Ethnocentric Tendencies in the Romanian Translations of Macbeth

Abstract

Abstract Starting from Venuti’s binary classification of translations into ethnocentric and foreignizing this paper focuses on the factors that trigger ethnocentric attitudes in the translation of the play Macbeth in Romanian. Counterbalancing the extremely neologist tendencies at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, exemplified in Ștefan Băjescu’s translation, most of the 20th century translators prove an inclination towards the use of local, ethnic elements, that should revive the national culture and language, the integrity of which was threatened by foreign elements. Ion Vinea’s translation, that was the canonical Romanian version for more than half a century, is analysed in the paper as the representative of the ethnocentric camp. Apart from the spontaneous reactions that are generally ruled by the laws of language change, other factors that lead to the fostering of ethnocentric views are the communist regime’s constrictive ideology and, at the micro level, the translator’s own linguistic and cultural perception.