Translating Tammsaare: Pearu Murakas’ character speech in Vargamäe, volume I of Truth and Justice

Abstract

Character speech is essential in representing the characters of a literary work and creating a plausible image of communication between said characters. For that reason, it is often characterized by features not inherent to written language, such as colloquial expressions, the use of slang or dialect or obscure sentence structures, creating a sense of orality. Attempting to replicate such effect in translation could prove to be a challenge due to specific cultural or semantic subtext and might result in the occurrence of a phenomenon called the deforming tendencies of translation. The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to analyse the potential deforming tendencies present in the translation of the character speech of Pearu Murakas in Vargamäe, volume I of Truth and Justice by A.H. Tammsaare. The introduction provides an overview of the background of the novel, its author and translation, also including a brief overview of the methodology used and a description of the structure of the thesis. The first part of the thesis introduces the translators of the novel and their background. The second part of the thesis provides an overview of the literature regarding character speech and potential issues related to its translation. It also includes an overview of the primary theoretical source, the theory of deforming tendencies of translation by Antoine Berman. The third part focuses on the analysis of the character speech and its translation, having been divided into three subsections according to different points of focus.