Traduire un jeu de pronoms ou la subjectivité du traducteur revisitée. Autour des traductions polonaises d’un passage de Madame Bovary

Abstract

The French pronoun on – whose interpretation depends on various elements of the context – can refer to all humans or to a specifi c person, identifi able or not; it can be used instead of all personal pronouns to obtain particular stylistic effects. This particularity of on is exploited by writers to create special effects, which can be a challenge for translators. This study examines how Gustave Flaubert used on in a passage of Madame Bovary and the means which were adopted in four Polish translations of the novel; it shows how the chosen solutions (dictated by the grammatical system of Polish language) reduce – each in a different way – the interpretative potential of the analyzed passage.