SVÅRIGHETER OCH STRATEGIER I ÖVERSÄTTNING AV TEORETISKA TEXTER. Exempel ur de svenska översättningarna av ”Från en identitet till en annan” av Julia Kristeva och ”Vad är en text?” av Paul Ricoeur

Abstract

This master thesis deals with the translation of theoretical texts in the humanities. My main purpose is to investigate the special difficulties and strategies in translating this type of text. As examples I analyze the Swedish translations of two French essays, Julia Kristeva’s “D’une identité l’autre” and Paul Ricoeur’s “Qu’est-ce qu’un texte”. The Swedish titels are “Från en identitet till en annan” och “Vad är en text?” Starting from the concepts of skopos, equivalence and established “strategies” in translation studies I analyze the way scientific terms, concepts and the sentence structures are translated in the target texts. One result is that the function of theoretical texts is quite other than “informative” ones. The source texts are very different regarding the use of technical terms and language as well as the ways of reasoning. The main result is that translations strategies used differ greatly. One of the target texts gives proof of using “formal equivalence” and at the same time a grammatically and logically clear Swedish scientific prose as global strategy. The other one is rather striving to facilitate the reading and comprehension of the target text to Swedish readers without simplifying it. A conclusion is that there is no overall useful strategy in translating theoretical texts.