The paradox of the translator writing and translation in the works of Diderot

The translator occupies a paradoxical position with respect to the translated text. He is not the author of the text, he merely transmits the words of another to a new reading public. But the translated text is not really the same as the original, it is in a different language. It has been transformed by the subjective mediation of the translator. Thus the translator can be seen as an invisible mediator. He is not the author of an original work, yet he has a hidden power to change and alter the text through its transformation into a different language.; Diderot began his writing career as a translator. From his earliest translation of Stanyan's Histoire de Grece to the Essai sur le merite et la vertu, which has been considered alternately as a translation of Shaftesbury and as one of Diderot's early original works, we see a progression from simple translation to creative activity. But, in the context of Diderot's complete works, translation represents more than simply a stage of apprenticeship for Diderot the writer. It is also an important thematic component of several of his works which are not translations. In these works the question of how to transmit the word of another is ultimately equated with other phenomena involving transfer; the transfer of ideas into language, the transformation of visual art into language and that of the real into art. Most importantly, translation becomes a strategy of Diderot the author of original works.; In this study I will first examine the nature of translation through the ideas of several theorists of our time. Secondly, I will examine the status of translation in eighteenth century France, as well as Diderot's own translations and the reception which they were given by critics of his time. Finally, I will show, through readings of the following works; Les Bijoux indiscrets, La Religieuse, Lettre sur les sourds et les muets, "M. Diderot" (from the Salon of 1767), Le Fils naturel and Le Paradoxe sur le comedien; how Diderot creates and maintains within these works this paradoxical position of the translator. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)...