La traduction garantit-elle la diffusion des idées dans une autre culture ?

Abstract

DOES TRANSLATION GUARANTEE THE EXPANSION OF IDEAS IN ANOTHER CULTURE? THE CASE OF L’AMOUR EN PLUS BY ELISABETH BADINTER Translation has certainly contributed to the spread of French feminist thought around the world. There are, however, translations which do not seem to have contributed significantly to the spread of this thought in Poland. This is the case of Elisabeth Badinter’s essay, L’amouren plus: histoire de l’amourmaternel (XVIIe – XXe siècle), published in 1980, which sparked controversy in France. According to the author, the maternal instinct is a social and cultural construct. L’amouren plus was a success and it has been translated into a total of 28 languages. The Polish translation of this work, Historia miłości macierzyńskiej, appeared in 1998, 18 years after the original was published. However, as our study shows, Badinter’s thought is hardly present in Polish works on feminism. Thus, translation does not always guarantee the circulation of the ideas of the original work in another culture or the love of foreign readers.

Keywords

• Élisabeth Badinter
• L’amour en plus
• maternal love
• feminism
• circulation of ideas