Chapter 19
The rationalisation of time references in the Italian
translations of L’Étranger
The purpose of this study is to examine what
strategies the Italian translators of Camus’s
L’Étranger have adopted to ensure the
preservation of the special treatment of time in the novel. Through
a contrastive analysis of the three texts in question, with
particular focus on the latest retranslation, I demonstrate that in
spite of the similar possibilities offered by the Italian and the
French temporal systems, the two Italian translations show
interesting differences in the usage of perfect tenses (especially
passato prossimo and passato
remoto) and temporal deixis. A tendency towards
rationalization of time sequences, in particular, emerges in the
translators’ numerous attempts to restore the non-linear temporal
constructions of the source-text to a traditional sequence of tenses
in Italian.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Two steps on the trail of Lo Straniero
- 3.Translating time references
- 3.1An original use of time
- 3.2Rationalisation of tenses
- 3.3Rationalisation of temporal deixis
- Conclusion
-
Notes
-
References