Translation as a Repository of Violence and Resistance: A Comparative Analysis of La Nuit by Elie Wiesel and its English Versions

This paper examines translations as social and political objects shaped by networks of actors, drawing on Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory. Focusing on the circulation of La Nuit, the French translation of Elie Wiesel’s Yiddish memoir, it traces how publishers, translators, and other intermediaries influenced its production, distribution, and reception. Wiesel’s commitment to bearing witness and transmitting collective memory frames the analysis of editorial records, historical contexts, and two English versions. The study shows how translation practices carry the marks of violence and resistance, forming an ambivalent archive of Holocaust memory.