Beyond Binary Thinking in Translation Studies: Towards a Sociological Analysis of Translational Positions in Literary Translation
In translation studies, generally admitted notions such as « source » and « target », the « self » and the « foreign », « domestication » and « foreignization », « adequacy » and « acceptability », tend to offer a binary image of translation. This article attempts to think translation beyond binarisms, particularly the « internal/external » dichotomies, by briefly defining the notions of habitus, field, symbolic capital, homology, illusio (Bourdieu) and signifiance (Meschonnic) in sociology of translation. The notion of habitus is examined à propos Maurice-Edgar Coindreau and Marcel Duhamel and illusio is applied, along with signifiance, re-interpreted in sociology of translation, to the translations of The Grapes of Wrath (J. Steinbeck) by Karin de Hatker and Albert Debaty and of A Farewell to Arms (E. Hemingway) by Maurice-Edgar Coindreau. In conclusion, the article highlights the usefulness of notions drawn from Bourdieu and Meschonnic in order to apprehend translation beyond surface binarisms.