Introduction-ISMU.docVIP

Introduction The aim of this thesis is to analyze and compare two Czech translations of a famous novel by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. One of the features this novel is special for is that it uses vernacular language and a number of dialects, which makes it very difficult to translate. For my thesis I chose the translation by Franti?ek Gel, published in 1954, and by Jana Mertinová, published more than fifty years later, in 2007. The thesis will explore how the individual translators approached the texts and how much translations differ in terms of style, the registers and the translation methods that each translator chose to use. The thesis consists of four main parts. The first part contains a brief summary of Mark Twain’s biography and the novel and also some information about both translators. In the second part I analyze the language and style of the original. It is divided into several subchapters according to the individual characters. I decided to analyze the voice of each of the chief characters of the novel separately because each of these voices is different and has its own specifics. The third part is focused on the translatability of these voices into Czech and the possible strategies. The most difficult to translate is probably the African American Vernacular English represented by the voice of Jim, but the other voices are challenging for the translators as well, for they are dialectal or contain dialectal features. There are several possible methods of translating dialect in literature. In this chapter I discuss which methods could be appropriate to use for the translation of this novel, how the translators approached the text and the extent to which they preserved the language diversity of the original. The final part of the thesis consists of the analysis and comparison of the translations. Again, the voice of each of the main characters of the novel is analyzed separately. I will attempt to analyze both texts in terms of voc