Traduire les discordances temporelles dans L’Étranger

In L’Étranger, Camus not only uses the passé composé instead of the passé simple throughout his story, but he often unexpectedly combines the different tenses of the French verbal system; for example, by using a passé composé when one expects an imparfait (or vice versa); or by using a présent, when one expects an imparfait. In this article, I will examine the extent to which these temporal dissonances are reflected in the last three translations of Camus’ novel into English. The retrospective examination of L’Étranger through the prism of these three translations (Laredo, 1982 ; Ward, 1988 ; Smith, 2012) will allow us to shed new light on the combinations of verbal forms that make this novel so unique in terms of style.

Published online: 11 August 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/lis.35.18pon