Abstract
This essay will address the problem of the translatability of a pastiche of classic English prose styles into Danish. The issue is examined by way of a comparative analysis of the ‘Oxen of the Sun’ episode in James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), itself a ‘translation’ of the Homeric classic, The Odyssey, and the Danish translations. The ‘Oxen’ episode is both thematically and stylistically concerned with the gradual embryonic development of life as well as language, symbolised in the birth of ‘the Word.’ Stylistically, by way of pastiche, the episode is an ‘edited anthology’ of English literary prose styles from the formation of English in Anglo-Saxon times to a modern day broken English and Dublin slang (i.e. of the year of the novel, 1904). Ideologically, in his resistance to the King's English, Joyce thus undermines the very notion of a culturally distinct English literary canon. The problem of translatability is explored in an analysis of the Danish translations of the episode by the late Mogens Boisen who produced no less than three translations of Ulysses in 1949, 1970 and 1980. With how much reverence for the canonized styles does Boisen go about translating the many-voiced text? Is his aim to maintain the foreignizing effect of the archaic language or is his strategy to domesticate it for the benefit of easy reading?
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
