Hamlet

Abstract

This paper analyses the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare with special and investigates the problems regarding translation. Hamlet reflects The Elizabethan World Picture and is about Hamlet, a young student who comes home for his father’s funeral and his mother’s remarriage. This marriage causes Hamlet to develop a misogynistic attitude because of an unresolved Oedipal conflict which ruins his relationship with Ophelia, though he still loves her. Throughout the play Hamlet develops from being an individual “thinker” to being an “actor” who can avenge his father’s murder. While developing he must pretend to be mad to protect himself but he also becomes mad in reality because of all the corruption in the Danish Court. Because of this he also becomes corrupt himself who can kill people with no remorse. Another theme in addition to “Seeming and Being” and corruption is the division Hamlet feels. He must sacrifice some of himself for the duty he has to his family. These themes are relevant even today and makes sure the play is analyzed, interpreted and translated anew even today. There are many problems when translating and it is regarded as almost impossible. Therefore there are different things a translator must take into consideration especially when translating Shakespeare who uses many linguistic devices. This is seen in Lembcke and Sarvig’s translations of Hamlet where choices must be made when it comes to Hamlet’s ambiguous lines. Here the translators interpret and translate differently as Lembcke takes a more direct approach, translating almost word for word and giving a formal equivalence, whereas Sarvig bases his translation more on his interpretation of the text trying to restore some of the original impression of the lines – in contrast to these is Jensen’s translation of “the nunnery scene” where a more dynamic equivalence is achieved. [Læs mere…]

Vietnamkrigen

Abstract

The study examines the American involvement in the Vietnam War, and the different consequences that this caused. During the war in Vietnam, a lot of American citizens got more and more upset about the war itself, thinking that it was meaningless for American soldiers to die for a cause that they did not believe in. Also the Medias massive covering of the war enlarged the protests, and pictures and videos of dead or massacred Vietnamese civilians aroused great disapproval in the Western world of the American government.

The paper also contains an analysis of how the book “The Things They Carried” shows the influence that the war had on the soldiers. The author of the book, Tim O’Brien, was a soldier in Vietnam himself, and in the book he tries to give a true picture, both of the war in general, and of the war that he experienced himself.

The study discusses whether or not the USA has learned something from their failure in Vietnam, compared to how they handle the war in Iraq.

It concludes that the Vietnam War had a great impact on the way of thinking for many young men and woman from that time, and that it had a horrible influence on the soldiers – who had very high suicide rates among them in the time after the war. It also concludes that there are too many similarities between Vietnam and Iraq, and that this can be a bad thing for the USA. [Læs mere…]