Emily hobhouse's speech at the inauguration of the women's memorial in Bloemfontein in 1913 and its translation: a documents-of-life account
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Date
2018-01
Authors
Du Plessis, Natania
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
This dissertation will investigate, through the methodology of documents of life, the factors
that influenced Emily Hobhouse to write in English the speech for the inauguration of the
Women’s Memorial in Bloemfontein in 1913 and to commission its Afrikaans translation. It
will also examine the different translation choices that Hobhouse made in the translation
process and what motivated these decisions. The study will construct a narrative by using the
background provided by autobiographies, letters, diaries, newspaper articles, etc. to evaluate
Hobhouse’s speech and to see if they might shed light on the writing of the speech and the
consequent translation choices. Hobhouse was a controversial figure in the Anglo-Boer War
because she sympathised with Afrikaner women and children. The British people accused her
of being pro-Boer, but Hobhouse remained a patriotic Englishwoman whose only aim was to
help people in need. The study shows that an agent’s personal history influences translation
choices. It also shows that relationships with other people, specifically patronage relationships,
play a vital role in the translation process and result. It introduces and examines the two
concepts of reciprocal patronage and double patronage, and highlights how these two forms of
patronage relationships can act as motivation for translation choices and how it influences the
invisibility of the translator. This study is an interdisciplinary study between translation studies
and history, using narratives of lives as the bridge. It will therefore point out that historical
narratives influence translation choices of translators and are important to take into account
when studying future translations and historical documents. To my knowledge, this study is a
pioneer study, since the narratives of lives have been used in other studies, but not to determine
whether documents of life and the events they refer to play a role in a translator’s agency. The
study also introduces new concepts with regard to patronage in translation.
Description
Keywords
Emily hobhouse, President M.T. Steyn, Tibbie Steyn, Translation studies, History, Anglo-Boer War, Concentration camps, Documents of life, Narrative, Life story, Frames, Patronage, Reciprocal patronage, Double patronage, Translator invisibility, Dissertation (M.A. (Linguistics and Language Practice))--University of the Free State, 2018