Political (Mis)Use of Translation: Poetry Pseudotranslations in Occupied France (1940-44)

Abstract

"During the German Occupation of France (1940-44), literature in French was produced alongside translations of foreign authors....If pseudotranslation may have been used in times of war to compensate for the lack of available literary texts, the poems that were pseudotranslated provide a fascinating testimony of the concerted construction of an image of the “Foreign,” the fictional product necessarily having to reproduce some of its typical traits in order to convince the reader of its authenticity. They also allow the questioning of poetic pseudotranslation as a powerful vector of stereotypes, whilst approaching as much as possible the ideological stakes of writing under constraints."