Translating Pastiche: The Example of Proust

Abstract

Literary pastiche is spoof, part banter, part literary criticism. To succeed as both, it presupposes in its reader an appreciation of the style being parodied. In translation, for lack of that appreciation, pastiche may fall flat. I consider some of the pastiches of Proust, as they have been translated, with varying degrees of success, by various translators. My main focus is on the celebrated parody of the Goncourt Journal which appears in the last part of À la recherche du temps perdu. I suggest that a way of coping with the problems posed by the translation of pastiche is to apply to it, as to other forms of wordplay, the principle of compensation Show more