This book investigates the space between the two languages of modern-day
Brittany through a series of close readings of literary texts that
represent Brittany or Bretonness in the French language. This is the
space that is negotiated by translation, be it a smooth translation of
Breton scenes and themes into a French fit for the salons of the
capital, or a foreignizing translation of Breton motifs into a French
that writhes and struggles to accommodate them. It is also the space
negotiated by the bilingual author who writes in the shadow of the other
language: the literary conventions of one may litter his work in the
other, or the idioms and syntax of one may make their ghostly presence
felt in the other. But it can equally be a space of violence as in the
case of the writer whose whole community has lost its mother tongue, and
writes under protest in the language of the cultural oppressor or
colonizer. As the first sustained analysis of the literature produced
between French and Breton, this book shows us how literary language is
affected by such inter-cultural tensions, and also what it can mean to
be caught between cultures.