Relocating Self-Translation from the Interlingual to Intralingual: Faulkner as a Self-Translauthor

Abstract

American author William Faulkner (1897-1962) rewrites his book Sanctuary (1931) as the editor turns down the first manuscript claiming that they both would be jailed if it is published. In the source literary system, the discussion about the rewriting is confined to two reasons: the issue of morality and the artistic flaws in the original text. The point of departure in the present article, which aims to explore this rewriting process within the context of translation studies, is André Lefevere’s definition. Lefevere states that “every translation is a rewriting” (1992, vii). Considering this widely-accepted definition, this paper pursues an answer to the following questions: Is it (im)possible to call a ‘rewriting’ a translation? And if the ‘rewriting’ is within the same language, can we call it an ‘intralingual translation?’ As Faulkner rewrites his own text himself, could this be a ‘self-translation’ as well?. ‘Self-translation’ is defined with reference to a bilingual writer who writes his own text in another language. If bilingualism is imperative for ‘self-translation’, then, is it (im)possible to call it a ‘self-translation’ when a writer rewrites his own text in the same language? The question whether the analyzed case can be regarded as an ‘intralingual self-translation’ will be examined according to Gideon Toury’s translation norms. A comparative textual analysis of the original text and the revised text will be carried out to display the findings that will be discussed in the framework of Toury’s method for descriptive translation studies.

Keywords

• intralingual translation
• self-translation
• rewriting
• translation norms
• translauthor