The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros: Translation and Theoretical Framework

Abstract

This masters assignment consists largely of my Icelandic translation of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, which came out in 1984. Cisneros grew up in the barrio on the Southside of Chicago. She is a Chicana writer, writing from the experience of residing in the borderland of language and identity that is peculiar to being both a Mexican and an American. Cisneros’ use of code-switching, where she uses Spanish words in her English text, produces a unique and poetic kind of writing that brings the reader over to a different culture, wherein the reality of a Chicana is experienced. Preceding my translation is my essay, offering a theoretical framework that introduces the writer, the work and problems arising during the translation process. My approach to the transfer of the text from English into Icelandic is in particular based on theories that have been defined by Lawrence Venuti, who coined the terms domestication and foreignization to describe disparate approaches to translation, based on Friedrich Schleiermacher’s theoretical formulations from 1813. Domestication of a translated text describes a process whereby a work is brought over to the reader and familiarized in translation, whereas foreignization brings the reader over to the work in question, and thus the work might not feel as familiar to a reader as is the case with domestication. In the theoretical part examples from the translation are examined and discussed within the context of translation theory, demonstrating that the translation of The House on Mango Street from English into Icelandic would be classified for the most part as a foreignizing transfer, although aspects of the translation fall under domestication. The Spanish words are thus left intact in the translation, in order to accommodate the effect that Cisneros wants the reader to experience when reading The House on Mango Street.