ANALYSE DESCRIPTIVE DU TRAITEMENT DES IDIOMES CHINOIS DANS LA TRADUCTION DE TROIS ROMANS CHINOIS CONTEMPORAINS EN FRANÇAIS

Abstract

Idioms are widely used in these texts. In this thesis, we carry out an analysis of the treatment of Chinese idioms in literary translation from Mandarin to French. In the first part, we analyse the "social signs" and study the various solutions adopted, while keeping in mind Vinay and Darbelnet, translation procedures, Raymond and Chen’s concept of seeking a "middle ground" as well as Guidère’s notion of searching for "intercultural equivalence". In the second part, we put together a corpus identifying Chinese idioms in three novels by Mo Yan, as well as their French translations. We classify these Chinese idioms though a typology proposed by Sabban, and assess the treatment of these expressions on the basis of literary quality. In sum, this study represents a first attempt to apply an existing typology of Chinese idioms to a literary corpus and to evaluate the various solutions offered by literary translators.