Decadence, Ethnicity and Gender: Georges Hérelle’s translations of Matilde Serao and Grazia Deledda

Drawing on Georges Hérelle’s correspondence, and on his memoirs of his activity as a writer and a translator, this article explores the transformations and negotiations that writing by Serao and Deledda underwent as it was received in a context of decadent translation. It seeks to answer the following questions: What aspects of Serao and Deledda’s writing drew the interest of Hérelle? How do these features relate to the “many lives” of Hérelle as translator, historian of Basque folklore, and anthropologist of homosexuality? To what extent were the decadent features of Serao and Deledda’s works recognized and given credit in France? To answer these questions, I shall first outline Hérelle’s stance towards Decadence and his relationship with D’Annunzio, and then consider his treatment of Serao and Deledda. The approach Hérelle took as a translator of women writers, I shall show, provides important evidence about his role as an editor-collaborator and about the French reception of decadentismo as a gendered phenomenon.
> voir l'article de Guy Ducrey, “Is there such thing as a ‘Decadent Translator’?: The case of Georges Hérelle (1848-1935)”.

Elisa Segnini is Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Italian Studies at the University of Glasgow.

L’intervention d’Elisa Segnini sera suivie par celle d’Emma Toniolo, étudiante du Master 2 Lettres-Langues, intitulée « S'approprier sa langue : les auteurs post-coloniaux face au français (Patrick Chamoiseau, Assia Djebar) ».

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