In search of the average style
Abstract
The purpose of the author was to reflect on his experience as translator of the novel Koaderno gorria [The Red Notebook] by Arantxa Urretabizkaia. Nevertheless, when it came down to it, his original intention developed into an exercise in memory. He takes Ricardo Piglia's concept of average style as a point of departure: in the last 40-50 years, the average style in Basque has grown from almost nothing in all types of writing, including administrative, teaching, communicative, and literary. This reflection is based on three assertions: 1) The Red Notebook is an exercise in average style; 2) ever since he began translating, the achievement of an average style has been a constant and implicit objective; and 3) in the Basque literature of the last 40-50 years, it is possible to follow a line of works that consciously use the average style for literary purposes.
