Flipping It Further: A Feminist Retranslation of 'Bonjour Tristesse' by Francoise Sagan
Citation:
Suzanne McMahon, 'Flipping It Further: A Feminist Retranslation of 'Bonjour Tristesse' by Francoise Sagan', [thesis], Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Languages, Literature and Cultural Studies, Trinity College Dublin thesesDownload Item:
Abstract:
The feminist translation movement grew out of a hive of feminist activity in the 1970s and 1980s in France, the US and Canada. Women writers at this time pounced on the Derridean reassessment of the stability of meaning in language, a concept that placed the emphasis on subjective interpretation. A reimagining of language from a feminine perspective began. Through playful and unashamedly ostentatious invention and intervention the absurdities and limitations of a dominant patriarchal language were exposed and undermined. Feminist translators rose to the challenge presented by women's writing that was characterised by polysemy and neologisms. Translation strategies were appropriated to accomplish the task in a highly overt style. Meanwhile Walter Benjamin and Antoine Berman's theories showcasing the immense possibilities afforded by multiple performances of a text were enshrined in a feminist translation practice. Judith Butler developed Simone de Beauvoir's problematising of an unequal gender duality in reconceptualising gender as a performance. A perceivable overlap emerged between theories around gender performativity and the performativity of translation. Developments in gender theory and translation have thus led to a translational exploration of Butler's theory of performativity through the regendering strategy at the core of this dissertation. A feminist interpretation of Françoise Sagan's first novel, Bonjour Tristesse, provides the testing ground for this playful strategy with a view to establishing it as an eyecatching style of performing feminist texts. In rewriting selected passages from Sagan’s novel with regendered protagonists, the inequalities inherent in 'official' language in favour of a masculine perspective are exposed and transformed to redress the balance. Here a bisexual and unashamedly promiscuous career woman and mother figure is written into the target text with the effect of normalising sexual emancipation and non-binary parenting. Regendering can thus advance the work of feminist translation and at the same time advance the project begun by Françoise Sagan at the start of her literary career to demote the importance placed on gender by disrupting gender norms. ‘Je n’arrive pas à faire des distinguos entre les hommes et les femmes. Comme entre les jeunes et les vieux. […] Ce sont des personnes.’ [I am unable to make a distinction between men and women. Or between young and old. […] They are people.’ (Sagan 1994 quoted in Lloyd 1995: 56)
Author: McMahon, Suzanne
Advisor:
Szymanska, KasiaQualification name:
Master of PhilosophyPublisher:
Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). School of Languages, Literature and Cultural StudiesType of material:
thesisCollections
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Literary TranslationMetadata
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