Grand public, y es-tu ? M’entends-tu ? Réflexion sur le rapport de la traduction littéraire avec le public chez Lu Xun

Florence Xiangyun Zhang

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Title

Are you there, general public? Can you hear me? A reflection on the relationship between literary translation and the general public in the work of Lu Xun

Abstract

Even if Benjamin and Berman reject the idea that literature transmits messages, literary works have readers and literary translation would not be possible without any concern for the future reader. But if the original work is appreciated by a large public and the translation reaches very few people, has the translator failed? When Lu Xun (1881-1936) translated Jules Verne’s novel, he was aiming for the general public. He then targeted readers with a high level education in his Anthology of Foreign Fiction. Later, he declared that he was translating for himself and those who “wanted to suffer a little by learning from foreign writings”. As a result, his style shifted from free translation to literal translation. By analyzing how Lu Xun considered the readers of his various translations, the complex relationship between literary translation and the reader emerges.

Keywords

Lu Xun, free translation, literal translation, Jules Verne, reader