Some Borrowings from Russian Language in Francophone Graphic Novels about Russia and Russians

This article pursues a new direction in the study of the image of Russia in French-language graphic novels: their use of the Russian language itself. Two classes of Russian language use are considered: non-normative lexical borrowings (profanity) and speech formulas used to implement speech acts (mainly “oaths”) or their imitation in the form of disсourse markers. The study is based on 550 graphic novels (“comic books”) about Russia and/or Russians, written in France and Belgium from 1929 to 2023. This kind of profanity wasn’t particularly common – it was found only in 11.7% of the analyzed books. The role of profanity in these books, the degree to which the profanity conforms to the grammar of the Russian language, as well as its types and functions are all examined in this article. Profanity could be found in the form of Cyrillic letters (about 30% of the time) or in the form of a French transliteration (about 70% of the time). While transliterating, the authors tended to use “casual” transliterations, rather than systemic ones, in an attempt to better imitate the real pronunciation of Russian words. Spelling errors were common in the words written in Cyrillic. Profanity was translated only in 15.6% of contexts in which case the translations were placed either at the bottom of the panel or at the bottom of the page. Not all the words and expressions were used as insults or expressions of strong negative emotions; they could also be used to characterize a personage’s speech style. For the speech acts of oaths and curses, imitations of commonly used Russian words were used along with “Russian-adjacent” words: words invented by the author that differed from normative words in terms of their lexical content. Of particular interest were speech realizations of the “third actant” in the context of an “oath”: the witness or pledge that guarantees the honesty of the speaker. The article puts forward several hypotheses as to where the authors find Russian words and expressions, as well as to why they make frequent errors, particularly lexical and stylistic ones, while doing so. If the author does not speak Russian and does not consult a translator, they might use a specialized dictionary when looking for a translation of a non-standard lexeme into the French language. When using such a dictionary, the author often cannot be sure of the word’s suitability as an expletive or injective or of its lexical compatibility with other words, which can lead to errors.

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