Degrees of untranslatability and levels of translation equivalence in David Mitchell’s "Cloud Atlas"

Abstract

The present paper intends to provide an analysis of the main problems imposed by the translation of a postmodernist novel such as David Mitchell’s “Cloud Atlas”. Several excerpts have been chosen for analysis because of the uncommon narrative range, the set alternating time and space, and each section is written in a different prose style. We will also provide the necessary examples taken out from the novel so as to show how particular translation theories work out when used in the active development of text interpretation.