Translating and Traducing: Zola and the Art of (Mis)Quotation

Deliberately angled towards the two areas in which Brian Nelson has made so many invaluable contributions during his scholarly career, this essay explores several related themes. Largely focused on Zola's art criticism, it highlights errors in the translation of his texts for the Russian period...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAustralian journal of French studies Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 115 - 124
Main Author Lethbridge, Robert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Liverpool Liverpool University Press 01.04.2020
Subjects
Art criticism
Essays
French language
French literature
Interpreters
Metaphor
Reported speech
Russian language
Translation
Translations
France
Europe
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Summary:Deliberately angled towards the two areas in which Brian Nelson has made so many invaluable contributions during his scholarly career, this essay explores several related themes. Largely focused on Zola's art criticism, it highlights errors in the translation of his texts for the Russian periodical Vestnik Evropy, exacerbated by their re-translation into French for modern editions of his work. More problematic are Zola's unsigned articles in Le Sémaphore de Marseille, composed from material in the Parisian press but inflected by personal commentary to the extent of traducing the original source. This is also visible in his reviews of exhibitions and critical studies of contemporary artists. Zola's recourse to a metaphorical "translation" in writing about Manet is brought into sharper relief by his inability to find a language to make sense of the paintings of a Moreau or Cézanne.
ISSN:0004-9468
2046-2913
DOI:10.3828/AJFS.2020.12