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Article published In: Target
Vol. 21:2 (2009) ► pp.308–332

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Translating for a Good Cause

Joseph Lavallée’s antislavery novel Le Nègre comme il y a peu de Blancs (1789) and its two English translations (1790)

 | Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki
Published online: 16 December 2009
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.21.2.05tai
In Joseph Lavallée’s Le Nègre comme il y a peu de Blancs (Lavallée, Joseph. 1789. Le Nègre comme il y a peu de Blancs. Madras/Paris: Buisson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) novelistic means are openly used to serve the abolitionist cause. The author announces in the preface that his aim is to “make his readers love Black people”. The novel was quite well received in France and it was translated into English twice the following year, first by Joseph Trapp and then by an anonymous translator. My article is based on a comparative analysis of some key passages containing abolitionist discourse in the source text and in the two target texts. I argue that the second English translator systematically made the novel more suitable for the abolitionist cause, by omitting or by modifying contradictory material found in the source text. Interestingly, it was this manipulated version of Lavallée’s novel that became popular among English-speaking readers.
Résumé
Dans Le Nègre comme il y a peu de Blancs (1789) de Joseph Lavallée, l’auteur met les moyens romanesques ouvertement au service de la lutte contre l’esclavage. Son but, dit-il en ouverture, est de “faire aimer les Noirs”. Le roman eut un certain succès en France et il fut traduit en anglais deux fois en 1790, d’abord par Joseph Trapp et ensuite par un traducteur anonyme. Le présent article est basé sur une analyse de traduction de quelques passages clés contenant des arguments abolitionnistes dans les trois textes. Nous soutenons que le second traducteur anglais avait systématiquement manipulé sa traduction, pour la rendre plus conforme aux exigences de l’abolitionnisme ; quelques passages du texte de départ qui sont en contradiction avec le message antiesclavagiste du roman ont été omis ou modifiés dans cette traduction. Il est intéressant de noter que c’est cette version manipulée du roman qui devint la plus populaire chez les lecteurs anglophones.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Le Nègre comme il y a peu de Blancs and its two English versions
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Structure and style in Le Nègre comme il y a peu de Blancs
    • 3.2Lavallée’s novel and Oroonoko
    • 3.3Abolitionist discourse in the source text and the translations
  • 4.To conclude: The revealing last words
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Corpus texts
  • References
References (52)
Corpus texts
Anonymous. 1790. The Negro Equalled by few Europeans. Translated from the French. London: printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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