Abstract
Déprise is an interactive digital narrative that was initially published online in 2010 (http://deprise.fr or http://lossofgrasp.com). Over time, this literary interactive narrative was translated from its original French version French into English (2010), Italian (2011), Spanish (2013) and Portuguese (2016), and more recently into Arabic, Chinese, German, Hungarian, Polish and Russian (2020). Every translation led to an intercultural and transcreative process (Portela, Pold & Mencia, 2018) involving the translators and the author. We asked the English, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese translators of the work for feedback on the translation process via interviews. In this paper, we employ the written exchanges with the translators to explore and question the modes of collaboration between author and translator as well as the significance of translating specific dimensions of literary IDNs. Additionally, we briefly discuss some future research trajectories on translating IDNs: the role of indirect translation (Gambier, 1994), the cultural dimension of the works, and translation as reinvented memory.
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Notes
- 1.
For further reference: http://deprise.fr or http://lossofgrasp.com. For video capture of the interactions: https://youtu.be/nd6_b158qOs.
- 2.
In a subsequent study, it will be relevant to go further in highlighting the key differences that the translation of IDNs has with other forms of media translation over time. In particular, it could be interesting to look at the intricacies of diverse genres affecting the translator’s task, such as those involved in translating a print novel and timeline media and/or video and live-AI-rendered content.
- 3.
V. Bouchardon had already translated other works by the author, ‘‘Les douze travaux de l'internaute’’ (2008) and ‘‘Toucher’’ (2009), di Rosario and Marques will later translate, “Opacité” (2012) and “Détrace” (2016).
- 4.
It is important to mention that V. Bouchardon and Marques used their own voices in the English and Portuguese versions. This is an example of transcreation in translation as they performed their linguistic translation by recording their voice and making it part of the digital work. This fact underlines the idea of the translator as a collaborator-mediator, one that is present not only through his/her words (linguistic text) but also through the presence of his/her voice (audio).
- 5.
It is important to underline that the Spanish translator (Alonso) communicated with the author in French, « Quand j'avais eu à traduire Déprise, j'avais travaillé les altérations dans le but d'obtenir les mêmes effets de surprise qu'en français. Pour cela, j'avais joué assez librement sur la phonétique. Je considère que cet aspect (la recréation des rythmes et des sonorités) constitue le principal défi de toute traduction. Cela me semble revêtir une importance majeure dans le cas d'une œuvre numérique, faisant directement appel à tous les sens du récepteur ».
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Bouchardon, S., Meza, N. (2023). Traversing Boundaries When Translating a Literary IDN into Several Languages: A Case Study. In: Holloway-Attaway, L., Murray, J.T. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14384. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47658-7_2
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