Translating Character’s Traits: a Case of Gadis Pantai and Its English Translation

Literary translation is a never-ending topic to discuss, especially when it comes to the subject of translation. Translation is a way for a non-English literary text to be acknowledged as a part of world literature. In translating a literary text, a translator must understand that it has some elements, some structures that she/he needs to follow in order to convey the meaning from source text to target text. One of the important elements in literary text is characters’ traits. The author, in her attempt to develop the characters‘ traits along the story line, must have some agenda to convey to the readers, thus the translated version must also carry the same purpose. This paper scrutinizes the traits of characters in Gadis Pantai and how they are translated into English in The Girl from the Coast, using the help of one type of appraisal, affect. Affect was chosen because it is the prominent type of appraisal found in the novel. The data were taken in form of words, phrases, and clauses that are used by the author to depict the character’s feelings. They were compared to the data found in the target text to see how they were translated into English. This paper also discusses some possible accurate renderings, shifting in the subtype of affect, and loosing message. The result of this paper aims to raise awareness from translators, especially literary translators, in translating characters‘ traits.