Hallucinatory Figures: Some examples from Michel Tournier’s Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique and its translation Friday by Norman Denny

Abstract

This article proposes to consider how figures are constructed by an interplay of different textual features, a process referred to here as “figuration.” In an analysis of Michel Tournier’s novel Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique the article will demonstrate how this process breaks down a distinction between literal and figurative speech, revealing an unpredictable dimension to the textual performance. It will examine how the translator has responded to this unpredictability in order to conclude whether translation is also a form of explanation.