Translating the Impossible: A Comparative Analysis of George Perec's La Disparition

Abstract

Translation is the transfer of cultures, ideas and different stylistic features. Therefore, translating a literary source text is already a challenging task. Translating the specific style of the literary source text renders translation much more difficult. Lipogram is one of the stylistic examples that the French group entitled Oulipo creates. The authors who employ lipogram as a technique exclude one or more letters in their works. In other words, they write the entire book without using a particular letter. George Perec s La Disparition is one of the leading examples of the lipogram style. Perec wrote the entire novel without using the letter e. Furthermore, the novel was translated into Turkish and English. Both translators excluded the letter e in their translations.