Un autre usage de la traduction : regard sur la parution de deux œuvres existentialistes en Chine avant 1965

As early as 1940, the literary work of Sartre and Camus received the interest of the Chinese literary world. However, the first translation of The Stranger, and that of The Nausea were published much later (in 1961 and 1965) in China. They were intended for a restricted distribution, printed under a yellow cover, and mostly accompanied by large quantities of heavily critical text in the form of an editor’s note, an afterword, or an appendix. The present study analyses these translations as a historical phenomenon inscribed in a specific context. Through the analysis of the paratext, we will attempt to shed light on the role attributed to these translations, and above all to show how the translated work is “staged” by a negative paratext that guides its reading and prescribes an interpretation.