Montecore, un roman unique

Abstract

This essay is a study of the translation from Swedish to French of the novel Montecore, The silence of the tiger by Jonas Hassen Khemiri. I have compared a number of Gallicisms (words or idioms borrowed from French) chosen in the original text with their translations in the French version. Using the theories on translation procedures of Vinay and Darbelnet from Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais (1999[1958]), I have distinguished the strategies employed by the translators in the translation of the Gallicisms. I have also discussed the effects of the translation on the target text, the effects of normalisation in particular. Moreover, I have identified a few methods applied by the translators to compensate for the traits of normalisation on the target text. During my research I have discovered that the translation of the Gallicisms present in my study is more or less impossible. The effect of the Gallicisms in the original text remains untranslatable, regardless of which ”procédé technique de la traduction” (technical translation procedure) that has been used, oblique or direct. However, I notice that the translators have managed, by other means, to convey a certain absurdity from the original text to the French readers.