Full text loading...
-
Translating difference: Gabrielle Roy's Inuit stories in French and English
- Source: International Journal of Francophone Studies, Volume 9, Issue 3, Nov 2006, p. 329 - 346
-
- 01 Nov 2006
Abstract
This article will consider the ways in which translation both in its broadest and in its more literal sense can be seen as the site of contact, conflict, transparency and opacity between languages and cultures. The particular instance of Roy's writing of the North in La Rivire sans repos can be seen as an engagement with questions of translatability and of the transparency and non-transparency of language. The first part of the article examines Roy's complex relationship to language and the relevance of work in the field of Translation Studies (Berman, Mezei, Godard) to questions of linguistic and cultural difference in the Canadian context. The article then turns to discuss two of the shorter stories as examples of writing as translation. Finally the English translation of the longest story, La Rivire sans repos, will be analysed to assess the extent to which specificities of linguistic and cultural difference are lost in the process of translating this text in French into English.