Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics

Robert Browning’s so-called dramatic lyric ‘My Last Duchess’ has been interpreted differently by different critics, some seeing the Duke as shrewd and others seeing him as witless. This article attempts to account for these differing interpretations by analysing indeterminacies in the language of the poem. Starting out with the work of Derrida on speech act theory, and findings on the role of the right hemisphere in language processing, it goes on to propose techniques of linguistic analysis based on systemic-functional linguistics and the concept of particle-waves of language first discussed in Melrose (1996). The article then analyses a number of these so-called particle-waves in ‘My Last Duchess’, and concludes that opposing interpretations of the Duke can be traced to the indeterminacies of language in the particle-waves.

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.

In advertising texts, the most important linguistic element is the headline. The function of the headline is to persuade readers to continue reading the remaining body text and, ideally, buy the advertised product. Using a corpus of 45 English-language advertisements and their translated Russian pairs, this article investigates what happens to rhetorical figures in the translation process. Three broad translation strategies are identified (transference, source-language-orientated and target-language-orientated) and their implications discussed in detail. The use of transference (untranslated retention of original) highlights the foreignness of the product being advertised, relying on the source culture’s attractiveness to the target audience. The most popular strategies are those which are source-language-orientated, maintaining the source meaning in the target headline. These strategies, often resulting from advertisers’ insistence on following a model advertisement, have the greatest impact on the use of figures, and examples of compensation, loss and addition can be found. When target-language-orientated strategies are employed, translators have more freedom to create headlines using rhetorical figures. The article ends by suggesting that the analysis of translated Russian advertising headlines offers another concrete example of the globalizing tendencies of large corporations and the power they exercise in shaping contemporary media discourses.

James Kelman’s short story ‘An Old Pub near the Angel’ appeared in his first collection of stories, An Old Pub near the Angel, And Other Stories in 1973, and was subsequently revised by the writer for inclusion in Not Not While The Giro, And Other Stories (1983). Through a close examination of these revisions, the article elaborates on Kelman’s efforts to free himself from the constraints of what he terms ‘that standard third party narrative voice’. The article analyses such aspects of the writer’s revision process as typographical and textual re-blocking as well as the reconfiguration of the relations between narrative voice, character zone and dialogic monologue. It is contended that Kelman’s rejection of the orthodox view on narrative voice has been central in his creative exploration of working-class voice.