On Horror: Transcreation, Imagery and the Grotesque in Les Chants de Maldoror

Abstract

This thesis will explore the ways in which the effects and affects of horror can be enhanced though the technique of hypotyposis. In an experimental translation of Les Chants de Maldoror (1874) by the Comte de Lautréamont, I will endeavour to draw out the imagery already in the source text in order to make the target text more horrific to the reader. In some places, I will change the course of the plot itself in order to make the target text more terrifying to the reader. The focus of this thesis will be on horror as an experience of the grotesque, and on the ambivalent mental state that the grotesque compels in the reader as they wait for a resolution to a scene, or attempt to resolve irreconcilable aspects of a certain object or being. I will begin with a historical overview of the concepts “grotesque,” “horror” as a literary genre, and “body horror.” Then, I will examine the ambivalence inherent in Maldoror (1874), the suspension generated by its narrative style and its genre, as well as how this ambivalence is used to prolong the affects of horror. I will explain how they are used to increase the time during which the reader is suspended in ambivalence. I will then proceed to examine hypotyposis as it relates to the valency of poetic imagery and the “real-in-the-instant” as theorized by Barbara Folkart. I will then explain the experimentation implicit in my translation through the lens of Haroldo de Campos’ “transcreation.” After a thorough analysis of my translation as compared to another, by Guy Wernham (1965 [1943]), it will be seen that hypotyposis is an extremely useful tool that can be put to great use in evoking horror.