How many times can the same story be told? : Marguerite Duras’s self-translation in her "India cycle"

Vršič, Zarja (author)

While existing scholarship on self-translation has primarily focused on interlingual transfers, this study aims to expand the concept to encompass intersemiotic and intrasemiotic translation by ex-amining how the French novelist and filmmaker Marguerite Duras reworked the themes of loss, death, and memory across both literature and film. Focusing on her “India Cycle” – a series of inter-related novels and films – this study explores and analyses Duras’s distinctive approach to repetition while emphasizing her personal motivations for continuously reinterpreting the same narratives across different artistic forms. Ultimately, this paper argues that Duras’s self-translation is not mere-ly a repetition of the same, but a creative process that generates new meanings in different contexts, reinforcing the cyclical and fragmented nature of her storytelling. Through this perspective, the India Cycle offers a compelling case for rethinking self-translation beyond linguistic boundaries, highlighting its broader implications for translation studies.

• Language: English
• Keywords: self-translation, intersemiotic translation, intrasemiotic translation, India cycle
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 93–113
• Numbering: Vol. 5, issue 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-180497
• UDC: 81'255.4:821.133.1-31
• ISSN on article: 2784-5826
• COBISS.SI-ID: 259414019
• Publication date in RUL: 10.03.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Stridon : journal of studies in translation and interpreting
• Publisher: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2784-5826
• COBISS.SI-ID: 68759811

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Kolikokrat je mogoče povedati isto zgodbo? : Samoprevajanje Marguerite Duras v “indijskem ciklu”

Abstract

Medtem ko se obstoječe raziskave o samoprevajanju večinoma osredinjajo na medjezikovno preva-janje, poskuša ta prispevek v svoj konceptualni okvir zajeti tudi inter- in intrasemiotično prevajan-je, ki presega zgolj medjezikovne prenose. Kot predmet obravnave vzame »indijski cikel« francoske pisateljice in filmske ustvarjalke Marguerite Duras, serijo medsebojno povezanih romanov in fil-mov, v katerih je predelovala teme izgube, smrti in spomina. Študija analizira avtoričin edinstven pristop k ponavljanju in variaciji ter raziskuje razloge za neprestano vračanje k enim in istim temam v različnih umetniških oblikah. Izkaže se, da samoprevajanje pri Duras ni zgolj ponavljanje istega, temveč kompleksen ustvarjalni proces, ki v različnih umetniških oblikah in kontekstih ustvarja vedno nove pomene skozi fragmentarno, ciklično pripovedno strukturo. S tega vidika »indijski cikel« odpira prostor za premislek o samoprevajanju, ki sega onkraj jezikovnih meja, in prevprašuje širše implikacije tega pojava za prevodoslovje.

• Keywords: samoprevajanje, medznakovni prevod, znotrajznakovni prevod, indijski cikel

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0446-2024
• Name: Teoretično, opisno in uporabno prevodoslovje