A Comparison of Translation Styles of Suzanne Jill Levine and Gregory Rabassa

Each translator has his/her own style. Today, the presence of many translators encourages a comparative study of the various translation styles adopted. Suzanne Jill Levine and Gregory Rabassa are two translators who work between the same two languages- Spanish and English. Suzanne Jill Levine, a US translator, translates from Spanish to English, in her book The Subversive Scribe: Translating Latin American Fiction talks about the translation style adopted to bring the source and the target culture closer and to make the target reader feel at home. Gregory Rabassa is another famous translator from the US translating from Spanish and Portuguese to English. However, we see a drastic difference in the translation style adopted by Rabassa, reflected in his book If this be treason: Translation and its dyscontents, which takes the target reader abroad. In this paper I intend to compare the translation styles of Suzanne Jill Levine and Gregory Rabassa with the help of the two books written by the two translators respectively, highlighting the differences through the various examples cited by the translators themselves. I will explore the meanings of the most commonly used methods in translation- domestication and foreignization- and also how these two strategies have been applied in their translations and what is being presented to the target readers with the help of examples taken from their respective written books mentioned abov.