Investigating the Relationship between To Live the Orange and Vivre l'Orange

In this paper I present a study of Hélène Cixous' bilingual text Vivre l'Orange/To Live the Orange (1989/1979), using a Descriptive Translation Studies approach. Cixous' text has been much commented on but, to my knowledge, not as yet from a Translation Studies perspective. Through a close comparison ofthe French and English texts, I illustrate that there are patterns of difference between the original text and the translation concerning the people/things distinction and concerning gender. Most previous commentators have treated the French and English texts as ifthey were the same. In contrast, I signal a kind of 'defeminization' in the English text that produces a definite thematic difference between the original text and the translation. I offer divergent interpretations ofthe significance ofthat difference.