| Summary: | Abstract In my dissertation, I study the ways discourses of Finnishness and Saminess are being construed in three French travel depictions dating from 17th to 19th century and their Finnish translations dating from the late 20th century. Firstly, I examine the discoursive image of Lappland in the French source texts and the Finnish target texts. Secondly, I analyze the translations as cultural products and the ways the translation process affects the construction of discourses. My research can be described as interdisciplinary and mixed methods research. I examine discourses in the contexts of critical text and discourse analysis as well as discourse-oriented translation analysis and sociology of translation. I use both qualitative and quantitative methods. In particular, I utilize the Hallidayn register analysis with a focus on the ideational function. In addition, I study the language and discourse changes brought on by the translation process through the analysis of translation shifts and strategies. The discourses construed in the French travel descriptions of the Finns and the Sami are in many ways stereotypical and recurring. However, they also reflect the societal ideals, values and circumstances of their own era and evolve and transform with and through the changes in the society. As the exoticism and the discourse of wilderness of the earliest travel depiction evolve into a discourse of pity in the 18th century and romantism in the 19th century, the discourses on Finnishness especially become more positive. The global translation strategy of the translator has been that of cultural filtering, especially domestification. In addition, the level of expliciteness, descriptivity and cohesion has increased in the target texts. The target texts also become polyfonic as the voice of the translator is introduced next to and above the voices of the French writers, in order to direct and guide the modern Finnish reader. Tiivistelmä Tutkin väitöstyössäni suomalais- ja saamelaisdiskurssien rakentumista kolmessa ...
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