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Re: best English translation: 5 Weeks Balloon

From: Terry Harpold <tharpold~at~ufl.edu>
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:10:56 -0500
CC: Arthur Bruce Evans <aevans2~at~tds.net>
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

On Nov 29, 2008, at 2:07 AM, Arthur B. Evans wrote:

> As I said in my article on Verne's English translations (available
> on Zvi's website):
> "As readers we must not, of course, fall into the trap of making
> anachronistic value judgments and condemning certain words that we
> find offensive but that were acceptable (albeit colloquial) at the
> time they were published. But it is nevertheless true that if these
> translators had been more competent in French and/or had chosen to
> be more faithful to what Verne had originally written, such terms
> would never have found their way into the English versions of these
> novels in the first place" (96).

One of the challenges I find in teaching Verne here in the south of
the United States* is that Verne's regrettable -- but not surprising
or, historically speaking, remarkable -- shortcomings on matters of
race tend to elicit a lot of anxiety among students -- white and black
-- who are unsure about how to respond.

Mysterious Island's depictions of Neb (who, unchanging, remains "the
same as ever") and Jupiter (who evolves during his contact with the
colonists, and therefore is in some respects the civilizable instance
of a lesser humanity) are especially troubling to them.

I consider these passages opportunities for "teaching moments" in the
classroom -- that is, chances to illustrate the complexity of racial
attitudes in the 19th c: e.g., how Verne could be vehemently anti-
slavery and still hold attitudes towards black people that today's
readers find offensive, even appalling. This seems an inexplicable
contradiction to many students. Managing a translation that uses
(incorrectly, as you are right to point out) the always-grotesque
"nigger" would elevate these problems to an insuperable level.

TH

* Though, to be honest, this problem would apply anywhere in the US,
if perhaps with less self-consciousness. Don't let any fool or liar
tell you that the election of Mr. Obama means any sort of an end of
our vexing relation with the legacies of "the peculiar institution".

---------------------------------------
Terry Harpold
Associate Professor
Dept. of English, University of Florida
<http://www.english.ufl.edu/~tharpold>

"There is no science of the accident."
Received on Sun 30 Nov 2008 - 21:00:51 IST

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