Η έννοια του habitus ως μεθοδολογικό εργαλείο για τη μελέτη του μεταφραστικού ύφους

Abstract

Style in translation is a term that tends to refer to the level of transfer of the stylistic features of the source text to the target text. But what about the stylistic features that pertain to the target text and constitute elements of the translator’s personal writing? The paper will suggest Bourdieu’s notion of habitus as a methodological tool for the understanding of the stylistic choices of the translator based on sociological factors in accordance with the bourdieusian analysis of taste. More concretely, habitus may interpret the manner in which the translator interprets the source text as a sensitive reader and his/her translation choices during the actual translation process as a writer of a new text, the target text. Methodologically, the paper will suggest a combination of the study of contextual factors on the macro-level with a meticulous linguistic analysis of the target text on the micro- level. Furthermore, the notions of deviance, both from the source text and the norms of the target culture, as well as patterning in his/her translation choices will be suggested as tools to discern the stylistic elements that are most foregrounded and thus stylistically important to study. The above methodological frame will be exemplified through the study of the rendering of Hamlet by Yorgos Himonas (1980).