Adultery on a grand scale: on adapting Bob Dylan songs in French
What is it about?
This paper is the second in a series dealing with song adaptations, and is focused on Bob Dylan songs in French. The first one (see http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/22i/froeliger) was about the merits and perils of being faithful in such an instance. This one deals with various strategies that somehow take more liberties with the original material. Four non mutually-exclusive strategies are envisioned: twisting the message, turning one’s adaptation into an answer song, disregarding the original lyrics altogether, or tactful shape-shifting.
Why is it important?
All strategies are supported by examples taken from a vast corpus of songs spanning five decades. The paper end with a discussion of the lessons that can be learned from such exercise for translation studies and for the translation profession as a whole. It was supported by interviews with three of the prominent French adapters of Bob Dylan songs.