Abstracts
Abstract
This essay draws on archival materials in the Harvest House fonds housed at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario) to recover and demystify the nature of Gwendolyn Moore’s formative work in French‑to‑English translation in the years 1970 to 1973. The essay responds to Jeremy Munday’s call to attend to the “ordinary” translator who did not gain prominence but whose work was nonetheless integral to the cultural fabric of her society. In focusing on Moore’s connection with Harvest House publisher Maynard Gertler and studying her role as the trailblazing translator of Yves Thériault and Anne Hébert, the essay argues that she became a key intermediary of cultural exchange in the early 1970s, when the Canadian government was yet in the process of formalizing a program of arts translation grants under the aegis of the Canada Council for the Arts. In essence, before translators had acquired professional standing within literary Canada, Moore conducted herself as a professional.
Keywords:
- Translation,
- Canada,
- Gwendolyn Moore,
- Maynard Gertler,
- Harvest House
Résumé
Cet article, qui s’appuie sur le fonds d’archives d’Harvest House conservé à l’Université Queen’s (Kingston, Ontario), vise à mettre en lumière et à démystifier le parcours de Gwendolyn Moore, traductrice du français à l’anglais, entre 1970 et 1973. Il répond aussi en quelque sorte à l’appel lancé par Jeremy Munday, invitant à se pencher sur le travail de la traductrice « ordinaire », qui, sans avoir atteint la notoriété, n’en a pas moins produit une oeuvre s’inscrivant dans le patrimoine culturel de sa société. Par le rapport qu’entretenait Gwendolyn Moore avec Maynard Gertler, éditeur fondateur d’Harvest House, et la dimension avant‑gardiste de son travail sur l’oeuvre d’Yves Thériault et d’Anne Hébert, la traductrice fut une intermédiaire culturelle de premier plan au début des années 1970, alors que le gouvernement canadien n’avait pas encore officiellement lancé son programme d’aide à la traduction littéraire, sous l’égide du Conseil des arts du Canada. En définitive, avant même l’acquisition par les traductrices et les traducteurs d’un statut officiel au Canada, on pouvait déjà qualifier Gwendolyn Moore de professionnelle de la traduction.
Mots-clés :
- Traduction,
- Canada,
- Gwendolyn Moore,
- Maynard Gertler,
- Harvest House
Appendices
Bibliography
- Buzelin, Hélène. “How Devoted Can Translators Be? Revisiting the Subservience Hypothesis.” Target 26, no. 1 (2014): 63–97.
- Coldiron, A.E.B. “Special Topics: Translation.” PMLA 135, no. 5 (October 2020): 839–40.
- Cowan, Hector. “Theriault’s Lament.” Review of Ashini and N’Tsuk, by Yves Thériault, translated by Gwendolyn Moore. Canadian Literature 59 (Winter 1974): 125–26.
- Delisle, Jean, and Gilles Gallichan. “Translating the Two Solitudes.” In History of the Book in Canada, vol. 3: 1918–1980, edited by Carole Gerson and Jacques Michon, 51–56. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.
- Ellenwood, Ray. “Some Actualities of Canadian Literary Translation.” In Translation in Canadian Literature Symposium 1982, Reappraisals: Canadian Writers 9, edited by Camille R. La Bossière, 61–71. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1983.
- Gertler, Maynard. “French‑English Translation in Canada,” edited by Ruth Panofsky. Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 58 (2020): 155–72.
- Godbout, Patricia, dir. Dialogue sur la traduction: à propos du Tombeau des rois, par Anne Hébert et Frank Scott. Dans Oeuvres complètes d’Anne Hébert, vol. 1 : Poésie, 581–638. Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2013.
- Groupe Nota Bene. http://www.groupenotabene.com/auteur/lemoyne‑gertrude.
- Harvest House Ltd. Publishers fonds, F02589, Queen’s University Archives.
- Home, Heather. “Harvest House.” Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing. https://digitalcollections.mcmaster.ca/hpcanpub/case-study/harvest-house.
- Hustak, Alan. “Maynard Gertler’s Quiet Revolution Was Anything But.” Globe and Mail, May 6, 2011.
- Jääskeläinen, Rita. “The Changing Position of ‘the Translator’ in Research and in Practice.” Journal of Translation Studies 10, no. 1 (2007): 1–15.
- Macri, Francis M. “A Skeleton Closet.” Journal of Canadian Fiction 3, no. 2 (1974): 105–06.
- Martin, Ruth Virginia. “Norms of the Translated Novel: Canada 1967–1982.” PhD diss., University of Alberta, 1993.
- Munday, Jeremy. “Using Primary Sources to Produce a Microhistory of Translation and Translators: Theoretical and Methodological Concerns.” The Translator 20, no. 1 (2014): 64–80.
- Obituary for Maynard Gertler. New York Times, June 5, 2011.
- Pym, Anthony. “On the Social and the Cultural in Translation Studies.” In Sociocultural Aspects of Translating and Interpreting, Benjamins Translation Library 67, edited by Anthony Pym, Miriam Shlesinger, and Zuzana Jettmarovà, 1–25. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2006.
- Shek, Ben‑Z. “Yves Theriault: The Would‑be Amerindian and His Imaginary Inuit.” In The Canadian North: Essays in Culture and Literature. Proceedings from the Second International Conference of the Nordic Association for Canadian Studies, University of Lund 1987, Nordic Association for Canadian Studies 5, edited by Jørn Carlsen and Bengt Streijffert, 119–28. Lund: Nordic Association for Canadian Studies, 1989.
- Shouldice, Larry. “On the Politics of Literary Translation in Canada.” In Translation in Canadian Literature Symposium 1982, Reappraisals: Canadian Writers 9, edited by Camille R. La Bossière, 73–82. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1983.
- Simeoni, Daniel. “The Pivotal Status of the Translator’s Habitus.” Target 10, no. 1 (1998): 1–36.
- Stratford, Philip. Bibliography of Canadian Books in Translation: French to English and English to French / Bibliographie de livres canadiens traduits de l’anglais au français et du français à l’anglais, 2nd ed. Ottawa: Humanities Research Council of Canada / Conseil canadien de recherches sur les humanités, 1977.
- Stratford, Philip. “French‑Canadian Literature in Translation.” Meta: Translators’ Journal 13, no. 4 (December 1968): 180–87.
- Strauss, Pablo. “Bricks without Straw.” Literary Review of Canada 28, no. 8 (October 2020): 40.
- Whitfield, Agnès. Introduction. In Writing between the Lines: Portraits of Canadian Anglophone Translators, edited by Whitfield, 1–18. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006.
- Whitfield, Agnès. “Promoting Cultural Exchange and Sharing Each Other’s Significant Works: French‑English / English‑French Literary Translation in Canada.” TransCanadiana: PolishJournal of Canadian Studies 4 (2011): 13–30.
- Whitfield, Agnès, ed. Writing between the Lines: Portraits of Canadian Anglophone Translators. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006.
10.7202/004306ar