tc dokuz eylül university institute of social sciences translation and ...

author puts before every reader from 7 to 70. Pacek explains this characteristic as
follows:
The fact that Alice functions on two levels nowadays might
have an effect on the translator’s approach to translation. If
the translator takes into account Carroll’s original intent, he
would be justified in treating Alice as a book for children
only. However, nowadays children do not enjoy the book to
the same extent that they did in the past. This can be best
illustrated by the fact that there have been numerous
simplified versions of Alice, while the original text is less
often read and appreciated by young readers. On the other
hand, as adults find the book a continual source of pleasure
and interest, it could be said that it has now become a book
for adults, and it would therefore seem quite legitimate to
translate Alice as a book predominantly for adults. The third,
and most challenging option, and perhaps the most satisfying
one, would be to render the book on both levels at the same
time (Pacek, 2002; 306).
The same aspect of the book was also discussed in Weissbord’s article,
whether it is read by children or adult readers. In Alice in Wonderland, the use of
puns has a central role in producing an ambivalent text, that is, one which can
function at one hand and the same time in children’s literature and in adult literature
(Weissbrod, 1996; 219). At the time when the book came out, it was the most
popular children’s book of the period in England (Green in Weissbord). Weissbrod
supports this opinion suggesting that Carroll himself did not comply with the
conventions of the children’s literature in that time in that he forsook the moral
which was the major characteristic of the children’s books in English children’s
literature until then, both realistic and fantastic. As a result of this, he adapted Alice
to the adult literary system and set it apart from other children’s books of that period
(Weissbrod, 1996; 222). We deduce from reference to Bertrand Russell that Alice
became so popular because it had no morals. That it was so different from others in
the same genre made it attractive to the children of that time. This situation is not the
same any more though. Shavit and other researchers of Carroll’s works believe that
nowadays adults read Alice much more than children do because the latter are
surrounded by easy-read or visual materials, which turns their attention away from
more demanding reading. For this reason, the adaptations of Alice are preferred by
40