Henri Meschonnic : un maître sans école

Abstract

HENRI MESCHONNIC: A MASTER WITHOUT A SCHOOL Henri Meschonnic’s international reputation in the field of the Translation Studies hasn’t been properly assessed, as we can judge by the translations of his theoretical works to English: few and late. The author of the paper above discusses the causes of this phenomenon of “non-translation” indicating, first of all, the belligerent temperament of the great French scholar, his propension to the polemic offending his opponents, including his admirers, some of which, e.g. George Steiner, could have been his translators to English. Secondly, the author shows which elements of Meschonnic’s work have been revolutionary in the 1970-ies and claims that the impact of his work was gradually eclipsed by his lack of the academical rigour, namely in defining the key notion of his work, the poetics, instead of very promising attempts in his early studies.