Translation and the Arts in Modern France

Translation and the Arts in Modern France sits at the intersection of transposition, translation, and ekphrasis, finding resonances in these areas across periods, places, and forms. Within these contributions, questions of colonization, subjugation, migration, and exile connect Benin to Brittany, and political philosophy to the sentimental novel and to film. Focusing on cultural production from 1830 to the present and privileging French culture, the contributors explore interactions with other cultures, countries, and continents, often explicitly equating intercultural permeability with representational exchange. In doing so, the book exposes the extent to which moving between media and codes—the very process of translation and transposition—is a defining aspect of creativity across time, space, and disciplines.

Foreword / Sonya Stephens
Acknowledgments
Introduction / Sonya Stephens
Part One: Cross-Cultural Translation
1. Transposing Genre, Translating Culture / Marshall C. Olds
2. Translating Bretonness—Colonizing Brittany / Heather Williams
3. Baudelaire and Hiawatha / L. Cassandra Hamrick
4. Migration and Nostalgia: Reflections from Contemporary Cinema / Emma Wilson

Part Two: Cross-Textual Transpositions
5. Parisian Décors: Balzac, the City, and the Armchair Traveller / Michael Tilby
6. The Landscapes of Eugène Fromentin and Gustave Moreau / Barbara Wright
7. Translating the Aesthetic Impression: The Art Writing of 'Marc' de Montifaud / Wendelin Guentner
8. Zola's Transpositions / Robert Lethbridge
9. Transposition and Re-Invention: Rodin's Vision / Sonya Stephens

Part Three: Self-Translation
10. The Mummy's Dance: Staged Transpositions of Gautier's Egyptian Tales / Juliana Starr
11. Translating the Self: Colette and the "Fatally Autobiographical Text / Janet Beizer

Part Four: Translation in Process and Practice
12. René Char: Translating a Mountain / Mary Ann Caws
13. Translations and the Re-Conception of Voice in Modern Verse / Clive Scott
14. Rethinking Originality / Making Us See: Contemporary Art's Strategic Transpositions / Catherine Bernard
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index