DESTINATION AMERICA:

Translating CSIs in
Stephen King’s Revival
Ana Sentov
Faculty of Law and Business Studies Novi Sad
 Research questions

 Translation of culture-specific items in Stephen King’s

novel Revival (2014) into Serbian
 Newmark’s classification of CSIs (1988)
 differences in the translation strategies depending on
the category
 If the strategies are used consistently within
categories
 the results at the micro-level and the macro-level
 About the Author
 STEPHEN KING (1947)
 -one of the most popular and prolific authors of horror,
fantasy, suspense, and science fiction, probably the most
familiar to readers worldwide
 his novels and short stories have been sold more than 350
million copies, and continue to be adapted in various arts and
media (film, television, comics/graphic novels, audiobooks)
 most of King’s novels and short stories have been translated
into Serbian, from his early novels Carrie, The Shining and the
Dead Zone, to the dark fantasy series The Dark Tower, to the
most recent ones such as Under the Dome and Revival.
 the vast majority of King’s novels and short stories
feature a distinctly American setting
 numerous references to the U.S. American popular
culture, literature, history, politics and religion
 The protagonists’ final destination is the small
American town of their childhood, where they confront
their past lives and past selves
 The true destination of King’s protagonists is self-
knowledge, which is necessary to defeat the evil within
and without
 The Meaning of Revival

 Revival refers to progonists’s own experience of

coming back to life after sinking into addiction
 The antagonist’s obsession with bringing the dead back
to life
 the conversion to the faith or a rekindling of the faith
 ’Tent revival’
 Specific for U.S. American culture
the term is loaded with meanings which cannot be
transferred into Serbian easily
Buđenje - a fairly good choice, since it carries
connotations of faith – buđenje vere - awakening of
faith, but also waking from sleep, symbolically coming
back to life
(a) ’Old-Time Tent Revival’ (Revival, 181)
„Starovremenski šatorski rivajval“ (Buđenje, 159)
how many Serbian readers will understand this
reference?
 Transference (Newmark, 1988), repetition (Aixela,
1996), cultural borrowing (Harvey & Higgins, 1992),
preservation (Davies, 2003)
 Addition (Davies, 2003) – keeping the original term but
supplementing the text with whatever information is
judged necessary
 Incorporated in the translation
 Intratextual gloss (Aixela, 1996) – inserted directly into
the text
 Footnotes
 Newmark (1988)
 (1) Ecology (Animals, plants, geography, climate)
 (2) Material culture (artefacts – food, clothes, housing,
transport, communications)
 (3) Social culture (work and leisure )
 (4) Organizations, customs, ideas (politics, law,
administration, religion, art, social norms)
 (5) Gestures and habits
 Culture and Translation

 Translator as a mediator between the source text and

the target culture
 Foreignization vs. domestication (Venuti 1995)
 Aspects of U.S. American culture – popular music and
religion
 Many references to genres of popular music (blues,
rock and roll), songs and lyrics, performers
(c) Konu je trebalo šest meseci da nauči The House of the Rising
Sun. (82)
It took Con six months to learn ’The House of the Rising Sun’.
(89)
(d) Green River je imala osnovni rokenrol ritam – ne baš kao
Cherry, Cherry, ali sličan. (85)
’Green River’ had a basic rock-and-roll beat – not quite like
’Cherry, Cherry’, but close. (93)
(e) „Hajde da probamo Needles and Pins. Znaš ono od
Serčersa?“ (86)
’Let’s try ’Needles and Pins’. You know, the Searchers?’ (94)
 (h) Po mom mišljenju, nijedno ime benda nije bilo bolje
od Hromiranih ruža. (88)
 But there was never a better name for a band, in my
opinion, than Chrome Roses. (97)
 (i) Keni je smislio to ime kad smo ustondirani obišli
baštensku izložbu u očevom mestu. (88)
 Kenny thought it up while we were stoned and watching
a gardening show at my dad’s place. (97)
 The ’Yankee’ Culture

 (j) going like hell’s kitchen – išli smo đavolskom brzinom

 As right as a trivet – zdrav kao dren
 She gone groceryin’ – krenula je u bakaluk
 A dime’s worth of difference – nema nikakve razlike
 In dutch – nadrljao sam
 Localization (Davies, 2003)
 (k) She doesn’t know if she’s afoot or on horseback. – Više
ne zna da li gazi ili jaše. (Creation)
 She’ll beat me like a red-headed stepchild. – Izbiće me kao
riđokosog pastorka (Creation. Or would localization be
better?)
 Little pitchers have big ears.- Pazi šta pričaš pred decom.
(Localization)
 We’re skating on mighty thin ice. – Klizamo se po tankom
ledu. (Creation)
 He was working like a demon. – Radio je kao demon.
(Creation)
 Religious References

 Different Protestant churches in the Reform tradition:

Methodist, Congregational
 Evangelist, evangelicalism, revival
 Many biblical references
 St.Paul’s darkened glass – references to I Corinthians
 ’For now we see through a glass, darkly;’
 Macro-level

 Several different groups or networks of CSIs, which

make different contributions to the text
 American background (aspects of daily life):
 Ivy League shirt
 Barnes & Noble
 Gates Falls Congo (congregational church)
 Greyhound
 The Neapolitan (ice-cream)
 Popular culture (names of songs, performers, bands, TV
shows and films)
 Horror genre:
 - E.A. Poe’s poem
 - De Vermis Mysteriis, a fictional grimoire created by
Robert Bloch
 - the works of H.P. Lovecraft
 - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (using electricity to bring a
corpse back to life)
 Conclusion

 Translators are rarely consistent in preferring one

procedure over another; similar examples may be
dealt with sometimes one way and sometimes
another.

 Translation - a compromise involving a mixture of

procedures – incorporating local colour without
alienating the target readers