Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

2-2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

French

Advisor

Elizabeth Beaujour

Committee Members

Francesca Sautman

Bettina Lerner

Peter Consenstein

Subject Categories

Comparative Literature | French and Francophone Literature | Translation Studies

Keywords

20th & 21st century French and Francophone literature, self-translation, translation, translingual authors, bilingualism, multilingualism

Abstract

While much has been written and theorized about translation, until recent years, considerably less attention has been paid to the product and process of self-translation, and self-translation studies has only recently emerged as a new and growing field of interest in academia. In my dissertation, I analyze the extent to which literal, linguistic loss in translation leads to figurative gain in the self-translated work and non-authorial translations of three translingual Franco-Anglophone authors: Samuel Beckett, Julien Green, and Nancy Huston. In addition to examining how self-translators and non-authorial translators afford themselves liberties in translation, I investigate the ways in which a self-translated text can be viewed as a new and original work in its own right. By dialoguing with and moving beyond the work of contemporary translation scholars such as Jan Hokenson, Marcella Munson, Susan Bassnett, and Rainier Grutman, I engage in the present critical debate about self-translation: “what is self-translation?” and “how can self-translation be differentiated from non-authorial translation?” I argue that, in opposition to non-authorial translation, which typically adheres to a closer sense of lexical, syntactic, and semantic fidelity, self-translation, as exemplified by the bilingual work of Beckett, Green, and Huston, represents the ultimate form of creative rewriting and linguistic and semantic refinement.

Download

Share

COinS