Translating Traditions: The Whale Rider from Novel to Film

Abstract

Over the centuries translation has played a central and complex role in the representation of the history and formation of identity. The so-called 'cultural turn' in Translation Studies has highlighted the cross-cultural dimension of the translation process and the ideological and ethical responsibilities involved in the strategies and choices of translators. The translator's accountability is particularly heightened with regards to literatures coming from postcolonial countries and minority cultures. To account for their cultural and linguistic hybridism, the translator needs to engage with the source cultures on a deeper level, so as to attain knowledge of the effects that translation brings to bear not only on the target audience but also on the system whose culture is portrayed and mediated through a network of intersecting interests, agendas and socio-cultural predispositions. The Whale Rider, a novel by Maori writer Witi Ihimaera, represents an interesting case-study. Since its publication in 1987, the novel has been translated into more than 30 languages and turned into an internationally successful film. In fact, it is thanks to Niki Caro's eponymous film adaptation, released almost twenty years later (2003), that The Whale Rider has gained international attention, establishing Ihimaera as an acclaimed writer worldwide. The first part of this thesis looks at the book's adaptation into film as a process of intersemiotic translation. It seemed logical to start here not least because it was thanks to the film adaptation that the story was brought to international audiences as well as translated into other languages. The second part reviews and expands many of the issues raised in the first through a close reading of the literary translations into German and Italian of The Whale Rider. These multiple transformations raise a number of issues regarding, in particular, the transfer of cultural material and the agency of the translator as cross-cultural mediator. The thesis argues that translation ought to be approached in a holistic way, whereby the text is conceptualised within a larger framework of intertextual associations, all of which have an input in the process. Some of these correlations have been accounted for and addressed through theoretical models; others instead are specific to each text and thus can only be deduced through the analysis of practical examples. Many scholars have called for more empirical studies to acquire a better understanding of translation, observing that categories variously proposed to describe the process of translation cannot be predicted a priori but can only be discerned through the observation of the actual practice. This conviction has shaped the structure of the present study, where the theories offered are tested against a wide range of selected examples from the novel, the film and their translations. Empirical studies shed light on the translation process from many different angles (languages, cultures, sign systems), highlighting its complexity. Moreover, it is through wide-ranging examples taken from each text that one can gain a deeper understanding of the difficulties inherent in the mediation of cross-cultural difference and the decisive role translators play in this. This thesis undertakes a close comparative analysis of multiple translations of The Whale Rider to demonstrate that the deeper translators' understanding of the source text, the vast network of intertextual references that has shaped and continues to shape it, and the impact that their choices bear on its dissemination, the more fruitfully can they exercise their role as cultural mediators.