Retraduire un mythe littéraire : recréation / récréation ? L’exemple de The dream-quest of unknown Kadath de H.P. Lovecraft

Marie Perrier

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Titre

Retraduire un mythe littéraire : recréation / récréation ? L’exemple de The dream-quest of unknown Kadath de H.P. Lovecraft

Résumé

Any translator’s work rests on a fragile balance between constraints and creativity, and each individual text imposes specific limitations, self-imposed or not, depending on authorities ranging from genre codes to the publisher’s wishes. This paper proposes a case study of the French translations of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, a fantasy short novel by H.P. Lovecraft belonging to what is now known as his « Myth of Cthulhu. » Myth rests on processes of repetition and retellings with variation, which makes each new translator a pivotal agent not only of its transmission, but also of its fleshing out. The case under study should exemplify that retranslation involves recreation, both in the sense of a new creative act of literature and as a playful practice, and that when translators become free to openly embrace this game, the narrative of the translation work itself becomes part of the myth it stems from.

Mots-clés

Retranslation, literary myth, reception, fantasy fiction, English to French