Erlend Loe's style in translation: The differing voices of first- and second-language translators

Abstract

Translation into the translator’s second language, although quite a regular occurrence nowadays, is generally viewed as an unaccepted practice. This might be why non-evaluative studies of texts translated by second-language translators are few and far between. Taking a descriptive approach, we compare, in this article, the translation of the stylistic features of one Norwegian author, Erlend Loe, into English by two first-language translators and one second-language translator. What we found was that the overall strategy of the first-language translators was more domesticating than that of the second-language translator, whose own, culturally-tinged voice was much more strongly manifest. The article discusses possible reasons for this difference, such as differences in the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of the translators, differing degrees of editorial intervention, and/or differing degrees of experience of the translators. We conclude that even though the results could point towards a principled difference between first- and second-language translation, more research of a similar kind is needed to ascertain that there is indeed such difference.