Abstract

The study of the translations of First Nations oral traditions highlights certain issues, including the scientific/literary dichotomy that has hitherto characterised these translations. The thesis illustrates this and other issues through the study of a translation and two retranslations of "Xhuyaa Qaagaangaas," the 'Genesis' of the Haida nation. More precisely, the goal of the thesis is twofold. First, in a bid to understand how and why each translator made his translation choices, to analyse them using the method suggested by Antoine Berman in his essay, Pour une critique des traductions: John Donne . Second, to suggest ways in which future translations might differ from those of the past so as to be more sensitive to cultural differences. The starting hypothesis was that the translation norms of the academic disciplines (anthropology, linguistics and English literature) to which the translators belong, account for most of the observable differences between translations. The subsequent analysis demonstrates that each translator has tended to adjust his target text to ensure it conforms with the norms of his discipline rather than simply reproduce in another language the words by which a First Nations storyteller related an element of his people's tradition.