Amaury De Sart, Reading with Translation. The Example of Larva. Babel de una noche de San Juan by Julián Ríos - Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

French Literature Reviews - 2026

Amaury De Sart, Reading with Translation. The Example of Larva. Babel de una noche de San Juan by Julián Ríos
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

How does translation contribute to the creation of a so-called "original" work? Spanish writer Julián Ríos's novel LARVA. Babel de una noche de San Juan (1984) allows us to explore the poetic implications of translation within fiction. In this multilingual novel, which incorporates dozens of languages around a Spanish core, translation emerges both as a manipulative practice and as a compositional mode in its own right—ultimately becoming a powerful symbol that reflects and fuels the writer's craft. It also challenges our traditional notions of the novel, which are often anchored in the concept of a plot presented by a narrator in a single written language.

Precisely because of its complexity and its translational imaginary, LARVA seems to invite (or even demand) actual translation rather than merely resisting it: it proves to be a rigorous test of correspondence between languages, and an invitation to translate that goes far beyond the concepts of equivalence and fairness. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Julián Ríos, with the assistance of translators, recreated his novel in English and French. Creation and translation constantly interact, forming two sides of the same multilingual project.

What insights do these actual translations offer into a literary work conceived at the crossroads of languages? By analyzing the collaborative translations of LARVA through the lenses of translation criticism and translation genetics, this study seeks to map out the developments, goals, and inevitable blind spots of a project that continually redefined itself over several years.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

I. JULÍAN RÍOS AND LARVA 1.1 Life and Works of Julián Ríos 1.1.1 Julián without Land: Portrait of an Uprooted Writer 1.1.2 Publishing as an Act of Resistance 1.1.3 Larva at the Crossroads of Influences 1.2 Discovering Larva 1.2.1 The Plot and Narrative Mechanics 1.2.2 Semiotic Mechanics 1.2.3 Intertextual Mechanics 1.3 Overview of Ríos's Oeuvre

II. FROM FICTIONAL TRANSLATION TO TRANSLATION CRITICISM 2.1 Translation as a Paradigm 2.1.1 Literary Representations of Translation 2.1.2 Translation Narratives and Translation Studies 2.2 Critiquing Larva in Translation 2.2.1 The Stakes of a Translation Critique of Larva 2.2.2 Collaborative Translations and Genetic Criticism

PART ONE: DISCOURSES OF THE TRANSLATION NARRATIVE

III. THE BEGINNINGS OF LARVA: INITIAL READINGS OF THE EXORDIUM 3.1 On the Threshold of Babel: The Nota Supernumeraria 3.2 The Opening of Larva: A Spiral First Reading 3.3 Hermeneutic Reading 3.3.1 Meaning in a Network: A Semiotic Approach 3.3.2 Solidarity and Complementarity of the Three Sub-narratives: A Narratological Approach 3.3.3 Seduction and the Stakes of the Incipit of Larva: A Pragmatic Approach 3.4 Translation in Larva 3.4.1 The Question of Origin and the Aesthetics of Restarting 3.4.2 Plural Translation

IV. TRANSLATIO IN Fabula: FROM FICTIVE TO FICTIONALIZED TRANSLATION 4.1 The Notas de la Almohada as Fictive Translation 4.1.1 Translating on the Edge of the Abyss 4.1.2 From Accreditation to Falsification 4.1.3 The Translator's Notes, or Translation Revealed 4.2 Larva and Fictionalized Translation 4.2.1 Lost in Translation 4.2.2 A Special Case of Fictionalized Hermeneutics 4.2.3 Under the Invocation of Cervantes: Translation Has Always Already Begun

V. TRANSFERRE IN Fabula: THE LABOR OF TRANSLATION 5.1 Una Juerga de Jergas: An Overview of Larva's Heterolingualism 5.1.1 Larva in Light of the Gravitational Model 5.1.2 Heterolingual Devices 5.2 Translational Forces 5.2.1 Explanatory Translation 5.2.2 Transluding, or Translation as Play 5.2.3 A Special Case of Transluding: Traducson 5.2.4 The Implications of Translational Labor 5.3 Mirroring Languages 5.3.1 Translemic Writing 5.3.2 Translation as a Medium: From Multilingual Reality to Translational Poetics 5.3.3 Portrait of the Reader as Translator 5.4 Eroticism and Libido Translationis 5.4.1 Donjuanian Writing and Libido Translationis 5.4.2 Intralingual Translation and the Strategy of Veiling 5.5 Metamorphic Writing: Transmutation 5.5.1 The Limits of Transmutation 5.5.2 Transmutations in Absentia and in Praesentia

PART TWO: TOWARD A CRITIQUE OF COLLABORATIVE TRANSLATIONS

VI. PRESENTATION OF THE CORPUS AND THE TRANSLATORS 6.1 The Corpus 6.2 The American Translation 6.2.1 The Editorial and Translational Context in the United States 6.2.2 The Formative Experience of Three Trapped Tigers 6.2.3 Richard Alan Francis Following in Suzanne Jill Levine's Footsteps 6.3 The French Translation 6.3.1 The Editorial and Translational Context in France 6.3.2 Denis Fernandez-Récatala: Commitment Through Letters

VII. CRITICAL READING IN TRANSLATIONS 7.1 Macro-level 7.1.1 Cross-sectional Readings of Larva 7.1.2 Macrostructure in Translation 7.2 Analysis of the Incipit in Translation 7.3 Micro-level: Comparative Readings 7.3.1 The Interpretive Framework 7.3.2 Analysis of Excerpts 7.4 Comparison of Translational Projects

VIII. INSIDE THE TRANSLATORS' WORKSHOP 8.1 The Stakes of Genetic Criticism of Larva in Translation 8.1.1 Presentation of the Genetic Dossier 8.1.2 A Question of Perspective: Endogenesis vs. Exogenesis

This scholarly study investigates the intricate relationship between literary creation and translation through the lens of Julián Ríos's experimental novel Larva. Babel de una noche de San Juan. By examining how multiple languages and translation practices are embedded directly into the narrative fabric, the work challenges conventional ideas about storytelling, authorship, and linguistic boundaries. It situates the novel within a rich tradition of multilingual and postmodern literature, offering a detailed framework for understanding how texts evolve when they cross linguistic borders.

Researchers, translators, and students of comparative literature will find this book particularly useful for its application of translation criticism and genetic criticism. By exploring the collaborative efforts behind the English and French editions of Larva, the author sheds light on the practical and theoretical challenges of rendering a deeply heterolingual text into other tongues. It serves as a valuable resource for anyone interested in the mechanics of literary translation, intertextuality, and the ways texts actively reflect upon their own creation.