Publications
Publication details [#8932]
Oustinoff, Michaël. 2004. Les Lolita de Vladimir Nabokov : traductions ou adaptations ? [Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita's: translations or adaptations?] In Raguet, Christine, ed. De la lettre à l'esprit: traduction ou adaptation? [From the letter to the spirit: translation or adaptation?] Special issue of Palimpsestes 16: 117–136.
Publication type
Article in Special issue
Publication language
French
Keywords
Source language
Person as a subject
Title as subject
Abstract
Eric Kahane's translation of Lolita cannot be invalidated as a translation on the grounds that it should be classified as an adaptation; if it bears the mark of adaptation, then it has to be attributed to Nabokov himself, who gave it his fullest approval. The 1959 translation is a fully-fledged version of the work from which it originates. This can be clearly exemplified when studying the three Lolitas which are, in chronological order, the English version, the first French version by Kahane and the Russian self-translation by Nabokov. Furthermore, these three Lolitas make up-to use a term of G. Genette's- the hypotext of Maurice Couturier's 2001 new translation. From the point of view of translation, the four Lolitas cannot be studied separately: because of their correspondences they form a system.
Source : Abstract in journal