The publication of Mrs. Dalloway in Catalonia: Is it possible to reconcile commercial interest and culture?

Abstract

Writer and translator Carles Miró, observed that the latest translation of Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway was simply a copy typed anew from the 1930 original translation of the text by Cèsar August Jordana. The copy-editor Cònsul assured that ‘it is not true that the edition in circulation is the one from 1930’. After offering a comparison of the first translation into Catalan of Mrs Dalloway with the 2003 translation of the same text, the author will show to what extent Cònsul’s claim is accurate. Furthermore, taking into account Lefevere’s (1997) descriptive approach to Translation Studies, the author will emphasize the evident reminiscences of the period in which the first Catalan translation was produces, namely, the Noucentrisme, and the ideological positioning of the translator, Cèsar August Jordana.