L’heterolinguisme en scene: français et arabe(s) à l’oeuvre dans ‘Junun’ de Jalila Baccar

Abstract

Self-translators, multilingual writers who decide to translate one of their works, are a particularly stimulating case study in the research on heteroglossia. Every self-translation can actually be considered a hybrid heteroglossic work created by two texts in two different languages. This study examines the theatrical play Junun by the Tunisian playwright Jalila Baccar, written and played in Tunisian Arabic in 2001 and self-translated into French in 2003. At first, the functions of the different languages in the Arabic text have been analysed. These can stem from a realistic motivation (representing Tunisian reality), from a compositional motivation (constructing the literary work’s fictional world), or from an esthetic motivation (through intertextual references to other works). Subsequently, the translation strategies of the heteroglossia from the first text to the French version have been studied. Finally, this textual approach has been framed within the analysis of the relationship between context and the history of heteroglossia, in order to broaden the scope of potential extensions of this research.