Abstract
How do translator-authors represent translators and the translation act in fiction? What do such works indicate about the affective aspects of translation and literary translation in particular? This introductory survey of these issues analyses several fictional works written by translators, to show that certain emotional responses recur , and that while there is little research into affect and literary translation, there are elements commonly found in studies of bilingualism which are echoed in the works of fiction studied. Whether these echoes can be construed as constituting a psychological profile of the literary translator is a moot point; what does emerge clearly is a literary representation of a profession whose members are marginalised, trans gressive, even fraudulent or impostors; at the very least, prey to identity instability.
Highlights
The status of the translator in translator-authored fictionIl faut bien dire qu’il n’est de traduction réussie que par une double trahison: celle de la langue prétendument maternelle du traducteur et celle de l’autre, prétendument étrangère
How do translator-authors represent translators and the translation act in fiction? What do such works indicate about the affective aspects of translation and literary translation in particular? This introductory survey of these issues analyses several fictional works written by translators, to show that certain emotional responses recur, and that while there is little research into affect and literary translation, there are elements commonly found in studies of bilingualism which are echoed in the works of fiction studied
While there has been a certain amount of research on the role of the translator in the passage of meaning between languages, notably in the field of post-colonial translation studies, there has been little analysis of affective aspects of the literary translator
Summary
Il faut bien dire qu’il n’est de traduction réussie que par une double trahison: celle de la langue prétendument maternelle du traducteur et celle de l’autre, prétendument étrangère. If someone writes a book or a poem and a second person translates it, the result is neither the original author’s nor the translator’s, but something in-between. This something in-between will almost universally be acknowledged as the author’s, and the author’s alone. There are a number of other issues which may strike closer to home, undermining not just the value of the translators’ work and their self-image, even their identity. Some of these questions are explored in fiction by authors who are themselves translators, literary or otherwise
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