Translating Cultural Identity : French Translations of Australian Crime Fiction

Crime fiction is popular internationally despite its cultural specificity. This book offers an accessible analysis of how the choice of translation strategy can significantly affect representations of cultural identity in translations of crime fiction, identifying creative solutions for translation challenges.

The genre of crime fiction – so often rooted in the details of a place, time and subculture – enjoys significant international popularity and provides readers with a unique opportunity to explore the different cultural identities represented in its texts. This book offers a convincing rationale to illustrate how crime fiction in translation can be especially productive when examining the projection of a specific cultural identity to a new, foreign readership. Focusing on the intercultural transcreation of Australian cultural identity for a new francophone readership, the book offers a comprehensive and accessible theme-based analysis highlighting how the choice of translation strategy can significantly affect representations of cultural identity. The author asks important questions about the compromises that are necessary in finding creative solutions to translation problems and discovers some unexpected and surprising consequences of the decisions made for the new readers who believe they are gaining insights into another culture through reading crime fiction in translation.