Colloque

A Glimpse from the Chambord Staircase

Jane Koustas

Membre a labase

Jane Koustas

Résumé de la communication

In his 1996 study 'Impossible Nation: The Longing for Homeland in Canada and Quebec', Ray Conlogue carries on a long tradition of associating translation practice with questions of national, political and cultural identity. He quotes PJO Chauveau, who, in a 19th century essay compared the strange oblique glance of the Other from the double and twisting staircase of Chambord to the condition of accidental comprehension between Canada’s two solitudes. The sharing of “the poetry of the experience”, of the deliberate, rather than accidental, glimpse from the staircase, is arguably the motivation behind much translation scholarship and practice, comparative literature and explorations of la transculture or transculturation (see Vautier 2003, 168). However, while such activities aim to blur the lines between Us and Them, between Other and Self or between the Rest of Canada (the Roc) and Quebec, in other words, to align or combine the two staircases, they have, in the process, blurred other boundaries such as those between Comparative Literature and translation. Studies in comparative Canadian literature, for example, frequently overlook, or at least downplay, the importance of the translation process, including, for example, the translation strategy used, in their very effort to provide a privileged glimpse from the staircase. The present study will consider the role of the translated text in the context of larger studies of Canadian literature.

Résumé du colloque

Ce colloque fournira l'occasion aux chercheurs canadiens, québécois et européens éminents, ainsi qu'aux étudiants inscrits aux cycles supérieurs et jeunes chercheurs, d'échanger les idées sur le lien disciplinaire entre la littérature comparée et la traductologie littéraire. Un numéro thématique de ''TTR'' fera état des discussions et aura un effet dynamisant sur les deux disciplines. Soulignons la participation confirmée de L. D'hulst et J. Woodsworth. Appui financier-R. Meylaerts