A Comparison of Three English Translations of Daudet's La Dernière Classe

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  • ドーデの短篇小説の英語翻訳 : 『最後の授業』
  • ドーデ ノ タンペン ショウセツ ノ エイゴ ホンヤク : 『 サイゴ ノ ジュギョウ 』

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Daudet's short story La Dernière Classe first appeared in Japanese textbooks in 1927. However, this story had already been used to study English earlier than this. According to Natsume Sōseki's comment in his library, some English translations of Daudet's La Dernière Classe were used as teacrials for teaching to lish in the Meiji period. Besides the two faithful translations, there is a translation which had been grammatically reworked using the third person. I consider this modification to be intentional. This paper compares the three aforementioned English translations of La Dernière Classe and the original text in French. The texts below were used for the examination: Text 1: DAUDET. Alphonse, La Dernière Classe, Œuvres I, Ed.Gallimard, 1986. Text 2: IVES. George Burnham, The Last Class - The Story of a Little Alsatian, Alphonse DAUDET xxiv, 1903. Text 3: NATSUME. Kinnosuke, A Story of a Little Alsatian, New Century Supplementary Readers (2), Kaiseikan, 1905. Text 4: Eigokyoujyukennkyukai, The Last Lesson in French, Shin Eigo Tokuhon version, 11th year, vol.4, Rokumeikan, 1921. In addition, the paper also examines the Japanese translation for children, written in the third person by Miekichi Suzuki, analyzing it from in relation to e the Japanese ideology. The story's collective representation was used to encourage the idea of nationalism regarding the mother tongue and diligence in childhood.

Journal

  • 地球社会統合科学研究

    地球社会統合科学研究 1 81-88, 2014-09-10

    Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Global Society, Kyushu University

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