Gabriel García Márquez’s “Cien años de soledad” in Translation

Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) was a Colombian writer and journalist. His most popular work, Cien años de soledad (1967) is studied in the thesis together with its Finnish and English translations. The aim is to shed light on the potential differences found in the translations One Hundred Years of Solitude (1970) by Gregory Rabassa and Sadan vuoden yksinäisyys (1971) by Matti Rossi. The differences found are classified according to local translation strategies: preservation, omission, addition, and explication in a brief case study. Lawrence Venuti’s culturally oriented approach to literary transla-tion provides theoretical background to the study. The polysystem theory developed by Itamar Even-Zohar helps in situating García Márquez’s career and work, his route to fame, and his translators’ professional careers. As a result it can be said that Rossi took more artistic liberties in translating and used in several occasions foreignizing translation strategy. Gregory Rabassa maintained his translation as close to the source text as possible. The Latin American, Anglo-American, and Finnish literary systems are described in the thesis. The size of the literary system defines the volume of the literary market, and also influences the need for translation activity. The Latin American Boom in the 1950-60’s increased the amount of translations from Spanish not only in the US and UK but also in Finland. García Márquez became one of the leading writers of the Boom, and later when Cien años de soledad was published, his literary masterpiece became the symbol of a literary genre called magic realism. The thesis reviews Mario Vargas Llosa’s definition of magic realism being based on the circular time concept present in Latin America. García Márquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. After that he became a literary celebrity. Corporate publishing, marketing, and translation decisions and strategies are briefly discussed. The thesis charts García Márquez’s personal and cosmopolitan life, his studies and international relations. The thesis portrays the careers and work of the translators of the novel, Gregory Rabassa (1922-2016) and Matti Rossi (1934-2017). They were both introducing a new literary genre in their target cultures. Rossi worked intensely in translating and compiled several anthologies of Latin American literature besides his own writing. Rabassa worked in the academic world and published translations of less known Latin American writers. The thesis provides an overview of the contemporary Finnish literary system.The work of younger professional Finnish translators of Latin American literature is also described