TRADUCTION LITTÉRAIRE COMME VECTEUR DE LA CIVILITÉ : LA RÉCEPTION DE DURAS À TAÏWAN VIA LA TRADUCTION DE HU PIN-CHING

Abstract

During the 1970s and 1980s, Duras gained a popular readership in Taiwan because of the translation of Hu Pin-Ching. Duras reached the climax of her notoriety with the publication of L’Amant in 1984. At this time in Taiwanese literature, with the trend of seeking to get rid of the sterile form dictated by the official authority, Duras’ work coincided with literary attempts to forge a new path by appropriating foreign literature. The innovative writing, rebellious spirit, and social engagement that made Duras’ work unique seemed to prepare her for an unexpected reception, both from all over the world and in Taiwan. As a mediator of cultures, the translator Hu Pin-Ching plays a crucial role. Her choice of Duras struck for its radical difference from the other traditional French novels. The question is how the translator, beyond the opposition between innovation and conservatism, indulges in the pleasure of translating and manages to restore Duras’ feminine consciousness of her own. Duras embodied a new way of sensibility in her literary work. Not only has it
attracted a lot of attention from the general public, but it also exerts influences on Taiwan’s novel creation. However, any translated work is subject to an ideological metamorphosis depending on the socio-cultural context that hosts it. Duras’ work in Taiwan gave rise to exclusively feminist interpretations, just as the author has established herself as emblematic figure of feminism. The Durassian work translated in Taiwan was presented with features as exoticism and eroticism, so much so that the anti-colonial aspect, yet at work from the very first novels of Duras, was if not hidden, at least relegated to the background. It will be seen that, despite the distortion in reception – relying on one of the dominant discourses to the detriment of others – this literary translation can serve as a democratic springboard, insofar as, by oscillation in turn between this or that reading, it resists the hegemony of opinions, and generates a myriad of rewritings and creative intertextualities in Taiwan.