Foreign literature, foreign feeling: translations from German to French atthe beginning of the 19th century

In order to study literary translation from German in French at the Romanti c age, one must get out of the interpretation put forward during a hundred years by the founding fathers of comparative studies in literature. They we re mixing up what belongs nowadays to the canon of German literature and wh at was topical in the past, missing out the fact that the romantic writers were hardly more successful in Germany than in France. New historical resea rch about reception in the literary field allows us to suggest that German literature was quite well-famed among the French public since the middle of the 18th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, the works translat ed are mainly sentimental or historical novels. The prominent names are Aug ust Lafontaine and August von Kotzebue. Around 1820, E.T.A. Hofmann, then T ieck, Uhland or Zschokke gain a challenging popularity. History and fantast ic are favored. German literature for children also represents a considerab le market, with authors like Campe, Wyss of Schmid. In the absence of an in ternational legislation, the French publishers shamelessly exploit the most promising or profitable titles. Unlike what was thought more suitable at t he Age of Enlightenment, the originality of the translated text is now more and more required. Several different notions of translation nonetheless ke ep on being advocated. The idea of a radical impossibility to translate and , mostly, the requirement of an "exotic" effect (Heine) which gains recogni tion during the following decades does not imply that the French versions b ecome better or more accurate, but simply that they produce a strange effec t, reminding their foreign origin.