Translating literature for children

The novelty of this book resides in the author’s acknowledged aim of dealing with the translation of children’s literature as a distinct domain of research taking into consideration the specificity of this type of literature and the special translation problems it may generate. Another important goal is the didactic one directed toward the improvement of the performance of the future translators helping them to become acquainted with a series of concepts and models derivated from both the linguistic-pragmatic and the socio-cultural orientations in the field of translation studies.  

Concurrently, the six ample chapters outline a monography of the chosen research theme reviewing a multitude of theories and approaches. The first chapter begins by most welcomed terminological clarifications supporting the author’s final option for the syntagm “translating literature for children”. In the same introductory subchapter the readers get familiarised with the problems occurring in the translation process of children’s literature for the subsequent subchapters to enhance the interdisciplinary character of the domain and implicitly, of the author’s research enterprise. As a consequence, Cristina Chifane examines the affiliations of literature for children with anthropology with the aim of using translation to break the barriers between the source text and the target text; then, she highlights the influence of globalisation incorporated in a much more complex theoretical context including the theory of norms and the sociological orientations of recent impact in translation studies. 

Moreover, the author correlates the translation of children’s literary texts with gender studies starting from the polysystem theory and the positioning of this type of literature in the periferal, marginal areas of (translated) literature; similarly, she investigates the relevance of the philosophical, linguistic and ideological perspectives upon the understanding and comprehension of children’s literature translation. The numerous illustrations of the theoretical aspects by means of case studies and well-documented observations concerning the Romanian culture and literature represent an overall positive aspect of the entire research. 

 Prof. Dr. Elena Croitoru