ENSEIGNER LE CULTURÈME JURIDIQUE FRANÇAIS À TRAVERS LA LITTÉRATURE : QUAND LA TRADUCTION DIDACTIQUE DEVIENT VÉHICULE DE COMPRÉHENSION
TEACHING FRENCH CULTURE-BOUND LEGAL TERMS THROUGH THE LITERARY APPROACH: WHEN DIDACTIC TRANSLATION BECOMES VEHICLE OF UNDERSTANDING

Summary/Abstract: Taking as an example the short story Rosalie Prudent by Guy de Maupassant, we prove that the literary approach may be applied in order to teach French culture-bound legal terms, as literature provides an insight into the legal culture. In this respect, didactic translation plays an important role, as it contributes to a higher degree of comprehension of French culture-bound legal terms. In the first part of the paper, we define the concepts “legal culture” and “culture-bound legal terms” and we provide a classification of culture-bound legal terms based on their (un)translatability. In the second part, we analyze Maupassant’s short story from the perspective of its translation difficulties: culture-bound terms, euphemisms, irony, dark humor, orality, polysemy, allusions to legal phenomena. We conclude that the literary approach may be applied during Legal French classes and that didactic translation becomes a means of understanding French culture-bound legal terms, because law, language and culture are inseparable.

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