Sous pression : la performativité dans Le Parfum du jour est fraise de Pascale Petit

Abstract

This article explores the manner in which Le Parfum du jour est fraise by Pascale Petit illustrates the concept of performativity in the literary context, and how the performative character of the poem lends itself to a translational rereading of the work. The analysis will focus first on a discussion of the general conceptual contours of performativity. Next we examine how the “voice” in the poem – the speaker who commands, controls and manipulates all – erases the distinction between the reader and the narratee, and how the voice manages to control and shape the reader as a subject of a quasi-scientific experiment. Finally, the discussion will explore performativity in translatology and in the experience of the translation of this text into English.