Translation as an element and/or vehicle for the building of an identity: An approach to Auguste Lacaussade’s “Salaziennes”

Abstract

How can we study the making of a poet-translator’s identity, of one who was born in a colony and decided to settle in Metropolitan France, especially when his ethnic and social backgrounds set him apart? Individual or literary identity is built on a person’s relation to others, as established by Paul Ricoeur’s and Édouard Glissant’s works. This is how Lacaussade tried to approach the matter; while being a budding poet, he turned to foreign, and in particular, anglophone poets. Beyond mere imitation, translation facilitates creative writing, so being acknowledged as a creator in his own right helped him.