Why not translate metaphor in French crime fiction? The case of Cary Férey's Utu

Abstract

Crime fiction's positioning as a low status popular genre has implications for the translation of textual markers normally associated with high literature. I present an empirical case study of metaphor translation in the 2011 English-language edition of French crime writer Caryl Férey's novel Utu (2004), showing that the translation contains 31% fewer metaphors than the source text. To analyse this difference, I examine the translation through literary theory and through the practice of established crime fiction translators to reveal gaps in our understanding of cross-lingual metaphorical norms in crime fiction. I then look at how metaphors are cognitively processed and argue that metaphor matters in crime fiction because it influences readers' emotional engagement with texts.