Abstract
This article argues that translation is always close reading par excellence. The starting point is the author's translation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story collection All the Sad Young Men into Swedish, Alla sorgsna unga män (2014). Focusing less on particular translation methods and theories, this article instead looks at how the translation process forces emphasis on, and interpretation of, synchronic and diachronic dilemmas. Translation thus becomes a method for analyzing literary style and context differently than from a native language perspective. The article is structured in two main sections, looking at some examples of the synchronic and diachronic difficulties involved in the translation process. The synchronic section argues that Fitzgerald's use of punctuation, and especially 1-em and 2-em dashes, are highly original to his literary style. This section also claims that Fitzgerald's style is dependent on the advanced use of polysyndeton, allusion, auditive aesthetics, metonymy, and personification. The diachronic section discusses a few interesting contextual cases that illuminate how Fitzgerald interweaves contemporary events into the universal themes of his work, creating not only the local and temporal color of the jazz age, but also involving readers in what Partington refers to as the “smugness effect”: a collusion between author and reader. In summary, using the translation process as an analytical tool reveals elements of literary style and contextual writing in Fitzgerald's prose that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
