"Where the air is clear" by Carlos Fuentes translated by Robert Marrast

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze an excerpt from Robert Marrast’s French translation of Carlos Fuentes’ La region más tranparente using the method developed by French theorist Antoine Berman. The original novel was published by Fondo de Cultura Económica in 1958, and the French version came out in 1964 by Gallimard publishers. The passages selected to discuss here has been taken from a communicative interchange that characters from diverse social strata have in Mexico City, whose language varieties are noticeably diverse without ever hindering communication. In the translator’s note that appears on the first edition, Professor Marrast explains the way he conceived of his project never loosing track that he was working with a style “trop original”, which called for several strategies if he wanted to reproduce the originality of the novel in his translation.