CHICK LIT IN IRELAND AND VIETNAM

Nhat Tuan, Nguyen1st year Ph.D student, School of Applied Language and

Intercultural StudiesDublin City University

Supervisors: Prof. Jenny Williams & Prof. Michael Cronin

OVERVIEW

Introduction to topic The novelty and topicality of the

thesis Findings of the first year

(October 2010- June 2011) Plan for the next year

The New York Times (19th, March, 2006) called the popularity of chick lit, which has been “sprouting” “from Mumbai to Milan, Gdansk to Jakarta” as “chick lit pandemic”.

Due to its incredible commercial success, chick lit has been called a “commercial tsunami” (Ferris and Young, 2006 p.3). In 2002, for instance, publishers earned “over $71 million” from their publishing of chick lit novel and in the same year in the Publishers Weekly the best seller list was dominated by chick lit books.

Introduction to topic

Introduction to topic

A UK chart of the bestselling authors of the past decade reveals seven of the top 100 are Irish — and five of those are women

Marian Keyes sold 4.5m copies, €31.5m. Cecelia Ahern ‘s PS, I Love You sold

1,035,864 copies. It is one of only 47 books to have sold more than 1m copies.

Introduction to topic

In the academic world “it has received little serious or intelligent discussion” despite chick lit’s popularity and diversity, (Ferris and Young, 2006 p.2)

According to Trollope, chick lit reflects women lives “with authenticity and sharp observation”, thus this literary genre deserves “to have merit or, at the very least, relevance.” (Guardian, November, 2009 –online).

Introduction to topic

Ferriss and Young published their collection of essays called Chick Lit, The New Woman’s Fiction in 2006.

Recently, four PHD dissertations and six master’s theses that have been written on chick lit in the subject areas of American, British and modern literature and women’s studies since 2005 (Davis-Kahl, 2008)

The topicality of the paper

English and Vietnamese as languages, which belong to different language families and absolutely different cultures, have hardly ever been the subject of the discussion within one research project

This thesis paper is one very few works dedicated to the study of chick lit and translation

The novelty of the paper

Chick lit as a literary genre, its position within the literary system, as well as the relationship between chick lit and popular culture;

The characteristics of Irish chick lit and features contributing to the success of Irish chick lit writers;

The reception of Irish chick lit in Vietnam based on the general contrastive studies of socio-cultural characteristics of two society, also the position and the development of women in both cultures;

The translations of works by Marian Keyes and Cecelia Ahern into Vietnamese;

Report on the work done

The very term chick lit is simultaneously “interesting and provocative” as it has both “positive and negative connotations” and at the same time brings in the “issues of gender and genre” (Gormley, 2009)

Chick lit takes into account the matters facing “contemporary women and contemporary culture” of “identity, race and class, femininity and feminism, cosumerism and self -image” (Ferris and Young, 2006 p.2-3).

Report on the work done

Even- Zohar introduced his concept of polysystem with the idea that literature is an historical phenomenon that should be analyzed by systematic approaches similar to that of other sciences

Chick lit and popular culture

Chick lit is usually criticized for overuse of the literary “formula” which is “the synthesis of a number of specific cultural conventions in a period of time” (Cawelti, 1976 p.6)

“Popular culture is the television we watch, the movies we see, the fast food, or slow food, we eat, the clothes we wear, the music we sing and hear, the things we spend our money for, our attitude toward life. It is the whole society we live in” (Bates and Ferri, 2010 p.3)

Chick lit and popular culture “formula” mentioned above is cultural product.

Culture is source for conventions, as well as is the background based on which the mutual understanding between a writer and his audiences.

On the other hand, formula also has its impacts on culture since it may become conventional ways of representing and relating certain images, symbols.

The process through which a formula develops and become a pattern of culture could be name “cultural evolution”. (Cawelti, 1976 p.20)

Irish chick lit

The key to success of Irish writers - they refuse “to adhere to the clichéd storylines so often linked to chick lit ” (Ryan M., 2009):

All “dream careers” are described with both positive and negative insights

“truly creative concepts” are used. Such issues like “sexual harassment”, “domestic violence“, “sexuality“, “single motherhood” are discussed.

Translation

Translation, on the other hand, has witnessed several “shift of emphasis”. (Leppihalme, 1997 p.1) It is no longer a “pure linguistic analysis”, but is “interdisciplinary and culturally oriented”. (Leppihalme, 1997 p.1)

“an act of communication which attempts to relay, across cultural and linguistic boundaries, another act of communication (which may have been intended for different purposes and different readers/hearers” (Hatim and Mason, 1997 p.1).

translation

“translation can be seen as a special kind of response to things that have been transferred or are meant to be transferred” (Pym, 1992 p.18).

a text has a place, time and original context where it is completely understood. (Pym, 1992 p.101)

the fundamental task of a translator is to “attain some kind of maximum transcultural mobility towards a specific receiver.

Sociocultural environment of original texts

Sociocultural environment of

target texts

SL Author Translator

Linguistic

aspects

Grammar   Grammar

Linguistic

aspects

Lexical Lexical

Pragmatic

aspects

Modality Modality Pragmatic

aspectsPronoun and

naming

convention

Pronoun and

naming

convention

Extralinguistic

aspects

Title Title Extralinguistic

aspectsCover Cover

Book covers

UK version Vietnamese version

Culture specific words : Femme, Hibernian Bride, Celtic Health, Gaelic Interiors, Irish Gardening

Collocation and fixed expression

Just cut to the chase. - đi thẳng vào chuyện chính đi ( go straight to the point – back translation)

People slamming phones down then shouting were ten a penny in the magazine game.

Việc mọi người dập mạnh điện thoại rồi quát tháo là chuyện cơm bữa trong cái thế giới tạp chí này (every day meal – back translation) Pragmatic aspects

Should we let her in yet?

chúng ta nên cho cô ta vào chưa nhỉ? (we should let that-she in?)

Thank you for coming up

cám ơn cô đã đến ( thank she for coming)

Translator’s competence and mediation Addition

Something had been in the air for weeks - không khí phấp phỏng đã kéo dài cả mấy tuần nay

Mistake

“Slanderella”

Plan of the work to be achieved

Summer

2011

Fieldwork in Vietnam – making contact with

publishers, checking out editions

September

2011- June

2012

Finalisation of methodology

Complete the first analysis chapter

Summer

2012

Fieldwork in Vietnam – meeting and interviewing translator

Summer school

September

2012- July

2013

Completion of second and third analysis chapters

July 2013 Submission of PHD