CHAPTER 3: Pre-translation: analysis of the source text
3.3 Extratextual factors
3.3.2 Text-function, medium, literariness and non-verbal aspects of the text
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communicating directly with the target text audience (Nord, 2005:81). In effect, the reader of an instrumental translation would not be aware that the text was initially intended for another audience in another culture. Creating a foreignised translation of Kaburu will fall under the category of documentary translation, specifically an exoticising translation, because the
“local colour” of the source text is retained (Nord, 2005:80). The text environment is the most important source for information about the function of the text, but this can also be inferred from extratextual factors.
The intended text function of Kaburu was that it should be performed in Afrikaans as a play for the stage. This means that the reader who selects the book will know to expect a text that is in the format of a play and not, say, the format of a novel or anthology of poems. The title page states that it is a play for the stage. Text function is closely related to medium because medium is the way in which text function is achieved. Medium refers to the way the text is presented, either spoken or written. This is an important consideration for the translator because it influences the conditions of reception and production. More specifically, it will determine factors such as levels of explicitness, arrangement of arguments, semantic choice, cohesion and use of non-verbal elements. It is not always possible to clearly label texts as intended only for written or verbal communication but, in the case of Kaburu, as a play written for the stage, it is clear that the original text was intended for verbal communication.
Different mediums are associated with different technical aspects. In the case of verbal communication, aspects might include telephones, microphones, production, reception and comprehension of the text. In this context, ‘medium’ refers to the means by which information is presented. In written communication, the medium might be the print format of a newspaper, magazine, book, leaflet, brochure or any other subclassification (Nord,
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2005:64). Analysing the medium is useful because it provides information about the sender and recipient(s). In fact, Nord (2005:64) points out that the medium usually determines the recipient’s expectations about text function.
Kaburu was first presented to an audience as a production at an Afrikaans culture festival, Aardklop, in 2007. In this particular case, the function of the text is that it is a play for the stage and, as such, the medium is theatrical performance which includes spoken discourse (because, obviously, it was presented to its audience by actors who spoke their lines).
Because the play was extremely popular with audiences and performances, by their very nature, are transient and will not always be available in the future, the text was published in book form in 2008. The publication of the play does not change the actual text function, only the medium. Instead of being presented in spoken form by actors, the book form means that the text is now presented in written form as a play text.
When a dramatic text is presented as originally intended – in other words, performed on a stage by actors in front of an audience – its full theatrical potential can be realised. This is impossible when a text is only read by an individual reader outside the theatrical context.
The main reason for this is that reading by oneself deprives the ‘one-man audience’ of all the non-verbal elements that contribute to the realisation of a dramatic text’s theatrical potential.
Non-verbal elements are “signs taken from other, non-linguistic codes, which are used to supplement, illustrate, disambiguate, or intensify the message of the text” (Nord, 2005:118).
Often, in plays, the author intentionally creates tension between words and gestures and the translator might need to reproduce this in the target text. Non-verbal signs in written texts include elements of layout and format such as type and spacing. If “equivalence of effect” is required, the translator needs to analyse all these elements to determine how and if they must be rendered into the source language text (Nord, 2005:119-120). An analysis of non-
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verbal elements is very valuable because it can provide the translator with information about text composition, presuppositions, lexis and suprasegmental features, the intention of the sender, and text function (Nord, 2005:120). Nord (2005:121) points out that non-verbal elements are culture-specific, which means that some signs require extensive rendering to retain the intended meaning in the target text. According to Nord (2005:121), non-verbal elements are usually obvious and often predictable, but nevertheless require careful analysis, especially as far as their function is concerned.
Kaburu, as a play for the stage, has many non-verbal elements. In the stage directions, the playwright often specifies certain gestures and the movement of the characters. Sometimes, however, these specifications are extremely vague. For example: “Mother looks at Father and indicates that he should deal with grandmother” (Opperman, 2008:7). What this
‘indicates’ will be largely up to the imagination and artistic interpretation of both the actor and the director. The theatre is subject to certain conventions and conventions that differ between genres and cultures. Elam (1980) explains these conventions may include the fact that the actors normally face the audience when speaking (Elam, 1980:56), gestures are often exaggerated, lighting is adapted according to prescribed cues by the technical team (Elam, 1980:17), and numerous other elements. Actors need to be familiar with these conventions and have some discretion about how they choose to portray a particular character by their voice and body language, albeit within the limits of the conventions of the theatre and the director’s instructions (Elam, 1980:37). The non-verbal aspects of acting and directing are an important part of the theatrical potential of a text, because these can strongly influence the audience’s reception of a text. If they are neglected or executed poorly, it is possible that the audience will fail to appreciate the text as they might have done if the producer had been more sensitive to these elements. Of course, all of this is largely out of the hands of the translator, our main focus here. The translator can reproduce the
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instructions and non-verbal cues inserted by the author and provide a footnote if he or she feels a particular gesture might be misunderstood by the target language producer, but the execution of the stage directions is ultimately up to the production team of the actual performance of the play. An example of a gesture from Kaburu that might need a footnote is when the family members greet one another and the stage direction reads “Soengroet Ouma” (Opperman, 2008:13), which means Elna briefly kisses her grandmother on the lips in greeting. This is a very traditional form of greeting family members in the source language culture and is different from the European custom of cheek kissing. It is important to retain these culture specific non-verbal elements in a foreignised translation because it adds to the unique, foreign sense of the text. In order to ensure that receivers of the translated play understand which gesture is meant, the direction to “kiss Grandmother” will need to be expanded to include a specification of the kind of kiss involved. In Kaburu, the target text didascalia for this particular example reads as follows: kisses Grandmother lightly on the lips.
The characters’ gestures are not the only non-verbal elements in a play. The translator must also take into account how the stage is set and accurately render written descriptions of the scene(s) and significant elements that are shown on stage. The didascalia are regarded as part of the source text (i.e. they are intratextual); decisions about the rendition of specific aspects of the stage directions and scene descriptions will be discussed in chapter 4, specifically with regard to making directions more explicit.
When the translator reads for comprehension, internal factors are just as important as external factors. In the next section, I shall discuss the internal factors that are relevant to the comprehension phase of the translation process.
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