peprník to make interesting observations on both cultures for instance in a chapter on the dark puritan forest peprník contextualizes the con-
temporary violence between the puritans and the indigenous population by reminding the reader that zhruba v téže době na prašné bráně viselo daleko více hlav a nebyly to hlavy ‘krvežíznivých divochů’” at about the same time many more bodies hung from the scaffolds if front of the powder tower in prague and these were not bodies of ‘blood-thirsty savages’ 53 peprník’s unorthodox references to czech fairy-tales often integrated into a rigorous academic definition of some abstract concept are also refreshing and fitting perhaps most significantly peprník offers several unex-
pected highly illuminating parallels between particular works of american and czech literature his comparison of hawthorne’s young goodman brown” and karel jaromír erben’s polednice” is especially revealing 199 therefore even if in some passages peprník’s unique commentary is overshadowed by concise summaries of established interpretations of canonical texts his specific version of a czech perspective on american literature offers numerous bright moments of surpris-
ing and delightful cross-cultural insight kateřina prajznerová
zdeněk stříbrný proud času stati o shakespearovi the flow of time essays on shakespeare praha karolinum 2005 407 pp isbn 80 246 1018 3 conceived as a cross-section of the author’s scholarly interests and achievement the volume was planned to mark professor zdeněk stříbrný’s eightieth birthday and the almost sixty years of his academic career in english studies when he embarked on it in the postwar 1940s he had two gen-
erations of czech specialists on english philology to lean on the founding fathers of english stud-
ies in czech universities vilém mathesius bohumil trnka otakar vočadlo and zdeněk vančura whose guidance he acknowledged and in whose tradition he continued the reader learns about all this from the first memoir-like chapter of the flow of time which comprises almost a quarter of the book and affords intimate insights into the momentous events and landmarks of professor stříbrný’s life and work he describes his numerous opportunities to travel and undertake research in england and the us which proved to be of crucial importance for him particularly in his shake-
spearean studies on his visits to english and american universities and trips to conferences he en-
countered and established friendships with scholars of resounding reputation who influenced him 202 reviews
whether he was in agreement or at variance with their approaches the latter namely in the case of jan kott and his novel and controversial ‘shakespeare our contemporary’ theory in the 1960s at all times stříbrný defends his own marxist approach while he also explains his left-wing political leanings little changed since the 1940s despite his brush with the regime after the prague spring in the 1970s and he is painfully candid about his further involvement with power as a result it was with a great sense of justification that he was able to return to charles university after the velvet revolution to make up for the years during which he was forbidden to teach and publish after the autobiographical introduction there follows a selection of articles prefaces afterwords and reviews but most of all book chapters from stříbrný’s major scholarly works the purpose and success of the volume thematically ranging from beowulf to martin amis is to show the breadth and depth of his scholarship in english literature the first two texts provide overviews of english literature in brief and of middle english literature in more detail both marked by the author’s narrative talent and thus highly readable in spite of their factual richness an abundance of factual detail also characterises the thematically narrower chapters where it is always related to the historical background and the flow of time” john lyly’s play sapho and phao from a chapter in stříbrný’s book shakespearovi předchůdci shakespeare’s predecessors 1965 is thus perceived in the light of the original mythological story shifting against the background of the elizabethan court and the queen herself whose allegory lyly’s sapho must become at the same time stříbrný identifies the piece as the first english drawing-room comedy starting a tradition pursued later by g b shaw combining the materialist and formalist methodologies stříbrný then analyses the principles of lyly’s euphuism at sentence paragraph act and play level and traces the development of the symmetries and contrasts of euphuism across lyly’s other works in another chapter from the same book on shakespeare’s predecessors stříbrný points to the national and popular character of english renaissance drama defying the classical dramatic unities as well as the italian and french fashion in the dramatic production of the time while he attributes a leading role in combining the senecan drama with the national home tradition to thomas kyd a chapter on christopher marlowe gives a great deal of space to his biography as in stříbrný’s opinion it coincides with marlowe’s titanic heroes who unmistakably carry the imprint of mar-
lowe’s titanic will here stříbrný also contrasts marlowe’s subjectivity with what he calls shake-
speare’s art of the objective notwithstanding professor stříbrný’s wide-ranging literary interests he has always first and foremost been an ardent student of shakespeare it comes therefore as no surprise that 15 out of the 23 essays in the volume are devoted to him the first comes from stříbrný’s book william shake-
speare 1964 and tackles the perennial question of the bard’s existence here while not regard-
ing shakespeare’s biography as important as marlowe’s stříbrný staunchly defends it against the skeptics of shakespeare’s authorship his conviction never undermined by reiterating in the chapter to follow that in view of the immense range of shakespeare’s art his private life retreats far into the background stříbrný approaches shakespeare in a celebratory manner underscored by the deep insights of his all-embracing scholarship in a chapter on how shakespeare created” followed by analysis of several plays he foregrounds his path-breaking innovation and creative range yet stříbrný un-
touched by theorising remains informative and accessible not only for the shakespearean scholar but for the general czech shakespeare reader as well at the same time he is always looking for connections to the political and material backdrop of the time from the soaring optimism of the comedy of high renaissance to the ‘times out of joint’ of the great tragedies and the utopian vision of reconciliation and new hope of the late romances nevertheless stříbrný’s humanist ‘shake-
speare’s-genius-for-all-time’ approach predominates over his mildly marxist historicism as fol-
lows from articles which appeared in theatre programmes of productions of othello and timon of athens he is also in favour of the traditional staging of shakespeare’s plays rather than modern-
ising them although he is not entirely dismissive of the various attempts in that they afford new possibilities of interpretation yet all the same while he admits that both translations and stage pro-
ductions also reflect their times he warns against excesses in this kind of appropriation particularly if politically biased and with respect to hamlet calls for ‘the modesty of nature’ to be preserved 203reviews
stříbrný has remained consistent in his views and attitudes over the decades some of the analyses come from the sixties others from the late eighties and the nineties moreover repeatedly urging the reader to read shakespeare rather than the critic besides analysis there are articles packed with interesting facts of various kinds the authors of fifty portraits of king lear and other shakespearean themes and generous recognition of czech shakespearean scholarship in the field of translation particularly in the work of j v sládek otakar vočadlo erik a saudek and zdeněk urbánek including detailed comment on some of their trans-
lation solutions and the tricky distinctions between english and czech blankverse the shakespear-
ean cycle is concluded by an article based on stříbrný’s book shakespeare and eastern europe published by oxford university press in 2000 which allows the reader a fascinating glimpse of the author’s profound knowledge of all shakespearean connections in this part of the world from the earliest in the seventeenth century to the present the article gives us a taste of the first tours of the english comedians” lead by robert browne and john green as well as other troupes around several german and polish towns and reaching as far as olomouc prague and vienna in the first two decades of the seventeenth century the last two chapters bring us to the twentieth century to h g wells and g b shaw in love and mr wells” stříbrný defends wells against his detractors and with his admirers praises his hu-
mour realism and symbolism acknowledging him as the ‘voice of an epoch’ no less appreciative is the more extensive essay on g b shaw reprinted from stříbrný’s huge two-volume history of english literature dějiny anglické literatury 1989 containing as throughout stříbrný’s literary criticism valuable references to reception in czech english studies and on the czech literary scene finally the volume includes professor stříbrný’s complete bibliography until the year 2003 which numbers over two hundred items milada franková
sborník prací filozofické fakulty
brněnské univerzity
brno studies in english
vydala masarykova univerzita v brně roku 2007
odpovědný redaktor ivo pospíšil
redakční rada řady anglistické s milada franková předseda jan chovanec výkonný redaktor sazba dan šlosar lvt ff
tisk coprint brno areál kraví hora aa va náklad 150 výtisků vydání 1 2008
55 isbn issn 1211 1791