Translating Time: The Stylistics and Translation of Time Representation in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse

Abstract

Although much has been written on time representation in fiction, most of this has been from a narratological perspective. The present work argues that stylistics equally contributes to this phenomenon, and investigates the stylistic aspects of time representation. The thesis begins with an overview of theoretical writings about time representation, necessarily focusing mostly on narratology. A number of existing analyses in the literature of time representation in fiction are then discussed, again mostly from a narratological perspective, with one exception. Then follows a general look at Virginia Woolf and her novel To the Lighthouse (1927), which serves as the work of analysis for this thesis. An original analysis is then given of time representation in "Time Passes", one of the three parts of this novel. Included is a translation into Dutch of the first eight chapters of "Time Passes". The process of and problems associated with translation, specifically with regard to the phenomenon of time representation, are discussed throughout the work. The main conclusion here relates to the difficulty in balancing a natural, idiomatic translation with faithfulness to the stylistic idiosyncrasies of the original. A comparison is also made to the sole existing Dutch translation of To the Lighthouse by Jo Fiedeldij Dop, which was made in 1981. The present work aims to show that stylistics has been underemphasized in favor of narratology when it comes to time representation in fiction. Indeed, a stylistic analysis can be quite informative in this regard. Additional stylistic analyses and investigations of different works of fiction would be quite welcome, would help to address the current lack of such analyses in the literature, and might lead to new insights into the manner in which authors can manipulate the phenomenon of time representation in fiction.