La traduction comme poétique Édouard Glissant, Paul Ricœur : expériences et regards croisés

The aim of this thesis is to examine the reflections on translation proposed by the French-Martinican poet, writer, and philosopher Édouard Glissant, and the French philosopher Paul Ricœur. By bringing their perspectives into dialogue, the study analyses and compares their distinct conceptions of translation in light of their respective philosophical and literary approaches to alterity. This raises a central question: how do these two thinkers, who do not approach translation as a systematic field of study, articulate nonetheless such thought-provoking ideas on the act of translating? Indeed, it is precisely this lack of practical engagement that makes it necessary to investigate how and why they engage so profoundly with the notion of translation. Given their significant geographical, historical, and intellectual differences, the comparison does not seek to identify harmonious similarities between their approaches, nor to endorse a “correct” way of theorizing translation. Our aim is instead to establish a productive between philosophy and literature in order to bring out a poetics which merges philosophical and literary way of questioning alterity. The thesis is structured in two parts. The first part, entitled “Expériences de vies croisées,” is a biographical reconstruction of Glissant’s and Ricœur’s intellectual trajectories. This cross-referenced biographical approach, which is not intended to be exhaustive, focuses on the places, the philosophical and literary networks, and the experiences that shaped the two authors’ translational thinking. The second part, entitled “Regards croisés sur la traduction,” brings their reflections into dialogue through the prism of major currents in Translation Studies, notably the ethics of translation and hermeneutics. Ultimately, this part articulates their thought around the concept of a poetics, while also examining selected aspects of their broader thinking, particularly Ricœur’s theory of metaphor and Glissant’s notion of opacity. By situating Glissant and Ricœur within the broader field of Translation Studies, this thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of how literary and philosophical thought intersect in the theorization of translation. It frames as a site of intellectual, ethical, political, and poetic engagement, highlighting how notions of alterity, metaphor, and opacity inform the ethics, politics, and poetics of translating. While these reflections have clear implications for Translation Studies, they also open promising perspectives for reconfiguring the epistemologies of knowledge through the concept of poetics.