Robinson Crusoe retold and retranslated into Romanian (1835–2023): From mimesis to telesis
Robinson Crusoe retold and retranslated into Romanian (1835–2023): From mimesis to telesis

Summary/Abstract: Our attempt to construe the ways in which translation redefines texts for children is based on a corpus (i.e., Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe translated into Romanian) which spans three centuries. Our conjectures are based on an in-depth analysis of a selection of 11 out of 36 identifiable Romanian versions, the main criteria for selection being their availability but also their relevance to the various periods in the history of translations and to the history of the Romanian language (which often went hand in hand). The selection goes accordingly from 1835 (the probable date of the first translation of Crusoe’s story – rather than text – into Romanian) up until 2023 (when the latest version came on the market), with equally interesting editions (published in 1899, 1900, 1908, 1943, 2017, 2018, and 2022, respectively) in-between. The aspects we examine are the relationship between translation and adaptation; the reasons behind retranslation (among which linguistic change, ideological change, corrective change); the ways in which retranslation has redefined Robinson Crusoe; the (inverse) relationship between the two basic purposes modulating (translated) children’s literature (namely to teach and to entertain). Since our selection covers three centuries, they are tagged according to the prevailing ideology regarding the translation of children’s literature (e.g. translation norms, translation practice) at the time. Therefore, we consider nineteenth-century translations to be largely governed by mimesis, the twentieth century could be characterized by synopsis and meiosis, and the dawn of the twenty-first century does point to a sort of which will hopefully move towards telesis (if intelligently planned and directed). For a transnational approach, we contrast our case-study with the situation in France (which represented a model and an influence in various key moments of the Romanian translation history) and the situation in the Republic of Moldova (which was, in turn, influenced by the Romanian situation).

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