Translating Canada

French, Female, and Foreign

French, Female, and Foreign: French Canadian Children’s Literature in German Translation Nikola von Merveldt Université de Montréal A PROMISING START Once upon a time, German translations of French Canadian children’s literature were off to a promising start: between 1947 and the late 1950s, more than twenty little books featuring gingerbread men, magic cauldrons, strawberry fairies, and noble savages were translated from French into German and illustrated with naive, brightly coloured pictures. Lucille Desparois, lovingly called “Tante Lucille” by her admiring audience, was the author of these modern fairy tales that blend literary techniques from the moral tale with oral storytelling traditions of French Canadian folklore (Lepage 2000, 220–25). Tante Lucille told her stories on Radio-Canada, the French-language national radio station created in 1936 to give French Canadian culture a voice. But there were no publishers of children’s books in Quebec until the 1970s (Lepage 2000, 284–85), so the stories went into print in French and Dutch in the Netherlands (published by Mulder and Zoon in the 1940s and 1950s). From there, they eventually reached the German market as well. In 1947, when Germany was a war-torn country in which a whole generation of children had grown up under Nazi dictatorship, the desire for edifying children’s literature was considerable. With their mix RIPRUDOVDQGDGYHQWXUH7DQWH/XFLOOH·VVWRULHVSHUIHFWO\ÀWWKLVGHPDQGDQG Mulder, a German branch of Mulder and Zoon located in Emmerich am Rhein on the German-Dutch border, brought out a whole series. Since the books were published anonymously, however, German children never knew that they were UHDGLQJVWRULHVE\D)UHQFK&DQDGLDQDXWKRU6SHFLÀFUHIHUHQFHVWR4XHEHFFXO ture had acquired universal or exotic qualities: the local idiom had disappeared, VSHFLÀF SODFH QDPHV KDG ORVW WKHLU UHIHUHQFH DQG WKH ,URTXRLV ,QGLDQ VLPSO\ !! NIKOLA VON MERVELDT became the stereotype of the good savage. In German translation, Tante Lucille’s VSHFLÀFDOO\)UHQFK&DQDGLDQWDOHVWXUQHGLQWRDUFKHW\SDOQDUUDWLYHVWUDQVSRUWLQJ Christian moral values. 7KLVÀUVWUHQGH]YRXVPDQTXpEHWZHHQ)UHQFK&DQDGLDQDQG*HUPDQFKLOGUHQ·V literature set the tone for further encounters. They can be summarized under a QXPEHURISRLQWVÀUVWHQFRXQWHUVXVXDOO\WDNHSODFHWKURXJKDQLQWHUPHGLDU\³ in the case mentioned above, it was a Dutch publisher, and later it was Englishspeaking Canada and the international book fairs of Frankfurt and Bologna; second, encounters are shaped by both Quebec’s and the importing country’s historical and literary situations, with the German translations showing much OHVVLQWHUHVWLQVSHFLÀFDOO\)UHQFK&DQDGLDQFXOWXUHRUVHWWLQJWKDQLQXQLYHUVDO WKHPHV VXFK DV ÀUVW ORYH IULHQGVKLS DQG FRPLQJ RI DJH WKLUG PRVW )UHQFK Canadian authors and illustrators published in German DUHIHPDOH³DVDUHPRVW of the protagonists whom they create; and fourth, the Quebec origins of the artists are not always evident. QUÉBÉCITÉ Since the days of Tante Lucille, at least one thing has changed: from the late 1980s onward, Quebec children’s literature stopped being imported into Germany for its Christian moral values. By that time, French Canadian literature had in fact JDLQHGDUHSXWDWLRQIRUEHLQJGDULQJO\RSHQDQGVLQFHUH³HVSHFLDOO\FRQFHUQLQJ VH[XDO PDWWHUV 7KH ÀUVW )UHQFK &DQDGLDQ ERRN WR EH WUDQVODWHG DIWHU 7DQWH /XFLOOH·VPRUDOWDOHV³VRPHWKLUW\\HDUVODWHU³ZDVWKXVVenir au monde (Welcome to the WorldVHH+pEHUWDQG/DEURVVH DQRQÀFWLRQVH[HGXFDWLRQEHVWVHOOHU IRUFKLOGUHQ7KHSXEOLVKHU/HVpGLWLRQVGHODFRXUWHpFKHOOH1 continues to sell the greatest number of titles to German publishers, all of them young adult QRYHOVIHDWXULQJVWURQJIHPDOHKHURLQHVZKRIDFHWKHGLIÀFXOWLHVRIFRPLQJRI DJH/RXLVH0RQJHDXIRUHLJQULJKWVGLUHFWRUDW/HVpGLWLRQVGHODFRXUWHpFKHOOH VD\VWKDW*HUPDQSXEOLVKHUVRI\RXQJDGXOWÀFWLRQDSSUHFLDWHWKHFOHDUVW\OH of Quebec writers and their frank, non-moralizing approach to issues such as suicide, anorexia, and teenage sexuality.2 While the realist approach of French Canadian young adult novels seems to be theirmainsellingpoint,picturebookscreatedforyoungchildrenbyQuebecartists are translated into German (and many other languages) mainly for their vivid illustrations and rich imagination (Sarrazin 1991). Marie-Louise Gay, Pierre Pratt, 1. Founded by Bertrand Gauthier as Éditions du tamanoir in 1974, the publishing house adopted its present name in 1978. 2. Thanks to Louise Mongeau for a telephone interview in April 2005. FRENCH, FEMALE, AND FOREIGN !" 6WpSKDQH3RXOLQDQG5pP\6LPDUG...