Translating slang in detective fiction

Translating literary varieties of language may seem an insurmountable task because these varieties are language-specific and have no exact equivalents in other languages. This study examine 'hard-boiled slang,' the literary l anguage variety used by the 'hard-boiled school of detective fiction,' and describes how it was used and how it was marked as a special use of literar y language, focusing particularly on the figure of Raymond Chandler and his first and arguably best novel The Big Sleep(1939). It then discusses the t ranslation of this slang into the three Spanish versions, Carne y Demonio ( 1955) and El sueno eterno(1958, 1972). The study shows that a common strate gy among translators is to render the original's slang in the target text w herever possible, and to use slang terms in other places where the original contains no slang in order to compensate for slang terms which cannot be r endered at exactly the same linear passage.