Intertextuality in Eleanor Marx-Aveling’s A Doll’s House and Madame Bovary

Merkle, Denise

Babel 2005 50 (2)97-113
(ReLIS:jul:oibfdn:y:2005:v:50:i:2:p:97-113)

Abstract:

Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Karl Marx’s third daughter, was a translator of literary and political texts, as well as a political activist. Intertextual references mark her political as well as literary discourse. Learning to love literature under her father’s close supervision, she also assimilated his and Frederick Engels’ political discourse. The resulting worldview, combined with an independent streak, made political activism as well as firm political convictions virtually inevitable, especially with regard to the place of woman in society. To be true to her political convictions, this unconventional Victorian woman chose to translate controversial works of literature with which she could identify, whether or not her reading of these texts conformed exactly to the message their authors had sought to convey. Two foreign-language literary texts in particular talked to her about the problems faced by women in a capitalist society: Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. In her mind, social, i.e., Marxist, revolution would create a social order in which their problems would no longer exist. Whether intentionally or not, Ibsen’s and Flaubert’s discourse lent itself to an interpretation that converged with Eleanor’s thought on the 'Woman Question'. Eleanor Marx-Aveling’s writngs make intertextual references to these literary texts and to her political philosophy. We argue that the convergence of the author’s and the translator’s thought, even though the convergence may have resulted from some degree of misappropriation, contributed to Eleanor Marx-Aveling’s successful readings and translations of A Doll’s House and Madame Bovary.

Keywords: Intertextualidad ; Traducción literaria ; Novela ; Siglo 19º
Pages: 97-113
Volume: 50
Year: 2005
Issue: 2

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