Abstract

Translation in the age of postmodernism can no longer be simply conceived as the reproduction of an original, but has become subject to the rewriting of an already pluralized original. Postmodernists gave awareness to the text by questioning whether it has any identifiable limits and borders. The text is conceptualized as an intertext, itself a translation, blurring the distinction of the original by carrying traces of other texts. It deconstructs the hierarchy between the original text and its versions, as well as reconfiguring the conception of authorship and originality, and thus, translation. This thesis puts this theory to test by illustrating the translation of a postmodern text, Soudain le Minotaure, written by Marie Hélène Poitras, a young Québécoise whose artistic creativity is darkly alluring. It is a novel so rich in postmodern substance that a straightforward, linear, literal approach to its translation is virtually impossible. Poitras's novel interprets distinctively postmodern subjects: the author, intertextuality, the Other, language, realism, truth and society, which are examined in the first two sections of this thesis to support the translation. The third section examines the difficulties and challenges met during the translation of a postmodern text. The bulk of the thesis is the English translation of the first half of this remarkable novel, the newly titled Suddenly the Minotaur