Proposta de traducció de la veu narrativa de la novel·la A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, d’Eimear McBride

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a Catalan translation for the narrative voice of the main character in A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, the debut novel of the Irish author Eimear McBride. Since this work landed in the English literary scene as a revelation, and it has been translated into Italian and French too, it seemed interesting to bring this novel and its fragmented prose into Catalan Language. The language used by the narrator is a subversion of English aimed to reflect the unformed subjectivity of the Girl and the instant generation of thoughts. The discourse is therefore is half-formed, as it is the character. To find an equivalent way of expression that preserves the particularities of the style and the emotional weight of each word, this paper covers some theory about literary translation (and specially about the problems that may arise when facing a literary text) and also a great range of reviews and studies about the novel. This background makes possible the translation of twelve fragments of the book, and it makes it easier to translate both form and meaning (always together in this case). The task is complex because of the limited flexibility of the Catalan language. However, these translations may help to find and validate other ways of expression beyond the norm for literary purposes.