Reusing existing translations: mediated Chandler novels in French and Spanish

Abstract

Existing literary translations can be reused in a number of complex ways that extend their lives beyond their publication and reception. They can be used as the basis for intralingual (same language) or interlingual (different language) mediated translations that can range from such things as Polish (via English) into Portuguese translations to regional editions to unscrupulous plagiarisms. Mediated translation tends to distance the target text from the source text. In a study of Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister in Gallimard's Série Noire and in three different publishers in Spain, it is found that in contexts that could be characterised as mass market, or "factory", translation, both inter- and intralingual intermediated translation are used. In the three most recent publication situations involving The Little Sister, while still operating within mercantile models, the publishers use intralingual mediated translation, and also retranslation, to restore target literary texts that have been condensed, attenuated or censored to the closest possible balance with regard to the source texts. The topic of intralingual, "restorative" reuse of translated texts has seldom been explored.