The identities of linguistic variation represented in translations of highbrow literature and of popular best-selling fiction

• Grant number: 19/01783-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2019
• End date: June 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Applied Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Lauro Maia Amorim
• Grantee: Lauro Maia Amorim
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The goal of this project is to analyze the representation of linguistic variation in translated fictional dialogues, with focus on 06 literary translations grouped into three pairs of books, each of them belonging to three different publishers. Such translations have been contrastingly selected according to highbrow literature and best-selling fiction characteristics. This research project is intended to clarify the extent to which the representation of linguistic variation in translated literary texts may be influenced, to varying degrees, by their position within the field of cultural and economic relations established by the publishing industry, in line with the distinctions commonly drawn between highbrow literature and bestselling fiction. As the ongoing research by the applicant (Amorim 2018a and 2018b) has shown significant preliminary connections between linguistic variation and different literary and commercial status of translations, this research project will offer an analysis, both quantitatively and qualitatively, of how similar or different have been the strategies taken by editors and translators to convey (mostly diaphasic) linguistic variation in literary translations bearing on different economic and aesthetic goals, as well as on different target audiences. (AU)