Translation Studies in Contemporary Children's Literature: A

Comparison of Intercultural Ideological Factors

Marisa Fernández López

Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Volume 25, Number 1, Spring

2000, pp. 29-37 (Article)

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/chq.0.1710

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/249843

Access provided by Australian National University (12 Sep 2018 16:34 GMT)
Translation Studies in Contemporary Children's Literature 29

3 Stott's related point seems more carefully weighted: "at the cen-
ter is the home, a domestic place of comfort and security. Yet it is
also a prison" (Norton 40).
4 Other examples can be found in paintings such as Hunt's The
Awakening Conscience or D. G. Rossetti's Ecce Ancilla Domini.
5 Kuznets suggests that the Borrowers' narrative frames show the
texts' interest in "the notion of art—here storytelling—as the ulti-
mate survival mechanism" ("Permutations" 72).
Hunt, Peter. An Introduction to Children's Literature. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 1994.
Kuznets, Lois. "Mary Norton's The Borrowers. Diaspora in
Miniature." Touchstones: Reflections on the Best in Children's
Literature. Vol. 1. Ed. Perry Nodelman. West Lafayette, IN:
Children's Literature Association, 1985. 198-203.
_. "Permutations of Frame in Mary Norton's 'Borrowers'
Series." Studies in the Literary Imagination 18:2 (Fall 1985): 65-
78.

WORKS CITED Norton, Mary. The Complete Borrowers. Harmondsworth: Puffin,

1992.
Carpenter, Humphrey. Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of
Children's Literature. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1985. Pace, Patricia. "The Body in Writing: Miniatures in Mary Norton's
Borrowers.'" Text and Performance (Quarterly 11:4 (Oct 1991):
Crouch, Marcus. Treasure Seekers and Borrowers: Children's Books 279-90.
in Britain 1900-1960. London: Library Association, 1962.
Rawson, Claude. "Little People." London Review of Books 15
The Nesbit Tradition: The Children's Novel in England September 1983: 20-21.
1945-70. London: Benn, 1972.
Rustin, Margaret, and Michael Rustin. "Deep Structures of
Doyle, Brian, ed. The Who's Who' of Children's Literature. London: Fantasy in Modern British Children's Books." The Lion and the
Evelyn, 1968. Unicorn 10 (1986): 60-82.
Field, Colin. "Writers for Children: 2—Mary Norton." The School Stott, Jon C. Mary Norton. New York: Twayne, 1994.
Librarian 11.5 (5 July 1963): 464-69.
_____. "Anatomy of a Masterpiece: The Borrowers." Language Arts
Fisher, Margery. Intent upon Reading: A Critical Appraisal of 55 (May 1976): 538-44.
Modern Fiction for Children. Leicester: Brockhampton, 1964.
Wolf, Virginia L. "From the Myth to the Wake of Home: Literary
Green, Roger Lancelyn. Tellers of Tales: Children's Books and Their Houses." Children's Literature 18 (1990): 53-67.
Authors from 1800 to 1968. London: Kaye and Ward, 1953.
Hunt, Caroline C. "Dwarf, Small World, Shrinking Child: Three Chris Hopkins is Senior Lecturer in English at Sheffield
Versions of Miniature." Children's Literature 23 (1995): 115-36. Hallam University in Sheffield, England.

Translation Studies in Contemporary Children's Literature:

A Comparison of Intercultural Ideological Factors
by Marisa Fernández López

In children's literature, and more particularly in mass- or are merely referred to in passing; and the tale has a happy
market literature, a formal instability of the text may be ending. This code has been applied systematically and on a
observed, manifested in its gradual modification over the world-wide basis, particularly where the theme of sex is
years; the scant literary value assigned to this kind of writ- concerned, as this subject was taboo in children's literature
ing probably makes it more susceptible to censorship and until the 1960s.2
alteration. Original works are modified in subsequent edi- Sometimes the motivation for the modification of
tions to conform to the social standards prevailing at a given reprinted (and perhaps already self-censored) texts is com-
time and thus to satisfy the specific demands of the market. mercial, for example updating in order to increase sales. A
These modifications exist alongside a culturally-imposed paradigmatic case is the treatment during the twentieth cen-
self-censorship by the author. In American Childhood, Anne tury of the novels produced in the United States by the
Scott MacLeod lists a series of taboos that have traditional- Stratemeyer Syndicate. Series such as the Bobbsey Twins,
ly been avoided in American children's literature (179). For Nancy Drew, and the Happy Hollisters, which appeared in
example, violence may be present in a tale provided that the the first third of the century, were systematically changed in
author does not allow more violence to breed from it; like- later editions in order to render them acceptable to con-
wise, children rarely die except in the case of some martyrs sumers whose lifestyles and social customs were changing
and heroes.1 If parents die their death occurs prior to the rapidly—especially, though not uniquely, with respect to
commencement of the tale, and subjects such as divorce, food, fashion, and means of transport (Hildick 191).
mental illness, alcoholism and other addictions, suicide, and In addition, these textual modifications are attributable
sex are all avoided; murderers do not usually appear, not only to strictly commercial motives, which habitually
although thieves are permitted; racial conflicts do not arise affect secondary aspects of the work. They are also owing to
© 2000 Children's Literature Association
30 Children's Literature Association Quarterly

profound ideological motivations and affect important pas- as what Gideon Toury terms stylistic elevation and stylistic
sages of text, normally through a process of purification that homogeneity (Theory 128). Under these norms translators
involves textual elimination. In the last sixty years, numer- tend to use the standard literary language of the target sys-
ous examples may be found of this kind of ideological purifi- tem. Where Spanish is concerned, this practice implies elim-
cation of children's literature written in English, especially inating repetitions and void pragmatic connectives and sub-
in the case of popular literature. The work of Enid Blyton, stituting lectic substandard forms or those that characterize
in particular that published during the 1940s, and the work an ethnic or social group for the standard variety. As Zohar
of Roald Dahl in the 1960s and 1970s provide typical exam- Shavit writes,
ples of the manipulation of texts. In these cases publishers
themselves censored works in order to avoid problems. In contrast to adult canonized literature, in which
But in recent years the criteria for censorship have the norm of complexity is the most prevalent
changed. While the inclusion of sex, vulgar expressions, or today, the norm of simple and simplified models
liberal views no longer represents a problem in children's lit- is still prominent in most children's literature
erature, censorship is applied to texts that are considered (canonized and non-canonized), as is also the case
racist or sociopolitically incorrect. The fundamental ration- with the non-canonized adult system. This norm,
ale for this new censorship is today, as it was in the eigh- rooted in the self-image of children's literature,
teenth century, didactic in nature. Those who defend cen- tends to determine not only the thematics and
sorship where children's literature is concerned do so not so characterization of the text, but also its options
much for political reasons but out of a romantic idea of the concerning permissible structures. (125)
power of the printed word on impressionable young minds.
They do not consider censorship an act of intolerance but As a result we find unmarked direct speech is substituted for
see it rather as a positive step in safeguarding childhood marked speech and that clichés are stressed by expansion.5
innocence and for maintaining the well being of society in The Spanish system is not markedly different from those
general (West 507). of other countries, although it evinces a greater respect for
Children's literature translation studies are particularly source texts, to the extent that it considers first editions in
interesting when they can highlight the differences between regard to translations as something of a preliminary norm.
cultural behaviors by comparing contrasting treatments of a This fidelity does not mean that respect for the source text
specific text. During the course of a systematic study of comes at the expense of problems of acceptability of the tar-
translations into Spanish of popular twentieth-century nov- get text but rather that, in general, only those features of the
els for young people written in English, I observed a pecu- text that could conflict with criteria considered canonical
liar phenomenon: fragments of the source text that were within the Spanish children's literature system undergo any
purified of racist and xenophobic elements in subsequent kind of modification. Thus elimination is preferred to cul-
English-language editions were published in Spanish in a tural context adaptations, while culturally linked elements—
translation that remained faithful to the original English ver- "overt" in Juliane House's terminology—are preserved
sions editions.3 This characteristic even extended to illustra- untouched (246). Under the strong censorship that existed
tions. For example, take the pictures of the Oompa until the 1970s, the elements that were traditionally elimi-
Loompas in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory nated were those that related either to sex or to religion.
(British edition 1985): after textual and graphic purification, Thus, in the Spanish version of "Jumble" (a story in
they were represented as white, when in the original (and in Richmal Crompton's 1922 Just William, translated in 1935
Spanish editions) they are Black. The discrepancy reveals as Travesuras de Guillermo), the fifteen lines referring to a
ideological differences between the Spanish literary system kiss were eliminated. Similarly omitted was a paragraph in
on the one hand and that of Great Britain and the United Crompton's story "The Outlaws and the Missionary" in
States on the other. In other words, a society's patterns of Williams Crowded Hours (1931, translated as Guillermo el
behavior and its moral values are not only reflected in the atareado, 1959), in which William complains, according to
textual modifications introduced in translations of foreign his own peculiar logic, of the behavior of certain missionar-
works, which Göte Klingberg defines as cultural context ies whom he compares to thieves. These omissions cannot
adaptations (18), in the case of Spain they are also reflected be attributed to the translator, as otherwise there are no tex-
in the fidelity to the first editions of texts that have been tual omissions that extend beyond a single sentence.
modified in their countries of origin.4 Censoring by the publisher would appear to be the most
The translation of works for children has traditionally probable reason. The elimination of the paragraph where
been mediated by pedagogical and didactic considerations William kisses his girlfriend must be assessed in the context
that affect the so-called operational translation norms, such of Franco's Spain. The long period of dictatorship in Spain
Translation Studies in Contemporary Children's Literature 31

(1939-1975) was characterized by a perfectly structured 1980s, when it was once more considered politically incor-
censorship that enforced general taboos concerning sex, rect. The tale was never published in Spain, and it appears
politics, and religion. At the time the book was translated, neither in Guillermo Detective nor in any other volume of the
taboos regarding sex included even the most innocent collection. Its absence suggests either censorship or that the
behaviors. Where religion was concerned, the reference was source text was an English edition from which the tale had
always to Catholicism, and the word Christian was always already been removed.
synonymous with Catholic. The Catholic church supported But if political climates change, a more prolonged ten-
Franco's government, and any negative references to priests dency over the years has been toward stylistic homogeneity:
were forbidden and always considered defamatory. the elimination of registers considered unacceptable for
When the original contained material contrary to the children and adolescents, which may be considered an
Spanish system, especially in regard to unacceptable political authentic kind of purification (Klingberg 58). For example,
references, publishers resolved the problem by simply ignor- there have been numerous substitutions for insults in
ing its existence and not publishing it in Spain. Crompton's Blyton's work. In Five Go off to Camp (1948), translated as
William series, although she has never been suspected of Los Cinco van de camping (1965), "You're perfect pigs over
leftist tendencies, had some .problems in Spain. The most the tomatoes" (48) becomes "Sois unos verdaderos glotones
obvious gap is the absence of any Spanish translation of the comiendo tomates1'' (43) ["you're absolute gluttons with the
work William the Dictator ( 1938).6 The problem stems tomatoes"]. The phrase "The beast!" in The O'Sullivan
from the cover illustration by Thomas Henry, whose draw- Twins (1942, 62) is rendered as ''''¡Qué insolente Γ ["How
ings have become inseparable from Crompton's text in rude"] in LasMellizasO'Sullivan (I960, 78). And LosCinco
English and from most Spanish versions as well; the reader's frente a la aventura, the 1966 translation of Five Fall into
idea of William is Henry's image of him. On the jacket, Adventure (1950), turns "ass" (21) into "tonta" [idiot]
William is saluting in the fascist fashion wearing torn blue (21). The use of the word "pig" in the first example, for
trousers, a brown shirt, and a greenish bracelet attached to instance (and there are many synonyms for this word in
his sleeve with a safety pin; he is standing in front of his Spanish), would be considered highly insulting in Spain.
guerrilla group, the Outlaws (Proscritos in Spanish).7 The This general tendency to alter insults is more obvious when
satire on Nazism is confirmed by the title story, which iswe are dealing with texts that were supposed to be appro-
about William's attempt to obtain extra living space by priate for children, especially at a time in Spain when didac-
invading his neighbors' gardens in a parody of the German tic considerations obliged the translators to purify even
call for Lebensraum. innocent insults.
Presumably Spanish censors remained ignorant of this The existence of an original text that over time under-
volume; otherwise, it is inconceivable that so much of goes modifications even in its native language because of the
Crompton's work could have been published in Spain in the low status of children's literature and its perceived moral
1940s and 1950s, when Franco was most powerful and polit- and didactic function causes difficulties when we seek to
ical censorship was at its height. It is probable, however, that compare the translation with its source. Given this peculiar-
the Spanish publisher, Molino, did know of the existence of ity, it often becomes necessary to perform what Toury calls
William the Dictator but managed to keep it concealed dur- a "retrospective analysis," the analysis of the target text to
ing Franco's hegemony. Where the William books were con- ascertain which of the possible source texts is its pair (Studies
cerned, the publisher had the advantage of being in a position 102). In this way changes in the source text have been
to manipulate the texts with unusual ease, since the volumes detected by means of a primary analysis of the Spanish trans-
were composed of short stories. Any of these could easily be lations that have remained unaltered.
omitted or replaced without the reader, or indeed the censor, In fact the fidelity apparent in Spanish editions to cer-
having the slightest idea that the volume had been tampered tain passages of text that have been profoundly altered in
with. Such tampering is probably what happened to the short successive British editions is all the more noticeable in a
story "William and the Nasties," written in 1934 and includ- social context that permits textual modifications of topics
ed in the volume William the Detective (1935). This tale was deemed taboo or of speech registers considered inappropri-
withdrawn by the British publisher for the second edition due ate for certain ages. This fidelity to original editions seems
to the possibility of problems with the German embassy; the to be due not just to the fact that some Spanish translations
Nasties were, of course, a reference to the Nazis, William hav- were published in advance of the purification of the source
ing invented the name for his gang when they decided to text (as is the case with some of Blyton's works) but also to
attack the village candy store, owned by a Jew, in order to the Spanish tradition of adherence to the original version of
take over his stock. The story reappeared in successive a given text. This translation norm may in turn be due to the
English-language editions only to be withdrawn again in the high regard shown by Spanish children's literature for its
32 Children's Literature Association Quarterly

F,nglish-language analogue, a regard not demonstrated by in both countries of the translations and of critics' reactions
other, less permeable children's literature systems. For to them shows the tendency toward impermeability in dom-
example, the French have systematically adapted Blyton's inant systems that avoid all exterior ideological influence.
works to suit their own national repertoire (see Bordet). Take, for instance, the translations of some of the titles
Whereas in Great Britain and in other countries such as of Blyton's works. Whereas the Spanish translation respects
France with highly impermeable children's literature sys- the source text and maintains cultural elements associated
tems, Blyton's work has always been considered of scant lit- with the country of origin, the French translation eliminates
erary worth, in Spain it has never received a word of nega- them systematically, as can been seen in Table 1. No less
tive criticism—at least during the author's "golden age" in striking is the treatment given to the characters, whose
Spain (1960-1980)—inviting comparison with the work of names in the source text and in the French and Spanish
canonized authors in English-speaking countries. translations appear in Table 2. Similarly, while the surnames
Thus while in Spain the translations of Blyton's adven- of the source text are respected in the Spanish translation,
ture series retain the cultural traits of the source text (both French ones are given in the respective French version.
geographical and cultural, and including the behavior of the In addition, there is the question of geography.
characters), the French translations tend to eliminate all the Although the exact location of the action is not explicitly
details that might associate the text with specific places or indicated in the source text, one can deduce that it is set in
cultures. This approach gives the text a universal flavor but the western region of Great Britain, Cornwall or Wales. The
deprives it of its British characteristics, which the author French version modifies the name Kirrin to Kernach, which
expressly wished to retain.8 It is interesting that strong lit- the French reader might well associate with a French Celtic
erary systems tend to be impermeable, thereby facilitating area, that of Brittany (Mathieu-Colas 99). Although there is
the tendency of the translations to transform foreign reper- an equivalent Celtic locality in Spain, Galicia, the Spanish
toires (and ideologies) into those of the source nationality, translation maintains all the cultural indicators of the origi-
especially when the source text is not considered an integral nal text. In the illustrated French editions of the 1970s, the
part of the original literary system's canon, which is usually nationalization of the text is complete right down to the
the case where popular literature is concerned. In compar- police who appear in the illustrations as French gendarmes.
ing the translations of Blyton's series into French and into A common phenomenon in children's literature transla-
Spanish, we can see the different responses of two literary tions, that of super-explicit textual amplification (which can
systems that, in the case of children's literature, adopt a verybe considered part of the normal use of simplified models),
different stance (dominant, like France, and weaker and his- is found extensively in the French translations of Blyton's
torically influenced like Spain).9 The translations of Blyton's works. According to Geneviève Bordet, the use of textual
series are representative and are, taken as a whole, quantita- models that are less sophisticated than the originals is due to
tively of considerable importance where studies of this type an attempt by the editors to target readers younger than
are concerned. In Blyton's case the sum of Spanish and those for whom the originals were written (30). In Spain,
French translations (517 and 259 respectively) represents on the other hand, the same works were published with an
one-third of the total number (2,168) registered in the adolescent reader in mind, as a consequence of a different
author's name in the fourth (cumulative) edition of evaluation of the text. The French judgment of Blyton's
UNESCO's Index Translationum. work as inferior and as such liable to radical change also
Marie-Pierre and Michel Mathieu-Colas's work on the becomes evident when the translator of these works is
Famous Five series in France is particularly interesting in sought. While in Spanish translations the translator's name
comparison with Spanish translations. The synchronic study is always given, only in the first two volumes of the Famous

TABLE 1.

Original French Translation Spanish Translation

Five Run Away Together (1944)
Five Fall into Adventure (1950)
Five on Kirrin Island Again (1947)
Five Go to Demon's Rocks (1961)
Five Go to Billycock Hill (1957)
Five go to Mystery Moor (1954)
Le Club des Cinq contreattaque (1955)
Le Club des Cinq et les gitanes (1960)
Le Club des Cinq joue et gagne (1956)
La boussole du Club des Cinq (1963)
Le Club des Cinq et les papillons (1962)
La locomotive du Club des Cinq (1961)
Los Cinco se escapan (1965)
Los Cinco frente a la aventura (1966)
Los Cinco otra vez en la isla de Kirrin (1965)
Los Cinco en las Rocas del Diablo (1970)
Los Cinco en Billycock Hill (1969)
Los Cinco en el páramo misterioso (1968)
Translation Studies in Contemporary Children's Literature 33

TABLE 2. In the translation of children's literature, the Spanish

ST TT (French) TT (Spanish) norm of fidelity to the original text is only displaced by
Georgine ("George") Claudine ("Claude") Jorgina ("Jorge") another norm of greater force, such as the primacy of peda-
Julian François Julián gogic and didactic considerations. If the Spanish editions
Dick Mick Dick still have not eliminated the racist and xenophobic elements
Anne Annie Ana present in the works of Blyton and Dahl, it is without a
Timothy (the dog) Dagobert Tim doubt because a social consciousness that rejects discrimina-
tion against ethnic minorities did not exist in Spain until the
Five series, published by Hachette, does the name of the 1990s. Ethnicity and issues relating to color had no forum
translator appear—never in any later editions (Mathieu- in Spain, and any understanding of them was imbued with
Colas 157). colonialist attitudes: the white man and his developed soci-
No less revealing is the behavior of French and Spanish ety were responsible for rescuing inferior cultures and civi-
critics over the years in response to Blyton's work and that lizations plagued with barbarous customs arising from igno-
of other noncanonical British authors. In France, opinion of rance and underdevelopment. The only important ethnic
Blyton's work is generally negative, condemning its textual minority in Spain during the Franco period was the Gypsies,
poverty and supporting the numerous anti-Blyton argu- with whom delinquency was traditionally, though wholly
ments of British critics, although we find significant excep- unjustifiably, associated."
tions, such as the work of Denise Escarpit, who points out Thus Franco Spain did not reflect the situation in
that the French texts are clearly different from the source Britain and the United States where, in the 1970s, the influ-
texts.10 In Spain, where the translated text is generally most ence of the works of Wallace Hildick, the Children's Rights
faithful to the original, critics are generous to Blyton, rec- Workshop, and, above all, Bob Dixon persuaded publishers
ognizing her ability to interest young people in reading and to change some racist, sexist, and classist passages in certain
to introduce other cultures (albeit from the point of view of works. Some of these modifications were made after the
the writer). If their criticism refers to some textual poverty,
editing of the first Spanish version; still, in later Spanish edi-
tions and even in fresh translations, these passages were not
it is not to be compared to the virulent attacks by French or
British critics (see, for example, Company; Colomer, modified, probably because they did not actively conflict
"Niñas"; Ruzicka; Gárate). with what Spanish society considered appropriate for young
Thus whereas there are no fundamental changes evident readers. For example, important modifications were made
in the Spanish texts when compared with the first editions to Blyton's Five Fall into Adventure—in all probability as a
of the original text, the changes made in the French transla- result of Hildick's harsh criticism—in Hodder and
tions represent a reinforcement of the hierarchies and a dis- Stoughton's English edition of 1986. The Spanish edition
tortion of values that are not present in the Spanish ones. of 1990 did not incorporate any changes at all in the trans-
Bordet (30) provides two examples: first, "one of the farm- lation, and remained faithful to the original English text of
men" becomes "l'ouvrier de M. Fenian"; second, while in 1950. The fragments that were modified in the source text
the source text some pirates are driven by their wish for "a refer to Blyton's treatment of Gypsies, as characterized by
bit of excitement," in the French they are "heureux de vivre an offensive lack of hygiene. Not so in the Spanish transla-
une aventure et de gagner de l'argent?' The distortion of val- tion, in which not only characters but also the narrator of
ues is obvious. the story discriminate against a Gypsy family because of
Similarly, this differential behavior, derived as it is from their smell: "Alpunto un olor raro, nauseabundo, alcanzó las
the permeability of the literary system, can also be seen in narices de los niños ¡Que asco?' [Just then a strange, sicken-
Portugal, where the children's literature system is similar ing smell reached the noses of the children. Ugh!] (18). On
to the Spanish one. The translations of Blyton, for exam- other occasions in the 1986 English edition the ethnic ref-
ple, are analogous to the Spanish ones as far as editorial erence vanishes or is changed to the English term for
type, presentation, types of translated texts, and target Gypsies common today, "travellers": "The girl stared at
market are concerned, while the translation itself falls him" (18) still appears as "La niña que parecÃ-a un gitano le
somewhere between French and Spanish practices. The contempló con fijeza" [The girl, who looked like a Gypsy,
translator's name appears, as it does in Spain, but the titles stared at him intently] (20). "It's a big place. Don't get lost!
of the different stories are a mixture of a faithful translation And look out for the travellers. There's usually hordes of
from the source text (as in the Spanish case) and a descrip- them there!" (86) is rendered "Es un bosque muy grande
tive title of the adventure (as in the French case). Thus Five ¡Tened cuidado, no os vayáis a perder . . . ! T manteneos vigi-
Fall into Adventure becomes Os cinco e a ciganita (cf. lantes, porque hay en él muchos gitanos" [It's a very big
Grimaräes de Sá). wood, so take care not to get lost! And keep a look out
34 Children's Literature Association Quarterly

because there are lots of Gypsies there] (99). Moreover, an remained, the adjective "black" was changed to "rosy-
offensive reference to Blacks eliminated in the English edi- white": "His skin was rosy-white, his long hair was golden-
tion was also not modified in Spain: instead of "It had nasty brown, and the top of his head came just above the height
gleaming eyes—oh, I was frightened!" (25) we find, "Sus of Mr. Wonka's knee" (85) is rendered in Spanish as: "Su
ojos eran crueles y relucÃ-an. Todo lo demás estaba demasiado piel era casi negra, y la parte superior de su lanuda cabeza lle-
oscuro. ¡Quizás era el rostro de un negro! ¡Oh, qué miedo he gaba a la altura de la rodilla del señor Wonka" (95) [His
pasado! [Its eyes were cruel and gleaming. It was too dark skin was almost black, and the top of his woolly head came
to see anything else. Perhaps it was the face of a black man. just above the height of Mr. Wonka's knee].15
Oh, how afraid I was!] (28). Parallel cases exist not only in works that critics consid-
In both these cases the attitude is openly racist. The er on the fringes of children's literature, but also in works
Gypsies, Spain's only sizeable ethnic minority when the work that some scholars consider to truly belong to the canon, as
was translated in the sixties, had persistently suffered harsh in the case of Lofting's Doctor Dolittle stories. Just as he
discrimination; although it was officially unacceptable, never- had done with Blyton, Dixon launched a furious assault on
theless in practice segregation existed. In the reference to the Lofting's work in his Catching Them Young I: Sex, Race and
"rostro de un negro," the treatment is different. There was no Class in Children's Fiction. His complaints focused on chap-
such minority group to speak of in Spain, and the popular ter eleven of The Story of Doctor Dolittle (1920), which tells
image of the Black man was closer to that of Hugh Lofting, the story of the Black prince Bumpo. The ascendancy that
the primitive African in need of redemption. Hence the gen- Dixon and other critics achieved in the late 1970s over the
eral acceptance of Black artists (mostly Latin American musi- relevant editorial sectors in Britain and North America
cians and singers), who enjoyed warm hospitality.12 meant that Lofting became one of the children's authors
A similar transformation in Britain but not in Spain whose works were most thoroughly purified. In general,
occurs in the representation of strongly marked sex roles. "white man" disappears or is replaced by "man" or
Making clear divisions between boys' and girls' roles is char- "European." The same thing happens with "black man,"
acteristic of Blyton; this trait was modified in post-1970 edi- which in the purified source text appears as "man" or
tions in Great Britain.13 One example is the subtle elimina- "African." Textual purifications of the original are not lim-
tion of the universal in the source text in Five Fall into ited to such minimal lexical modifications, but extend to the
Adventure where "you" becomes "niñas" [girls]: "You can't elimination or modification of whole paragraphs or entire
go about fighting" (19) appears as "Las niñas no deben chapters. The Spanish editions are not purified.16
pelear" (21). From the 1960s onward the influence of translations
In England, such purification was applied not only to changed the nature of children's literature in Spain. With
Blyton's works, but to others. Take the case of the story the end of the dictatorship in the mid-1970s came the end
"William and the League of Perfect Love," which disap- of censorship, which brought with it a major increase in the
peared from the English edition of William the Detective at publication of translations of more recent works. The
the same time as "William and the Nasties," mentioned Spanish children's literature system continues highly perme-
above. Eliminated in England because it included a bloody able. More than half of the published children's literature in
rat hunt, rats being William's favorite animal, it has been Spain appears in translation, and nearly two-thirds of that
continuously reprinted in Spain without arousing protest.14 literature is translated from English. So British and
And in addition to the purification of Crompton's work, in American literature is, by far, the most important area for
the U.S. there is the case of Charlie and the Chocolate study and the most influential in the Spanish literary poly-
Factory, where changes occur in English editions that are system.17 The influence of recent English-language works,
not reflected in the Spanish versions. Here, the modifica- incorporating themes and narrative styles from the last quar-
tions are largely superficial: references to the ethnic origin of ter of the century, has meant that the current literary
the Oompa-Loompas, the workers in Willy Wonka's factory, panorama is not very different from the American, British,
which first appeared in the U.S. during a period of great and German ones. The Spanish system has been strength-
activity among pro-Civil Rights groups. AU references link- ened thanks to the incorporation of external models into the
ing the color of these fictional characters with that of choco- national repertoire. This means that today racial, religious,
late, contained in three paragraphs at the end of chapter fif- societal, and cultural points of view are often similar to those
teen, have been eliminated, but no modifications were made found in other European and American narratives. By 1990,
in the corresponding Spanish translations. Similarly, at the in a collection of studies carried out by reputable authors of
beginning of chapter sixteen, where the text talked about children's literature in Spain, Pablo Barrena and his collab-
the geographical origin of the Oompa-Loompas, "Africa" is orators showed how the end of the dictatorship had seen an
replaced by "Loompaland," and in case any doubts end to taboos. Similarly, realist themes, including racism,
Translation Studies in Contemporary Children's Literature
have lately been treated in an open and positive manner.
The result is a powerful literature for the young that has
reached a state of maturity, as Teresa Colomer ( Formación)
and Amalia Bermejo have recently argued. Translation has
meant not only the transfer of the works from those systems
that have been traditionally dominant in the field of chil-
dren's literature to the Spanish system, which has facilitated
the revival of the field by means of new techniques and top-
ics, but also the highlighting of ideological confrontations
in studies of translator behavior.
The influence of extra-textual factors on translation
practice and, conversely, the important source that transla-
tions constitute for experts are confirmed by these few
examples, which could easily be multiplied by quotations
and references from many other works and authors.
Contrary to the simplistic view that holds the literary study
of children's literature as necessarily of less complexity than 9UnUT the twentieth century the dominant influence on Spanish
corresponding studies of adult literature, translation studies
reveal yet again the richness of the field and the need for
multidisciplinary research. As Tessa Rose Chester has
observed: "The study of children's books touches on liter-
ary, artistic, and historical spheres, it cuts across other major
disciplines such as literary criticism, education, sociology
and psychology, and it is an important part of the social his-
tory" (5).
NOTES
'Spanish children's literature in the nineteenth century contains
numerous accounts of the lives of child saints, who by and large
were martyrs. These tales, set more often than not during the
Roman Empire, were complemented by stories of others martyred
for their beliefs, which were published throughout the Civil War
and early postwar period by the winning faction.
2Thus sex whether in the context of a romantic relationship, pros-
titution, sexual abuse, or other behavior was considered socially
unacceptable. Even today in literature for adolescents, although
sex and related matters are touched upon, treatment is rarely given
in depth. Homosexuality, sexual abuse, adolescent pregnancies,
and so on are given far more scope in adult narrative.
'See my Traducción y Literatura Juvenil. This study primarily scru-
tinizes best-selling works on which the barriers against textual
manipulation are lower; for example, the works of Blyton and
Richmal Crompton, who were stars in the 1960s and 1970s in
Spain, and Dahl, who was a children's favorite during the 1980s
and 1990s.
4Bismat Even-Zohar's and Nitsa Ben-Ari's work on translations
from English, Swedish, and German into Hebrew finds transla-
tion strategies similar to those observed in countries such as Spain
or France.
5For examples of the application of these translation norms see
Fernández López for English-Spanish translation and Mathieu-
Colas, Bordet, and Nières for English-French.
''William the Dictatoria the title of the volume and of one of the
stories. When it was published separately in Happy Magazine its
title was changed to "What's in a Name?" (Cadogan 39), proba-
35
bly to avoid angering certain readers belonging to the British
Union of Fascists. It remains untranslated, although the reason
now undoubtedly is a lack of interest on the part of publishers,
with no social or political implications.
7The text refers to William's gang as the Green Shirts, which does
not correspond to the shirt colors of the cover. Such discrepancies
appear occasionally throughout Crompton's other works when the
Spanish translator "repairs" the text by adapting it to the message
that is transmitted by means of the illustration, a medium that is
not as easy to alter.
"Blyton notes that "quite apart from many millions of English-
speaking readers, I have to consider entirely different children—
children of many other races who have my books in their own lan-
guage. I am, perforce, bringing to them the ideas and ideals of a
race of children alien to them, the British. I am the purveyor of
those ideals all over the world, and perhaps planting a few seeds
here and there that may bear good fruit; in particular, I hope, with
the German Children, who, oddly enough are perhaps more taken
with my books than any other foreign race" (qtd. Menzies 3).
children's literature was French. Over the last hundred years,
British and American works, and to a lesser extent German, have
taken the place of the French. We have also witnessed a strength-
ening of the Spanish internal system itself, which is not as intran-
sigent about external influence as the French system is.
'"The Mathieu-Colases present a series of interviews where eleven
well-known French authors, critics, or researchers in the field of
children's literature were asked to give their opinions on The
Famous Five series. Only Escarpit mentions the fundamental dif-
ference between the source texts and the target texts: "lire un Club
des Cinq en anglais et le lire en français sont deux choses très dif-
férentes'' (198).
"The most important minority in Spain, by far, are Gypsies (ca.
500,000), who are still considered of low status; many Spaniards
are guilty of racist behavior against them (España en cifras). The
treatment given to racist references in Blyton's works (in particu-
lar regarding Gypsies) in Spanish translations was similar to that in
France, and in some cases Blyton's treatment was exaggerated.
Such is the case of the French translation of Five Fall into
Adventure, Le Club des Cinq et les gitanes, where far from remov-
ing any paragraph where discriminatory judgments against Gypsies
are in evidence, they are referred to explicitly in an even more reit-
erative manner than in Spain. Thus while in the source text the
word "Gypsy" is used nine times, the French word gitane appears
ninety times in the French translation (Mathieu-Colas 111).
12Even today the number of Black immigrants, most of them from
sub-Saharan Africa (ca. 40,000 at the end of 1998), is negligible.
Most of the immigrants living in Spain are from South America
(120,000), and Morocco (140,000), the total Spanish population
being ca. 40,000,000. Thus the presence of people of color is still
minimal, although the figures here are only for legal immigrants.
13When female characters behave in a way that Blyton deems
appropriate for the opposite sex, they may find their genders reas-
signed, as happens to the tomboy George (née Georgine).
14There has been renewed criticism in Britain regarding William's
treatment of animals now that Macmillan has republished some of
the William books for his eightieth anniversary.
15The most recent Spanish edition, Alfaguara, 1992, includes some
changes in format, but none in the text. Curiously, in both the
cleaned-up version and the original, apparently reprehensible
36
behavior went uncensored, for example, the Oompa Loompa's
addiction to alcohol, encouraged by Wonka's own inventions such
as the butterscotch sweets and the buttergins (the later taken with
tonic water). This apparent permissiveness does not preclude the
possibility of subsequent further alterations to the original text
involving the elimination of the addiction to alcohol should the
editors consider it necessary.
'6In this regard we only have to examine the textual modifications
that are in the commemorative edition for the centenary of Lofting
in which the author's son, Christopher Lofting, justifies the
"minor changes" carried out on his father's text.
17Spain has a major language, Castilian, but there are other minor-
ity languages such as Catalan, Gallician, and Basque, which are also
considered official languages. Under Franco's dictatorship publica-
tion occurred only in the majority language, Castilian. At present
publishing in the other languages is active and supported financial-
ly by the autonomous regions in which a given language is spoken.
WORKS CITED
Abbadie-Clerc, Christiane, comp. Mythes, Traduction et Creation.
Paris: Bibliotèque publique d'information (Centre George
Pompidou), 1998.
Barrena, Pablo, et al., comps. Corrientes Actuales de la Narrativa
Infantil y Juvenil Española en Lengua Castellana. Madrid:
Asociación Española de Amigos del Libro Infantil y Juvenil, 1990.
Ben-Ari, Nitsa. "Didactic and Pedagogic Tendencies in the Norms
Dictating the Translation of Children's Literature: The Case of
Postwar German-Hebrew Translations." Poetics Today 13:1
(Spring 1992): 221-30.
Bermejo, Amalia. La Literatura Infantil en España. Madrid:
Asociación Española de Amigos del Libro Infantil y Juvenil, 1999.
Blyton, Enid. Five Fall into Adventure. 1950. London: Hodder &
Stoughton, 1990. Los Cinco frente a la aventura. 1966. Barcelona:
Juventud, 1990.
_____. Five Go off to Camp. 1948. London: Hodder & Stoughton,
1986. Los Cinco van de camping. 1965. Barcelona: Juventud,
1985.
_____. The O'Sullivan Twins, 1992. London: Dragon, 1986. Las
Mellizas O'Sullivan. 1960. Barcelona: Molino, 1985.
Bordet, Geneviève. "Traduction et littérature pour enfants: soeurs
jumelles ou parentes pauvres?" Attention! Un livre peut en cacher
un autre... {traduction et adaptation en littérature d'enfance et de
jeunesse). Ed. Denise Escarpit. Pessac: Nous voulons lire!, 1985.
27-33.
Cadogan, Mary. Just William, Through the Ages. London:
Macmillan, 1994.
_, and Patricia Craig. You're a Brick Angela! The Girl's Story
1839-1985. London: Gollancz, 1986.
Chester, Tessa Rose. Children's Books Research: A Practical Guide
to Techniques and Sources. South Woodchester: Thimble, 1989.
CRW (Children's Rights Workshop). Racism and Sexism in
Children's Books. London: Writers and Readers Publishing
Cooperative, 1976.
Colomer, Teresa. "A favor de la niñas: El sexismo en la literatura
infantil." Cuadernos de Literatura Infantil y juvenil (CLIJ) 57
(1994): 7-21.
Children's Literature Association Quarterly
_____. La Formación del Lector Literario. Narrativa infantil y
juvenil actual. Madrid: Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez,
1998.
Company, Flavia. "Enid Blyton: un fenómeno sociológico."
Cuadernos de Literatura Infantil y juvenil (CLIJ) 50 (1993): 48-54.
Crompton, Richmal. Just William. Newnes, 1922; London:
Macmillan, 1984. Travesuras de Guillermo. 1935. Barcelona:
Molino, 1968.
_____. William's Crowded Hours. Newnes, 1931; London:
Macmillan, 1985. Guillermo el atareado. 1959. Barcelona: Molino,
1970.
Dahl, Roald. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 1964.
Harmondsworth: Puffin, 1985. Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate.
1978. Madrid: Alfaguara, 1988.
Dixon, Bob. Catching them Young 1: Sex, Race and Class in
Children's Fiction. London: Pluto, 1977.
Catching them Young 2: Political Ideas in Children's Fiction.
London: Pluto, 1977.
Escarpit, Denise, ed. Attention! Un livre peut en cacher un autre...
(traduction et adaptation en littérature d'enfance et de jeunesse).
Pessac: Nous voulons lire!, 1985.
España en cifras. Madrid: Instituto Nacional de EstadÃ-stica, 1999.
http://www.ine.es
Even-Zohar, Bismat. "Translation Policy in Hebrew Children's
Literature: The Case of Astrid Lindgren." Poetics Today 13:1
(1992): 231-45.
Fernández López, Marisa. Traducción y Literatura Juvenil: narra-
tiva anglosajona contemporánea en España. León: Universidad de
León, 1996.
Gárate, Arantza. "Niños, niñas y libros. Las diferencias de género
en la LIJ." Cuadernos de Literatura Infantil y juvenil (CLIJ) 95
(1997): 7-17.
Grimäraes de Sá, Domingo. A Literatura Infantil em Portugal.
Braga: Editorial Franciscana, 1981.
Hildick, Wallace. Children and Fiction: A Critical Study in Depth
of the Artistic and Psychological Factors Involved in Writing Fiction
for and about Children. Rev. ed. London: Evans, 1974.
House, Juliane. A Model for Translation (Quality Assessment.
Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1977.
Index Translationum. Fourth Cumulative Edition (1979-1996).
http://www.unesco.org/culture/xtrans/html_eng/graphl8.htm.
Klingberg, Göte. Children's Fiction in the Hands of the Translators.
Lund: CWK Gleerup, 1986.
Lofting, Hugh. The Story of Doctor Dolittle. 1920. New York: Dell,
1988. La Historia del Doctor Dolittle. 1967. Madrid: Espasa Calpe,
1989.
MacLeod, Anne Scott. American Childhood: Essays on Children's
Literature of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Athens: U of
Georgia P, 1994.
Mathieu-Colas, Marie-Pierre and Michel. Le Dossier "Club des
Cinq" ("The Famous Five" d'Enid Blyton). Breteuil-sur-Iton:
Magnard/ L'École, 1983.
Menzies, John. A Complete List of Books: Enid Blyton. Edinburgh:
Menzies, 1950.
"A Caught Dream": John Ruskin, Kate Greenaway and the Erotic Innocent Girl 37

Nières, Isabelle. "La traduction dans les livres pour la jeunesse."
Attention! Un livre peut en cacher un autre... (traduction et adap-
tation en littérature d'enfance et de jeunesse). Ed. Denise Escarpit.
Pessac: Nous voulons lire!, 1985. 35-54.
"Traduction et creation." Mythes, Traduction et Creation.
Comp. Christiane Abbadie-Clerc. Paris: Bibliotèque publique d'in-
formation (Centre George Pompidou), 1998. 103-23.
Ruzicka, Veljka, Celia Vázquez, Marta Garcia, and Estela Herreo.
Evolución de la Literatura Infantil y Juvenil Británica y Alemana
hasta el Siglo XX. Vigo: Ediciones Cardeñoso, 1995.
Shavit, Zohar. Poetics of Children's Literature. Athens: U of
Georgia P, 1986.
Toury, Gideon. In Search of a Theory of Translation. Tel Aviv: U of
Tel Aviv, 1980.
Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins, 1995.
West, Mark I. "Censorship." Encyclopedia of Children's Literature.
Ed. Peter Hunt and Sheila Ray. London: Routledge, 1996. 498-
507.
Marisa Fernández López is lecturer in English at the
University of León (Spain).

"A Caught Dream'.».

John Ruskin, Kate Greenaway, and the Erotic Innocent Girl
by Anya Krugfovoy Silver

In 1859, Victorian art and social critic John Ruskin paid inine than the mature woman. Greenaway's girls, even when
his first visit to Winnington, the progressive British girls' older, rarely reveal the contours of women; instead,
school that he would visit several times in the 1860s and at Greenaway captures girls before they lose their innocent
various times in later years, Ruskin particularly loved to girlish loveliness. Though her work had a widespread
watch the students dance, informing his father in a letter of appeal, it is particularly understandable that it attracted
22 March 1861 that "they dance like Dryads, I never saw readers such as Ruskin, whose intense and obsessive love for
any dancing at once so finished & so full of life" young girls seemed to exclude the possibility of sexual love
(Winnington 284). In his diary entry for 28 December with women, including Greenaway herself.
1885, Ruskin writes fondly of the visits to Winnington as
******

among the happiest moments of his life: "Thinking over the

forgotten things in my life, which seem now becoming the
most important. The Dances at Winnington" ( Winnington In countless classrooms and critical studies, Ruskin is
21), Ruskin's vision of girls dancing on the green recalls his presented as the mouthpiece of Victorian gender ideology,
friendship with artist Kate Greenaway and the flower- and indeed, "Of Queens' Gardens" (1865) remains one of
wreathed dancing girls of her wildly popular drawings. the most important nineteenth-century explications of the
Greenaway's illustrations of children were best sellers in ideology of separate spheres. Recent critics, however, have
England, America, and the Continent: Under the Window, sought to complicate feminist critiques of "Of Queens'
Greenaway's 1878 collection of illustrated poems, sold Gardens," examining ways in which Ruskin uses the concept
90,000 copies in England alone. She was already a well- of separate spheres to argue for a larger political and social
known artist when Ruskin wrote to her for the first time in role for women outside of the home, particularly as caretak-
1880, thereby initiating a friendship and correspondence ers of the poor and the environment.2 Ruskin's assertion
that lasted until his death. Over the course of their friend- that a woman should move "without her gates, where order
ship, he wrote her over five hundred letters, to which is more difficult, distress more imminent, loveliness more
Greenaway responded enthusiastically, sending him perhaps rare" (95), for instance, offered middle- and upper-class
twice that number, often ornamented with drawings of her women a rationale for philanthropic and educational work
lithe and languorous girls.1 in which they could assume leadership positions. His ideas
By focusing on the relationship between the works of about men's and women's fundamentally different natures
Ruskin and Greenaway, this essay will explore the larger cul- thus ironically provided an argument for the wider redefin-
tural significance of Greenaway's illustrations, arguing that ition of the domestic sphere.
by repeatedly conflating the body of the girl with the body Discussion of "Of Queens' Gardens" has, however,
of the woman, Greenaway underscores Ruskin's belief that largely overshadowed another of Ruskin's works, The Ethics
the presexual girl is more beautiful and more perfectly fem- of the Dust (1866), a collection of dialogues on mineralogy'
© 2000 Children s Literature Association