Didacticism in the Translation of Children’s Literature: A Case Study of Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies and Its Dutch Translations and Adaptations

Abstract

Through a close reading and comparative analysis of a number of passages from Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies and all its translations and adaptations published in the Netherlands, this paper explores the extent to which the Dutch target texts retain, adapt or omit the overt and passive didacticism concerning evolutionary theory, class and British supremacy. While child images are usually employed to explain a decrease in overt and to some extent passive didacticism in children’s literature and translations of children’s literature during the twentieth century, The Water Babies and its translations and adaptations demonstrate that not all didactic topics are treated in this same manner. While didacticism concerning evolutionary theory and British supremacy tends to disappear, Kingsley’s teachings about class are still present in the latest Dutch adaptation. Similarly, the treatment of didacticism concerning British supremacy is inconsistent, as prejudices against the Irish are for example omitted and adapted from the first translation onwards, whereas stereotypes of African-Americans are retained in the first target text. This shows that sociohistorical developments are a factor inherent to the translation of didacticism in children’s literature, as much as or perhaps even more so than child image.