Les paradoxes de la créativité en traduction littéraire

Abstract

The aim of this article is to set out an interpretative framework enabling the researcher to identify instances of creativity in a literary translation. The introduction looks at how creativity and translation form a paradoxical association. Attention is then turned to the usual explanations that are given of creativity in the translational context. Three criteria are critically examined: that there must be a “problem” for creativity to come into play, that the result must be “new,” and that an “expert” - a term generally left undefined - must be involved in judging the product. A new framework is then set out, which looks at the expert's competences, the importance of the critical framework, the levels of analysis and the analytical steps to be followed. These steps include making a distinction between conscious and semi-automatic translational choices, and reconstructing the potential choices that the translator could have made. The particular issues associated with addition and transformation are also examined. The final part of the article looks at a small corpus of examples taken from the Croatian and French translations of one of Pynchon's novels, and two English translations of Madame Bovary.