ABSTRACT
As the last 15 years have witnessed a wave of retranslations of English-language classics into French, this chapter focuses on two French translations of D. H. Lawrence’s 1920 controversial novel, Women in Love: a 1932 translation titled Femmes amoureuses, by Surrealist poet Maurice Rancès in collaboration with Georges Limbour, and a 2000 retranslation by English professor Pierre Vitoux, called Amantes. Reading both target texts against each other in the light of translation theorists Antoine Berman and Gideon Toury’s critical approaches, this study examines the strengths and shortcomings of each translation through issues of domestication, censorship, sex, gender, race, and culture, and highlights the ways in which, in both cases, the source text is skillfully adapted to suit the audience and the publishing market of the time. Besides the fact that these two translations are literally at odds, as epitomized by their differing titles, the study of this complex retranslation case highlights the decisive part played by the publishing and academic markets in prompting Vitoux’s retranslation, as well as the ideological motives behind both target texts. This ultimately questions the shifting status and purpose of literary translation in the 21st century.
