Les « taches blanches » dans la cartographie de la traduction : oe uvres jamais ou peu traduites, traductions sans succe ̀s d’oe uvres prestigieuses
The “blank spaces” in the cartography of translation: Never or rarely translated works, unsuccessful translations of prestigious works

Historiography of translation. Failures and shortcomings in the field of translation. Classical French tragedy. German literature.

Summary/Abstract: Historiographers of translation have made great efforts to identify translations of more or less famous works, to sift through them and to give precise descriptions, which quite often involve value judgements. The history of translation is – with a few exceptions – a history of success. What interests us here, on the other hand, are the failures and shortcomings that can be observed in this field, a dangerous subject of investigation insofar as it leads to risky speculations. Why have certain works, considered to be an integral part of the original literature, found little or no response from readers of other languages? Is this due to intrinsic characteristics of the works in question or, at least partly, to unpredictable reactions of the translation market? Is there a literary production that is less suitable for translation than another, or do translators, with their specific predilections and skills, influence the balance of exchange between different literatures, often unintentionally? The focus of this article is on classical French tragedy and a few German authors who are appreciated by German speakers but little known elsewhere.

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