Translation and the Arts in Modern France sits at the intersection of transposition, translation, and ekphrasis, finding resonances in these areas across periods, places, and forms. Within these contributions, questions of colonization, subjugation, migration, and exile connect Benin to Brittany, and political philosophy to the sentimental novel and to film. Focusing on cultural production from 1830 to the present and privileging French culture, the contributors explore interactions with other cultures, countries, and continents, often explicitly equating intercultural permeability with representational exchange. In doing so, the book exposes the extent to which moving between media and codes--the very process of translation and transposition--is a defining aspect of creativity across time, space, and disciplines.

Foreword / Sonya StephensAcknowledgmentsIntroduction / Sonya StephensPart One: Cross-Cultural Translation1. Transposing Genre, Translating Culture / Marshall C. Olds2. Translating Bretonness-Colonizing Brittany / Heather Williams3. Baudelaire and Hiawatha / L. Cassandra Hamrick4. Migration and Nostalgia: Reflections from Contemporary Cinema / Emma WilsonPart Two: Cross-Textual Transpositions5. Parisian Décors: Balzac, the City, and the Armchair Traveller / Michael Tilby6. The Landscapes of Eugène Fromentin and Gustave Moreau / Barbara Wright7. Translating the Aesthetic Impression: The Art Writing of 'Marc' de Montifaud / Wendelin Guentner8. Zola's Transpositions / Robert Lethbridge9. Transposition and Re-Invention: Rodin's Vision / Sonya StephensPart Three: Self-Translation10. The Mummy's Dance: Staged Transpositions of Gautier's Egyptian Tales / Juliana Starr11. Translating the Self: Colette and the "Fatally Autobiographical Text / Janet BeizerPart Four: Translation in Process and Practice12. René Char: Translating a Mountain / Mary Ann Caws13. Translations and the Re-Conception of Voice in Modern Verse / Clive Scott14. Rethinking Originality / Making Us See: Contemporary Art's Strategic Transpositions / Catherine BernardBibliographyList of ContributorsIndex