Can someone please translate this french phrase...please?

Question

I have a presentation on the following subject in Zola's la Bete humaine and im not understanding exactly what the teacher is wanting eventhough i asked her!

Le regard (verite du moment, du document humain, du mileu) et le signe (donner sens au reel par le choix du detail)

I know what the words mean literally but how can i explain that and how do they all fit together...and does mileu mean someones background as in upbringing? please help!!

Answer 1

Hmm.

Well it's very French!

It seems to be contrasting the objective reality of what is seen with the interpretation as communicated through the choice of details. Milieu I think could refer more generally to the background situation, or the context.

Good luck with your presentation - rather you than me!

Answer 2

Objective reality is complex, vast and meaningless. Through language or any other similar system of signs the onlooker may manage to seize a moment in time and vest the same with meaning and coherence, grapple with reality.

La réalité est trop complexe, trop vaste et dépourvue de tout sens pour être saisie par un simple regard. Mais grâce aux signes, notamment le langage, l’observateur peut saisir un moment dans le temps et lui conférer un sens.

Answer 3

It means.. :

The look (verite of the moment, human document, mileu) and the sign (to give feels to the reel by the choice of the detail)


Thats word for word in the prase

Answer 4

Milieu means environment, so yes, you could say ti is a person's background, upbringing, social conditioning. As for the rest of your question I could not say, because I have never read Zola's La bete humaine. Best wishes.

Answer 5

The look (verite of the moment, human document, mileu) and the sign (to give feels to the reel by the choice of the detail)

Answer 6

Ok. I'm not really sure. But here's what I found.

There's a French guy (Mitterand - not the president, another one)who wrote a book called "Le regard et le signe. Poétique du roman réaliste et naturaliste". As you know, Zola wrote realist novels.

Here are a few sentences I found:
http://charriere.nl/articles/verrey.htm :
"L’art du langage descriptif dans le roman est surtout étudié par rapport aux grandes Œuvres réalistes et naturalistes"
[He is talking about one of Zola's novels, and the link between notes Zola took and the novel itself:]
"Mitterand note la saisie sur le vif des attitudes, gestes et dialogues typiques d’ouvriers et de petits bourgeois entrevus sur le boulevard. Il ne semble y avoir aucun intermédiaire entre le monde et le texte des carnets si ce n’est le filtrage de l’information selon des catégories [p. 80] de pensée personnelles et une aptitude à saisir les figures et les signes du réel social de façon à la fois picturale et sémiotique sans manquer de retenir des bribes de vécu pouvant déclencher la narration d’une situation ou d’un épisode symptomatiques"

Basically, it means that [can't believe I'm doing this at 2 in the morning!] Zola took note of what he saw and heard on the street. He used what he had written in his notebook, and which he had classified in some categories he chose himself ("filtrage de l’information selon des catégories"), without changing anything. So, basically, what he writes about in his novels are taken from actual scenes in the street, which he of course classified and used in a way they would make sense ("retenir des bribes de vécu pouvant déclencher la narration d’une situation ou d’un épisode symptomatiques").

So, here, "regard" means (I think) what the author captured from the streets, from his surroundings ("milieu - in this case, it doesn't necessarily mean his social background or upbringing), and "signe" means the details he chose (maybe sentences, dialogues, descriptions) which are typical, "symptomatiques" as they say in that commentary, of a social class, a situation. He was able to capture those moments which would make his readers feel as though they were seeing the scenes he was writing about. And he was able to choose the right ones, and not any episode that would take place in front of huis eyes (well, he is writing a novel, so he is supposed to choose which details are important).

I repeated myself a few times, but it's just cos I don't know how old you are, and I wanted to be sure you understood what I wrote (and what the commentary of the Mitterand's text said)

I haven't read the book, so can't really help you more. But basically, I think you'll need to find details that he uses and show how he uses them to make his characters and situations come to life. Maybe you can try and find what type of details he uses (maybe dialogues, use of colours of description, maybe sounds that he describes, etc. Or maybe also if he uses the present tense, sometimes, to describe something as if it were happening right now). Once you've done that, maybe you can see in what sense they actually give life to the novel. I mean, what do they show. Maybe by using dark colours and insults, he wants to show the grim reality of life at that time. I'm just giving you an example that probably doesn't make sense as I haven't read the book. But I just want to show you that you can use two different types of categories to show one type of idea. And this is what Zola is doing in his novels, apparently.

Answer 7

www.ets.freetranslation.com
says this:

The look (verite of the moment, human document, mileu) and the sign (to give feels to the reel by the choice of the detail)

Answer 8

ok so i'm in like french two and i'm not that great but i know that le regard doesnt make sense because ur saying the watched...

Answer 9

Use http://www.thismeansthis.com translates most languages..