ABSTRACT

The Introduction sets out the book’s central argument that a new approach to the translation of literary style which combines traditional close reading with computer-aided literary analysis can result in a better-informed translation than one which relies on close reading alone. Evidence for this is provided by a case study – which is also briefly introduced – conducted by the author, in which an initial draft translation into English of a complete Latin American novel was revised in the light of information provided by applying the close and distant reading approach. The main computer tools used in the case study belong to the fields of corpus linguistics, corpus stylistics and text visualisation. After briefly defining ‘style’ in the context of literary translation the chapter outlines the translation approach adopted in the case study – an attempt to achieve equivalence of stylistic effect – and how the new approach assists its achievement. The contents of the book’s main chapters are outlined, and the strengths and limitations of traditional literary translation methodology are discussed and contrasted with the strengths of the new approach, whose limitations are also acknowledged.