Agnès Whitfield
Professor
Office: N/A
Email: agnesw@yorku.ca
Secondary website: Vita Traductiva
Attached CV
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
Agnes Whitfield (PhD, Laval) is a Professor in the Department of English in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University and a member of the Graduate Programs in English and French. She teaches primarily in the area of Canadian literature, and her research focuses on the work of Canadian Francophone and Anglophone women writers and translators, the role of literary translation in fostering cultural exchange, issues in language and gender in intercultural communication, and pedagogy.
An award-winning researcher and translator, Professor Whitfield is frequently invited to speak at scholarly conferences in Canada and Europe. She has been visiting professor at the University of Bologna, McGill University, University of Mainz, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, President of the Canadian Association for Translation Studies, an executive member of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada, and Chair of the School of Translation at York University. She is the Founding President of Academic Women for Justice/Femmes universitaires pour la justice, and a founding member of the international research group Voice in Translation, based at the University of Oslo: http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/english/research/groups/Voice-in-Translation/. She is an Associate member of the international research group TRACT at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle - Paris 3: http://www.univ-paris3.fr/membres-tract-83637.kjsp?RH=1320253174947. In 2012, she founded the international peer-reviewed publication series in Translation Studies, Vita Traductiva, at Éditions québécoises de l'oeuvre: www.editionsquebecoisesdeloeuvre.ca.
Professor Whitfield has published twelve books, including three co-edited and three edited books and three works of poetry, and over 100 articles in scholarly journals, literary encyclopaedia, and peer-reviewed international conference proceedings. She has given over 100 peer-reviewed conference papers or invited lectures in Canada and abroad (Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, United States), and some 70 literary readings and media interviews. She has been awarded over 40 research grants from external agencies such as SSHRCC (10), the Canada Council (9), and the French Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (14).
Agnes Whitfield (PhD, Laval) is a Professor in the Department of English in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University.
In her research, Professor Whitfield draws on concepts from literary history, sociology, narratology, and gender theory to examine the work of Canadian Francophone and Anglophone women writers and translators, and the institutions and practices of literary translation in Canada. She has played a leading role in compiling previously unavailable bio-bibliographical data on eminent Canadian Francophone and Anglophone literary translators to enhance recognition of their fundamental contribution as dynamic cultural agents and advance scholarship on their multi-faceted work. The two collections of essays she commissioned and edited, Writing Between the Lines. Portraits of Canadian Anglophone Translators (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006) and Le Métier du double. Portraits de traducteurs et traductrices francophones (Fides, Collection du CRILCQ, 2005), short-listed for the Canadian Federation of the Humanities Raymond-Klibansky Prize, are recognized as making an essential contribution to the study of literary translation in Canada.
Professor Whitfield is particularly interested in research leading to the development of policies and institutional practices that can foster equitable literary exchange and recognition. As SSHRC/Heritage Canada Virtual Scholar, she completed two comprehensive reports on the state of French-English and English-French literary translation in Canada detailing the extent to which both linguistic communities have access to each other’s important literary works, and evaluating measures to enhance balanced exchange. Her SSHRC International Initiatives Project seeks to develop a reciprocal model of translation exchange between Anglophone and Francophone Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Romania. Her continued commitment to recovering the work of women writers and translators underlies her SSHRC funded project on Hannah Josephson, the unknown American translator of Gabrielle Roy’s Bonheur d’occasion.
With funding from the French Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and in collaboration with the research group TRACT (Sorbonne Nouvelle), she is presently the principal co-organizer of a research initiative (2024-2025) on Translation and Surrealism. Professor Whitfield is an accredited member of the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario and the Literary Translators Association of Canada. Divine Diva, her translation of Daniel Gagnon's novel, Venite a cantare, was short-listed in 1991 for the Governor General's Award for translation. She is also the author of three books of poetry, Ô cher Émile je t'aime ou l'heureuse mort d'une Gorgone anglaise racontée par sa fille (Le Nordir, 1993), Et si les sirènes ne chantaient plus (Écrits des Forges, 2001), and Poète, où te tiens-tu?(Sémaphore, 2021) and a prose narrative, Où dansent les nénuphars (Le Nordir, 1995). In 2012, she founded a new international peer-reviewed publication series in Translation Studies, Vita Traductiva: http://vitatraductiva.blog.yorku.ca/
Degrees
Ph.D., Université LavalM.A., Queen's University
Maîtrise ès lettres, Université de Paris-Sorbonne
Hons B.A., Queen's University
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Professor Whitfield has served as board member of several scholarly or professional associations and journals, including the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada, the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario, the Canadian Association for Translation Studies, the Canadian Semiotics Association, Lettres québécoises, Voix et Images, Protée, and TTR. She was appointed bilingual Visiting Seagram Chair at the Institute for the Study of Canada at McGill University (2003-2004) and bilingual Joint Chair in Women's Studies at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa (2009-2010). From 2002-2016, she was the translation omnibus review editor for the University of Toronto Quarterly. In 2011, she founded Vita Traductiva, a bilingual, international peer-reviewed publication series in Translation Studies, at the Montréal press, Éditions québécoises de l'oeuvre.
As President of the Canadian Association for Translation Studies, Professor Whitfield signed the first Research Exchange Agreement with the European Society for Translation Studies (EST), and created the Canadian Vinay-Darbelnet Awards in Translation Studies. She has been a jury member for the Governor General's Award in French-English Translation, the Quebec Writers’ Federation QSPELL Translation Award, and the Prix de la ville de Sherbrooke (essay category). She has served as member and chair of selection panels for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program.
At York University, Professor Whitfield has chaired the Selection Committee for a New Principal, Glendon College and the Glendon College Policy and Planning Committee, served as Director of the School of Translation and Director of the Graduate Program in Translation, coordinated a Pilot Project in Distance Education, and contributed as a Member of the Women’s Studies and Canadian Studies Program Committees. She has also chaired the Scholarship Committee of the Graduate Program in English and the English Department Committee on Pedagogy, and currently chairs the York University Faculty Association Subcommittee on Governance.
Community Contributions
Professor Whitfield was the founding President (June 2010 to February 2013) of Academic Women for Justice/Femmes universitaires pour la justice, a national association of university women working to advance the cause of women and other equity-seeking groups on Canadian university and college campuses. She is also a vocal public proponent of more equitable access to French in the Ontario and Canadian judicial system, and regularly contributes opinion columns to Law360 Canada.
Research Interests
- Short-listed, Glassco Prize, Literary Translators' Association of Canada - 1992
- Short-listed, Governor General's Award, Translation - 1992
- Short-listed for the Raymond-Klibansky Prize, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences - 2007
- Seagram Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies, Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill University - 2003
- Joint Chair in Women’s Studies, Carleton University/University of Ottawa - 2009
- Honorable Mention, James Tate PoetryPrize - 2024
Current Research Projects
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Summary:
This project brings together scholars from a wide variety of disciplines to explore the complex relationships between translation and surrealism. The Surrealist movement profoundly transformed our conceptualization of aesthetic works and the creative process, notably by questioning the ontological status of the creative subject and destabilizing the borders between different forms of creative practice – textual, visual, dramatic, musical and cinematographic. Curiously, despite its indisputable relevance for Translation Studies, its implications for the practice and theory of translation remain understudied. This research seminar series aims to fill this gap.
Description:Cycle de séminaires 2024-2025 du TRACT (Sorbonne-Nouvelle) :
« Traduction et surréalisme »
À une époque marquée par une succession de crises sanitaires et environnementales, la remontée des autoritarismes et les affres de guerres d’agression, le surréalisme, par sa valorisation de l’imagination, sa portée libératrice et sa foi en l’humain, s’affirme encore comme un courant productif de réflexion et de création artistique. Le centenaire des textes clés du mouvement, dont Les champs magnétiques (1919) et le Manifeste du surréalisme (1924), a donné un nouvel élan aux publications (rééditions, correspondances, exégèses, biographies) sur ce mouvement complexe qui a profondément marqué notre façon de conceptualiser les arts en bousculant les frontières entre les différentes formes de création textuelle, visuelle, dramatique, musicale et cinématographique. Curieusement, en dépit de sa grande pertinence pour une réflexion sur les assises de la théorie et de la pratique de la traduction, les enjeux traductologiques du surréalisme restent encore un champ de recherche à défricher. Une recherche par mot clé (« surrealism » et « surréalisme ») dans la bibliographie John Benjamins en traductologie, une base de données spécialisées de quelques 40,000 entrées, ne donne que seize références, toutes langues confondues, depuis 1999. Ce cycle de séminaires du TRACT autour du thème « Traduction et surréalisme » répond à l’intérêt de combler cette lacune. Une réflexion sur la traduction et le surréalisme, par la multiplicité des formes de création surréaliste, ouvre la voie à de nouvelles synergies entre la traductologie et d’autres disciplines (histoire de l’art, musicologie, philosophie), tout en permettant de souligner l’immense rayonnement international du surréalisme français.
Mouvement fluide aux contours difficiles à définir, réunissant une grande diversité de pratiques, le surréalisme offre un champ d’étude particulièrement fécond pour la traductologie. Par sa mise en cause du langage, par sa reconceptualisation du sujet ainsi que par sa pluridisciplinarité – entre autres –, il permet d’interroger sous de nouvelles perspectives autant les objectifs et les modalités du processus traductif, que son inscription esthétique, sociale, épistémologique et éthique. La définition multiple du surréalisme que propose Breton dans son premier Manifeste trouble déjà la stabilité et le statut du texte artistique. Riche vecteur de questionnements multiples, le surréalisme ouvre un vaste domaine de réflexion sur les frontières linguistiques, sémiotiques, psychophysiques, voire ontologiques de la traduction. Dans ce cadre très libre et inventif, on pourra donc s’intéresser aux questions suivantes (liste non exhaustive) :
• Le surréalisme pose de façon essentielle la question du sens. Qu’en font les traducteurs ?
• Peut-on, doit-on, s’en tenir à une traduction de la « lettre » des œuvres surréalistes ? Face au brouillage entre forme et sens, comment les traducteurs-traductrices relèvent le défi ? Comment se positionnent-ils par rapport aux différents vecteurs du surréalisme : automatisme, onirisme, jeux de cadavres exquis, intention provocatrice, libre association d’idées, écriture à deux mains, citation, etc. ?
• Qu’il s’agisse d’œuvres surréalistes textuelles, picturales ou musicales, les traducteurs doivent-ils se caler sur la méthode ou le positionnement de l’auteur ou de l’auteure de l’œuvre source ? Ou bien doivent-ils faire résonner l’œuvre dans un acte d’exploration créative propre ?
• Que dire du désir qui est au cœur du projet surréaliste en lien avec le désir des traducteurs ? Peuvent-ils être déstabilisés par la démarche surréaliste et par la rencontre traductive ?
• La relation entre texte et image que propose le surréalisme (par exemple, Paul Éluard et Man Ray dans Les Mains libres) génère une réflexion sur les contours et la fluidité du sens souvent perçus comme figé ou statique. Parce qu’elle jongle avec le chevauchement du/des sens, la traduction dans des contextes intersémiotiques crée de nouveaux cheminements et de nouvelles perceptions.
• Comment définir et traduire l’œuvre source dans le cas de textes faisant un emploi important de la citation ?
• La subversion fait partie intégrante du projet surréaliste. Comment reproduire la brisure et l’éclatement des codes autant au niveau de leur conception que leur réalisation formelle ? Comment restituer l’énergie intense qui émane du travail surréaliste ?
• Des œuvres qui s’inspirent du surréalisme, comme celles de Beckett et de Joyce ou des peintres automatistes du Québec, pour ne donner que ces exemples, constituent-elles une forme de traduction ? Peut-on envisager la reprise de pratiques surréalistes dans les œuvres poétiques et picturales contemporaines comme une forme de « after life » traductif, selon le terme de Benjamin ?
• Les femmes créatrices – écrivaines, peintres, compositrices, réalisatrices – ont entretenu des relations complexes et diversifiées, voire contestataires avec l’esthétique surréaliste. La question du genre affecte-t-elle la traduction de leurs œuvres ?
• Quelques écrivains surréalistes, dont Louis Aragon et Philippe Soupault, ont eux-mêmes traduit des œuvres notamment de Blake, Joyce et Lewis Carroll. Comment situer leur démarche traductive par rapport à leur écriture ?
• Les textes surréalistes français ont été traduits dans de nombreux contextes linguistiques et culturels. Comment les différentes pratiques éditoriales et paratextuelles qui sous-tendent la traduction ont-elles influencé, voire déterminé les modalités de réception des œuvres traduites ?
• Depuis leur publication, les œuvres phares du surréalisme ont donné lieu à de nombreuses retraductions. L’analyse de ces traductions successives permet-elle d’éclairer le processus traductif de ces œuvres dont le sens est particulièrement ouvert et fluctuant ?
• Que dire des liens riches et complexes, voire antagonistes entre l’IA et le surréalisme en traduction ?
• En définitive, la traduction d’œuvres surréalistes est-elle possible ?
Bibliographie
Sources (choix parmi les titres récents) :
Aragon, Louis, 2012, Poèmes de Louis Aragon, Paris, Gallimard Jeunesse.
Breton, André et Soupault, Philippe, 2020, The Magnetic Fields, trad. Charlotte Mandell, New York, New York Review Books.
Crevel, René, 2014, Œuvres complètes, Paris, Éditions du Sandre.
Desnos, Robert, 2023, Night of Loveless Nights, trad. Lewis Warsh, Winter Editions, New York. Duhême, Jacqueline et Paul Éluard, 2021, Ami Paul : lettres à Paul Eluard, juin 1948-décembre 1949, Paris, Gallimard.
Éluard, Paul, 2022, Poésie involontaire et poésie intentionnelle, Paris, Seghers.
Reverdy, Pierre, 2013, Pierre Reverdy, traductions sous la direction de Mary Ann Caws, New York, New York Review of Books.
Soupault, Philippe, 2016, Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism, trad. Alan Bernheimer, introduction de Mark Polizzotti, postface de Ron Padgett, San Francisco, City Lights Books.
Articles
Bastion, Sophie, 2016, « Les scènes du surréalisme », Revue québécoise d’études théâtrales, 59. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1040485ar
Chadwick, Whitney, 1985, Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, Londres, Thames & Hudson.
Chenieux-Gendron, Jacqueline, Vienne, Maïté, Le Roux, Françoise, 1994, Le Surréalisme autour du monde, 1929-1947, Inventaire analytique de revues surréalistes ou apparentées, Paris, CNRS Éditions.
Carluccio, Daniele, 2022, Cult Surréalisme, Paris, Hermann.
Dempsey, Amy, 2019, Surrealism, Londres, Thames & Hudson.
Foucault, Anne, 2022, Histoire du surréalisme ignoré (1945-1969). Du déshonneur des poètes au « surréalisme éternel », Paris, Hermann.
Gonnard, Henri, 2021, Musique et surréalisme en France, d’Érik Satie à Pierre Boulez, Paris, Honoré Champion.
Ivleva, Krasimira, 2017, « Horizon poétique/projet traductif : le cas des traductions d’Éluard dans la Bulgarie communiste », Babel 63 (1), p. 65-88.
Leydenback, Claire, 2002, « Mary Ann Caws, traductrice d’André Breton », Atelier de traduction 20, p.127-138.
Low, Graham, 2002, « Evaluating translations of surrealist poetry: adding note-down protocols to close reading », Target 14 (1), p. 1–41.
Lusty, Natalya, dir., 2021, Surrealism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Mackintosh, Fiona J., 2010, « Alejandra Pizarnik as translator », The Translator, 16 (1), p.43-66.
Mooney, Sinéad, 2019, « "Delirium of interpretation": surrealism, the possessions, and Beckett’s outsider artists », in Lukes, Alexandra, dir., Nonsense, madness, and the limits of translation, numéro special de Translation Studies 12 (1), p. 47-63.
Panchón Hidalgo, Marian, 2021, « Dictature versus démocratie : traduction et réception des Manifestes du surréalisme d’André Breton dans les années 1960 en Espagne et en Argentine, in Génin, Isabelle et Bruno Poncharal, dirs. La pensée française contemporaine dans le monde : réception et traduction, Palimpsestes 35, p. 114-128.
Penot-Lacassagne, Olivier, 2022, (In)actualité du surréalisme (1940-2020), Dijon, Les Presses du réel.
Richardson, John, 2011, An Eye for Music: Popular Music and the Audiovisual Surreal, Oxford University Press.
Start Date:
- Month: Oct Year: 2024
End Date:
- Month: Dec Year: 2025
Collaborator: Jessica Stephens, Laetitia Sansonetti
Collaborator Institution: Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Funders:
Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
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Summary:
Agnes Whitfield is the founding director of Vita Traductiva, an international peer-reviewed publication series in Translations Studies at Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre.
Description:A joint initiative of the Research Group on Literary Translation in Canada at York University and the Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre, Vita Traductiva is an international peer-reviewed collection that gives priority to empirical studies of literary translation exchange and biographies of literary translators. The aim of the collection is to further our understanding of translation as vita activa, to foster reciprocal cultural exchange, and to increase awareness of translation’s essential contribution to cultural diversity. The collection publishes in English and French, and welcomes studies on translation and translators in any language context by authors from around the world. Initiative conjointe du Groupe de recherche sur la traduction littéraire au Canada à l’Université York et des Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre, dotée d’un comité scientifique international, la collection Vita Traductiva publie en priorité des études empiriques sur la traduction littéraire comme moyen d’échange culturel ainsi que des biographies de traducteurs et de traductrices littéraires. La collection vise à faire mieux comprendre la traduction en tant que vita activa, à favoriser des échanges réciproques et à faire mieux reconnaître l’apport essentiel de la traduction à la diversité culturelle. La collection publie en anglais et en français et accueille des réflexions sur la traduction dans tous les contextes linguistiques de la part de chercheur(e)s de tous les pays du monde. www.editionsquebecoisesdeloeuvre.ca http://vitatraductiva.blog.yorku.ca/
Funders:
Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University
Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme, France
University of Oslo, Norway
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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Summary:
Agnes Whitfield is a founding member of Voice in Translation, an international research group, exploring how the concept of voice can illuminate our understanding and practice of translation.
Description:The goal of this research program is to explore how a re-examination of voice, a concept presently used in widely different ways across several disciplines, can offer a productive new theoretical framework for generating, structuring and mobilizing knowledge in the area of translation studies. It builds on a critical analysis of existing research on voice, from linguistics, stylistics, narratology, discourse analysis, feminist criticism, and standpoint theory, to identify key dimensions of voice as a theoretical concept, and to develop a new, coherent voice-based conceptual framework for understanding the production, interpretation, circulation and pedagogy of literary translations. This program of research draws on my long-term interest in narratology, narrative voice, feminist theory and agency. Since 2002, as Translations/Traductions omnibus review editor for the University of Toronto Quarterly, voice-related concepts have also played an increasing role in my assessment of translation equivalence. In October 2010, I was a founding member of Voice in Translation, an international research group, based at the University of Oslo, under Professor Cecilia Alvstad: http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/english/research/groups/Voice-in-Translation/ Projects within this research program include co-organisation of the international conference: Intratextual Voices in Translation: Concepts, Discourses and Practices/ La Traduction des voix intra-textuelles: concepts, discours et pratiques, March 2011, at the Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme (Paris), and participation in the International Conference, Authorial and Editorial Voices, held at the University of Copenhagen in November 2011. Publications include: “Intratextual Voices in French-English Literary Translation in Canada: Identifying the Translation Challenges” forthcoming in K. Taivalkoski-Shilov and M. Suchet, eds. La Traduction des voix intra-textuelles/Intratextual Voices in Translation, Montréal, Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre, collection Vita Traductiva, 2013. “Author-editor/publisher-translator communication in English-Canadian literary presses since 1960” forthcoming in H. Jansen and A. Wagener, eds. Authorial and Editorial Voices in Translation, Montréal, Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre, collection Vita Traductiva, 2013.
- Month: Oct Year: 2010
Funders:
Fondation des Sciences de l'homme
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University
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Summary:
Working in the context of literary translation in Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Romania, this project seeks to identify the components of a much-needed multi-lateral model of reciprocal literary exchange.
Description:The Unesco Convention on Cultural Diversity, adopted in 2005, recognises the need to reinforce local languages and cultures, and to move towards more respectful cultural exchange both between national states and within multicultural states. This project builds on the complementary multidisciplinary expertise of Czech, Estonian and Romanian scholars working in Canadian, Québec and Translation Studies to assess how literary translations presently circulate among our respective countries, and how literary translation could contribute more effectively to intercultural understanding. More specifically, the project seeks to identify the components of a much-needed multi-lateral model of reciprocal literary exchange that can assist the international library and translation community in enhancing the circulation of literary translations outside of hegemonic systems. Issues examined include the impact of globalisation on the cultural and economic context in which translations are produced and circulate, the role of diasporic writers on intercultural exchange, the influence of local translation traditions on translation activity, and the importance of online bibliographical and cultural information tools for use by the publishing, library, translation and scholarly milieu in each country.
Start Date:
- Month: Jan Year: 2007
End Date:
- Month: Dec Year: 2009
Funders:
SSHRC
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Summary:
This study seeks to assess how literary translation can enhance an understanding of the value of linguistic duality in Canada and promote stronger links between Francophone and Anglophone Canadians.
Description:This project builds from the premise that literary translations offer Anglophone and Francophone Canadians who are unable to read each other’s’ literary works in the original a way to transcend the linguistic barrier, and an opportunity they would otherwise not have to learn more about, and better appreciate each other’s culture. In this way, literary translations also contribute to the development of shared cultural knowledge that can only serve to strengthen links between Anglophone and Francophone Canadians, reinforce their understanding and recognition of each other’s culture, and further enhance the recognition of the value of linguistic duality. For literary translations to fulfil this potential, however, they must be accessible. Accordingly, the primary objective of this study was to provide a macro-structural assessment of the degree to which Anglophone and Francophone Canadians currently have access to each other’s significant literary works through translation. For the purposes of this study, literary works are considered significant if they are defined by each culture as works of lasting merit or ‘classics,’ are recognized as being of cultural and literary significance by their inclusion in university courses on English-Canadian or French-Canadian/Québécois literature, or are contemporary works whose value has been acclaimed by literary awards granted through peer evaluation. Through surveys of university professors, librarians, publishers and booksellers, the project also assessed factors that affect the circulation of literary translations in Canada
Start Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2006
End Date:
- Month: Mar Year: 2008
Funders:
SSHRC-Heritage Canada Virtual Scholar Program
Heritage Canada
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Summary:
This project seeks to re-contextualize Hannah Josephson's translation of Bonheur d'occasion within a comprehensive vision of the translator as active cultural agent. In the fields of Canadian literary translation and Canadian literary institutions, this project offers a well-researched case study of the complex inter-connections between Québécois, Canadian, American and French literary circles that continue to affect Canadian-Québec letters. Finally, through its methodology, it makes a contribution to the emerging field of translation agency within the international discipline of translation studies.
Description:An exceptional phenomenon in Canadian letters, Franco-Manitoban writer Gabrielle Roy’s 1945 novel Bonheur d'occasion is a Canadian classic in both English and French. Translated in 1946 by American Hannah Josephson as The Tin Flute, Roy's book became a popular success in the United States and English Canada, and Universal Studios bought the film rights. In 1947, the translation earned Roy the Governor General's Award. Despite the commercial success of the original translation, McClelland and Stewart commissioned a new translation by Canadian Alan Brown in 1980. This project fills an important gap in scholarship on Josephson’s translation of Bonheur d’occasion and her work as an author and translator. A literary figure in her own right, Josephson is the author of a study of the Lowell girls of the Massachusetts textile mills, a biography of Jeannette Rankin, the first American Congresswoman, and co-author of a book on American politician Al Smith. A part of the ebullient Paris literary scene in the early 1920s along with her husband, biographer Matthew Josephson, Hannah met French Dada and Surrealist writers including Philippe Soupault and Louis Aragon. Through archival and bibliographical research, this study seeks to answer the following questions. What do Josephson’s translations of French writers, in particular Soupault and Aragon, and the French and American reception of their work reveal about the particular cultural attitudes and approaches she brought to her translation of Bonheur d'occasion? To what degree do differences in her translation and that of Brown point to changes in Canadian and American literary traditions and expectations (and the relations between the two institutions) between 1947 and 1980? What can archival research uncover about Josephson's formative influences and experiences, the editorial links that led her to translate Roy, her relationship with the Franco-Manitoban author, and the particular place translation occupies in her practice of cultural difference?
Start Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2006
End Date:
- Month: Mar Year: 2010
Funders:
SSHRC Standard Research Grant
University of Toronto Quarterly, Volume 63, Number 1, Fall 1993, pp. 231-235.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/EN4252 6.0 | A | Canadian Topics: Life-Writing | ONLN |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/EN2130 6.0 | A | The Short Story | ONLN |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/EN2130 6.0 | A | The Short Story | TUTR |
Agnes Whitfield (PhD, Laval) is a Professor in the Department of English in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University and a member of the Graduate Programs in English and French. She teaches primarily in the area of Canadian literature, and her research focuses on the work of Canadian Francophone and Anglophone women writers and translators, the role of literary translation in fostering cultural exchange, issues in language and gender in intercultural communication, and pedagogy.
An award-winning researcher and translator, Professor Whitfield is frequently invited to speak at scholarly conferences in Canada and Europe. She has been visiting professor at the University of Bologna, McGill University, University of Mainz, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, President of the Canadian Association for Translation Studies, an executive member of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada, and Chair of the School of Translation at York University. She is the Founding President of Academic Women for Justice/Femmes universitaires pour la justice, and a founding member of the international research group Voice in Translation, based at the University of Oslo: http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/english/research/groups/Voice-in-Translation/. She is an Associate member of the international research group TRACT at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle - Paris 3: http://www.univ-paris3.fr/membres-tract-83637.kjsp?RH=1320253174947. In 2012, she founded the international peer-reviewed publication series in Translation Studies, Vita Traductiva, at Éditions québécoises de l'oeuvre: www.editionsquebecoisesdeloeuvre.ca.
Professor Whitfield has published twelve books, including three co-edited and three edited books and three works of poetry, and over 100 articles in scholarly journals, literary encyclopaedia, and peer-reviewed international conference proceedings. She has given over 100 peer-reviewed conference papers or invited lectures in Canada and abroad (Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, United States), and some 70 literary readings and media interviews. She has been awarded over 40 research grants from external agencies such as SSHRCC (10), the Canada Council (9), and the French Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (14).
Agnes Whitfield (PhD, Laval) is a Professor in the Department of English in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University.
In her research, Professor Whitfield draws on concepts from literary history, sociology, narratology, and gender theory to examine the work of Canadian Francophone and Anglophone women writers and translators, and the institutions and practices of literary translation in Canada. She has played a leading role in compiling previously unavailable bio-bibliographical data on eminent Canadian Francophone and Anglophone literary translators to enhance recognition of their fundamental contribution as dynamic cultural agents and advance scholarship on their multi-faceted work. The two collections of essays she commissioned and edited, Writing Between the Lines. Portraits of Canadian Anglophone Translators (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006) and Le Métier du double. Portraits de traducteurs et traductrices francophones (Fides, Collection du CRILCQ, 2005), short-listed for the Canadian Federation of the Humanities Raymond-Klibansky Prize, are recognized as making an essential contribution to the study of literary translation in Canada.
Professor Whitfield is particularly interested in research leading to the development of policies and institutional practices that can foster equitable literary exchange and recognition. As SSHRC/Heritage Canada Virtual Scholar, she completed two comprehensive reports on the state of French-English and English-French literary translation in Canada detailing the extent to which both linguistic communities have access to each other’s important literary works, and evaluating measures to enhance balanced exchange. Her SSHRC International Initiatives Project seeks to develop a reciprocal model of translation exchange between Anglophone and Francophone Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Romania. Her continued commitment to recovering the work of women writers and translators underlies her SSHRC funded project on Hannah Josephson, the unknown American translator of Gabrielle Roy’s Bonheur d’occasion.
With funding from the French Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and in collaboration with the research group TRACT (Sorbonne Nouvelle), she is presently the principal co-organizer of a research initiative (2024-2025) on Translation and Surrealism. Professor Whitfield is an accredited member of the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario and the Literary Translators Association of Canada. Divine Diva, her translation of Daniel Gagnon's novel, Venite a cantare, was short-listed in 1991 for the Governor General's Award for translation. She is also the author of three books of poetry, Ô cher Émile je t'aime ou l'heureuse mort d'une Gorgone anglaise racontée par sa fille (Le Nordir, 1993), Et si les sirènes ne chantaient plus (Écrits des Forges, 2001), and Poète, où te tiens-tu?(Sémaphore, 2021) and a prose narrative, Où dansent les nénuphars (Le Nordir, 1995). In 2012, she founded a new international peer-reviewed publication series in Translation Studies, Vita Traductiva: http://vitatraductiva.blog.yorku.ca/
Degrees
Ph.D., Université LavalM.A., Queen's University
Maîtrise ès lettres, Université de Paris-Sorbonne
Hons B.A., Queen's University
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Professor Whitfield has served as board member of several scholarly or professional associations and journals, including the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada, the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario, the Canadian Association for Translation Studies, the Canadian Semiotics Association, Lettres québécoises, Voix et Images, Protée, and TTR. She was appointed bilingual Visiting Seagram Chair at the Institute for the Study of Canada at McGill University (2003-2004) and bilingual Joint Chair in Women's Studies at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa (2009-2010). From 2002-2016, she was the translation omnibus review editor for the University of Toronto Quarterly. In 2011, she founded Vita Traductiva, a bilingual, international peer-reviewed publication series in Translation Studies, at the Montréal press, Éditions québécoises de l'oeuvre.
As President of the Canadian Association for Translation Studies, Professor Whitfield signed the first Research Exchange Agreement with the European Society for Translation Studies (EST), and created the Canadian Vinay-Darbelnet Awards in Translation Studies. She has been a jury member for the Governor General's Award in French-English Translation, the Quebec Writers’ Federation QSPELL Translation Award, and the Prix de la ville de Sherbrooke (essay category). She has served as member and chair of selection panels for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program.
At York University, Professor Whitfield has chaired the Selection Committee for a New Principal, Glendon College and the Glendon College Policy and Planning Committee, served as Director of the School of Translation and Director of the Graduate Program in Translation, coordinated a Pilot Project in Distance Education, and contributed as a Member of the Women’s Studies and Canadian Studies Program Committees. She has also chaired the Scholarship Committee of the Graduate Program in English and the English Department Committee on Pedagogy, and currently chairs the York University Faculty Association Subcommittee on Governance.
Community Contributions
Professor Whitfield was the founding President (June 2010 to February 2013) of Academic Women for Justice/Femmes universitaires pour la justice, a national association of university women working to advance the cause of women and other equity-seeking groups on Canadian university and college campuses. She is also a vocal public proponent of more equitable access to French in the Ontario and Canadian judicial system, and regularly contributes opinion columns to Law360 Canada.
Research Interests
Awards
- Short-listed, Glassco Prize, Literary Translators' Association of Canada - 1992
- Short-listed, Governor General's Award, Translation - 1992
- Short-listed for the Raymond-Klibansky Prize, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences - 2007
- Seagram Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies, Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill University - 2003
- Joint Chair in Women’s Studies, Carleton University/University of Ottawa - 2009
- Honorable Mention, James Tate PoetryPrize - 2024
Current Research Projects
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Summary:
This project brings together scholars from a wide variety of disciplines to explore the complex relationships between translation and surrealism. The Surrealist movement profoundly transformed our conceptualization of aesthetic works and the creative process, notably by questioning the ontological status of the creative subject and destabilizing the borders between different forms of creative practice – textual, visual, dramatic, musical and cinematographic. Curiously, despite its indisputable relevance for Translation Studies, its implications for the practice and theory of translation remain understudied. This research seminar series aims to fill this gap.
Description:Cycle de séminaires 2024-2025 du TRACT (Sorbonne-Nouvelle) :
« Traduction et surréalisme »
À une époque marquée par une succession de crises sanitaires et environnementales, la remontée des autoritarismes et les affres de guerres d’agression, le surréalisme, par sa valorisation de l’imagination, sa portée libératrice et sa foi en l’humain, s’affirme encore comme un courant productif de réflexion et de création artistique. Le centenaire des textes clés du mouvement, dont Les champs magnétiques (1919) et le Manifeste du surréalisme (1924), a donné un nouvel élan aux publications (rééditions, correspondances, exégèses, biographies) sur ce mouvement complexe qui a profondément marqué notre façon de conceptualiser les arts en bousculant les frontières entre les différentes formes de création textuelle, visuelle, dramatique, musicale et cinématographique. Curieusement, en dépit de sa grande pertinence pour une réflexion sur les assises de la théorie et de la pratique de la traduction, les enjeux traductologiques du surréalisme restent encore un champ de recherche à défricher. Une recherche par mot clé (« surrealism » et « surréalisme ») dans la bibliographie John Benjamins en traductologie, une base de données spécialisées de quelques 40,000 entrées, ne donne que seize références, toutes langues confondues, depuis 1999. Ce cycle de séminaires du TRACT autour du thème « Traduction et surréalisme » répond à l’intérêt de combler cette lacune. Une réflexion sur la traduction et le surréalisme, par la multiplicité des formes de création surréaliste, ouvre la voie à de nouvelles synergies entre la traductologie et d’autres disciplines (histoire de l’art, musicologie, philosophie), tout en permettant de souligner l’immense rayonnement international du surréalisme français.
Mouvement fluide aux contours difficiles à définir, réunissant une grande diversité de pratiques, le surréalisme offre un champ d’étude particulièrement fécond pour la traductologie. Par sa mise en cause du langage, par sa reconceptualisation du sujet ainsi que par sa pluridisciplinarité – entre autres –, il permet d’interroger sous de nouvelles perspectives autant les objectifs et les modalités du processus traductif, que son inscription esthétique, sociale, épistémologique et éthique. La définition multiple du surréalisme que propose Breton dans son premier Manifeste trouble déjà la stabilité et le statut du texte artistique. Riche vecteur de questionnements multiples, le surréalisme ouvre un vaste domaine de réflexion sur les frontières linguistiques, sémiotiques, psychophysiques, voire ontologiques de la traduction. Dans ce cadre très libre et inventif, on pourra donc s’intéresser aux questions suivantes (liste non exhaustive) :
• Le surréalisme pose de façon essentielle la question du sens. Qu’en font les traducteurs ?
• Peut-on, doit-on, s’en tenir à une traduction de la « lettre » des œuvres surréalistes ? Face au brouillage entre forme et sens, comment les traducteurs-traductrices relèvent le défi ? Comment se positionnent-ils par rapport aux différents vecteurs du surréalisme : automatisme, onirisme, jeux de cadavres exquis, intention provocatrice, libre association d’idées, écriture à deux mains, citation, etc. ?
• Qu’il s’agisse d’œuvres surréalistes textuelles, picturales ou musicales, les traducteurs doivent-ils se caler sur la méthode ou le positionnement de l’auteur ou de l’auteure de l’œuvre source ? Ou bien doivent-ils faire résonner l’œuvre dans un acte d’exploration créative propre ?
• Que dire du désir qui est au cœur du projet surréaliste en lien avec le désir des traducteurs ? Peuvent-ils être déstabilisés par la démarche surréaliste et par la rencontre traductive ?
• La relation entre texte et image que propose le surréalisme (par exemple, Paul Éluard et Man Ray dans Les Mains libres) génère une réflexion sur les contours et la fluidité du sens souvent perçus comme figé ou statique. Parce qu’elle jongle avec le chevauchement du/des sens, la traduction dans des contextes intersémiotiques crée de nouveaux cheminements et de nouvelles perceptions.
• Comment définir et traduire l’œuvre source dans le cas de textes faisant un emploi important de la citation ?
• La subversion fait partie intégrante du projet surréaliste. Comment reproduire la brisure et l’éclatement des codes autant au niveau de leur conception que leur réalisation formelle ? Comment restituer l’énergie intense qui émane du travail surréaliste ?
• Des œuvres qui s’inspirent du surréalisme, comme celles de Beckett et de Joyce ou des peintres automatistes du Québec, pour ne donner que ces exemples, constituent-elles une forme de traduction ? Peut-on envisager la reprise de pratiques surréalistes dans les œuvres poétiques et picturales contemporaines comme une forme de « after life » traductif, selon le terme de Benjamin ?
• Les femmes créatrices – écrivaines, peintres, compositrices, réalisatrices – ont entretenu des relations complexes et diversifiées, voire contestataires avec l’esthétique surréaliste. La question du genre affecte-t-elle la traduction de leurs œuvres ?
• Quelques écrivains surréalistes, dont Louis Aragon et Philippe Soupault, ont eux-mêmes traduit des œuvres notamment de Blake, Joyce et Lewis Carroll. Comment situer leur démarche traductive par rapport à leur écriture ?
• Les textes surréalistes français ont été traduits dans de nombreux contextes linguistiques et culturels. Comment les différentes pratiques éditoriales et paratextuelles qui sous-tendent la traduction ont-elles influencé, voire déterminé les modalités de réception des œuvres traduites ?
• Depuis leur publication, les œuvres phares du surréalisme ont donné lieu à de nombreuses retraductions. L’analyse de ces traductions successives permet-elle d’éclairer le processus traductif de ces œuvres dont le sens est particulièrement ouvert et fluctuant ?
• Que dire des liens riches et complexes, voire antagonistes entre l’IA et le surréalisme en traduction ?
• En définitive, la traduction d’œuvres surréalistes est-elle possible ?
Bibliographie
Sources (choix parmi les titres récents) :
Aragon, Louis, 2012, Poèmes de Louis Aragon, Paris, Gallimard Jeunesse.
Breton, André et Soupault, Philippe, 2020, The Magnetic Fields, trad. Charlotte Mandell, New York, New York Review Books.
Crevel, René, 2014, Œuvres complètes, Paris, Éditions du Sandre.
Desnos, Robert, 2023, Night of Loveless Nights, trad. Lewis Warsh, Winter Editions, New York. Duhême, Jacqueline et Paul Éluard, 2021, Ami Paul : lettres à Paul Eluard, juin 1948-décembre 1949, Paris, Gallimard.
Éluard, Paul, 2022, Poésie involontaire et poésie intentionnelle, Paris, Seghers.
Reverdy, Pierre, 2013, Pierre Reverdy, traductions sous la direction de Mary Ann Caws, New York, New York Review of Books.
Soupault, Philippe, 2016, Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism, trad. Alan Bernheimer, introduction de Mark Polizzotti, postface de Ron Padgett, San Francisco, City Lights Books.
Articles
Bastion, Sophie, 2016, « Les scènes du surréalisme », Revue québécoise d’études théâtrales, 59. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1040485ar
Chadwick, Whitney, 1985, Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, Londres, Thames & Hudson.
Chenieux-Gendron, Jacqueline, Vienne, Maïté, Le Roux, Françoise, 1994, Le Surréalisme autour du monde, 1929-1947, Inventaire analytique de revues surréalistes ou apparentées, Paris, CNRS Éditions.
Carluccio, Daniele, 2022, Cult Surréalisme, Paris, Hermann.
Dempsey, Amy, 2019, Surrealism, Londres, Thames & Hudson.
Foucault, Anne, 2022, Histoire du surréalisme ignoré (1945-1969). Du déshonneur des poètes au « surréalisme éternel », Paris, Hermann.
Gonnard, Henri, 2021, Musique et surréalisme en France, d’Érik Satie à Pierre Boulez, Paris, Honoré Champion.
Ivleva, Krasimira, 2017, « Horizon poétique/projet traductif : le cas des traductions d’Éluard dans la Bulgarie communiste », Babel 63 (1), p. 65-88.
Leydenback, Claire, 2002, « Mary Ann Caws, traductrice d’André Breton », Atelier de traduction 20, p.127-138.
Low, Graham, 2002, « Evaluating translations of surrealist poetry: adding note-down protocols to close reading », Target 14 (1), p. 1–41.
Lusty, Natalya, dir., 2021, Surrealism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Mackintosh, Fiona J., 2010, « Alejandra Pizarnik as translator », The Translator, 16 (1), p.43-66.
Mooney, Sinéad, 2019, « "Delirium of interpretation": surrealism, the possessions, and Beckett’s outsider artists », in Lukes, Alexandra, dir., Nonsense, madness, and the limits of translation, numéro special de Translation Studies 12 (1), p. 47-63.
Panchón Hidalgo, Marian, 2021, « Dictature versus démocratie : traduction et réception des Manifestes du surréalisme d’André Breton dans les années 1960 en Espagne et en Argentine, in Génin, Isabelle et Bruno Poncharal, dirs. La pensée française contemporaine dans le monde : réception et traduction, Palimpsestes 35, p. 114-128.
Penot-Lacassagne, Olivier, 2022, (In)actualité du surréalisme (1940-2020), Dijon, Les Presses du réel.
Richardson, John, 2011, An Eye for Music: Popular Music and the Audiovisual Surreal, Oxford University Press.
Role: Principal co-investigator
Start Date:
- Month: Oct Year: 2024
End Date:
- Month: Dec Year: 2025
Collaborator: Jessica Stephens, Laetitia Sansonetti
Collaborator Institution: Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Funders:
Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
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Summary:
Agnes Whitfield is the founding director of Vita Traductiva, an international peer-reviewed publication series in Translations Studies at Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre.
Description:A joint initiative of the Research Group on Literary Translation in Canada at York University and the Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre, Vita Traductiva is an international peer-reviewed collection that gives priority to empirical studies of literary translation exchange and biographies of literary translators. The aim of the collection is to further our understanding of translation as vita activa, to foster reciprocal cultural exchange, and to increase awareness of translation’s essential contribution to cultural diversity. The collection publishes in English and French, and welcomes studies on translation and translators in any language context by authors from around the world. Initiative conjointe du Groupe de recherche sur la traduction littéraire au Canada à l’Université York et des Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre, dotée d’un comité scientifique international, la collection Vita Traductiva publie en priorité des études empiriques sur la traduction littéraire comme moyen d’échange culturel ainsi que des biographies de traducteurs et de traductrices littéraires. La collection vise à faire mieux comprendre la traduction en tant que vita activa, à favoriser des échanges réciproques et à faire mieux reconnaître l’apport essentiel de la traduction à la diversité culturelle. La collection publie en anglais et en français et accueille des réflexions sur la traduction dans tous les contextes linguistiques de la part de chercheur(e)s de tous les pays du monde. www.editionsquebecoisesdeloeuvre.ca http://vitatraductiva.blog.yorku.ca/
Project Type: FundedRole: Founding Director/Directrice fondatrice
Funders:
Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University
Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme, France
University of Oslo, Norway
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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Summary:
Agnes Whitfield is a founding member of Voice in Translation, an international research group, exploring how the concept of voice can illuminate our understanding and practice of translation.
Description:The goal of this research program is to explore how a re-examination of voice, a concept presently used in widely different ways across several disciplines, can offer a productive new theoretical framework for generating, structuring and mobilizing knowledge in the area of translation studies. It builds on a critical analysis of existing research on voice, from linguistics, stylistics, narratology, discourse analysis, feminist criticism, and standpoint theory, to identify key dimensions of voice as a theoretical concept, and to develop a new, coherent voice-based conceptual framework for understanding the production, interpretation, circulation and pedagogy of literary translations. This program of research draws on my long-term interest in narratology, narrative voice, feminist theory and agency. Since 2002, as Translations/Traductions omnibus review editor for the University of Toronto Quarterly, voice-related concepts have also played an increasing role in my assessment of translation equivalence. In October 2010, I was a founding member of Voice in Translation, an international research group, based at the University of Oslo, under Professor Cecilia Alvstad: http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/english/research/groups/Voice-in-Translation/ Projects within this research program include co-organisation of the international conference: Intratextual Voices in Translation: Concepts, Discourses and Practices/ La Traduction des voix intra-textuelles: concepts, discours et pratiques, March 2011, at the Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme (Paris), and participation in the International Conference, Authorial and Editorial Voices, held at the University of Copenhagen in November 2011. Publications include: “Intratextual Voices in French-English Literary Translation in Canada: Identifying the Translation Challenges” forthcoming in K. Taivalkoski-Shilov and M. Suchet, eds. La Traduction des voix intra-textuelles/Intratextual Voices in Translation, Montréal, Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre, collection Vita Traductiva, 2013. “Author-editor/publisher-translator communication in English-Canadian literary presses since 1960” forthcoming in H. Jansen and A. Wagener, eds. Authorial and Editorial Voices in Translation, Montréal, Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre, collection Vita Traductiva, 2013.
Project Type: FundedStart Date:
- Month: Oct Year: 2010
Funders:
Fondation des Sciences de l'homme
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University
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Summary:
Working in the context of literary translation in Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Romania, this project seeks to identify the components of a much-needed multi-lateral model of reciprocal literary exchange.
Description:The Unesco Convention on Cultural Diversity, adopted in 2005, recognises the need to reinforce local languages and cultures, and to move towards more respectful cultural exchange both between national states and within multicultural states. This project builds on the complementary multidisciplinary expertise of Czech, Estonian and Romanian scholars working in Canadian, Québec and Translation Studies to assess how literary translations presently circulate among our respective countries, and how literary translation could contribute more effectively to intercultural understanding. More specifically, the project seeks to identify the components of a much-needed multi-lateral model of reciprocal literary exchange that can assist the international library and translation community in enhancing the circulation of literary translations outside of hegemonic systems. Issues examined include the impact of globalisation on the cultural and economic context in which translations are produced and circulate, the role of diasporic writers on intercultural exchange, the influence of local translation traditions on translation activity, and the importance of online bibliographical and cultural information tools for use by the publishing, library, translation and scholarly milieu in each country.
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
Start Date:
- Month: Jan Year: 2007
End Date:
- Month: Dec Year: 2009
Funders:
SSHRC
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Summary:
This study seeks to assess how literary translation can enhance an understanding of the value of linguistic duality in Canada and promote stronger links between Francophone and Anglophone Canadians.
Description:This project builds from the premise that literary translations offer Anglophone and Francophone Canadians who are unable to read each other’s’ literary works in the original a way to transcend the linguistic barrier, and an opportunity they would otherwise not have to learn more about, and better appreciate each other’s culture. In this way, literary translations also contribute to the development of shared cultural knowledge that can only serve to strengthen links between Anglophone and Francophone Canadians, reinforce their understanding and recognition of each other’s culture, and further enhance the recognition of the value of linguistic duality. For literary translations to fulfil this potential, however, they must be accessible. Accordingly, the primary objective of this study was to provide a macro-structural assessment of the degree to which Anglophone and Francophone Canadians currently have access to each other’s significant literary works through translation. For the purposes of this study, literary works are considered significant if they are defined by each culture as works of lasting merit or ‘classics,’ are recognized as being of cultural and literary significance by their inclusion in university courses on English-Canadian or French-Canadian/Québécois literature, or are contemporary works whose value has been acclaimed by literary awards granted through peer evaluation. Through surveys of university professors, librarians, publishers and booksellers, the project also assessed factors that affect the circulation of literary translations in Canada
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
Start Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2006
End Date:
- Month: Mar Year: 2008
Funders:
SSHRC-Heritage Canada Virtual Scholar Program
Heritage Canada
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Summary:
This project seeks to re-contextualize Hannah Josephson's translation of Bonheur d'occasion within a comprehensive vision of the translator as active cultural agent. In the fields of Canadian literary translation and Canadian literary institutions, this project offers a well-researched case study of the complex inter-connections between Québécois, Canadian, American and French literary circles that continue to affect Canadian-Québec letters. Finally, through its methodology, it makes a contribution to the emerging field of translation agency within the international discipline of translation studies.
Description:An exceptional phenomenon in Canadian letters, Franco-Manitoban writer Gabrielle Roy’s 1945 novel Bonheur d'occasion is a Canadian classic in both English and French. Translated in 1946 by American Hannah Josephson as The Tin Flute, Roy's book became a popular success in the United States and English Canada, and Universal Studios bought the film rights. In 1947, the translation earned Roy the Governor General's Award. Despite the commercial success of the original translation, McClelland and Stewart commissioned a new translation by Canadian Alan Brown in 1980. This project fills an important gap in scholarship on Josephson’s translation of Bonheur d’occasion and her work as an author and translator. A literary figure in her own right, Josephson is the author of a study of the Lowell girls of the Massachusetts textile mills, a biography of Jeannette Rankin, the first American Congresswoman, and co-author of a book on American politician Al Smith. A part of the ebullient Paris literary scene in the early 1920s along with her husband, biographer Matthew Josephson, Hannah met French Dada and Surrealist writers including Philippe Soupault and Louis Aragon. Through archival and bibliographical research, this study seeks to answer the following questions. What do Josephson’s translations of French writers, in particular Soupault and Aragon, and the French and American reception of their work reveal about the particular cultural attitudes and approaches she brought to her translation of Bonheur d'occasion? To what degree do differences in her translation and that of Brown point to changes in Canadian and American literary traditions and expectations (and the relations between the two institutions) between 1947 and 1980? What can archival research uncover about Josephson's formative influences and experiences, the editorial links that led her to translate Roy, her relationship with the Franco-Manitoban author, and the particular place translation occupies in her practice of cultural difference?
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
Start Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2006
End Date:
- Month: Mar Year: 2010
Funders:
SSHRC Standard Research Grant
All Publications
University of Toronto Quarterly, Volume 63, Number 1, Fall 1993, pp. 231-235.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/EN4252 6.0 | A | Canadian Topics: Life-Writing | ONLN |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/EN2130 6.0 | A | The Short Story | ONLN |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/EN2130 6.0 | A | The Short Story | TUTR |
