The first readers of Rubem Fonseca in France

Abstract

This article intends to approach the path of Rubem Fonseca's work in France through two kinds of paratexts: the testimony of his first translator, Marguerite Wunscher, granted in 2005, and two articles from specialized literary criticism. The first article, published in April 1979 in Magazine Littiraire is signed by the critic and writer Gerard de Cortanze, and the second, by the translator and critic Alice Raillard, was written for La Quinzaine Littiraire in June 1979. Both are long and detailed as to the contextualization of Fonseca's work, fulfilling their informative function, as well as that of dissemination to the reading public. Thus, the content of the articles suggests that Rubem Fonseca's prose in the novel The Morel Case (O caso Morel), and the short story collection Happy New Year (Feliz Ano Novo) - published in French as a single volume under the title Le Cas Morel suivi de Bonne et Heureuse Annie (1979) -, would contemplate both enthusiasts of detective novels and those interested in Brazilian/South American sociopolitics of the 1970s, or simply those sympathetic to foreign literatures.