Plurilingual literary spaces

In this article, I define the notion of a plurilingual literary space. While drawing from Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, I adopt a critical stance towards the highly autonomous, territorialized, and monolingual French case that he studied. Even though language is the material that the writers work with, the legitimate representation of the nation remains the major issue for non-central literary spaces, among which are plurilingual spaces. I elaborate on a typology of plurilingual literary spaces, which are heavily related to the political structure and language policies of the state. Then I concentrate on one of the types, that of plurilingual literary fields, where the language issue is the most significant. I argue that tensions or collaborations between the different linguistic groups depend on the symbolic balance of power between them as well as on official language policies. The most autonomous writers do not always desire to build bridges across language barriers, and they would sometimes rather create identity walls. I distinguish between unitarian policies that lead some linguistically dominated writers to reject collaborations and monolingual policies which lead the autonomous writers to reject the linguistic divisions.

The constraints of translating martial arts fiction

This article comments on the notion of ‘constraint’ by analysing the specific difficulties in the translation of a martial arts (‘wuxia’) novel into French and English. The Legend of the Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳, she diao ying xiong zhuan) is the first part of the ‘Condor Trilogy’ (射鵰三部曲, she diao san bu qu), the masterpiece of Chinese writer Jin Yong (金庸). Little known in the West, the novel was recently translated by Anna Holmwood and Wang Jiann-Yuh. This article studies the strategies adopted by each translator to render the cultural specificities of the source context in the target culture. By so doing, it contributes to theoretical debates concerning transfers between two distant literary and cultural systems.

Sous contrainte de légitimation institutionnelle

Cet article aborde la question de la circulation internationale des œuvres sous l’angle de son traitement institutionnel. Il propose d’enquêter sur l’émergence de la traduction comme objet d’investissement des politiques publiques en France, au moment où les ruptures postcoloniales et les politiques de la mondialisation libéralisent les marchés linguistiques et redéfinissent le processus d’européanisation. Tout en se plaçant dans une démarche socio-historique, et en exploitant des dossiers versés aux Archives Diplomatiques portant sur la période 1949-1967, il revient sur la genèse controversée de cette stratégie d’internationalisation des œuvres et sur les conditions sociales de son institutionnalisation. À travers une reconstruction inédite du rôle de l’action publique dans la problématisation de la question de la traduction, l’article parvient à démontrer que les valeurs dont celle-ci est investie aujourd’hui ne sont pas universelles et qu’un retournement du stigmate en emblème a été nécessaire. Reclassée comme nécessité à la fois technique, culturelle et morale, la traduction s’impose contre la défense du livre en langue originale, stratégie désormais déclassée face à la crise dont souffre le statut du français comme langue internationale. Cette contribution invite alors à politiser le regard porté sur la traduction, un objet trop souvent pensé comme neutre dans la mondialisation des échanges.

Translating and publishing French theatre in China

This article examines transformations in the literary translation environment in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) specifically in relation to French-language theatre. After an initial survey of literary translation in the PRC from its foundation to the present, the article studies how French-language plays have been translated and adapted for publication. In particular, it considers how French theatre has occupied a favoured position in the Chinese translation literary system over the past four decades. It then focuses on three emblematic cases, those of Molière, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Samuel Beckett. Regarding the latter, two Chinese translations of En attendant Godot/Waiting for Godot will be examined to determine how contextual factors affected translation choices. In this way, the article seeks both to contribute to current discussions on ‘translatability’ and to consider the reception of canonical French-language writers in the Chinese literary system.

The strain of constraint

This article seeks to define and illustrate the notion of ‘constraint’ as it applies to literary translation. After a brief discussion of various ways in which the concept of constraint intersects with literary translation, the focus turns to the notion of ‘elasticity’, which describes tensions exerted upon the translator by factors particular to a given translation project, whether these are stylistic, formal, lexical, or intentional literary constraints. This tension forces the translator to work ‘otherwise’ and dictates to a certain extent where the translator must situate him or herself along a continuum of ‘faithfulness’ that ranges from material form to semantic meaning. Four examples are taken from the author’s own work as a literary translator, drawing on translations of ‘constrained’ texts of progressive difficulty by Marcel Schwob, Raymond Queneau, Olivier Salon, and J.-A. Soubira. Finally, this illustration of varying textual elasticity and constraint is examined from a sociological angle, which seeks to explore practical constraints of literary translation in today’s American literary marketplace.

Traduire, la contrainte Introduction

La littérature d’avant nous tire en arrière. Il faut réagir. Vous me traduirez tous les livres compliqués en langue normale. On essaye de simplifier ce bazar. […] C’est d’utilité publique de traduire and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park where oranges have been laid en français accessible. Tout doit être traduit en normal. Ce projet de déradicalisation de l’art est une mission politique sacrée - et en plus ça rapporte.1