Comparative Analysis of Translations of Character Names in Three Finnish Translations of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Abstract

Roald Dahl’s children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been translated into Finnish three times since its 1964 release: in 1971, 1998, and 2019. Different translation strategies have been used for the proper names of the characters in each translation, and this thesis analyses the differences and similarities between the translations to see if there is a trend of proper names being translated less and foreignised more in the most recent translation. In this thesis, translations of 72 proper names are collected from the three Finnish translations of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The translations from 1971, 1998, and 2019 are analysed individually and together utilizing a set of translation strategies used with proper names. The basis of the analyses is set in theory on translation of children’s literature and translation of proper names. In each of the three translations, a mix of strategies has been used when translating the proper names. The first two translations have more similarities with each other than with the most recent translation, as the 1971 and 1998 translations have deleted many of the proper names or replaced them with common nouns. The most recent translation has translated a larger proportion of the analysed names, disproving the initial hypothesis of the thesis. The findings of this thesis can be used when researching the trends of translating proper names in and out of children’s literature. The findings can also be used as a comparison when studying the translations of other works by Roald Dahl or translations of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into other languages.