Article published In: Heterolingualism in/and Translation
Edited by Reine Meylaerts
[Target 18:1] 2006
► pp. 17–47
Refraction and recognition
Literary multilingualism in translation
Published online: 5 December 2006
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.18.1.03gru
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.18.1.03gru
Texts foregrounding different languages pose unusual challenges for translators and translation scholars alike. This article seeks to provide some insights into what happens to multilingual literature in translation. First, Antoine Berman’s writings on translation are used to reframe questions of semantic loss in terms of the ideological underpinnings of translation as a cultural practice. This leads to a wider consideration of contextual aspects involved in the “refraction” of foreign languages, such as the translating literature’s relative position in the “World Republic of Letters” (Casanova). Drawing on a Canadian case-study (Marie-Claire Blais in English translation), it is suggested that asymmetrical relations between dominating and dominated literatures need not be negative per se, but can lead to the recognition of minority writers.
Résumé
Les textes frappés au sceau de la diversité linguistique posent un défi aux traducteurs et aux traductologues. Cet article tente de comprendre ce qui arrive aux textes plurilingues en traduction. D’abord, ‘l’analytique’ développée par Antoine Berman permet de mesurer les pertes sémantiques à l’aune des enjeux idéologiques qui sous-tendent la traduction comme pratique culturelle. Suit une prise en compte plus large des aspects contextuels de la ‘réfraction’ des langues étrangères, dont notamment la position relative de la littérature traduisante dans la ‘République mondiale des Lettres’ (Casanova). À partir d’un dossier canadien (la traduction de Marie-Claire Blais en anglais), on suggère que les relations asymétriques entre littératures dominantes et dominées n’ont pas à être négatives en soi, mais peuvent mener à la reconnaissance d’écrivains minoritaires.
Article outline
- 0.Introduction
- 1.What happens to multilingualism in translation?
- 1.1Heterolingualism unbound
- 1.2Textual matters: Erasing (exotic) differences
- 1.3Contextual matters: Asymmetrical transfers, unequal exchanges
- 2.Marie-Claire Blais in English
- 2.1Literary translation, a Canadian institution
- 2.2The debate over joual
- 2.3Manheim’s domesticating translation
- 2.4Ellenwood’s foreignizing translation
- 3.Concluding remarks: Refraction or recognition?
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
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