In Search of a Target Language

In nationalist Quebec, French is rejected as the bearer of a foreign culture in the same way that the Québécois' native land, despoiled by the English, has become the country of the Other. Theatre, more than anything else, lent itself to the task of differentiation allotted to language. As of 1968 the vernacular has become the language of the stage as well as of theatre translation such as the exchange value of both foreign works and French translations from France increasingly erodes. Translating "into Québécois" consists in marking out the difference which opposes French in Quebec and so-called French from France. Since, however, the special quality of Québécois French is truly noticeable only among the working classes, Québécois theatre translations are almost always marked by proletarization of language and lowering the social status of the protagonists, thereby increasing the translation possibilities first and foremost of American sociolects.