Retranslation, accentuation, redialogisation: editorial strategies and strategies of translation in Dutch translations of the Liaisons dangereuses

Author(s)

  • Kris Peeters Antwerp University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51777/relief10828

Keywords:

retranslation, reaccentuation, translation strategies, Choderlos de Laclos, reception studies

Abstract

To study what happens when a classic is translated or, a fortiori, retranslated – in this case Laclos into Dutch – implies considering translations as steps in the historical process of continuous re-interpretation of the classics, which Bakhtin called 're-accentuation'. Based on this concept, we will analyse the editorial and translation strategies employed, to show how the early Dutch translations re-accented the linguistic and literary material of Les Liaisons dangereuses towards a modern and conventionalised interpretation of the libertine. The latest translation, however, offers a more historicising interpretation, while at the same time dialogising language, which is less conventional and more heteroglossic. In this respect, the latest translation redialogises the earlier translations as much as it re-accents Laclos' text in the Dutch-speaking target culture.

Author Biography

  • Kris Peeters, Antwerp University

    Kris Peeters is a full professor and president of the translation and interpretation department at Antwerp University, where he teaches French culture and literature and text analysis. His research (orcid.org/0000-0002-2663-8905) concentrates on the poetics of translation and retranslation in French, in Dutch and in English, particularly regarding dialogism, heteroglossia, and narrative voice.

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Published

2021-07-07

Issue

Section

Articles - thematic dossier

How to Cite

Peeters, K. (2021) “Retranslation, accentuation, redialogisation: editorial strategies and strategies of translation in Dutch translations of the Liaisons dangereuses”, RELIEF - REVUE ÉLECTRONIQUE DE LITTÉRATURE FRANÇAISE, 15(1), pp. 10–26. doi:10.51777/relief10828.