Discours, récit et traduction

Abstract

The rendering of characters’ utterances in narrative can be particularly problematic when they are in a language that is different from the language of the narration (English rather than French, say). The functioning of the more or less explicit and direct translational practices to which these utterances give rise and the links of these practices to the theme of translation are explored, with particular reference to such French-language texts from the nineteenth and twentieth century as Prosper Mérimée’s Carmen and Ousmane Sembène’s Les Bouts de bois de Dieu. More generally, their links to other kinds of metanarrative translations are considered.