Journal article
James Baldwin’s French: the case of Giovanni’s Room
- Abstract:
- This article is an analysis of bilingualism in James Baldwin's 1956 novel Giovanni's Room. It is based on bibliographical and archival material, asking how significant amounts of a foreign language (French) are incorporated into a novel written principally in another language (English). It shows how (and, to some extent, why) much of the French is inaccurate both in pre-publication typescript materials and in many published editions, except, interestingly, the first UK edition (1957), which is spectacularly accurate. It also considers the challenge of translating a bilingual novel into its secondary language, examining the first French translation by Élisabeth Guinsbourg (1997).
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 240.8KB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1353/mlr.00063
Authors
- Publisher:
- Modern Humanities Research Association
- Journal:
- Modern Language Review More from this journal
- Volume:
- 120
- Issue:
- 2
- Pages:
- 204-225
- Publication date:
- 2025-04-01
- Acceptance date:
- 2024-11-29
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2222-4319
- ISSN:
-
0026-7937
- Language:
-
English
- Pubs id:
-
2073747
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2073747
- Deposit date:
-
2024-12-30
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Modern Humanities Research Association
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- © 2025 Modern Humanities Research Association.
- Notes:
- The author accepted manuscript (AAM) of this paper has been made available under the University of Oxford's Open Access Publications Policy, and a CC BY public copyright licence has been applied.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record