This thesis examines the impact of poetics and ideology on the French translations of
eight contemporary heroine-centred and women-oriented fictional texts (including
Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary). Using a systemic and descriptive
framework (Toury 1995) as well as works on manipulation in translation (Lefevere
1992)(Venuti 1998), I explore the various ways in which these generically hybrid
and ideologically complex texts have been rewritten according to the dominant
poetics and ideology of the French roman sentimental. Interviews undertaken with
editors and translators identify the perceived appeal of these texts to the French
market: their romantic plot. As a comparative analysis of originals and translations
reveals, this resulted in specific translational strategies regarding gender
representations, notably poetological elements subverting a dominant model of
romantic femininity.
This thesis sheds light on the subtle differences between French and Anglo-American
generic traditions and gender ideologies and its contribution is three-fold. Firstly, it
adds to an emerging body of case studies which examine poetological and
ideological revisions in the French translations of heroine-centred and womenoriented
fictional texts (Cossy 2004, 2006, 2006a)(Le Brun 2003). Secondly, as the
selection of a thematically – rather than formally – linked corpus of texts is still
relatively uncommon in translation and intercultural studies, this thesis advances a
new paradigm in the analysis of poetics and ideology in translation (Munday 2008): a
self-reflexive approach which favours transversal examinations of specific aspects in
thematically linked corpora. Thirdly, this study suggests that if women’s
entertainment, produced and translated for mass consumption, reaches a broad
audience worldwide and plays an important part in women’s socialisation,
interdisciplinary studies of translations across forms can constitute a useful way of
detecting the unspoken gender values of the cultures for which and by which they are
produced
