{"id":4438,"date":"2023-07-26T12:47:09","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T16:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/?p=4438"},"modified":"2023-07-26T12:47:09","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T16:47:09","slug":"translating-a-19th-century-feminist-novel-george-sands-jacques-1833","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/2023\/07\/26\/translating-a-19th-century-feminist-novel-george-sands-jacques-1833\/","title":{"rendered":"Translating a 19th-century Feminist novel : George Sand&#8217;s Jacques (1833)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Mentor :<\/strong> Kathleen Hart (French &amp; Francophone Studies)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Project : <\/strong>Translating a 19th-century Feminist novel: George Sand&#8217;s <em>Jacques<\/em> (1833)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This summer, Izzy Kaufman-Sikes and I worked with Professor Hart to explore Thelma Jurgrau\u2019s preliminary translation of George Sand\u2019s novel <em>Jacques. <\/em>Using Jurgrau\u2019s draft as a starting point, we explored a variety of translation tools, including the latest version of Chat GPT. We were curious to see how the recent developments in artificial intelligence might assist translators, particularly those translating an older work with a style and syntax no longer in use. Although we found the speed at which Chat GPT translates and its ability to create several different versions of a translated text to be incredibly valuable, oftentimes the best insights came from our collaborations with each other and with Jurgrau\u2019s text.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This project required close attention to historical details such as gender relations, class and economic structure, the politics of the era, and French colonialism. <em>\u00a0<\/em>Like many nineteenth century novels, <em>Jacques<\/em> centers around the souring of a mismatched marriage during a time in which divorce was illegal under the Napoleonic Code. Fernande and Jacques, the couple around whom the novel centers, are immediately shown to be ill-suited for one another: In addition to being twice Fernande&#8217;s age, Jacques is also reclusive, mercurial, and taciturn. Although <em>Jacques <\/em>resembles classic novels like Austen&#8217;s <em>Pride and Prejudice<\/em> and <em>Persuasion<\/em>\u2014an overbearing mother, a volatile ex-soldier, a concerning age gap\u2014Sand\u2019s salient social critiques set the story apart. Sand not only condemns the Napoleonic Code but also discusses taboo topics like suicide and infidelity, even challenging the institution of marriage itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the new surge of interest in classic literature, from book recommendations on TikTok to a shout-out to the 1995 adaptation <em>Pride &amp; Prejudice<\/em> in the new \u201cBarbie\u201d movie, an English translation of <em>Jacques <\/em>cannot arrive soon enough. While Sand\u2019s feminist ideals are cloaked in polite language and subtlety, modern readers will surely appreciate her radical thinking just as much as they did almost 200 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mentor : Kathleen Hart (French &amp; Francophone Studies) Project : Translating a 19th-century Feminist novel: George Sand&#8217;s Jacques (1833) This summer, Izzy Kaufman-Sikes and I worked with Professor Hart to explore Thelma Jurgrau\u2019s preliminary translation of George Sand\u2019s novel Jacques. Using Jurgrau\u2019s draft as a starting point, we explored a variety of translation tools, including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77509],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ford-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4438"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4490,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438\/revisions\/4490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}