'A translator is but one player in the literary field who constantly has to make choices': A case study: Marriage/Ordeal (1963) by Gerard Walschap, translated by Alex Brotherton. (2nd January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wolters, Irvin
• Is Part Of: Dutch crossing. Volume 46:Number 1(2022)
• Page Start: 50
• Page End: 64
• Publication Date: 2022-01-02
• Subjects: Bibliotheca Neerlandica -- Alex Brotherton -- literary field -- copy-editor -- Sijthoff publishing company; Netherlands -- Periodicals; 949.2005
• DOI: 10.1080/03096564.2020.1812882
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0309-6564

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The Stichting tot Bevordering van de Vertaling van Nederlands Letterkundig Werk (The Foundation for the Promotion of the Translation of Dutch Literary Works) was a state-funded quasi-governmental organization established in 1954 to oversee the translation of Dutch literary works into a variety of languages until 1989. One of The Foundation's first key projects was the development of a series of Dutch imaginative works translated into English, eventually called the Bibliotheca Neerlandica, that would implicitly redress the imbalance in the international reception of Dutch literature and its fine-art counterpart in the Dutch Golden Age of painting. The translator, Alex Brotherton, was commissioned by The Foundation to translate three of the volumes and I selected one of these as my case study to consider whether his translation choices always met with success. On comparing his translation with the source text, I highlighted four key areas which were to challenge him and considered his decisions when dealing with proper names, foreign words within a text, titles and his fidelity to the source text. Brotherton was not the only player in the 1960s literary field and I considered others including publishing companies, the copy-editor and press reviews to ascertain the level of influence they had on the final published work.