Perception française de l'Italie et traduction de l'italien : histoire d'un malentendu

Abstract

This paper tries to define what would have constituted the ground for perception of the Italians in France until the XXth century in the post-evolutionary change in attitude towards foreign languages. The greatest attention is lent to the reviews, which follow the literary actuality on the other side of the Alps and its translations, showing an honourable knowledge of the italian realities. Sainte-Beuve's work on Leopardi, since the beginning of the 1840 centuries, is remarkable. But the blurred aspect of the translation choices, the dichotomy in expression and contents, could only limit this spirit and harm the more complex works by worsening an objective lag between the two literatures. The authors' personalities - more or less romanced - take precedence over the texts, inspite of a trend toward juxta-linear literality (A. Bonneau), more exact than literally loyal, the products of which nevertheless would have inspired writers like Musset, Balzac, Hugo or Baudelaire. So, from new contents, it's the dominant (target) Literature which fills «naturally» this lack with its own form and values, all the more since the rare «translators poets» of the century were not particularily interested in italian letters.