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Articles

Volume 38, Number 2 (2017)

Écrire et se traduire : le bilinguisme dans La Maculée/sTain et l’autotraduction chez Madeleine Blais-Dahlem

Submitted
December 19, 2017
Published
2017-12-06

Abstract

In this article, Sullivan examines the self-translation practice of Fransaksoise playwright Madeleine Blais-Dahlem, born in the small village of Delmas, Saskatchewan. Although her mother tongue is French, Blais-Dahlem considers herself a bilingual author because she writes her texts in both French and English, and translates herself. As Blais-Dahlem explains in her work, Fransaskois are bilingual by necessity, because their mother tongue is so marginalized or imperceptible. The author’s work is influenced by the linguistic situation in the Prairies in that she writes bilingual texts and engages in self-translation to reach different audiences. By observing, firstly, the contextual elements that surrounded the writing of her latest play, La Maculée/sTain (2012), and secondly, the textual elements that construct a bilingual contact in the play and the play script, Sullivan shows how Blais-Dahlem’s self-translation practice is an important part of the author’s work and allows the author to overcome difficulties relating to minority writing.