“Somehow She Wound up Atop Him” - Feminist Ideological Shifts in Dutch
Translations of Romance Novels
Anna Post Uiterweer 10192336
MA Linguistics: translation studies Master Thesis
Table of Contents
Abstract...3
1. Introduction...4
1.1. The ideological problem in romance novels...4
1.1.1. The romance novels...4
1.1.2. The ideological problem...5
1.2. The romance novel abroad...6
2. Theoretical framework...8
2.1. Translation as rewriting...8
2.1.1. Patronage: focus on the skopos...8
2.1.2. Professionals: the translators...10
2.2. Research Question...11
2.3. Methodology...12
2.3.1. Acquisition of materials and professionals...12
2.3.2. Analysis of source text and target text...13
3. Analysis of Translator Interviews...15
3.1.1. Translator experience...15
3.1.2. Shortening Romance Novels...17
3.2. Discussion of translator experiences within Lefevere theory...18
3.2.1. Patronage – the skopos...18
3.2.2. Professionals: translator freedoms...19
3.3. Tying things together...20
4. A quantitative analysis of shifts in female agency...22
4. 1. Total shifts in male and female agency...22
4.1.1. Discussion...23 4.1.2. Difficulties...23 4.2. Types of shifts...26 4.2.1. Summarizing strategies...26 4.2.2. Rephrasing...28 4.2.3. Deletion...29
4.2.4. Strategies involving explicit processes...30
5. A qualitative analysis of the role of the woman within the sex scenes...31
5.1. Female activation...31
5.1.1. Choice of verb...31
5.1.2. Passive to active sentence structure...33
5.1.3. Autonomous body parts...34
5.1.4. Change in agency...36
5.1.5. Other...37
5.2. Four problematic themes...38
5.2.1. Shifts in virginity representation...38
5.2.2. Shifts in consent...40
5.2.3. Shifts in depiction of pain or discomfort...44
5.3.4. Shifts in male dominance...47
6. Conclusion...51
6.1. An overview of results...51
6.2. How are shifts achieved?...52
6.3. Who causes these shifts?...53
6.3.1 The patronage – publisher and skopos...54
6.3.2. The translators...55
Bibliography...57
Appendix I – Blank interview...60
Abstract
This thesis deals with the unfeminist ideologies found in paperback romance novels, and the way the Dutch translators of this genre deal with these. Central to this thesis lies the question why and how these ideological shifts come about. Within the standardized genre of the romance novel, publishers maintain a strict set of rules and guidelines to make all publications fit the mold. This mold is changed and adapted to its reader base. Yet freedom in translation is often recommended, as the end-goal is a covert translation that entertains its reader. This thesis investigates where these ideological shifts originates: with the publisher, or with the translator, mainly by inquiring several translators of the genre about their perceived freedoms and restrictions. Furthermore, this thesis looks into the exact areas of the ideological shifts and tries to pinpoint which topics are most often changed or adapted. It also looks at the role of the woman in the initial sex scenes and, through the frameworks introduced by Halliday and Van Leeuwen, assesses how shifts in her level of agency or activation come about.
1. Introduction
The dominant, active male and submissive, passive female as role models in romance fiction has been a staple of romantic literature for many years. These relationships are presented, and appreciated by many, as a romance where the woman is safe and protected by the man, who leads her into a life of sexual adventure. However, many have also pointed out the inherent problematic ideology behind the text: with the newly released second movie based on the Fifty Shades of Grey series, once again a discussion has started about the fine line between romantic fiction and the idealization of abusive relationship dynamics; the novel has spawned activity such as the #FiftyShadesIsAbuse campaign, which states on its website that the series “normalizes and glamorizes a story of sexual and domestic abuse as if it is a story of true love and romance. This franchise cultivates and perpetuates the rape culture that now permeates our society” (http://endsexualexploitation.org/fiftyshadesgrey), rejecting the unchallenged depiction and glorification of women as meek, passive creatures, unable to consent to sexual activity.
Of course, the idea of the woman being passively submissive and reliant on a man is not a concept exclusive to literature: ideologies such as these originate in society, and through its prevalence in literature that reflects this ideology, the idea that this is the ‘right’ way to be is once again reinforced and the status quo is reaffirmed. Especially in escapist fiction such as romance novels, created to be enjoyed without having to challenge either oneself or one’s ideas about society, these unfeminist ideologies are rampant and remain unchallenged. In this thesis, I wish to expand this current debate to an older and more established genre: the serialized genre known as ‘romance novels’, and look at how translators deal with these ‘problem ideologies’. First I will discuss the genre of the romance novel and identify its problematic ideology, after which I will look at the Dutch translation process and the aspects of society – publisher, skopos, and translator – that could influence the way the ideology in the romance novels is represented and, perhaps, changed in translation. What follows is my own analysis of translators and translations regarding these ideological points.
1.1. The ideological problem in romance novels 1.1.1. The romance novels
A similar dynamic as outlined above is found in the genre known as ‘romance novels’, or sometimes ‘paperback romance’, a type of literature that focuses on the romantic relations between a man and a woman, with a strong focus on the female character. Work by Jane Austen is often considered to have paved the way for the genre: in the 1950s, her novels spurned a type of romantic
fiction that took on the character driven narratives of these originals, the prototypical characterization (the Byronic hero), and the target audience of women rather than men (Abrams, Harpman; 351). Many of these offshoot romance novels take place in the times of their preliminaries, although there is also a significant portion of modernized romance novels, or chick-lit. Romance novels appear in serialized form: monthly paperbacks, often collected through unagented writer submissions with somewhat interchangeable, predictable plots that function first and foremost as an escapist story with a formulaic nature: what you expect is what you get. The Harlequin Submission Guidelines gives the following description of these plots: “a sustained conflict between the hero and heroine leading to a Happily Ever After is at the heart of every story” (harlequin.com/shop/pages/write-for-harlequin.html).
In America, these paperback novels are published at a high rate by publishers like Avon Romance, Kensington’s Zebra Books, Mills & Boon, and the well-known and internationally operating Harlequin, dedicated predominantly to the serialized romance novel. Incidentally, many of these publishers fall under the umbrella of HarperCollins Publishers, which reaches a global audience from its headquarters in New York (corporate.harpercollins.com/about-us/company-profile). Nowadays, even these serialized paperbacks have split up into dozens of subgenres. The genre has expanded to include romance featuring queer/LGBT protagonist, science fiction elements, post-apocalyptic scenarios, or even archetypal horror stories, but the bulk of the genre still features heterosexual characters in a modern or historic real world setting.
1.1.2. The ideological problem
As said, romance novels function mainly as escapist literature and are entirely predictable and formulaic. Christine Wood outlines the prototypical plot as following: “The heterosexual romance novel follows formulaic conventions. A socially isolated woman encounters an aristocratic man. Initially, they repel each other … After separation, the hero redeems himself in a display of tenderness” (372-373). This formulaic approach can be problematic: by fulfilling expectations, persistent norms and gender roles are justified through the depiction and interaction of the characters: Mary Ryder points out that “one would expect the story's main protagonist to fill the role of entity, the agent, in many if not most of the events in a popular fiction novel. However, the ideal heroine should most often be filling the role of entity, the patient” (1069). This pattern closely aligns with the values society wishes to impose on women: Leslie W. Rabine references “[Harlequin’s] work to recuperate women’s subversive fantasies into structures of patriarchal
power” (qtd. in Regis, 4), and Kay Mussell sums up these core values as “belief in the primacy of love in a woman’s life, female passivity in romantic relationships, support for monogamy in marriage, reinforcement of domestic values” (qtd. in Regis, 5). Some of these novels even make this antifeminist ideology explicit, as pointed out by Laura Vivanco who found that “they either explicitly critiqued moves towards equality or they ended with the hero exerting significant control over the heroine in some way” (1062). The unfeminist ideology remains unchallenged, and the sugar-coated story surrounding it will also, once again, cement the supposed benefit of these norms.
These portrayals reach a zenith in the depiction of sex in the novels: the sex scenes often depict a somewhat uncomfortable situation in which the woman takes an entirely passive role while expressing an open dislike towards the man, making the sexual experience seem anything but consensual. One could certainly argue that some of the depictions of romance in these books approaches the dynamic presented in 50 shades of Grey, which is often claimed to glorify abusive behavior. Female passivity is displayed throughout the book, but becomes most problematic in these scenes when the heroine seems incapable of showing consent. By presenting itself as an innocent and romantic love story the passive and submissive portrayal of the woman reaffirms archaic and problematic gender norms, while at the same time normalizing an abusive dynamic. Guidelines for submission to Avon Romance, for example, includes the phrase “fabulously sexy heroes who let nothing get in the way of getting what they want—the heroine of course—and giving her everything she needs” (avonromance.com/impulse/), which contains an undercurrent of a man laying claim on the desired ‘object’ of his choice, with or without her consent.
I would like to state, however, that there is no inherent problem in a dynamic in which a man takes on a dominant role within a relationship or sexual activity, and the woman plays the part of the submissive, as long as both parties made the conscious decision to take part in such a dynamic. In romance novels, however, the woman is presented as too passive or innocent (reaffirmed through the focus on her virginity) to make this decision, and the abusive behavior is presented as a normal or desirable relationship, instead of simply one of the many possible directions in which to take a relationship or sexual encounter.
1.2. The romance novel abroad
The romance novel is most commonly written and published in English speaking areas, predominantly the United States of America. However, the genre is translated into a wide variety of languages. The Netherlands has always known two main publishers who specialize in paperback romance: the now defunct Candlelight, part of Audax publishing, and Harlequin Romance, owned by the Dutch branch of HarperCollins. Candlelight focused exclusively on the historical romance,
the kasteelroman, while Harlequin offers its readers romance novels of several types, including the ‘clean’ and modern Bouquetreeks, the steamy Intiem, the Doktersroman, and even novels with Thriller elements (although non-heterosexual paperback romance remains absent from the Dutch market).
All books are somewhat similar at their core. Most follow the plot conventions outlined above, and contain the same predictable elements familiar to the readers. Furthermore, each publisher has its own manual which specifies a certain type of formula that needs to be adhered to by the translators. Both style guides offer an overview of the kind of final project the publishers expect. The Harlequin nieuwe aanwijzingen voor vertalers wishes to see “een goed leesbaar boek in stilistisch en grammaticaal correct Nederlands [...], dat recht doet aan de auteur en haar/zijn oorspronkelijke tekst, en vooral ook aan de sfeer van het verhaal” (n.p.), allowing for a certain freedom in the target text: “het bovenstaande kan in een aantal gevallen betekenen dat u van de letterlijke tekst moet afwijken om tot de beste Nederlandse weergave te komen. Een zekere vrijheid van vertalen is dan ook geoorloofd – soms zelfs noodzakelijk – met dien verstande dat het oorspronkelijke verhaal nooit ondergesneeuwd mag raken door een te rijke fantasie van de vertaler” (n.p.). Similarly, the Candlelight Handboek states that “de vertaling hoeft geen letterlijke weergave te zijn van de Engelse tekst. Het gaat erom dat het een prettig leesbare vertaling wordt in correct Nederlands. In de vertalingen mogen geen Engelse constructies doorklinken” (n.p.).
An interview with editor Susan van de Klucht of the Dutch Harlequin by Cees Koster even brought to light that “de meest voorkomende fouten die door de eindredactie worden gecorrigeerd, worden vaak veroorzaakt door de neiging van sommige vertalers om te dicht bij het origineel te willen blijven” (36), showing a preference for the Dutch final product to be as dynamically equivalent as possible. These expectations once again echo the function of the novel: an escapist fantasy, a pleasant read, and this function is more important than particular stylistic choices made by the author.
The editors focus on the translation as an independent text, rather than as a reflection of a source text: “De eindredactie vindt in principe plaats op basis van de vertaling alleen. ‘Pas als er dingen niet kloppen, of als je er echt helemaal niks meer van begrijpt, leg je het origineel ernaast om te kijken of er een vertaalfout is gemaakt. [...] Maar als het goed is, als je echt een goeie vertaling voor je hebt, hoef je het origineel er nauwelijks bij te pakken’” (Koster, 36). This shows that, as long as a translator creates a translation that entertains and reads like a Harlequin
publication in terms of story and tone – a covert translation that can be read as if it is an original work and should aim to be as familiar to its new audience as it would be to its original readers – he or she gains the freedom to change, enhance or adapt the text according to their own wishes, within the boundaries of the ‘formula’. The pragmatic function of the translation that strives for a dynamic equivalence may even encourage these liberties. And it is exactly this pragmatic stance regarding the translation that opens up the possibility for ideological changes and rewriting.
2. Theoretical framework 2.1. Translation as rewriting
The idea of translation as an act of rewriting is introduced by Lefevere in his book Translation,
Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. Translators, among other rewriters, “adapt,
manipulate the originals they work with to some extent, usually to make them fit in with the dominant, or one of the dominant ideological […] currents of their time” (8). This rewriting occurs under the influence of the professionals and the patronage, who “count on these professionals to bring the literary system in line with their own ideology” (16). Due to their commercial nature, the patronage of the Candlelight and Harlequin publishers aim to please their audience and keep a close connection to them. Therefore, the reader base of the books and their needs are vital to the publishers to generate a profit. The change in ideology, then, could in part be explained by a difference in audience; the writers write for the American market, the translators translate for the Dutch readers.
2.1.1. Patronage: focus on the skopos
The genre, and the ideology it contains, reaches a large audience: Ann Eike writes that romance novels “had increased unit sales from 19 million to 109 million by 1977 and represented an estimated 16 percent of total mass market paperbacks sold” (26), and Carol Ricker-Wilson states that “a startling 48.6 percent of all mass market paperbacks presently published in North America are popular romances” (57). The Dutch audience does not differ much, according to Kraaykamp: “59% van alle boekenlezende vrouwen van 18 tot 29 jaar geeft aan romantisch te lezen. Bij het toenemen van de leeftijd neemt de belangstelling voor romantische lectuur significant af tot zo’n 34% van de vrouwen na het veertigste levensjaar” (126). Generally speaking, the audience is young, or starts reading romance novels at a younger age.
Despite this large audience, the novels have rarely been taken seriously in academia, which is a shame. In my previous unpublished term paper on the topic, I explored the reasons why a female American audience may seek out these novels that have a somewhat abusive sexual dynamic. Through investigation of Brugman, Caron, and Rademakers’s research on the sexual education and attitude of young American women, and Bivona & Critelli’s article on the nature of women’s rape fantasies, I speculated that the American audience finds a refuge in the genre. The women are made to feel ashamed of their own sexuality and desires, learning that their sexuality exists predominantly to satisfy a man’s sexual appetite – “‘Satisfying him’ and “He is in charge”— are examples of maintaining a sexual double standard, in that the young women reported how their boyfriends had different sex drives” (Brugman et al., 42) – and that a woman seeking any type of sexual contact is a sign of a moral deficiency.
In order to make erotic fiction acceptable to American women who grew up with these ideologies, the women in the book are coerced or forced into a sexual activity – putting the blame outside of themselves. Bivona, Clark & Critelli mention this theory, “rape fantasies allow women with high sex guilt to avoid blame and anxiety. Because the fantasy involves force, she cannot be blamed for its sexual content” (33), as well as a theory based around desirability, “the rape fantasy portrays the woman as so attractive, seductive, and irresistible that, in her presence, men cannot control themselves” (Bivona et al., 1108), two themes commonly experienced by the female protagonist in romance novels. On one hand, these themes allows women to explore their sexuality through fiction, but on the other hand, these novels then reaffirm the ‘truth’ of these notions, offering them an experience without liberation from their ideas. According to Brugman et al., however, this typical narrative that mitigates a woman’s ‘forbidden’ sexual desires, is not needed in the Netherlands: “The Dutch college women expressed great comfort with sexuality ... including comfort with their own sexual pleasure” (41). An ideology such as the one spread by the American romance novel may, therefore, not be fit for the Dutch audience.
Catering to the difference in skopos is certainly a concern, as the Filter interview proves: “ik kijk ook of het verhaal niet te Amerikaans is. De boekjes moeten wel aansluiten bij de belevingswereld van onze lezeressen” (35), and explicit sexual violence is unwanted: “Soms zijn er verhalen waar bijvoorbeeld een verkrachting in voorkomt, maar ik vind dat dat niet in zo’n boekje past. Dat gaat mij te ver” (35.). There seems to be an awareness of the occasional sexual aggression depicted in the American stories, and the difference in ideological preference between the American market and the Dutch audience. Novels featuring such an unwanted ideology do not make it through
the selection process and remain untranslated. Creating a covert translation, therefore, may also involve adapting some of the less overtly sexually aggressive scenes to the wishes and expectations of the Dutch readers.
2.1.2. Professionals: the translators
Another reason for ideological changes in the genre could be, as Lefevere outlines, influenced by professionals themselves, including translator choice. It is likely to imagine that a woman (as translators of romance novels are often women) working as a translator – a somewhat competitive field that requires a certain level of skill and education – will be emancipated to some level, and at the very least perceives herself as a woman capable of action beyond the finding of a husband – although, of course, the same could be said for the authors of the American novels. The fact remains, though, that Dutch translators of romance novels may adhere more closely to common Dutch ideologies, just like their audience, and therefore also display a distaste of the somewhat more sexually aggressive passages present in the American source texts.
Another aspect inherent to the genre of romance novels is the rigid word count or page limit, which more often than not means that the translator will have to omit or shorten passages and elements. The Filter interview warns: “Veel vertalers vinden dat blijkbaar toch lastig; ze halen net de dingen eruit die jeu geven aan het verhaal. Het verhaal is dan nog wel te volgen, maar het leuke is eraf ‒ dat is natuurlijk niet de bedoeling” (35-36), but despite these common errors, clear instructions are not given. The Harlequin Nieuwe Aanwijzingen offers seven ‘golden rules’:
1. Vraag u af wat - naast het verloop van de romance - het verhaal bijzonder maakt en zorg dat u dat behoudt.
2. Zoek vervolgens eerst naar (overbodige) herhalingen of eventuele overduidelijke 'vulling'.
3. Bedenk of het verhaal gebaat is bij een compacte vertaling (dit hangt van de stijl van de auteur af).
4. Kijk of er erg veel overpeinzingen in het verhaal voorkomen en of daarin wat gesnoeid kan worden zonder dat de handelingen van de held of heldin minder begrijpelijk (of invoelbaar) worden.
5. Ga nooit 'samenvatten' - dan blijft er niets van het verhaal over.
6. Ga ook niet automatisch in de beschrijvende gedeelten schrappen; die kunnen erg belangrijk zijn voor de sfeer van het verhaal. Bovendien houden veel lezers juist van de beschrijvingen van de oorden waarin de hoofdpersonen verzeild raken.
However, in the end it is up to the translator to intuitively feel what is important for the translation, and what is not. This automatically turns the translation into somewhat of a rewritten account of the source text, which shows traces of the translator, even if the translator is unaware of these changes.
Within the area of sexuality, both publishers seem to have a clear concept of what is ‘just right’. Harlequin strives to create an erotic equilibrium: “het gevaar bij zulke passages is dat het al gauw belachelijk wordt ... of het wordt te ranzig ... en dat is natuurlijk ook niet goed. De toon moet wel bij de erotiek passen” (Koster, 36). Handboek Candlelight makes a similar statement, “Het is niet eenvoudig de juiste toon te treffen; het wordt al gauw plastisch en plat. De lezer moet zeker beelden kunnen oproepen bij de scènes, maar het moet niet ordinair worden” (n.p.), and offers clear rules regarding word choices: “Woorden die moeten worden vermeden in de Historische Romans zijn: penis, vagina, klaarkomen, orgasme, […] Gebruik begrippen als: zijn mannelijkheid, zijn hardheid, lid, erectie” (n.p.). These changes and guidelines offer constraints, but also bring about a sense of freedom.
An interesting related experiment at Vertaalslag 2012, in which a Harlequin translator and literary translator were asked to translate a sex scene from a romance novel, illustrates this sense of freedom within constraints. Martine Woudt writes: “vergelijking met de vertaling van Roswitha Pennewip [the Harlequin translator], leerde ons dat Roswitha de dingen meer terugbrengt tot de essentie en zich veel vrijheden permitteert: ze kort in, laat weg, verfraait, comprimeert, strijkt glad en versluiert … de tekst moet romantisch en bondig zijn. En hoewel dat de vertaler beperkt, geeft het ook vrijheid” (37). This freedom may encourage translators to make significant changes in translation from source text to target text: the scene has to be adapted to fit the rules and regulations, and may contain traces of the translator and, perhaps, ideological shifts
2.2. Research Question
In this thesis, I wish to explore how translators of romance novels deal with these ideologies within the freedoms inherent to the genre’s translation process: ideologies that are likely not in line with the translator’s own personal ideologies, or those of its audience. In my previous unpublished term paper, I discovered that there are many instances in several Candlelight translations in which a translator rejected instances of female passivity in favor of a heroine with agency and some level of control over the situation. In this thesis, I wish to take this research further and explore how and why ideological shifts occur in Dutch translations of American romance novels. This question
involves two parts that need further elaboration through subquestions: as for how they come about, I would like to investigate which topics are most prone to change and which strategies are involved to create these. As for why they come about, I wish to investigate the influence of patronage and professionals, and the different roles they play in facilitating the ideological shifts. Within these two subquestions, I wish to create a distinction between what translators themselves experience and what the investigation of the books themselves lay bare.
2.3. Methodology
2.3.1. Acquisition of materials and professionals
The first step in finding an answer to my research question has been te acquisition of material. I have approached five translators by employing the snowball method – recruiting people through acquaintances of acquaintances and so on – and an additional four by asking for translators with experience working in the genre in an online space for literary translators, the email-based Yahoo group Boekvertalers (groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/boekvertalers/info), and asked for a selection of translated books. I have also included my own work, and my opinions as a professional. From these acquired books, I selected two books by each translator to analyze. My rule of thumb in this selection was to prioritize books with similar authors, and a large variety of dates, publishers, and series. Sadly, my selection has been limited by the availability of the source texts themselves, often supplied by translators or acquired as epub on scribd.com.
As outlined above, the problem in romance novels lies mainly in the depiction of the female protagonist, especially in regards to the sex scenes. The woman is written as passively led by the man, her virginity and innocence are emphasized, and often the consent is either questionable, or not explicitly vocalized to the man. My previous research for an unpublished term paper revealed that translations of Candlelight novels contain notable changes in the areas of female activation, and deletion of passages that display this ideology. For this reason, I have included the initial sex scene in each novel for analysis.
The choice to approach the translators personally, instead of opting for a more random selection of novels, has been fueled by my wish to start the research by means of a questionnaire answered by the translators. Thankfully, all translators were willing to participate. The questionnaire presented has been included in Appendix I of this thesis. Through these questions I endeavored to create an overview of strategies employed by translators when shortening or changing the text – “het inkorten” – which helped me to establish the categories that I used for the analysis of the novels. Furthermore, I have tried to find signs of a translator’s ideological stance and any statements made on changes being preferred by either patronage or professionals. Due to the fact
that the answers to these interviews led the way I categorized my analysis – according to strategies mentioned by translators – this section has been included prior to the textual analysis.
2.3.2. Analysis of source text and target text
In the second section I delve into the analysis of the novels. To establish guidelines for this analysis, I have divided up my research by analyzing the text using two different theories – Halliday and Van Leeuwen – which investigate female activity and passivity throughout the scenes, my main focus, from different angles.
The first quantitative analysis follows Halliday’s theory on verb types and participants and processes. Within the field of the text, the representation of the events, I have indexed all material processes – ones that “express the notion that some entity ‘does’ something – which may be done ‘to’ some other entity” (110), and made note of who is represented as being the actor in said events. In some instances, I have shifted from the theory as described by Halliday. For one, I have limited myself to observable material verbs that happen within the scene. Wishes, possibilities, intended actions, and reflections on past events are excluded from analysis, unless the entire scene takes place in memory. In these cases, all observable material processes within the scene of the memory are included.
Romance novels feature a lot of verbs that indicate a sound, or a movement of the eyes. I have excluded most eye movements (blinking, gazing), despite the fact that these actions are occasionally portrayed through movement of the eyes. Only processes concerning the opening or closing of eyes are counted. Verbs such as breathing, shouting, grunting, inhaling are considered verbal processes and are not counted. Any facial movement that indicates either a smile or a frown are considered to fall into these categories as well and have therefore been excluded. Changes in agency in these depictions of emoting are usually a matter of differences in idiom.
Furthermore, I have discarded involuntary physical reactions such as shuddering, shivering or throbbing, and movements of body parts that cannot be controlled, but have included movements made by body parts such as hands, heads or legs that can easily be operated. I have included certain instances of long term actions, such as standing and sitting, since the duration of these actions depends on the context and is not usually clear. Only when the text refers to one of these processes as having started previously and being ongoing, have I omitted the verbs from analysis due to the fact that the motion could not be perceived at that point.
After this overview, I conduct a more qualitative analysis in which I look for possible notable mismatches within the way the depiction of events – the ones counted and the ones ecluded from the previous analysis – and the role of the woman herein, shifts, especially in terms of activity and passivity. Within this analysis, I will focus mainly on (subtle) shifts within the agent/patient dichotomy, according to Van Leeuwen’s theory, which focuses on “the role that social actors are given to play in representations … who is represented as an ‘agent’ (actor), who as a ‘patient’ (goal)” (42-43), also called ‘activation’ and ‘passivation’, which can lay bare subtle shifts within the power relations between the characters.
I will also look at how much agency these agents are given in the text: an ‘automatic’ movement makes the subject less active than a ‘deliberate’ movement. Furthermore, while autonomously operating body parts have been categorized under the owner of said body part, it is my opinion that a sentence in which a personal pronoun is the agent contains a stronger sense of agency than when the action is performed by a body part alone. Mismatches where the subject changes from body part to whole have therefore been considered instances of activation. By comparing the level of passivity in the source text with that in the target text, I wish to see if the woman is activated in translation, or if the instances of activation are countered with instances of passivation, and also whether or not the agency she is offered is limited to experiencing the situation, rather than acting.
Other areas of interests that I wish to analyze within this qualitative analysis include possible mismatches in references to four typical problem areas: the depiction of female virginity or innocence in original and translation, sentences that involve the giving of explicit consent, explicit discomfort shown by the woman at any point during the sexual activities, and commanding language or aggressive behavior displayed by the man. My term paper showed that many of the deleted parts in the sex scenes analyzed, featured instances such as these. Translators may opt to present these issues in a different way, offering their own views on the situation through changes in language, or omission of 'offending' passages.
Once completed, I will draw all information together to draw a conclusion on the why and the how of the shifts that come to light through analysis and interview.
3. Analysis of Translator Interviews 3.1.1. Translator experience1
Overall, the experience of translators of romance novels seems to be somewhat similar, regardless of publisher. Translators that have worked for both publishers, Renée Zwijsen and Marion Drolsbach, do not mention any particular differences. A common sentiment is that the translation experience is a good first step in the profession. Lydia Meeder says: “het is een mooie leerschool geweest,” and Emmy van Beest says: “Als beginnend vertaler leer je snelheid te maken”, although Marie van der Lely (pseudonym) stresses that Harlequin does not hire absolute beginners without skill: “Je moet een heel proces door voordat je wordt ‘aangenomen’. Je moet een proefvertaling doen die heel streng wordt beoordeeld.”
The freedom inherent to the genre seems to be the most common positive aspect expressed by the translators. Marie-Louise van Dongen says: “Je mag/moet heel vrij vertalen, wat leuk is; een hele uitdaging soms.” I, Anna Curvers (pseudonym), mention that this freedom is helpful in the development of style and translation skills, and Van der Lely even calls it (essential) rewriting, admitting to feeling like she is writing a book, herself. Taking this freedom to rework certain aspects of the novels is also necessary, as Meeder points out: “Het vertalen ... móét zelfs vrijer, omdat er vaak inconsequenties in de verhaallijn zitten en de stijl weleens houterig of juist te krullerig wil zijn”. This point is stressed by the two translators who have also worked as editors: Meeder, editor at Harlequin, again, states that the end goal of the translating and the editing of the novels should be a book that is enjoyable to read, and Ellis Post Uiterweer, previous editor at Audax, admits to never having used the manustript because, again, “het ging om een prettig lezend verhaal.”
Translators were satisfied with the contact they had with the publishers and described having discussed questions or issues. Drolsbach describes: “Ze reageerden vlot op vragen of opmerkingen en het mailcontact was vriendelijk”, Van Beest points out: “je kon altijd terecht met vragen”, and Ellis Post Uiterweer even remembers becoming friends with one of the editors. One negative acpect was the availability of the editors, according to Meeder: “Het contact met de bureauredactie van Harlequin was altijd prima, al kan het lastig zijn dat die slechts één dag per week op kantoor komt”, and Zwijsen: “De contacten zijn sporadisch, oppervlakkig en eigenlijk uitsluitend via e-mail.”
1
Interestingly enough, most translators do not consider themselves a fan of the genre. Only two translators described having read them prior to starting their work as a translator for the publishers – Van Dongen mentions having read the novels mainly as a way to escape day-to-day stress, and Myrte Hamburg admits to having read many as a teenager. Most translators describe being introduced to the genre through their work as a translator, but don’t necessarily enjoy reading the novels – Van Beest: “Ook nu ik er een aantal zelf heb vertaald, ben ik geen liefhebber van het genre” and Meeder: “Het enige wat me eraan bevalt is dat het betaald werk is.” Zwijsen, however, mentions always growing fond of the protagonists, regardless of her opinion on the genre.
The sexual aspect of the novels came up in a few interviews, mostly because the translator harbored a negative attitude towards the way these scenes were usually presented. Drolsbach says “Nog minder leuk vond ik de seksfragmenten, die tot mijn verbazing in de vertaling bovendien moesten worden gekuist” and considers them not very seductive: “Erg verleidelijk geschreven waren zulke fragmenten meestal ook niet”. Van der Lely also expresses a dislike of translating the more explicit sex scenes, as do Van Beest and Ellis Post Uiterweer. Less explicitly about the sexual aspect – albeit stronger in its rejection of the ideology that drives these scenes – is the opinion of Hamburg: “Ik heb weinig op met het onfeministiche en heteronormatieve aspect van deze boeken.” Of course, as author of this thesis, I also expressed an ideological stance in the interview: “Wat me minder ligt is het dominante gedrag van de man, en het onderdanige en bangige van een vrouw die juist neergezet wordt als vooruitstrevend geëmancipeerd (waar dan weer niks van terecht blijkt te komen).”
A point of annoyance that comes up frequently is the rather low payment in return for the translation. Drolsbach calls it “het erbarmelijk slechte tarief waar ook niet eens royalty's tegenover staan. Voor Audax-vertalingen krijgen we zelfs geen Lira2!” Meeder explains: “De betaling is
ongelooflijk slecht, hooguit de helft van wat je bij middenmootuitgevers krijgt en maar 30% van het zogenaamde modeltarief”, and Zwijsen mentions: “ Vroeger werd de woordprijs bij Harlequin nog wel eens verhoogd m.i.v. een nieuw jaar – de contacten waren toen ook wat personnlijker – maar dat gebeurt al jaren niet meer.” This is perhaps the reason that many translators view romance novels as their first step in gaining experience and skill, after which they move on to different publishers.
2
Stichting Lira – literaire rechten auteurs – protects literary copyrights and ensures a fair percentage of the payment for authors and translators, in this case, books loaned from libraries.
3.1.2. Shortening Romance Novels
The main point of frustration for most translators, however, is the very strict way in which the publisher wants the translations to fit a specific mold: as previously outlined, page numbers – or even characters used – have to be managed and cannot exceed a certain number, which often means that the translations will have to be shorter than the original. The two publishers use different guidelines to deal with this, as Drolsbach explains: “van Audax vond ik het een gruwel dat er voor de vertaling een maximumaantal tekens (!!!) gold … Hetzelfde gold in mindere mate voor Harlequin, die een maximumaantal pagina's hanteerde”. Ellis Post Uiterweer explains that Audax even asked its translators to change the chapter division and, by doing so, to diverge from the chapters of the source text in favor of a more standardized format chosen by the pulishers.
The way translators approach the issue of shortening texts seems to differ. Some tackle the issue in a systematic way, as Drolsbach explains: “Voor Harlequin telde ik van ieder hoofdstuk het aantal pagina's en dan had ik een totaal aantal bladzijden. Op basis daarvan zette ik in mijn schema hoeveel pagina's ik per hoofdstuk kwijt moest raken, ongeveer gelijkmatig verdeeld over de hoofdstukken”, while other translators such as myself describe cutting out irrelevant bits as they go while keeping an eye on the word count, or going back to cut out irrelevant bits once the translation is finished, as Van der Lely says: “meestal komt het erop neer dat ik gewoon het hele boekje vertaal en later allerlei passages schrap en weer aan elkaar brei.”
In the way the translators explained the process of shortening a text, three main categories could be recognized: the summarizing of repeted elements, the rephrasing of entire passages, and the deletion of certain elements. Hamburg defines deletion – leaving sentences or passages out of the translation – as her main strategy of shortening the text, and gives as example: “ellenlange beschrijvingen van kleding, meubels etc. schrapte ik of kortte ik in, ook de eindeloze streams of consciousness die soms voorkomen (vindt hij me leuk? Of toch niet? Of toch wel? Of toch niet?) kortte ik in.” Van der Lely agrees: “ellenlange landschapsbeschrijvingen kort ik ook wel eens in (gaap)” Van Dongen explains deletion in a slightly different way, stating that she translates everything, then cuts out the ‘padding’, to reconnect what remains after, perhaps bringing her style of deletion close to a rephrasing strategy. She does add: “samenvatten doe ik zelden, dat komt het verhaal niet ten goede”.
A summarizing strategy is explained by Van Beest as removing repeated or redundant desctiptions and actions, without deleting the core meaning of the sentence: “Dan stond er dat hij met zijn hand iets vastgreep, bijvoorbeeld, terwijl het duidelijk was dat hij dat niet met zijn voet kon
doen. Dus die ‘hand’ kon eruit”. Drolsbach mentions using a similar strategy of deleting the redundant, and Meeder claims to reach the desired word count just by removing all the redundant adjectives that have a similar meaning to textual elements that are already present.
Ellis Post Uiterweer describes her strategy as rephrasing: “het ‘verbabbelen’ van de tekst. Dus meestal niet hele alinea’s weg snijden,” while Van Beest defines it as a way to bring a sentence back to its very essence, straight to the point.
3.2. Discussion of translator experiences within Lefevere theory
As previously outlined, Lefevere’s theory regarding patronage and professionals contains three factors that could be relevant to a translator of romance novels: the role of the professionals, the translators and the freedom they get to change and adapt the text, and the role of the patronage – the publisher, which focuses on its audience of readers. Through these interviews, I have tried to establish the role these two factors play in the process of shortening a romance novel, and as such, which of the factors could be considered to influence the ideology – and shifts occurring in this area – the most.
3.2.1. Patronage – the skopos
In my theoretical framework, I already outlined that there could be a significant difference in the preferences of the Dutch audience and the American audience. There also appears to be a strong understanding of the importance of the audience preferences at the publishers, as the Filter interview showed.
Interestingly enough, the audience is of less importance to the translators: very few translators seemed to know their audience. Van Dongen claims to know a reader, as does Van der Lely: “Ik geef mijn presentexemplaren altijd aan de moeder van een vriendin. Die leest ze ‘als haar hoofd omloopt’. Ze vindt het ontspannend.” Several other translators established an understanding of their audience through research, like Drolsbach, who speaks of having seen documentaries and articles about the audience. Van Beest also speculates about her audience: “maar uit krantenartikelen weet ik dat die een dwarsdoorsnede van de vrouwelijke bevolking is.”
The opinion of the audience is still of importance to several translators. I mention actively searching for reviews on online forums, and reminisce of a time when this went badly: “Eén van mijn vertalingen is eens bekritiseerd door een fan vanwege het overdreven poëtische taalgebruik tijdens een seksscene” and goes on to speculate about possible differences in opinion between the Dutch and American audience: “Nederlanders zijn misschien iets nuchterder hierin. Aan de andere kant zijn de Amerikaanse boekjes veel explicieter in taalgebruik, terwijl de Nederlandse uitgever
juist eufemismen hanteert”, ultimately lying the responsibility of the final product and the choice of euphemisms with the publisher. Van Beest also mentions a time when the audience was a relevant factor for changes made in her translation: “in twee boekjes van mij speelde het christelijk geloof een rol ... Ik had het idee dat het in Nederland bij lezers irritatie zou kunnen wekken, dus heb, in overleg met de redactie, de meeste passages wegvertaald of algemeen gehouden”, also referring to the role the publisher played in this decision. Van der Lely also considers the audience in her choices in shortening or deleting: “meestal kort ik de seksscènes wel wat in, maar dat mag ook weer niet te veel want er schijnen dus dames te zijn die juist daarvoor die boekjes kopen”, but implies with her use of ‘mag’ that this choice is imposed by the publisher.
While the translators are definitely aware of their audience and keep their reader base in mind – and how could they not, when the style guide heavily promotes a move towards the reader;
een prettig leesbare vertaling – the contact is low and the knowledge is limited. The publisher
appears to function as the main consulting factor between translator and audience, and the influence of the patronage on the translator is felt through the guidelines.
3.2.2. Professionals: translator freedoms
So how much freedom is there within these guidelines imposed by the patronage? As established above, the publisher seems to be at the front regarding what will and what won't be acceptable in a translation. Hamburg says that she received “een lange lijst met do's en don'ts”, mainly regarding grammar and stylistics. Van der Lely mentions rather strict rules and regulations regarding paragraphs that differ somewhat from the styles prefered by other publishers. Ellis Post Uiterweer explains that the limitations of the translation were mainly stylistics and a rule against explicit curse words, and mentions the euphemistic censorship: “bepaalde lichaamsdelen mogen niet benoemd worden, en dan moet je je toevlucht nemen tot ‘lid’ en ‘rozenknopje’”, but adds that she never felt limited in her freedom by these rules.
Most mentions of rules imposed on translators by the publisher seems to mention the sex scenes. Hamburg states: “Seksscenes moesten gekuist worden ('geen lichaamssappen' staat bijvoorbeeld op de lijst)” and speculates that this is, indeed, the publisher's attempt to please the market: “dat had wellicht meer met de Nederlandse markt te maken dan met een gevoel voor zedigheid.” Zwijsen refers to the sex-specific rules: “je moet je ondanks de uitdrukkelijke opdracht van de uitgever om niet met een `Harlequin-pet op’ te vertalen, toch aan bepaalde vage regels houden: geen vloeken, geen al te expliciete seksscènes, geslachtsorganen niet benoemen,” and
Drolsbach also names the sex scenes and the way these are 'cleaned up', to her surprise. Van der Lely mentions the importance of the sex scenes: “Seks mag er niet al te veel uit, en beschrijvingen mogen ook niet te veel eruit want ‘die zorgen juist voor de sfeer,’” and Ellis Post Uiterweer states: “De seks mocht niet te wild zijn, het mocht zeer zeker niet ‘soppen’.” Again, these responses show that the publisher's main concern in catering to the audience that is imposed on translators – next to certain grammatical concerns – lies in the depiction of sex.
Furthermore, it seems that the publisher has the final call regarding any changes or corrections made after the translation has been handed in. Van Dongen explains: “En wanneer je de tekst eenmaal ingeleverd heb, zie je hem niet meer terug. Je krijgt alleen een redactierapport. Bij andere uitgeverijen moet je de vertaling na redactie doornemen, en daarna de drukproef nog.” Van Beest's comment shows that any input from the translator after the translation process appears to be unwelcome: “Bovendien was ik het met bepaalde correcties niet eens, maar het had geen zin daar achteraf tegen te protesteren.”
Despite al this, most translators do feel like they have high levels of freedom when it comes to the translation, and can take control over what is shortened, what is deleted and what is summarized. Van der Lely describes it as “vrij qua vertaalwerk, keurslijf qua alinea-indeling en woordenaantal”, and Van Beest even admits to having become a lazy translator due to the freedoms inherent to the genre, which can be used to circumvent certain difficulties.
As seen in chapter 3, every translator uses their own way of making changes to the text, and all of these translations with different strategies have been published. This raises the question of whether the fact that these translators are not the audience of the novels, and have expressed dislike towards the explicit sex, will be another factor influencing the shifts in translation. Only two translators expressed a clear rejection of the unfeminist ideology present in the novels: myself and Hamburg. However, a dislike for the (explicit) sex scenes was mentioned by more translators, and this dislike may hint towards an (perhaps subconscious) ideological stance that differs from the one expressed in the romance novels.
3.3. Tying things together
Figure 1 hints towards a fairly even distribution of strategies used when shortening the overall novels. Summarizing is most commonly mentioned, closely followed by deletion, with rephrasing as a last option, which suggests that most shifts found within the field of the novels will follow this pattern.
Half of the translators interviewed mention specific wishes imposed by the audience, compared to six respondents who mention the wishes imposed by the publishers, showing that there
is significant influence imposed upon the translator through the patronage and its focus on pleasing the skopos. All of the six translators who talked about publisher wishes mentioned the sex scenes, making influence of the patronage on the ideology presented in the sex scenes likely. However, four out of these six translators also name themselves as the ones making the final call, giving no clear answer to the question as to why there is an ideological shift.
Figure 1: responses of the translators of romance novels ranked according to publishers worked for, affinity with the genre, strategies used, ideas on who, influences their translation choices, ideas on who makes the final call when it comes to translation choices, and potential ideological stance. Not all answers could be distilled from the interviews.
Overall, most translators – six out of ten – do name themselves as the ones making the final call, against four translators who only mention changes prefered by the patronage. However, these four people did not explicitly state to make adjustments to the book merely to please the patronage either; they simply did not make any statements on who makes the final decision whatsoever.
4. A quantitative analysis of shifts in female agency 4. 1. Total shifts in male and female agency
Figure 2: anayzed novels and their authors/translators and publication info, grouped by source & target text. The numbers show the total count of female and male agency as found in source text and translation. Green percentages show an overall increase of female agency relative to that of the male, red show an overall decrease.
4.1.1. Discussion
Overall, most translations follow the expected pattern of greater female agency – relatively speaking, because nearly all translations feature less instances of total agency, for male and female agent alike. Only five novels out of a total of nineteen see a decline in female agency, which means that three quarters of the novels analyzed shift in favor of the woman.
Many novels show an overall decrease of instances of agency for both male and female, with the exception of [3] and [12], novels that raise agency of both male and female protagonists, [4] and [10], that keep the total agency count for the woman but shows a decrease in male agency, and [15], a noval that contains an increase in instances of male agency, paired with a decline in female agency.
Most novels shift for less than 5%. This distribution is the same for novels that shift positively and novels that shift negatively: out of the eleven books that show a minimal shift of 5% or less, two show a mild decrease. This means that around half of books with a positive shift and about half of books with a negative shift, shift minimally. In two cases – positive in [17] and negative in [16] – this shift is less than 1%.
The highest change in percentage, an increase in female agency of ten percent or higher, can be found in [4] and [12]. The highest shift in favor of male agency is [18], which decreases female agency by about 9%. Positive changes are therefore not only more frequent, but also stronger.
Interesting to note is that even books that feature more female agency than male agency in the source texts, such as [7] and [10], show an increase of female agency in their translations, technically moving away from a more equal scene in favor of more female empowerment. This disproves the theory that instances of male agency are deleted more often simply because they occur more often.
Another interesting observation is that two novels out of five that have a smaller percentage of female agency in their translation, [15] and [16], have been translated by Zwijsen, yet are published by different publishers. This, paired with the fact that book [3] and [4] – novels that show no decrease of instances of female agency – are also translated by the same translator (Van Beest), raises the likelyhood of shifts being the result of the professional rather than the patronage.
4.1.2. Difficulties
Some difficulties arose while counting the instances of agency in the novels, and some of these instances deserve clarification. [2] included a material process with an agent that is hard to
determine, such as “one of the hands at her waist rose to the nape of her neck” (115), where an autonomous body part without a possessive pronoun controls the action. Both me and the translator considered the man to be the most likely owner of the hand and the agent of the gesture, as the translation shows: “hij bracht een hand omhoog” (ch. 10). For this reason, I have counted this gesture in the source text as one with male agency. A similar case of ambiguity appeared in [19], in the sentence “the hand at her waist moved upward to caress her breasts” (Ch. 6), where the owner of the hand remains obscured. Context, however, makes it more likely to be his. This sentence has been omitted from the translation. Excluding these instances of agency from the analysis would not alter the overall findings significantly.
Another questionable case appeared in [8], where the process ‘crushed’ in the sentence “her naked breast crushed against his bare chest” (Ch. 9) could be interpreted as one with a female agent or as one with a female goal: is she crushing or being crushed? In translation, this ambivalence remains: “haar naakte borsten drukten tegen zijn gespierde bovenlijf” (142). While the verb here takes an active form, I would still hesitate to consider her the active agent, mainly due to the fact that breasts, unlike hands and legs, cannot be moved at will and therefore can hardly be considered an autonomously operating body part. I have excluded this sentence in original and in translation from my analysis due to this ambivalence.
In [11], a questionable and ambivalent material process occurred in the translation of “her hands came up instinctively to cover her breasts” (Ch. 14) to “ze wilde haar borsten met haar handen bedekken” (242), which may or may not contain a material process depending on one’s interpretation of ‘willen’. The next sentence, “maar Nicholas trok ze weg” (242) indicates that a movement that involves a female agent did take place. Without this perhaps subjective choice, the percentage of instances of female agency in [11b] would have dropped below that of [11a].
A similar construction appears in [14], in the two sentences, “she went to undress, but he did not allow it” (Ch. 4) and “again she went to take off her dress” (Ch. 4). In translation, the process in these sentences is diminished: “ze wilde zich uitkleden, maar dat stond hij niet toe” (60) and “opnieuw wilde ze haar jurk uittrekken” (62) – whereas the English sentences suggest the beginning of movement, the Dutch could be interpreted as intent. However, both sentences include the man interfering, again suggesting that movement did take place as was the case in [11]. I have, therefore, counted these instances as processes. In this case, however, discarding these two processes would not have altered the percentage significantly.
A somewhat ambiguous instance of agency in [2] is found in the sentence “and stood up, taking her with him” (115), which features two material processes with male agency. In translation, both seem to be agent of the action of standing: “en stond samen met haar op” (Ch. 10). Due to the phrasing and the fact that her presence is merely added to an action initially attributed to him, I have
counted this process as one with male agency, although there is a boost in female activation found here.
Another case of an ambivalent process occurs in [12] – an interesting translation due to the addition of many passages that can not be found in [12a] – where the sentence “ze voelde zijn brede schouders, zijn gespierde armen en zijn sterke rug” (222-223) could be interpreted to contain a sensory process or a material process. Due to the previous sentence, “haar handen vonden hun weg over zijn lichaam” (222), I chose to interpret the sentence as one of movement: it would not be possible for a hand to feel all these specific body parts without any movement.
Overall, [19] features many uncertain instances due to its poetic language. In “his eyes closed as he savored the echo of his intimate caress, then he began encouraging an answer that would have a voice of its own.” (Ch. 6), the echo could be a process with a female agent, but the details of this potential action are too unclear to be taken on in the analysis. Another issue is the potential process of encouraging, a word that could also be interpreted to involve movement, but could just as well be a different type of process, such as verbal. For this reason I have excluded these unclear processes from my analysis.
In [1], a possible mitigating factor is the repetition of a material verb with male agency in “he filled her, filled her beautifully” (Ch. 19), which has been counted twice and is not repeated in translation, but does represent only one instance of movement. Not counting one of these verbs would not have affected the overall results.
Another mitigating factor lies in the semantic meaning of certain material processes, as can be seen in [4], a novel that appears to shift significantly towards greater female agency. However, it seems that things are not quite as positive as this number may indicate: a significant number of material processes attributed to the woman are verbs such as “helped” (Ch. 3) and “had geholpen” (47), “yielded” (Ch. 3) and “zich volledig aan hem overgevend” (46), “Ze gaf zich volledig an hem over” (47), and “returned” (Ch. 3) and “beantwoordde” (46). [19] also involves a number of these: many female processes that remain in the text are somewhat passive, such as “beantwoordde” (111), and the addition of the process “onderwierp” (112). The woman does keep – or gains – her grammatical agency, but still retains a rather passive, reactionary role in the scene.
The last mitigating factor is one of stylistic and grammatical shifts, when the action detailed is still there, but the material process can no longer be counted according to the publisher’s rules and guidelines detailed in chapter 2 and 3. One such case occurs in [2]: a missing instance of female agency can be attributed to word choice and grammatical shifts in rephrasing in “her arms looping
lethargically around his neck” (119), a sentence featuring a material process, which is translated without this verb, “met haar armen slap om zijn nek” (Ch. 10). The process is no longer present and cannot be counted, while the imagery remains more or less the same. These mitigating factors play a role throughout most of the books and have not been taken into consideration in my analysis. In chapter 5 I attempt to look more deeply into the activation or passivation of the woman in the scene, also in sentences in which there is no material process to be found.
4.2. Types of shifts
In chapter 3, I concluded that translators employ different ways of shortening text. Some prefer to scratch certain textual elements that they consider irrelevant to the plot, while others prefer to summarize or rephrase longer sentences. While analyzing the total number of instances of agency in the books, I have made note of which strategy is used to achieve the shift that is found in the translation.
4.2.1. Summarizing strategies
The main way in which instances of agency are lost in translation is because clusters of material processes have been summarized to only contain one that depicts the entire movement – the clusters of material processes are condensed to one 'main' activity. This was commonly described by translators in chapter 3 as being a strategy they employed to remove redundancy from the translation.
[1] contains one of these summarizing strategies: “she lifted her hands to unfasten the buttons” (Ch. 19), which becomes “toen ze de knoopjes van haar lijfje begon los te maken” (Ch. 19) and therefore only contains one material verb in translation, as does [5]: “she sat up, crossed her arms, seized the hem of her cotton sweater and yanked it over her head. Her hair swung out of the neckline and brushed her bare shoulders. She tossed the damp sweater away; it fell with a thump to the floor” (Ch. 6), which is summarized in translation as “Zonder zich een seconde te bedenken trok ze haar trui over haar hoofd en gooide hem op de grond” (80), containing significantly less verbs and details.
[8] loses agency through condensation of similar processes into one (such as “she tugged at his cravat and yanked it free” (Ch. 9) translated as “gauw trok ze zijn halsdoek los” (142) where ‘trok’ carries the meaning of both ‘tugged’ and ‘yanked’).
In [9] too, the majority of omitted processes with a female agent also appear in clusters of two, such as “[she] followed him, her tongue invading his mouth with sweet urgency” (Ch. 10),
which is translated into “[ze] kuste hem vervolgens hartstochtelijk” (136), a sentence with only one process.
In [15], the woman also mainly loses her agency in repetitive clusters such as “her slender fingers sliding over his shoulders, plunging through his short hair, kneading his nape” (Ch. 16), which became “haar slanke vingers gleden over zijn schouders en door zijn haren” (237-238). [10]'s one case of loss of female agency occurs in a cluster: “She wound her fingers in his hair and tugged hard” (Ch. 11), a sentence with two processes, has been summarized to only include one: “ze greep hem bij de haren” (204). The word ‘greep’ already carries the somewhat aggressive connotations present in the word ‘tugged’, and also includes the meaning of the first process.
In [16], too, clusters are condensed: “She moved her hands to his back, nails digging in deep as she arched into his touch” (190) becoming the more concise “ze legde haar handen op zijn rug, en kromde haar lichaam” (149).
Lastly, [17] also features many clusters that are the main cause of loss of processes with a female agent: “she put her hand up to touch his jaw, reached up to kiss him” (Ch. 4) becomes “ze legde haar hand om zijn wang om hem te kussen” (78).
But not only the woman loses agency in this way. There are also many cases in which male agency is lost through the summarizing of clusters. [11], for example, loses male agency in clusters of minute descriptions of actions, such as “he stepped up behind her and brought his arms around to pull her close against him” (Ch. 14), translated as “hij stond nog achter haar en sloeg zijn armen om haar heen” (240). Both parties lose agency in [2]: “when she reached him he widened his legs and drew her closer between his thighs, his large hands light as they enveloped her waist” (114), loosely translated and shortened without the female process: “hij spreidde zijn benen en trok haar tussen zijn dijen met zijn handen lichtjes op haar middel” (Ch. 10).
The missing instances of male agency in [4] can also mainly be attributed to the lack of repetition in translation. A sentence such as “stroked and kissed her breasts, teasing her eager nipples with his tongue so that they stood proudly erect” (Ch. 3), is translated quite concisely as “toen hij haar borsten kuste” (47), leaving only one action out of the initial three.
Many male processes in [17] have been omitted through summarized translation, such as “one of his big hands leaving her face and going to the bottom of her T-shirt, tugging it up, urging her to lift her arms so he could lift it off completely” (Ch. 14), a sentence containing 6 material
processes – mainly with a male agent – is summarized to contain only 1: “… dat zijn handen van haar gezicht naar de zoom van haar T-shirt gingen” (75).
[18], too, loses agency mainly through these clusters, as seen in the sentence “she looped her arms around his neck and responded, his embrace tightened and a moan of intense need escaped his throat” (Ch. 12), translated to “toen ze zijn kus beantwoordde, kreunde hij van genot” (198), losing both a male and a female process.
Similarly, [16] includes the loss of male processes in “he moved his hands around her back, slipping them beneath her dress and cupping her butt” (190), translated as “zijn handen gleden over haar rug, onder haar jurk naar beneden en omvatten haar billen” (149-150), and [9] offers the translation of “cupping her head between his hands and kissing her deeper” (Ch. 10) to “hij kust haar nog hartstochtelijker” (136).
4.2.2. Rephrasing
A summary of events that happens through deletion of the excessive descriptions is not the only way in which translators described shortening the book. Another shortening strategy mentioned is that of ‘verbabbelen’ – the rephrasing of elements using different grammatical and stylistic choices to end up with a shorter, more concise sentence than found in the source text – a more rigorous way to summarize events than the condensation described in the previous section. Some results of rephrasings have already been discussed in chapter 4, since this shift often creates sentences in which the action taken is still present, but the material verb may have deviated so strongly that a countable material process within the guidelines of my analysis could not be found.
One example of a relatively free translation is [14], as seen by the displacements of sentences and the deletion as well as creation of instances of agency, especially regarding the woman. One sentence, “she went to take off her dress but was halted by three words” (Ch. 4), gains a process through a transfer of agency through a different word choice in its translation “ze begon haar jurk uit te trekken, maar stopte daar mee toen ze hem hoorde zeggen ...” (60). Halted, a passive verb, has been replaced by the active verb 'stopte', which takes a female agent. Another example of this shift in the same novel “Rachel raised herself up and put her hands on his chest and moved faster” (Ch. 4), which is translated into “Rachel kwam overeind en begon sneller te bewegen met haar handen op zijn borst” (62-63), where the position of her hands is present, but the actual placing of her hands – and by extension, the process – is lost. In this novel the man also gains agency through rephrasing as can be seen in “the soft beat of his mouth” (Ch. 4), translated to “hij begon zachtjes te zuigen” (59). The source text offers a sentence fragment without a verb, while the translation does contain a verb, taking the male as its agent.
In [13], there is only one paragraph that contains a rephrased passage, and in this passage both the instance of female agency and the one of male agency have been lost. “she helped him to take her clothes off and ... became impatient to help him shed his clothes” (Ch. 7) becomes instead “ze hielp hem bij het uitkleden” (123), a sentence in which the undressing has no clear agent or goal. The person being undressed is unspecified and therefore could pertain to both parties, whereas in English, the hero and heroine take turns undressing themselves.
The translation of [15] rephrases the sentence “she gasped as the ribbon came loose” (Ch. 16), to become “haar adem stokte toen hij het lint los had” (238), which foregrounds the role of the male in the event and features a process that takes him as an agent. Similarly, in [16] the woman loses a process in the rephrasing of an event: “she dropped the lemonade” (186) becomes instead “en viel het glas limonade uit haar hand” (147).
A somewhat similar loss is found in [9], where a cluster featuring material processes, “her hand found his hard length and stroked it through his trousers” (Ch. 10), is rephrased to contain a process of sensation “voelde hij haar hand op zijn broek.” (137) The movement is still present, but portrayed through his sensation.
Finally, [7] loses a process through a rigorous summary of events: “twisting and turning” (Ch. 3) is turned into “daar ging ze mee door” (50), a sentence containing a rephrased condensation through a very general and unspecific word choice that is chosen to cover both the twisting and turning.
4.2.3. Deletion
The other strategy of shortening a romance novel described by the translators is one of deleting irrelevant passages, often through the judgment and experience of the translator, with some publisher guidelines to help them on their way.
Regular deletion occurs in [1] where the sentence “he laughed and pushed her down again. ‘Look later. I am so very desperate’” (Ch. 19), which features not only the aggressive process 'pushed', but also spoken language that can be considered an explicit display of male dominance, is removed.
[8] features a decrease in male and female agency through deletion in similar, mildly dominant and aggressive areas such as the sentence “he straightened and drew her up with him” (Ch. 9), which remains untranslated, dropping two instances of male agency.
