Publications
Publication details [#3817]
Génin, Isabelle. 2001. Des métaphores pas si mortes: redynamisation des métaphores figées dans Moby-Dick et ses traductions françaises [Metaphors that are not so dead: new life in the fixed metaphors in Moby Dick and its French translations]. In Bensimon, Paul, ed. Le cliché en traduction [Clichés in translation]. Special issue of Palimpsestes 13: 97–108.
Publication type
Article in Special issue
Publication language
French
Keywords
Source language
Target language
Title as subject
Abstract
A close study of dead metaphors in Moby Dick shows that their status is, in fact, subject to change and may be reversed. The context sometimes resuscitates the creative energy of the clichés, requiring an indepth reading of the text, where literal and figurative meanings are not contradictory but complementary. Neither a word-for-word translation nor equivalents will make it possible for those so-called "dead metaphors" to survive in the target language. Moreover, this great source of difficulty for the translator cannot be ignored as these figures play an essential part in the language of the novel which, by refusing the dichotomy signifier/ signified, endeavours to express a world that lurks beyond words, between reality and illusion.
Source : Bitra