Expatriation and Translation: Chester Himes Translated into the French Detective Novel Field (1957-1960)
The work of the American writer Chester Himes includes seven detective novels that are distinct in that they were first written in American English, then translated and published in French, and finally published in American English in the United States for the first time in a different version from the original source text. This article attempts to analyze the determining factors that gave rise to Himes’ deep interest in detective fiction, contextualizing the conditions that drove him to the genre. We examine Himes’ habitus, the essential role played by Marcel Duhamel (the director of the Série Noire), the French field of detective fiction and the translation (Minnie Danzas, translator), as well as the specific illusio of his detective novels, particularly The Five-Cornered Square and its translation, La reine des pommes. Finally, we see how the success of La reine des pommes in 1958 considerably broadened the range of narrative possibilities in the French field of detective fiction.