Live Translation - Translating Sex with Adriana Hunter and Polly McLean

This Live Translation event introduced a new challenge - translating sex. Our two translators, Adriana Hunter and Polly McLean, shared their versions of a specially-commissioned short story by the French writer Emma Becker, whose debut novel, Monsieur, is a reverse Lolita story described by Le Figaro as ‘Colette meets Catherine Millet’. With Sarah Ardizzone in the chair, and Emma Becker herself on the panel, Adriana Hunter and Polly McLean explored the particular challenges of translating erotic fiction, discussing the decisions they made about voice and vocabulary.