Description
Shaping Dorian Gray’s hedonism through translation
Marina Sofia Vlachou
M.A. ‘English Language, Linguistics and Translation’, Specialization ‘Translation Studies and Interpreting’
The theme of identity is immensely important in translating Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). This study explores how the identity of the main character emerges in two translations of the novel (1947 Alexandrou, 1989 Theodorakopoulos) and which aspect of identity may be highlighted in each one of them. The study makes use of Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) three levels of identity: the individual, interpersonal and group levels. It explores (a) the level of identity potentially favoured in the translations, which are 42 years apart and (b) the impact of face in shaping identity (Spencer-Oatey 2007), drawing on a rhetorical and critical perspective (Martin and Nakayama 2003), which focuses on contextual and social factors. Shaping the identity of Dorian Gray in each translation is the outcome of manipulating the use of a number of pragmatic phenomena. Findings show that each translator intuitively draws on a different level of Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) model, diversifying the social reality Dorian Gray’s character emerges from. The 1947 (Alexandrou) version rather highlights the interpersonal level of identity while the 1989 version (Theodorakopoulos) highlights the individual level, presumably drawing on prevailing ideological positions emerging in the context of their time. The study is an attempt to apply Brewer and Gardner’s theory in the translation of fiction and advance understanding of aspects of culture which may contribute to improving audience reception of plays.
