últimas corrientes teóricas en los estudios de traducción - Gredos ...

M. CRISTINA SOUSA–MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL SHOULD WE TRUST THE TRANSLATOR AT ALL?
The very young reader may need to be introduced to literature by being given easier
texts and stories to read in order to be induced to read and to want to continue reading.
But gradually he needs to read texts which will stimulate his thinking. He needs to be
introduced to foreign stories but not so changed that they’ve lost their foreign identity.
How can a young reader learn to respect foreignness if those who provide them with
translated books don’t? Jobe observes that Europeans accept translations as a daily part of
life because of the diversity of languages which exists in the European continent, and as a
result European publishers consider it important for children to have access to books from
many countries (1998 [1996]: 519), but are they providing their readers with true examples?
Joan Aiken’s The Willoughby Chase Series is a good example of how the young
reader’s mind can be stimulated. The set of nine stories comprising the series are set in a
period which resembles the Victorian 19th century in its social structure, language and
ambience but not in some of its events. Aiken’s handling of history and language is free,
and the contemporary attitude displayed particularly by her female heroes contrasts with
Victorian morality. This unusual combination allows Aiken to create stories which mix
dream with reality. But, as she explains, “this mixing dream with reality far from confusing
children, helps them to define the areas of both” (1977: 179). Younger readers may not be
familiar enough with history to notice the anachronisms, but in some of her books Aiken
provides explanatory notes indicating that the stories take place in a fictitious 19th century.
Although these notes, or the information provided in them, are not consistent, they
provide the reader with enough cultural knowledge to perform a minimally informed
reading of Aiken’s texts. In the translated books, however, the notes to the reader should
appear in all of them, and the information should be consistent in making it clear that the
stories take place in a fictitious 19th century. This would allow the less informed TL reader
to perform an informed reading, and thus appreciate Aiken’s inventiveness more.
The series starts with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, which, in Aiken’s own words
takes place in a period of English history which never happened – shortly after
the accession to the throne of Good King James III in 1832. At this time, the Channel
tunnel from Dover to Calais having been recently completed, a great many wolves, driven
by severe winters, had migrated through the tunnel from Europe and Russia to the British
Isles (1992 [1962]: 8).
The book tells the story of two young cousins, Bonnie and Sylvia, who rescue their
family home from the hands of unscrupulous people and introduces Simon, a young
orphan who lives in the forest. Its sequel, Black Hearts in Battersea, tells us of Simon’s
journey down to London to join a friend, Dr Gabriel Field. Once in London he lodges
with a cockney family and befriends their youngest daughter, the cockney waif Dido Twite,
and with her help he uncovers a conspiracy led by her own family and other conspirators.
These conspirators, the Hanoverians, favour George of Hanover as successor to the throne
of England and do anything in their power to try to dethrone James III. In this story Dido
is lost at sea. She is later rescued by a whaler which takes her to the coast of America.
Aboard this ship, Dido befriends the Captain who entrusts his daughter Penitence to her
and takes them to Nantucket where the rest of this next story, Night Birds on Nantucket,
takes place. Together, Dido and Penitence discover and foil another plot by the
Hanoverians who have hired a German Professor to build a gun big enough to blow up
London across the Atlantic. Dido sets sail back to England, but her ship is summoned by
the queen of New Cumbria who requires their help to recover her stolen lake. This book,
The Stolen Lake, is built on the supposition that the Ancient British migrated to South
America when the country was invaded by the Saxons (Aiken 1993 [1981]: 5). After King
Arthur is injured in battle and his sword is thrown into the lake, his queen, Guinevere,
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