« Face à l’horrible Lingua Franca » : la traduction de l’argot des Mystères de Paris en Grèce au XIXe siècle

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« Face à l’horrible Lingua Franca » : la traduction de l’argot des Mystères de Paris en Grèce au XIXe siècle

Journal Title: Argotica - Year 2014, Vol 0, Issue 1

Abstract

Serialized in the daily newspaper Le Journal des débats from 1842 to 1843, Eu-gene Sue’s The Mysteries of Paris along with Vidocq’s Memoirs (1828-9) and Hugo’s The Last Day of a Condemned Man (1829), played a key role in the evolution of the relationships between slang and literature in France. Criticized by its contemporaries for being “a feuilleton full of so much slang that it would fall off the hands even of the most skilful reader”, the novel became nevertheless the greatest commercial hit in the 19th century. The use of slang in its dialogs was one of the reasons behind its success as can be attested by the creation of many by-products (such as the Dictionnaire complet de l’argot employé dans “Les Mystères de Paris”, 1844) as well as the adoption of slang in many later works. Extensively translated throughout the world, The Mysteries of Paris crossed the French borders and rapidly became an international best-seller. Slang and its treatment in the target language was of utmost importance as evidenced by the translators’ introductory comments and the notes in their translations. It raised many questions that often lead to choices that could radically alter the poetics of the original. In this article, I would like to address more specifically the Greek translations of Sue’s novel published in 1845 as well as the way translators around the world were, as stated by one of them, “facing the horrible Lingua Franca”.

Authors and Affiliations

Filippos Katsanos

Keywords

EP ID EP200202
DOI -
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