What I Cannot Say: Testifying of Trauma through Translation
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2014
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| Online Access: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1398857634 |
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu13988576342021-08-03T06:24:19Z What I Cannot Say: Testifying of Trauma through Translation Brown, Heidi Womens Studies Sociolinguistics Sub Saharan Africa Studies Psychology Modern Literature Health European Studies Comparative Literature African Literature Trauma translation testimony Marguerite Duras Helene Berr Djamila Boupacha Gisele Halimi Simone de Beauvoir Gilbert Gatore Rwanda genocide torture Algerian War World War II This dissertation proposes a new theory of translation to explain how trauma testimony is performed by survivors who have experienced a death of their selves. It shows that certain 20th century French and Francophone authors translate their voices across languages, literary genres, and bodies (both human and animal) in order to testify of trauma when they are no longer able to bear witness in the first-person. The two French works studied-- Journal (2008) by Helene Berr and La Douleur [The War] (1985) by Marguerite Duras-- exhibit translations by the authors to different subject-positions within themselves. Berr translates across languages to negotiate between different socio-linguistically constructed identities and cites English literature to speak in her stead when she is no longer able to voice her experiences. On the other hand, Duras translates across different literary genres (autobiography, auto-fiction, and fiction) in order to recreate a sense of self and increase her capacity for emotional expression. The two Francophone works studied--Djamila Boupacha (1962) by Simone de Beauvoir and Gisele Halimi and Le passe devant soi [The Past Ahead] (2008) by Gilbert Gatore--exhibit translation movements across bodies. Djamila Boupacha translates her voice to Gisele Halimi, her Tunisian-French lawyer, and to Simone de Beauvoir, a French feminist author, in order to testify of the torture she endured during the Algerian War. Each time that Boupacha's testimony is re-voiced, it is transformed due to differences in the three women's social positioning. Gatore translates his identity across a series of fictional selves (each of which exists in the imagination of the previous one) in order to verbalize the unsayable and the unknowable experiences of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. While a translation to human bodies allows him to express the unsayable, translation onto animal bodies is necessary to express the unknowable. In all four works, the first translation movement creates a new self who approximates the original subject before it was destroyed; it is marked by strength, agency, and increased emotional expression. Afterwards, a second translation movement occurs to create a self who mirrors the destroyed being. The new self is characterized by vulnerability, destruction, and death. Importantly, however, from this vantage point, it is possible to express what remains inaccessible from the original subject-position. This tripartite configuration allows the survivor to recreate a stable identity, attribute meaning to the etiological event, and process trauma. 2014-09-23 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1398857634 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1398857634 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |
| collection |
NDLTD |
| language |
English |
| sources |
NDLTD |
| topic |
Womens Studies Sociolinguistics Sub Saharan Africa Studies Psychology Modern Literature Health European Studies Comparative Literature African Literature Trauma translation testimony Marguerite Duras Helene Berr Djamila Boupacha Gisele Halimi Simone de Beauvoir Gilbert Gatore Rwanda genocide torture Algerian War World War II |
| spellingShingle |
Womens Studies Sociolinguistics Sub Saharan Africa Studies Psychology Modern Literature Health European Studies Comparative Literature African Literature Trauma translation testimony Marguerite Duras Helene Berr Djamila Boupacha Gisele Halimi Simone de Beauvoir Gilbert Gatore Rwanda genocide torture Algerian War World War II Brown, Heidi What I Cannot Say: Testifying of Trauma through Translation |
| author |
Brown, Heidi |
| author_facet |
Brown, Heidi |
| author_sort |
Brown, Heidi |
| title |
What I Cannot Say: Testifying of Trauma through Translation |
| title_short |
What I Cannot Say: Testifying of Trauma through Translation |
| title_full |
What I Cannot Say: Testifying of Trauma through Translation |
| title_fullStr |
What I Cannot Say: Testifying of Trauma through Translation |
| title_full_unstemmed |
What I Cannot Say: Testifying of Trauma through Translation |
| title_sort |
what i cannot say: testifying of trauma through translation |
| publisher |
The Ohio State University / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
2014 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1398857634 |
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AT brownheidi whaticannotsaytestifyingoftraumathroughtranslation |
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