This thesis provides a Marxist analysis of the effect of class on historical alienation in Dermot Bolger’s fiction. Therefore, this study examines the influence of Irish history on Bolger’s choice of content, form and technique in order to argue that historical interpretation and literary technique are mediated through class stratifications. Chapter One investigates how The Journey Home challenges received ideas of what constitutes ‘reality’ which has, consequently, led to elements of critical dismissal used to maintain antiquated gaps, silences and notions of ‘reality’. In Chapter Two I look at A Second Life in order to examine how historical ruptures cannot just be seen in the nonlinear structure of Bolger’s novels, but can also be used to expose the silences and gaps that comprise the previously censored personal histories of Bolger’s characters. In Chapter Three I identify structural confines such as definitions, family roles and nationalism as instigating factors that lead to the alienation of those who do not conform to prescribed frameworks and are therefore oppressed by them. I further investigate how oppression also provides the pressure to rupture the linear trajectory of such approved frameworks and produce the nonlinear structure that can be recognised in The Family on Paradise Pier.

Ce travail analyse les rapports complexes qui se tissent entre traduction et culture, et plus particulièrement les problématiques qui émergent de la traduction de références culturelles étrangères. Il prend pour objet d’étude un corpus de romans historiques contemporains irlandais traduits en français. Ce corpus se compose de cinq romans écrits par Sebastian Barry, Dermot Bolger, Roddy Doyle et William Trevor, dont l’intrigue se déroule pendant une même période historique, la première moitié du vingtième siècle. Ce cadre historique partagé garantit la présence d’un socle de références culturelles communes. L’étude à la fois descriptive et contrastive des solutions adoptées pour traduire ces références permet donc d’une part de rendre compte des zones de résistance spécifiques de la culture irlandaise au transfert interculturel, et d’autre part de tenter de dégager certaines tendances, certains systématismes au sein des différentes traductions. En outre, les romans du corpus révisent tous un certain nombre de constructions historiques, identitaires et culturelles, notamment la vision homogène et exclusive d’une irlandité catholique, gaélique et rurale. Cette approche commune constitue une clé de compréhension importante et donc un enjeu non négligeable pour la traduction des références culturelles de ces romans. Cette thèse s’attache donc également à examiner les déformations que subissent ces représentations culturelles spécifiques au cours du processus de traduction. Les recherches effectuées dans les domaines de la traductologie, mais aussi de la littérature et de l’histoire irlandaises viennent appuyer et compléter l’étude. / This study analyses the complex relationship between translation and culture, and more specifically the issues arising from the translation of cultural references into a different language. It focuses on a body of contemporary Irish historical novels translated into French. This corpus comprises five novels written by Sebastian Barry, Dermot Bolger, Roddy Doyle and William Trevor. All five novels take place during the same historical period, namely the first half of the twentieth century. This shared historical context guarantees the presence of a base of cultural references common to all novels. This study will therefore take on both a descriptive and comparative approach in order to analyse the range of solutions that were implemented to translate these references. It will aim at uncovering the areas of Irish culture that demonstrate a particular resistance to intercultural transfer, as well as foregrounding recurring translational trends within the translated texts. Additionally, the novels under study all revise a number of historical, cultural and identity constructs, in particular the idea of a homogeneous Irishness that is exclusively Gaelic, Catholic and rural. This approach constitutes an essential key to understanding the novels and therefore represents a significant issue and challenge for the translation of cultural references. Accordingly, the study also attempts to examine the modifications undergone by these specific cultural representations during the translation process. It is supported and completed by researches carried out in the fields of translation studies as well as Irish literature and history.