Shevon Porter

Publication Date

2014

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Merino, Eloy E.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures

LCSH

Spanish language--Translating into English; Mexican literature--21st century; Latin American literature

Abstract

This thesis is a translation into English of Paco Ignacio Taibo II's Mexican detective novel, Amorosos fantasmas. The approach used in translating was in line with Lawrence Venuti's concept of foreignization. This approach was employed in favor of a more common style of domestication. Foreignization allows the translated text to retain some linguistic and cultural elements that are important or distinctive in the source text. In doing so, it evokes a feeling of foreignness. The reader of this translation may feel aware that he or she is reading a book that was not originally written in English; it is intentionally less fluent than a domesticated translation would be.||The first introduction is an essay explaining the translation approach, why it is appropriate, and some of the difficulties encountered in the task of translating. The second is an analysis of the protagonist and a brief study of the previous novels in the series, of which Amorous Ghosts is the sixth. The series features Hector Belascoaran Shayne, Mexican private detective, and is written in the novela negra, or noir style. Paco Ignacio Taibo II uses the devices of this genre in order to criticize and call attention to social inequities, government corruption and bourgeois apathy in Mexico City. In Amorous Ghosts, Belascoaran finds himself at a particularly low and lonely point, haunted metaphorically by ghosts of his own past as well as those of his clients. He is propelled on by the strength of his ideals, however, to solve two murder cases and bring his own brand of justice to the perpetrators.

Comments

Advisors: Eloy Merino.||Committee members: Linda Saborio; Francisco Solares-Larrave.

Extent

104 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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