This book explores the interaction between corpus stylistics and translation studies. It shows how corpus methods can be used to compare literary texts to their translations, through the analysis of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and four of its Italian translations. The comparison focuses on stylistic features related to the major themes of Heart of Darkness. By combining quantitative and qualitative techniques, Mastropierro discusses how alterations to the original’s stylistic features can affect the interpretation of the themes in translation. The discussion illuminates the manipulative effects that translating can have on the reception of a text, showing how textual alterations can trigger different readings. This book advances the multidisciplinary dialogue between corpus linguistics and translation studies and is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in the application of corpus approaches to stylistics and translation.
Lorenzo Mastropierro is a Lecturer in English Language and Translation at the University of Insubria, Italy.
Introduction1. A corpus stylistic approach to the study of literary translation2. Africa and Africans in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness3. Texts, corpora, methods4. From lexis to themes: The keyword analysis5. “A place of darkness”: The fictional representation of the African jungle6. “Black things”: The fictional representation of the African natives7. The broader picture: Applying PCA to the study of literary translation8. Concluding discussionAppendicesBibliographyIndex