Cassio de Oliveira
Isaak Babel鈥檚 鈥淕uy de Maupassant鈥�
In my presentation, I argue that the act of translation plays a crucial role in enabling the narrator of Isaak Babel鈥檚 masterful short story 鈥淕uy de Maupassant鈥� to manifest his views on art and aesthetics. The narrator of 鈥淕uy de Maupassant鈥� recalls his affair with a woman whom he helped to produce a Russian translation of Maupassant鈥檚 stories. Insofar as their collective translation becomes also an act of interpretation and ironic reenactment of passages from the stories, I demonstrate that translation constitutes the starting point in a chain of actions that also contains interpretation, 鈥渞eality鈥� or 鈥渞eal life,鈥� and that culminates with literary creation 鈥� both Maupassant鈥檚 and Babel鈥檚.
