Artemis Sakkatou

Honours student at La Trobe University

21589557@students.latrobe.edu.au

Translation of Christos Fifis’ Κομμάτια Ζωής – Διηγήματα “Fragments of Life – Short Stories” (2nd edition, 2022)

Abstract

I am undertaking a translation project for my Honours thesis for which I am translating part of Dr. Christos Fifis’ book Κομμάτια Ζωής – Διηγήματα “Fragments of Life – Short Stories” (2nd edition, 2022) from Greek into English. I will be translating the first four chapters of the book, consisting of about 7,000 words. The translation will be accompanied by a ~7,000 word exegesis in which I will be analysing and explaining my decisions based on existing translation studies and theories including those of Eugene Nida and Lawrence Venuti. I will attempt to translate the source text in a way that will retain its original meaning as well as being comprehensive and understood by the new English speaking target audience so that the historical and cultural Greek-Australian information it contains can become available to more readers. I am also interested in exploring how literature can support and complement historical analyses of events.

The book is a collection of short biographical stories based on Christos Fifis’ family including life during the Greek Civil War (1946-1949). The book does not have any existing English translations. The book also provides a presentation of Greek-Australian history from a personal lens. It is especially significant for Australia as this country has a large Greek community which has had great prominence in Australia’s history. Hence this translation will also accommodate non-Greek Australians who are interested in learning about a part of their country’s history. Even more importantly, it will allow any Australian with Greek heritage who perhaps cannot read Greek to be able to engage with that part of their culture and history.

Biography

Artemis Sakkatou is an Honours student at La Trobe University. Last year she graduated with a Bachelor’s of Languages and Linguistics with a major in Advanced Greek Studies. She was born in Greece and moved to Australia permanently with her family when she was 9 years old. She has an interest in languages, as she also minored in Spanish for her degree. She enjoys the process and study of translation and is also interested in teaching. She has volunteered and interned as a Spanish and Greek language teaching assistant.