Stratégies culturelles dans la traduction des livres pour enfants : le cas de Geronimo Stilton

Giovanni Tallarico

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Résumé

This article focuses on the cultural strategies used in French translations of the best-selling Italian comic book series, Geronimo Stilton, in particular through onomastics, i.e. anthroponomy and toponymy. The main characters’ names (Geronimo and Benjamin for instance) are not translated, whereas most proper names referring to fictional characters are, especially when they convey connotative values; in other cases, there is a simple adaptation to the L2 morphological system. Place names are translated too when they are fictional and semantically motivated (Topazia > Sourisia). Furthermore, our study of “secondary expressive interjections” brings out their role in typifying characters. This effect, however, sometimes gets lost in translation, when multiple equivalents are provided for the same interjection. Finally, there is an analysis of parallel texts translated in France and Quebec and a discussion of differences at diatopic, diaphasic, stylistic and cultural level: the conclusion is that texts published in Quebec are aimed at more conventional target readers than those sold in France, as can be seen in the constant use of a higher register, more elaborated sentences and in the total avoidance of derogatory terms.

Mots-clés

Children’s literature, proper names, interjections, connotations, cultural norm