La fille que je déteste: A French adaptation of Mona Awad's unsung short story

Abstract

For my thesis project, I translated Mona Awad’s originally English short story, “The Girl I Hate” into French. The story was first published in Issue 27 of the literary journal Post Road Magazine. It grapples with disordered eating, and the complications of feminine self-perception and relationships in world that glorifies female smallness. These themes are certainly timely in modern-day North America – Awad’s Canadian background likely influenced her apparent fascination with body image – but may perhaps be even more relevant in Francophone countries, where a stereotypical culture of thinness may contribute to an underdiagnosis of eating disorders (Open Journal of Epidemiology, Godart et al.) Since publishing this short story, Awad has gone on to achieve a modicum of fame with her 2016 debut novel, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. Opening her literature up to a French-speaking audience will allow more people – especially in her native, Francophone province of Québec – to have their perspectives changed by her searing texts, and in particular this hard-hitting short story.