Translating Green: Dissolving the fog of "Party Going"

Abstract

This thesis aims to uncover which narratological and stylistic devices in Henry Green’s modernist novel "Party Going" (1939) can be used in a Dutch translation to retain the alienating and disorienting effect of the source text.

A contextual analysis of both author and novel and an in-depth stylistic and narratological analysis of the novel, combining Nord's translation-oriented text analysis-model and style elements discussed in Leech and Short's "Style in Fiction", have provided a number of insights.

Macro-level devices can be found in Green's deviating grammar and syntax, including free indirect speech taking the form of interrogation, articles being replaced by demonstratives or being left out all together, and highly deviant punctuation causing grammatical anomalies. Micro-level devices that Green uses include themes, symbolism, swift focalisation changes, and phrasal motifs.

A tentative conclusion can be drawn from the theoretical framework and an additional translation of three sections of the novel: mostly macro-level devices can be easily copied into Dutch; others, mostly micro-­level ones, arguably invoke such a high sense of alienation in Dutch that they surpass the aim of the novel and have to be normalised to become eligible for acceptance by the target culture, even when formally corresponding constructions can be considered grammatical.