Artistic interpretation, the new victim of the times

Le Regard Libre N° 73 - Jonas Follonier

Three news items illustrate the harm that can be done by current identity delirium not only to social debates, but also to art and culture. A brief reminder of the first news item. On January 20, 2021, at the inauguration of Joe Biden as the new President of the United States, 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman recited a work of her own that generated as much emotion as it did press coverage. In this poem entitled The Hill We Climb calling for reconciliation within the American population, the young artist defined herself as a «skinny black girl, descended from slaves and raised by a single mother» - a spotlight on her condition echoing the protest movement Black Lives Matter. On January 21, publishing houses around the world began looking for the best talent to translate the poem.

Now, in the Netherlands, activist Janice Deul has written in an op-ed that the choice of Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, a young and brilliant author, to produce the Dutch version of Amanda Gorman’s poem was a «missed opportunity»: it would have been better to choose a young Black translator. The reason? «The merits and qualities of Black people are assessed only sporadically, if at all. As for Black women, they are systematically marginalized.» What’s interesting to note is that the selection of Marieke Lucas Rijneveld had already been praised by Amanda Gorman not only for her genius, but also because she advocates for sexual minorities and identifies as non-binary (neither man nor woman). Personally, I know of only one relevant entity—the smallest and most noble «minority» there is: the individual, who shares their human nature with their fellow human beings. But let’s move on…

Three days after the publication of Janice Deul’s op-ed, the translator announced that he was stepping down. The controversy spread worldwide. Catalan translator Victor Obiols was then informed that his publisher was firing him. The publishing house stated that it was looking for someone else: «A woman, young, an activist, and preferably Black.» (sic!).

Aside from the fact that categorizing people by skin color amounts to racism, this practice of selecting translators based on their background and characteristics other than merit (youth, activism) demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of what translation is—namely, putting oneself in the shoes and mind of another while not’being not that other one. If only because of his native language…

The second news item is a humorous video by the French-speaking Swiss comedian Claude-Inga Barbey, posted by Le Temps, which has been deemed transphobic by some LGBT groups. Here, there’s a confusion—whether intentional or not, and in either case it’s alarming—between an actress and the characters she plays (a therapist and a trans woman), for whom she actually feels affection, and it shows…

Finally, the disheartening 46^th The César Awards ceremony on March 12, during which actress Corinne Masiero stripped completely naked in support of temporary workers, covered in blood-red paint, also marks the end of an acting career immune to the spirit of the times. Nowadays, one must assert one’s individuality and adopt a whiny, victim-like tone—if possible, within an exclusive, insular circle. Isn’t being an artist, after all, more about creating multiple worlds?

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: Wikimedia CC 2.0

See also in this issue On this topic: Max Lobe's op-ed and the counter-op-ed by Diana-Alice Ramsauer and Indra Crittin