Thesis
I've had a few people wondering about my thesis. I think I'm going to submit it as an ETD (Electronic Thesis and Dissertation), so that it will be available online to whoever wants to read it. I really like the idea of ETDs, partly because I don't have to pay for so many copies of it (or kill so many trees), and partly because that makes it so accessible to others. I have enjoyed browsing through other theses online, and I even used some ideas from one written by a friend.
For the record, the title of my thesis is: "Beyond Fidelity: The Translation Process in Two Version's of Juan Marse's El embrujo de Shanghai". I'm actually not a big fan of that title, but it was the best I could come up with. The introduction to the thesis describes the intersection between film adaptation and translation; i.e., the ways in which they are different and the ways in which they are similar. The problem with most adaptation theory is that it tends to be stuck in a way of juding the quality of the product based on a hierarchical system that evalutates faithfulness to the original. While various theorists have come up with new ways of looking at adaptation, the tendency remains to judge purely on some sort of fidelity to some aspect of the original. Translation studies has faced a similar problem, but the theoretical response has been different. Especially in recent years the theory has come to favor a process-oriented approach to analysis, instead of a hierarchical approach. I talk about some specific ideas in translation analysis and how they could apply to film analysis as well. In the conclusion, I discuss the idea that the adapation is a sort of "third text" that falls in the liminal space between novel and film, and that it should be treated as such, not as a less-than or a greater-than.
The middle of the thesis is supposed to be applying all these ideas to a Spanish novel called El embrujo de Shanghai, which was published about 15 years ago. It was first adapted to film by the famous director Victor Erice (The South, The Spirit of the Beehive), but when the producers saw Erice's script they didn't like it and cut him from the project. So he got mad and published his screenplay and got really famous for being left out. Another director, Fernando Trueba, actually made the book into a movie. The two versions of the book are really different, but they are both very interesting cinematically. I look at the process of adaptation and the choices each director makes. The biggest criticism of my thesis was the fact that the middle doesn't really feel like I'm applying the ideas I had in the beginning and end. I think they are right--it can be hard to apply theory to reality because, well, it's all theoretical.
So that's what I've been working on lately. My degree is actually in Spanish Literature, although much of my thesis isn't neccessarily directly applicable to my specific subject area. If I keep going in this direction for a PhD, I am thinking about applying to do Comparative Literature or something similar. The other direction I'm thinking of for PhD is to keep going in Spanish and look at women's writings, particularly from the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries. I've done some work on that and was even helping a professor translate a play that has never appeared in English before. That direction of research seems like it would be pretty cool, because there's a lot of original research to be done in the field. I like working with women's studies too. So many big decisions to be made. Of course, I could just be a secretary for the rest of my life, but that wouldn't be as much fun, right?
For the record, the title of my thesis is: "Beyond Fidelity: The Translation Process in Two Version's of Juan Marse's El embrujo de Shanghai". I'm actually not a big fan of that title, but it was the best I could come up with. The introduction to the thesis describes the intersection between film adaptation and translation; i.e., the ways in which they are different and the ways in which they are similar. The problem with most adaptation theory is that it tends to be stuck in a way of juding the quality of the product based on a hierarchical system that evalutates faithfulness to the original. While various theorists have come up with new ways of looking at adaptation, the tendency remains to judge purely on some sort of fidelity to some aspect of the original. Translation studies has faced a similar problem, but the theoretical response has been different. Especially in recent years the theory has come to favor a process-oriented approach to analysis, instead of a hierarchical approach. I talk about some specific ideas in translation analysis and how they could apply to film analysis as well. In the conclusion, I discuss the idea that the adapation is a sort of "third text" that falls in the liminal space between novel and film, and that it should be treated as such, not as a less-than or a greater-than.
The middle of the thesis is supposed to be applying all these ideas to a Spanish novel called El embrujo de Shanghai, which was published about 15 years ago. It was first adapted to film by the famous director Victor Erice (The South, The Spirit of the Beehive), but when the producers saw Erice's script they didn't like it and cut him from the project. So he got mad and published his screenplay and got really famous for being left out. Another director, Fernando Trueba, actually made the book into a movie. The two versions of the book are really different, but they are both very interesting cinematically. I look at the process of adaptation and the choices each director makes. The biggest criticism of my thesis was the fact that the middle doesn't really feel like I'm applying the ideas I had in the beginning and end. I think they are right--it can be hard to apply theory to reality because, well, it's all theoretical.
So that's what I've been working on lately. My degree is actually in Spanish Literature, although much of my thesis isn't neccessarily directly applicable to my specific subject area. If I keep going in this direction for a PhD, I am thinking about applying to do Comparative Literature or something similar. The other direction I'm thinking of for PhD is to keep going in Spanish and look at women's writings, particularly from the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries. I've done some work on that and was even helping a professor translate a play that has never appeared in English before. That direction of research seems like it would be pretty cool, because there's a lot of original research to be done in the field. I like working with women's studies too. So many big decisions to be made. Of course, I could just be a secretary for the rest of my life, but that wouldn't be as much fun, right?
Comments
Hard to say, hard to say.