La représentation fictionnelle du traducteur amateur chez David Mitchell

This article presents a comparative study of the respective protagonists of two novels by British writer David Mitchell, Black Swan Green and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, through the prism of the fictional turn of translation. Although these characters do not appear to share any link, one being a teenager from Thatcher-era England and the other a Dutch clerk from 17th century Japan, both will end up having to translate a text for the first time in their life. We will then examine the rarely explored figure of the amateur translator in fiction, and reveal the numerous themes and parallels provided by David Mitchell's narration on the translation process – its transgressive, transforming, transcending aspects - which end up giving a coherent picture of the act of translating throughout his works.