Foreign Camp Ground: On Translation of Camp and Postcolonial Allusions

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the translation of culture-bound allusions from one socio-cultural context into another. The paper focuses on the translation of camp and postcolonial allusions from English into Finnish. The aim is to highlight the significance of these allusions to a literary text, and to examine how the adopted translation strategy affects the meanings and functions of these allusions in a different socio-cultural context. The discussion is illustrated by examples from the novel Not Wanted on the Voyage (1984) by Timothy Findley (1930–2002) and its Finnish translation Suuri tulva (1986) by Hanno Vammelvuo (poetry by Alice Martin). In Findley’s novel, camp and postcolonial allusions play a key role in creating an alternative narrative and voices that resist, parody and reject the existing order of things. This alternative narrative is only accessible to readers who can identify the allusions and understand their meanings.