Writing and Translating Francophone Discourse : Africa, the Caribbean, Diaspora

246 Pages·2014·4.84 MB·English

by  Paul F. Bandia

Writing and Translating
Francophone Discourse:
Africa, The Caribbean, Diaspora
T T
ex x e
t
Studies in Comparative Literature 78
Series Editors
C.C. Barfoot and Theo D’haen

Writing and Translating
Francophone Discourse:
Africa, The Caribbean, Diaspora
Edited by
Paul F. Bandia
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2014
Cover painting: “Africa”, by Maria Palffry.
The paper on which this book is printed meets the
requirements of ‘ISO 9706: 1994, Information and
documentation - Paper for documents - Requirements for
permanence’.
ISBN: 978-90-420-3894-3
E-Book ISBN: 978-94-012-1176-5
© Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2014
Printed in The Netherlands
CONTENTS

Acknowledgements vii

Paul F. Bandia
Introduction 1

Lieven D’hulst
From the French Antilles to the Caribbean:
“Translation” within the Francophone Realm 19

Christine Raguet
A “Flavor of Diversity”: Intercreation and the Making
of a Mosaic-Whole 37

Sandra L. Bermann
Édouard Glissant and the Imagination of World Literature:
Relation, Creolization and Translation 63

Samia Kassab-Charfi
Semiotics of the Hyphen in Patrick Chamoiseau’s
Biblique des Derniers Gestes 87

Tom Conley
Mapping “Tout-monde” 111

Marie-José Nzengou-Tayo and Elizabeth Wilson
Translating the Other’s Voice:
When Is Too Much Too Much? 127

Réda Bensmaïa
The Language of the Stranger: A Dialogue between
Jacques Derrida and Abdelkébir Khatibi
on Language and Translation 153
Moradewun Adejunmobi
Vernacular Monolingualism and Translation
in West African Popular Film 167

Verena Andermatt Conley
Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche: Translation as Artistic Practice 189

Alain Ricard
In a Free State? Translation and the Basotho:
From Eugene Casalis to Antje Krog 205

Notes on Contributors 225

Index 229
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the W.E.B.
Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at
Harvard University who provided me with access to vital research
resources in the writing and compilation of this book. My gratitude
goes out to the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada
(SSHRC) for their generous financial support through a standard
research grant. Many thanks are also due to the contributors to this
book and the translators who made it all possible. I am deeply grateful
to the editors of the TEXTXET series at Rodopi for believing in the
project. Special thanks to Cedric Barfoot for the exceptional guidance
throughout the editing process. I hope the close collaboration between
some of the contributors and their translators will serve as a hallmark
for the kind of interdisciplinary research which is the basis of this
book.

INTRODUCTION

PAUL F. BANDIA

This book is an interdisciplinary contribution to the growing body of
work that brings together research in Translation Studies and French
and Francophone Studies. The book is in part inspired by the ideals of
Édouard Glissant’s Poétique de la relation1 and his concept of Tout-
monde.2 It is dedicated to his memory, as the Martinican philosopher
died during the writing and compilation of the book. Although there
are quite a few chapters dealing with Glissant’s theories, the book
does not purport to be a collection of essays on Glissant’s work. Yet,
the ideals derived from Glissant’s eminently hopeful and positive
conceptualization of relations, using the islands of the Caribbean as a
backdrop, are a source of inspiration for bringing together scholars
from a variety of disciplines and geographical areas. These scholars
share an interest in the intersection between Translation Studies and
other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.
There is a continuing rapprochement between the center and the
periphery in the French literary world, which can only help to bolster
French as a global literary language. The concept of translation is ever
more present in the harmonization and sustained prominence of
French in the global literary space. As I have argued elsewhere,3
postcolonial writing has parallels with the metaphorical and pragmatic
conceptualization of translation. The conveyance of African or
Caribbean language culture in French involves recourse to translation
and other literary transfer strategies for the benefit of an international
audience. These translational or transcultural practices are at the basis

1 Édouard Glissant, Poétique de la relation, Paris: Gallimard, 1990 (Poetics of
Relation, trans. Betsy Wing, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997).
2 Édouard Glissant, Tout-monde, Paris: Gallimard, 1993.
3 Paul F. Bandia, Translation as Reparation: Writing and Translation in Postcolonial
Africa, Manchester: St Jerome Publishing, 2008.