Presentation

In the introduction to Two Solicitudes, a study of Canadian letters that she co-authored with Victor Lévy Beaulieu, Margaret Atwood explains the title as follows: Both Atwood and Lévy-Beaulieu demonstrate extraordinary interest in, and knowledge as well as understanding of, the “Other” culture. They suggest both the possibility and desirability of reevaluating and reinterpreting the overused and misused notion of “two solitudes,” the leitmotiv so frequently evoked to define relationships between Canada’s two “founding” nations. Indeed, the increased and long overdue awareness of the First Nations’ heritage and the tremendous richness, diversity and complexity of the contemporary Canadian cultural fabric call into question such simplistic and Euro-centric representations of the nation. In Échanges culturels entre les deux solitudes, a collection of essays on translation in Canada, Marie-Andrée Beaudet also discusses both the meaning and intent of Rilke’s metaphor. As does Atwood, she questions the common interpretation. Used to signal conflict and friction, it was meant instead to point to the need for genuine respect and exchange in order to foster understanding. Underlining the role of literature in such an exchange, Beaudet states: Both studies, one by important authors from the two major linguistic and cultural communities, and the other by academics from both sides of the linguistic divide, point to the need for a more accurate interpretation and application of Rilke’s metaphor. It is worth noting that the two works were published within a year of each other. While the plea for solicitude, however, clearly comes from both English and French speaking communities, translation in Canada remains politically and socially charged. Jacques Ferron offers another perspective on MacLennan’s use of the Rilke metaphor and underlines the obstacles, namely the imbalance of power, to ever achieving such idyllic coexistence. He states: Indeed, the close relationship between translation trends and traditions in Canada on the one hand, and political strife and struggle on the other is widely recognized. In his introduction to Jean Delisle’s La Traduction au Canada/Translation in Canada, Jean-François Joly notes: From the creation of Jacques-Cartier’s Iroquois-French lexicon to contemporary multilingual texts, translation has been the tool of the conqueror, and of the conquered as well as of the cultural bridge builder. The two “founding” nations were separated by religion and legal and cultural practices but language was, and remains today, on the forefront of political debate. Similarly, language remains a distinctive feature of multiculturalism as well as an important issue for the First Nations. Therefore, in the Canadian context, translation has been viewed as more than a literary practice or tradition. It is instead a reflection, if not an instrument, of prevalent social and political forces. In her insightful article, appropriately titled “Culture as Translation,” Barbara Godard quotes translation scholar Edwin Gentzler who identifies the Canadian case as an ideal example to illustrate the link between cultural, political and linguistic power struggles and translation practice. He notes: In Impossible Nation: the Longing for a Homeland in Quebec, Ray Conlogue, Quebec arts correspondent for the Globe and Mail, laments English Canada’s “antipathy” towards Quebec and its “failure to build a bilingual country” or, it can be deduced, to bridge the two solitudes. He carries on a long tradition of associating translation practice with questions of national, political and cultural identity, harmony and understanding. As do other scholars before him, notably David Hayne and Philip Stratford, he quotes Quebec’s first Prime Minister, PJO Chauveau who, in a 19^th Century essay, compared the strange, oblique glance of the “Other” from the double twisting staircase of Château Chambord to the conditional, accidental comprehension between French and English Canada. Conlogue …