‘The irresistible tug of the tides’: the Danish translations of stylistic shapeshifting in the ‘Proteus’ episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses

Abstract

This article addresses the ways in which the Danish translator Mogens Boisen manages to translate the shapeshifting nature of the style and content of the ‘Proteus’ episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) in his three published translations of the novel in 1949, 1970 and 1980. The discussion includes an analysis of the translation of the lyrical blend of seascape and myth, language transformations, pseudo-Homeric compounds, grammatical transfers and the symbolism of a single motif with important bearings on the complex theme of protean change. I argue that the early translation seeks to domesticate and make fluent what is complicated, whereas the later translations have become more sensitive towards stylistic transformation and defamiliarization.

Keywords

Homer’s Odyssey Irish myth Joyce James motif symbol transformation translation studies translational stylistics Ulysses

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