La génétique des textes à la génétique des traductions: le(s) chaînon(s) manquant(s)

Abstract

When developed in France in the 1970s, the object of genetic criticism was to study a literary work’s creative process. Although it has since opened up to other, non-textual corpora that have renewed the discipline’s methodological and theoretical boundaries, the elaboration of texts remains at the heart of its analyses. Research on translated texts also contributes to this. Studies on the creative process of translators emerged around the same time in different places (Brazil, Italy, France...). As such, they respond both to the need to explore the elaboration of a translation and the epistolary between translator and author and to interrogate the impact of these interactions on the translated text. They also question all the paratextual issues that accompany the output of a translation. This article focuses on the evolution from genetic criticism of literary texts to genetic criticism of translations. It shows that, in France, genetic studies on      translations have benefited from exchanges, often informal, with Brazilian researchers. They have also been strongly inspired by research into literary plurilingualism, which has helped to push back the frontiers of genetic criticism by offering researchers new corpora and new theoretical and methodological challenges. Indeed, the three creative modalities –writing between languages, self-translation and translation (in particular, collaborative translation)– are very closely interconnected and need to be understood as a complex creative and documentary whole.