Witi Ihimaera’s <em>The Whale Rider</em> in Slovene, Dutch, and German Translation

Abstract

The translation of Ma ori literature into european languages constitutes a relatively recent phenomenon, principally because the publication of Maori books in english has increased since the Maori Renaissance in the 1970s (Keown; Auerbach). As recent statistical evaluations of bibliographies have shown, until the year 2007, 126 Zealand books had been published in european translation, with German, French, and dutch counting among the most frequent continental languages of translation (Haag, new Zealand Books 82). the first translations of Maori literature appeared in the 1950s. However, this was sporadic, with only a single book, peter Henry Buck's Vikings of the Sunrise (1938), having been issued in five continental languages. the proliferation of foreign-language publications of Maori texts started in the 1970s and was not only characterized by the general augmentation of translated books but also by diversification of translated genres and authors: the most frequently translated genres include the novel (48%), the anthology (18%), and juvenile literature (8%). today, Witi ihimaera is the most frequently translated author, with his novels making up 22% of the entire corpus of european translations of this literature. ihimaera's books are followed in quantitative terms by translations of those of similarly established authors: patricia Grace, Keri Hulme, and Alan duff (Haag, new Zealand Books 88-92).Despite this obvious success, studies of the european marketing of this literature have identified problematic strategies of book production that have construed translated Maori literature rather as a cultural than a literary product, with european ideas of authenticity and traditionalism often employed as the marketing strategy (Haag, indigenous Literature). this marketing strategy can be discerned on the dustcovers that tend to foster the origin of the books, particularly by showing images of tattooed faces, stone axes, and warfare (Haag, indigenous Literature 57-59). such images draw on stereotypical ideas of primitivism that construe cultures as childlike and prone to savageness. By emphasizing such stereotypes, the publishers try to gain an audience through sensationalist portrayals of Maori culture as ferocious and raw. While scholarship has criticized such marketing, there has been little research into the interest in Maori literature in europe (Knudsen; Moura-Kocoglu). no study has focused so far on the processes of translation and asked whether they have replicated the stereotypes employed by the marketing of this literature.This question is particularly relevant since translations play an important role in intercultural communication. By exposing readers to a foreign and sometimes little-known literature, a distant culture, a different perspective, or shared experiences, they can broaden readers' awareness and understanding of shared values and contribute to their openness to people from different cultures. According to Lawrence Venuti (The Translator's Invisibility), in recognizing the ability of translation to bring different cultures together and enable readers to study common themes and problems, the translator and the publisher must be aware that translation is not merely a matter of linguistics, and that establishing linguistic equivalence, an important criterion in judging translation until the late 1980s (Catford; nida and taber), is not enough. Given that words derive their meaning from a specific cultural context, it seems entirely appropriate that translation theory and practice have, in recent years, turned to both the source and target cultures as something to be studied before the translation of a work can proceed (dingwaney). Rather than evaluating the faithfulness of the translation, the discipline of translation studies has focused on the way in which a translated text functions against the background of the target language and culture. …