Article published In: Translating Power Distance
Edited by Maria Sidiropoulou
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 10:3] 2024
► pp. 354–370
Aesop’s fable The Lion and the Mouse
Μulticultural perspectives
Published online: 4 October 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00144.mar
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00144.mar
Abstract
Aesopic tradition has been highly adaptive (Lefkowitz, Jeremy B. 2006. “Aesop’s Pen: Adaptation, Authorship, and Satire in the Aesopic Tradition.” PhD Diss., University of Pennsylvania, USA.) as manifested in multicultural versions of fables. The study explores shifts in Aesop’s fable The Lion and the Mouse to highlight shifts in the representation of characters, in agreement with pragmatic tendencies across cultures, as — for instance — in the power distance between the lion and the mouse. It examines two Modern Greek (MG2 The Lion and the Mouse, in Greek [2003, Το Λιοντάρι και το Ποντίκι. Αθήνα: Παπαδόπουλος]. and MG1 The Lion and the Mouse, in Greek [2012, Το Λιοντάρι και ο Ποντικός, Αθήνα: Ιωάννης Κωνσταντάκος].), an English (EN Sam Pickering and Jack Zipes. 1996. Aesop’s Fables. London: Penguin.), a Russian (2012) and a Ukrainian (UKR Folk Tales. The Lion and the Mouse, in Ukrainian [V. Zabashtanskyi and A. Cherdakli. Aesop’s Fables told by P. Tsimikali; transl. from Modern Greek. Лев i мишеня, Kyiv, Ukraine, 1990, Народні байки (supermif.com)]. Accessed February 7, 2023. [URL]) version of the fable to trace local perceptions of it. Analysis shows that translators (as storytellers) transform aspects of the fable in pragmatically meaningful ways: they add up to the adaptation process conforming to locally appreciated values. The significance of research lies in that translation is seen as another layer of adaptation which a source fable may undergo intra- and inter-culturally.
Keywords: fable, Aesop, translation, Modern Greek, Russian, English, Ukrainian
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature review
- 3.Methodology
- 4.Data analysis
- 5.Discussion, questionnaire results and significance of research
References Texts
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