Re-Belle et Infidle/The Body Bilingual: Translation as a Rewriting in the Feminine

Ronald Henry is director of the School of Translators and Interpreters
at Laurentian University.

This book is not a translation. It is two books in one. The author, a
bilingual feminist, writes about the dominant order of language, and
tells us about her muted group.

Re-belle et infidиle is about translation as rewriting in French from
a female space and perspective. It reveals translation as a feminist
activity subversive of both patriarchal authority and gender rule(s).
The reader is also reminded of the translator’s co-authoring function,
which critics tend to forget; and one is impressed by the author’s
respect for context, situation, meaning, and literary esthetics.

The Body Bilingual also states that all women learn two idioms: “we
speak the dominant ‘he/man’ language and our own muted tongue.”
Not surprisingly, writing in French au féminin is viewed as an act of
resistance.

The author’s definition of rewriting derives from the feminine (and
bilingual) intertext or culture born of feminist writing and speech.
This knowledge, she proves, “is indispensable for translating feminist
writers and for rewriting texts in the feminine.” Other passages
address “sextual pleasures,” jouissance, women at work, and
translator’s notes.

Half French, half English, this book is a set of twins. It is about
bi-reality: being bilingual and bicultural au féminin. The slant is
creative, educative, and recreative: a delight for translators, writers,
bilinguals, and/or feminists.