Translating the French Revolution into English in A Tale of Two Cities

This article highlights what Dickens was trying to achieve in A Tale of Two Cities when he invented what Sylvère Monod called an “Anglo-French language” (Monod 429-31) composed of English words but borrowing syntactic forms from the French or translating French set phrases literally into English. It...

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Main Author: Nathalie Vanfasse
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2013-09-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/776
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author Nathalie Vanfasse
author_facet Nathalie Vanfasse
author_sort Nathalie Vanfasse
collection DOAJ
description This article highlights what Dickens was trying to achieve in A Tale of Two Cities when he invented what Sylvère Monod called an “Anglo-French language” (Monod 429-31) composed of English words but borrowing syntactic forms from the French or translating French set phrases literally into English. It argues that Dickens’s creation of a new form of English sprinkled with Gallicisms was part and parcel of a strategy to translate the French Revolution into English. He used this newspeak to fathom the Revolution’s singularity and render it understandable to English-speaking readers. Dickens’s Anglo-French lingua proves more complex and subtle than it may have seemed at first sight. Far from offering mere wordplay and sensational images, it reveals an interesting interpretation of the French Revolution.
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publisher Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
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spelling doaj-art-c45ae12aceba46d8b673b27b06d049652025-01-30T10:21:49ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492013-09-017810.4000/cve.776Translating the French Revolution into English in A Tale of Two CitiesNathalie VanfasseThis article highlights what Dickens was trying to achieve in A Tale of Two Cities when he invented what Sylvère Monod called an “Anglo-French language” (Monod 429-31) composed of English words but borrowing syntactic forms from the French or translating French set phrases literally into English. It argues that Dickens’s creation of a new form of English sprinkled with Gallicisms was part and parcel of a strategy to translate the French Revolution into English. He used this newspeak to fathom the Revolution’s singularity and render it understandable to English-speaking readers. Dickens’s Anglo-French lingua proves more complex and subtle than it may have seemed at first sight. Far from offering mere wordplay and sensational images, it reveals an interesting interpretation of the French Revolution.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/776Dickens (Charles)A Tale of Two CitiesFrench RevolutiontranslationAnglo-French languagemetaphysics
spellingShingle Nathalie Vanfasse
Translating the French Revolution into English in A Tale of Two Cities
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Dickens (Charles)
A Tale of Two Cities
French Revolution
translation
Anglo-French language
metaphysics
title Translating the French Revolution into English in A Tale of Two Cities
title_full Translating the French Revolution into English in A Tale of Two Cities
title_fullStr Translating the French Revolution into English in A Tale of Two Cities
title_full_unstemmed Translating the French Revolution into English in A Tale of Two Cities
title_short Translating the French Revolution into English in A Tale of Two Cities
title_sort translating the french revolution into english in a tale of two cities
topic Dickens (Charles)
A Tale of Two Cities
French Revolution
translation
Anglo-French language
metaphysics
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/776
work_keys_str_mv AT nathalievanfasse translatingthefrenchrevolutionintoenglishinataleoftwocities