French and Francophone Literature Commons^™

On Translating Jean Giono’S “Possession Des Richesses”, Christopher J. Monier

Living in Languages

No abstract provided.

Models Of Emulation: Representations Of Foreign, Indigenous, And Accented Speech In Early American Literature, Elaina A. Frulla

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

“Models of Emulation: Representations of Foreign, Indigenous, and Accented Speech in Early American Literature” explores how American writers used depictions of “nonstandard” English and accented English language speech, traditionally described as “literary dialect,” as a way to negotiate identity, power, and political belonging in the formative years of nation building after the American Revolution. Beginning with Noah Webster’s mission to establish a standardized pronunciation of the English language that would simplify and purify spoken American-English and definitively differentiate it from what he saw as the corrupted, cosmopolitan British-English model, each of the three chapters examines literary representations of nonstandard emulated …

A Translation Of Akira Mizubayashi's Reine De Coeur, Zachary N. Knudson-Swain

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Akira Mizubayashi's Reine de Coeur is a story about intergenerational trauma, and the ability music has to mend broken bonds. This translation is an attempt to bring the musicality of his language into English and convey Mizubayashi's unique cultural perspective in an English language context.

Advisor: Jordan Stump

Beauvoir, “French” Feminisms, And “Translation Work:” A Roundtable Conversation, Sandrine Sanos, Judith G. Coffin

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

This conversation featuring four scholars—Sandrine Sanos, Judith G. Coffin, Lorraine Delavaud, Marine Vaslin—took place on zoom on December 1, 2023. It was organized, transcribed, and edited by Sandrine Sanos who also wrote the introduction to contextualize the conversation. The roundtable reflects on the making of the translation of Judith Coffin’s book on Beauvoir; and how it became a collective object, and the challenges and productive limitations that it involved, showing how such a project helped forge and relied upon transnational, transdisciplinary, and transgenerational feminist solidarities. The ways Beauvoir became a transatlantic object sheds light on the ways that the book …

Deux Histoires De Meurtres Et D’Intrigues : L’Étude Et L’Application Pratique Des Techniques Courantes De La Traduction Française, Joseph Kalmar

Senior Independent Study Theses

Cette thèse vise à examiner les techniques courantes de la traduction littéraire et leur application pratique dans les contextes du thème et de la version. Le chapitre méthodologique explique d’abord les concepts qui sous-tendent les cinq techniques principales que j’ai utilisées pendant mon travail : les unités de traduction, la modulation, la transposition, l’équivalence, et l’adaptation. Chaque partie de ce chapitre comprend des exemples concrets tirés de mes traductions afin de démontrer comment et pourquoi un traducteur choisirait de profiter de ces procédés dans certains contextes. Pour la version, j’ai traduit une vingtaine de pages de Seule en sa Demeure, …

Translating Nonsense: An Analysis Of The Poem “Jabberwocky” And Two French Translations, Kylie R. Deer

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Is it possible to translate nonsense? If yes, then how?

Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” is a nonsense poem in which many of the words are invented out of the author’s imagination. As a result, readers depend on Carroll to explain the meanings of such words. The first stanza of “Jabberwocky,” chosen since it contains the largest number of nonsense words in the poem, was analyzed and compared to the first stanza of two French translations (“Le Jaseroque” by Frank L. Warrin and “Bredoulocheux” by Henri Parisot). A word-by-word, and to an extent, syllable-by-syllable close reading of the three texts was performed …

Looking At Shadows: Four French Texts In English Translation, Kalena M. Hermes

World Languages and Cultures

This project present four French texts in English translation that share the theme of loss. This theme is perhaps one of the most poignant and relevant; loss is an experience that every human will encounter, and as people we continue across time to grapple with what it means for us and how to deal with it. These four texts will bring the perspectives of four authors to light in English. When we study how other countries and cultures deal with common human issues, we are able to gain new views on these issues. This project will make these texts accessible …

Translation Of View From The Ossuary By Antoine Volodine, John Thomas Mahany

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a literary translation from the French of Antoine Volodine’s Vue sur l’ossuaire. Additional creative embellishments have been included in the form of translator’s notes and epigraphs in order to enhance the fictive reality of the work.

Lost And Found In Translation: A Study Of The Bilingual Work Of Samuel Beckett, Julien Green, And Nancy Huston, Genevieve Waite

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

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 …

Agency And Political Engagement In Gide And Barrault's Post-War Theatrical Adaptation Of Kafka's The Trial, Yevgenya Strakovsky

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Agency and Political Engagement in Gide and Barrault's Post-war Theatrical Adaptation of Kafka's The Trial" Yevgenya Strakovsky considers the political themes of André Gide and Jean-Louis Barrault's Le Procès (The Trial, 1947), the first theatrical adaptation of Franz Kafka's Der Prozess (The Trial, 1914). Strakovsky demonstrates that Le Procès, written and staged in the immediate aftermath of World War II, levels a critique against the passive complicity of citizens in unjust persecution in both its script and its staging. The paper also considers the elements of Kafka's prose that lend themselves to …

Ginsberg's Translations Of Apollinaire And Genet In The Development Of His Poetics Of "Open Secrecy", Véronique Lane

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Ginsberg's Translations of Apollinaire and Genet in the Development of his Poetics of 'Open Secrecy'" Véronique Lane analyzes the extent to which the journals, letters and poems of Allen Ginsberg are marked by constant reference to literary models that give just as much weight to French as to American writers. Focusing on his long involvement with Guillaume Apollinaire and Jean Genet's works, Lane argues that Ginsberg meticulously constructed the genealogy of his poetry through a threefold strategy of literary quotation, translation and encryption. Uncovering this strategy through analysis of "Howl," "At Apollinaire's Grave," and "Death to Van …

An Escape From Language Into Language: The Internal Exile Of Louis Wolfson, Antoine N. Rideau

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper aims to show how the life and work of American francophone author Louis Wolfson - who suffered from schizophrenia and underwent a self-imposed exile from his own mother tongue - might serve to illuminate European émigré writers' relationships to multilingualism.

Treasure Hunt Without A Map: Archival Research At The University Of Pennsylvania, Meghan Strong

English and Creative Writing Independent Study Projects

Under the supervision of Meredith Goldsmith in the English Department, I spent this semester developing archival research projects for lower level students in the humanities. My project corresponded with the aims of the Council for Undergraduate Research, which works to develop undergraduate research skills throughout the disciplines. The Kislak Center is a nearby resource that has the potential to provide students with opportunities to develop crucial research skills while discovering little pieces of history that are hidden away in the archives. The final exercises presented here focus on the subjects of Walt Whitman, Marian Anderson, and Michel de Montaigne.

Translations From Allada And Experience D'Edward Lee, Versailles By Gérard Gavarry, Gérard Gavarry, Katina Rogers

Publications and Research

At the heart of Gérard Gavarry’s writing are the questions of what power language holds, and what remains beyond the reach of expression. The two translations included here, excerpts from Allada (P.O.L, 1993) and Expérience d’Edward Lee, Versailles (P.O.L, 2009), share little with each other in terms of setting or structure, but explore similar questions of the role and limits of language in relation to defamiliarization, power, and fear. The inventive reflection on the nature of language, identity, and power that, woven into the fabric of the novel, makes Gavarry’s work some of the most compelling fiction coming out of …

Reviving The Surrealist Revolt: A Retracing Of Surrealism’S History And A Reimagining Of Its Future In Translation, Kyle Young

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Although Surrealist writing has literary merit, Surrealist texts were written as revolutionary tracts meant to undermine the social order. Yet the politically radical aspects of the movement are no longer taken very seriously. At least one contributing factor to the current impotence of Surrealism is the approach taken in the translation of Surrealist texts. Many translators have presented Surrealist texts as they would traditionally present any literary document. However, Walter Benjamin’s writings on translation, in particular his essay “The Task of the Translator,” provide a novel conception of translation, one which can produce linguistically radical texts. I will argue that …