Abstract

The French and English language comparison of Jack London's novel The Sea-Wolf aims to disclose a number of explanations as to why translators carry out their craft as they do. Pierre Bourdieu, the famous francophone sociologist, has developed a theory revolving around the agent, habitus, illusio and capital , that is worthy of inquiry. By applying this theoretical framework to London's The Sea-Wolf , and in examining its first translators, Louis Postif and Paul Gruyer, we will attempt to establish the reasoning behind their practical translational choices, in this work, given certain sociological determinants that Bourdieu's theory takes account of. Our background, assessment and contrastive analysis will seek to discover why, how, when and where societal agents act in a certain way and whether Bourdieu's theory is capable of providing a rationale behind translational choice in the all-too-human error-ridden world of translation. In addition, the hypothesis of Antoine Bennan (French translation studies critic) will be viewed according to its workability and how it relates to Bourdieu's theory, when compared to source- and target-text rapport and revelations. We will then round off our journey with a conclusion that will evaluate the various inputs of our reflection and establish whether our propositions are compelling enough to meet the core essence of Bourdieu's theory.