A DIACHRONIC COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THREE TRANSLATION VERSIONS OF OSCAR WILDE’S THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

Abstract

The phenomenon of retranslation has been receiving more and more attention in translation studies. Many translations into Romanian of landmark English-language works were carried out during the communist era, as part of a vast translation effort, with the resulting target texts generally being of high quality. But some of these seminal works have been retranslated in the last 30 years, sometimes more than once. A possible record-holder for retranslations (excluding dramatic texts) is Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray, with at least 9 translated versions, six of them dating from the post-communist era. This paper looks at three versions of this classic – one from the communist era and two from the post-communist era. It analyses possible reasons for retranslation, changes in textual-linguistic profile, translation strategies, quality and the relationships between the versions (are they active or passive translations?). Do these changes reflect changes in the broader translation market?