Strindberg’s French in Translation by Example of Plaidoyer d’un fou

Abstract

The present study deals with August Strindberg as a francophone writer. Our aim is to investigate how his French reviser handled the peculiarities of his French and how they were rendered in translation. The analysis is conducted on three excerpts from four different versions of the novel Le Plaidoyer d’un fou: Strindberg’s original French manuscript, the first French edition from 1895, the latest Swedish translation from 1976 and the latest Italian translation from 1991. The study reveals a great deal of deviations from the source text that are not dictated by target-language norms, particularly in the first revised French edition, but also in the latest Swedish and Italian translations. Moreover, close textual analyses indicate that not only Strindberg’s original manuscript, but also earlier translations in the respective language have inspired the translators. The observations suggest that there is potential for retranslating the Plaidoyer into a more experimental language.

Keywords: August Strindberg, Le Plaidoyer d’un fou, translation, retranslation, revision.