Abstract
In this chapter, we propose a novel theoretical framework for the literary translation of fictional characters. This framework develops the cognitive corpus linguistic notion of mind-modelling to account for process-, product- and function-oriented aspects of literary translation.
We use the examples of Alice and the Queen from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to compare character cues across the English original and a Czech translation. The character cues we focus on are reporting verbs.
Reporting verbs, as part of the presentation of fictional speech, form a central component of narrative fiction and so provide an ideal evidential basis for our theoretical framework. The translation shifts we found through our comparison of source and target text specifically include gendered uses of reporting verbs.
By approaching the target text as both a translation and a reading of the text in its own right we are able to view translation shifts as a reflection of shifts in the mind-modelling of fictional characters.