This thesis examines the translation of stylization of orality in the context of linguistics, the development of language and literature as well as translation theory. Three contemporary Czech novels and their translations are analyzed in regard to their oral features. The statistical analysis applies selected elements, that are characterized in specialized literature as typical for orality. It explores their incidence using a corpus analysis method. As concerns the source texts, the results show differences regarding the levels of language and groups of lexemes, which indicates an individual stylization. This is, to a lesser extent, true of the target texts as well, notwithstanding the fact that they show a greater uniformity overall. A contrastive comparison leads to the conclusion, that oral features with more commonality in Czech tend to be neutralized to a greater extent. A functional analysis of orality is also carried out. Its aim is to characterize the impression (Wirkung) of orality in a given passage and distinguish between the so called adapted and mimetic kinds of orality. The analysis follows its own model and points to, amongst other things, a special role of Common Czech (obecná čeština) and of particles as well as adverbs devoid of meaning in German. It becomes clear, that the...

This thesis examines the translation of stylization of orality in the context of linguistics, the development of language and literature as well as translation theory. Three contemporary Czech novels and their translations are analyzed in regard to their oral features. The statistical analysis applies selected elements, that are characterized in specialized literature as typical for orality. It explores their incidence using a corpus analysis method. As concerns the source texts, the results show differences regarding the levels of language and groups of lexemes, which indicates an individual stylization. This is, to a lesser extent, true of the target texts as well, notwithstanding the fact that they show a greater uniformity overall. A contrastive comparison leads to the conclusion, that oral features with more commonality in Czech tend to be neutralized to a greater extent. A functional analysis of orality is also carried out. Its aim is to characterize the impression (Wirkung) of orality in a given passage and distinguish between the so called adapted and mimetic kinds of orality. The analysis follows its own model and points to, amongst other things, a special role of Common Czech (obecná čeština) and of particles as well as adverbs devoid of meaning in German. It becomes clear, that the...

This thesis focusses on contemporary China. It examines the role the dominant ideology plays in determining the kinds of texts and narratives that are translated for export as part of government-sponsored translation projects. The literary magazine Pathlight, launched as an instrument of Chinese cultural diplomacy, is at the centre of this research project. At the turn of the 21st century, the Chinese government stepped up its funding of cultural diplomacy activities in efforts to disseminate Chinese traditional culture and Chinese discourse internationally. This move was fuelled by mounting criticism and negative reporting from the Western mainstream media on China, and China’s declining image worldwide. As part of this, the Chinese government initiated a number of projects to enhance the country’s image and discursive power through cross-cultural exchanges and cultural diplomacy, and thus forge its own narrative on China in the international community (K. Zhao, 2016). Drawing upon notions of patronage and ideology from Lefevere’s rewriting theory and anchoring on previous research on similar translation projects, this study applies qualitative content analysis methods to pinpoint the recurring themes and narratives in the English translations exported in Pathlight from 2011 to 2019. It searches for links between these recurring themes and narratives and current Chinese mainstream ideology as expressed by “the Chinese dream.” The findings of this dissertation reveal that, although the dominant ideology in China does put certain limitations on what kinds of stories and narratives are selected for translation and export in government-sponsored translation projects, compared to years prior to the economic reforms of the 1980s, the variety of stories and narratives translated and exported has greatly increased. Arguably, this could be explained by the changes in the country’s dominant ideology over the past 30 years, and by how the Chinese government is turning to “softer” methods of control.

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This dissertation investigates how and why contemporary canonical authors such as Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, J.M. Coetzee, and Salman Rushdie incorporate their celebrity and canonical status as authors into the fictional worlds of their novels. The contemporary celebrity author in general is at the mercy of a more globalized publication industry that depends on a circuit of international circulation, translation, and the diverse reactions of a transnational readership. More specifically, each of the authors I focus on in this dissertation have become notorious, both for their professional literary achievements as well as various political or sexual scandals running alongside their publication history. The decentralization of the author’s power to control his own image as it becomes stratified across a multiplicity of competing discourses, audiences, and marketplaces is spurred on by a literary marketplace that favors world literature, international circulation, and the whims of readership response. Thus, the need to revise or challenge the public perception of their authorship is constantly at stake for these figures – so much so that they introduce doppelgänger versions of themselves into their fiction to negotiate this relationship. I argue that the hybrid-generic form of autobiographical-metafiction allows these authors to integrate this struggle for authority over their own authorship into both the form and content of their fictional worlds. Ultimately, the project of tracing different iterations of the doppelgänger novelist across national and historical markers helps us formulate a contemporary theory of authorship that asserts how the “author” must always operate in a liminal space between the constructed fictional world and the real historical world. / English

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Comment comprendre l’abjection qui travaille les textes littéraires de femmes auteures contemporaines ? Quelle abjection habite les récits Putain (2001), Folle (2004) et À ciel ouvert (2007) de la Québécoise Nelly Arcan? D’abord, sont esquissées une synthèse des multiples acceptions théoriques de l’abjection et une liste d’« objets » à l’abjection archétypale, avant de montrer comment l’abject est susceptible d’être dialectiquement relevé en son contraire, notamment dans l’œuvre littéraire. Une carte de l’imaginaire de l’abjection arcanienne est ensuite dressée : les représentations abjectes du féminin donnent naissance à plusieurs topos spécifiques, et des mécanismes abjects dé-forment le corps du texte, entraîné dans la logique tragique de l’éternel retour. Puis les effets performatifs du texte arcanien sont examinés : sur le plan affectif, il permettent une purification de l’abjection et, sur le plan discursif et énonciatif, une critique de celle-ci. Enfin, le corpus arcanien, à la fois poétiquement, esthétiquement et performativement, s’inscrit dans le sillage des grands écrivains de l’abjection du XXe siècle. C’est, en tout cas, ce que les résultats de cette étude permettent de conclure. / How the abjection inhabiting women’s writing can be understood? What abjection lies in Quebec writer Nelly Arcan’s narratives Putain (2001), Folle (2004) and À ciel ouvert (2007)? First of all, a synthesis of the theoretical perspectives among abjection and a list of archetypal abject « objects » are drawn, before presenting how the abject can be solved dialectically into its opposite, notably through a work of art. The imaginary of the Arcanian abjection is then mapped. Feminine abject representations draw specific topoï and abject mecanisms un-shape the text’s body, led by the eternal return’s tragic logic. Further on, performative effects of Arcan’s text are explored : on an affective level, they allow the purification of abjection, and on a discursive and uttering level, a critique of the later. Finally, as shown by this study’s results, the Arcanian corpus should be considered in the wake of the great XXth century writers of abjection.

Ce mémoire s’intéresse à l’écriture du voyage et du déplacement à travers l’exemple de cinq récits québécois contemporains. Nous étudions ici Voyage en Irlande avec un parapluie et Voyage au Portugal avec un Allemand de Louis Gauthier, Vers l’Ouest de Mahigan Lepage, Dix jours en cargo d’Isabelle Miron ainsi que Le sermon aux poissons de Patrice Lessard. Constatant que les voyages contemporains se sont délestés de l’expérience de l’exotisme et de la découverte, nous faisons l’hypothèse que l’écriture du déplacement se transforme. Nous analysons comment une expérience dysphorique du déplacement s’inscrit dans la description des lieux, la mise en récit et l’identité des narrateurs. À partir des travaux de Michel de Certeau (L’invention du quotidien) et de Marc Augé (Non-lieux : introduction à la surmodernité), nous nous intéressons, dans un premier chapitre, à la perception des lieux et à leur description. Notre parcours nous amène ensuite à examiner plus directement les modalités par lesquelles ces récits de la route produisent une continuité, métaphorique notamment. La troisième partie se concentre sur l’identité des narrateurs, qui tend à se construire ou à se déconstruire par rapport aux espaces qu’il parcourent. En nous servant des analyses d’images de Georges Didi-Huberman, nous examinons en conclusion comment ces différents aspects des textes produisent une « esthétique de la délocalisation », où les paysages et les lieux se constituent en écrans sur lesquels il est désormais possible de se projeter. / This thesis focuses on travel and displacement writing by exploring this theme into contemporary narrative in Quebec litterature. We study Voyage en Irlande avec un parapluie and Voyage au Portugal avec un Allemand (Louis Gauthier), Vers l’Ouest (Mahigan Lepage), Dix jours en cargo (Isabelle Miron) and Le sermon aux poissons (Patrice Lessard). By stating that travels don’t relay the experience of exotism and of discovery anymore, we make the assumption that the practice of narrating this new type of travels also changes. We analyse how this dysphoric experience of the travel reflects itself into the descriptions of the places, into the construction of a narrative, and into the construction of the identity. With the works of Michel de Certeau (The Practice of Everyday Life) and of Marc Augé (Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity), our analysis questions, in a first chapter, the perception of spaces and their descriptions. Then, we examine more directly how these road narratives produce continuity. The third part focus on the identity of the narrator, that tends to be constructed and deconstructed by the landscape seen on the road. By referring to the analysis of images by Georges Didi- Huberman, we examine in our conclusion how those different aspects of the texts construct a « relocation » aesthetics in which landscapes and places become screens on which it is henceforth possible for the characters to project themselves.

In thesis "Explicit depictions of contemporary Japanese literature" I deal with contemporary prose literature describing problems of nowadays Japanese society. In the first part I define taboo and chose suitable novels for the need of this work. I focus on different types of characters - freeters, foreigners, social outsiders and victims. Next I take Murakami Ry's literature as an example of explicit depictions and show different ways of processing and various topics chosen by the author. Then I compare and contrast his work with selected prose of younger writer Kanehara Hitomi, who represents the literature of female authors in contemporary Japan. In conclusion I discuss the aesthetic function of literature of explicit depictions and its position in the field of art. By comparing and contrasting the various novels I reach my own characteristic of contemporary Japanese literature of explicit depictions.