Rudvin, Mette (1996) The role of norms in text production : case study of a nineteenth-century Norwegian folktale collection and its role in the shaping of national identity. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The present thesis operates within the framework of a macro-structural and descriptive approach to
Translation Studies, examining aspects of a type of literature that has traditionally been marginalized within
the polysystem, namely oral narrative. The thesis investigates translation as one element in a larger,
interactive system; it does not regard 'translation' only in its traditional function as a linguistic act between
two different national languages, but one that includes a conception of translation between two variants of
one language. The case study in question is a nineteenth-century collection of Norwegian folktales Norske
Folkeeventyr, collected and retold by P. Chr. Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe, first published in 1841. This
publication came to have a considerable linguistic and literary impact on the Norwegian polysystem. The
thesis aims to show how macro-structural factors governed the creation of the corpus through 'translation'
from oral to literary mode, and from diverse dialects to a standardized language, and how the resulting
product had a significant impact on the standardization of the one of the emerging Norwegian language
forms. The thesis seeks to describe in detail which historical, political, literary and linguistic factors, in the
national as well as supra-national framework, have affected this process of translation and text-production as
a whole. It further aims to demonstrate how this process took shape in the context of, and indeed how it was
instrumental in the shaping of, an emerging Norwegian national identity after the country's independence from
Denmark (1814) and Sweden (1905). The thesis thus illustrates, through detailed description, how a specific
corpus of texts has been formed in a dialectic process with the readership and the target culture, both
adapting to and influencing prevailing literary and linguistic norms.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PT Germanic literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Oral tradition -- Norway, Tales -- Norway, Norske folkeeventyr -- Criticism and interpretation, Norwegian literature -- 19th century
Official Date:	April 1996
Dates:	Date Event April 1996 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Bassnett, Susan
Sponsors:	British Council ; Lise og Arnfinn Hejes Fond ; Ruotsinsuomalaisten kirjoittajien yhdistys (FFSS)
Extent:	286 p.
Language:	eng

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