Traduction et littérature : tâches éthiques du traducteur en médiateur (inter)culturel

Abstract

The paper focuses on the problematic relation between the literary text and its translation(s) from the
perspective of the ethical code that the translator as a mediator between cultures must abide by. Starting from an
overview of translation theories centred upon several dichotomies – translatable/untranslatable, literal/free
translation, word/sense, faithfulness/unfaithfulness, writer/translator, original text/copy, translation/imitation,
national/foreign – to be addressed in cross-cultural terms, it aims at demonstrating that strategies in translation
depend on the Weltanschauung of both the source and the target cultures, that, by virtue of ethical principles
that have been subject of debate in theory and practice, translators of literary texts must take into account the
features of both cultural systems brought into contact and explain their choices. Numerous examples of concepts and lexical gaps from various languages and cultures are particularly foregrounded to show to what extent the creativity of literary translators may contribute to overcoming linguistic and cultural boundaries in the
translation process.