Comparative analysis of the English and French translations of Historias de Cronopios y de Famas by Julio Cortázar

Abstract

This study presents a comparative analysis of the translations into English and French of two short stories from the book Historias de Cronopios y de Famas by the Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar. This analysis follows van Leuven-Zwart’s model for the analysis of literary translations, with the aim of assessing the effectiveness of this rigorous method when applied to surrealist texts. This study also aims to identify the strategies followed by the translators to transmit the nonsensical elements which characterize these stories. Results show a tendency towards semantic specifications and translation mistakes both in English and French, which have consequences at a macrostructural level.

Leonardo Contreras Roa

Associate Professor in English Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetician and English teacher, PhD in Linguistics