Mapping transference : problems of African literature and translation from French into English

• Main Author: Nintai, Moses Nunyi
• Published: University of Warwick 1993
• Subjects: 800; PQ Romance literatures
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.386287

Although a number of African literary works have been translated from French into English since the middle of this century, research and debate on their translation has remained scanty, fragmentary, and scattered in diverse learned journals and other short publications. This thesis seeks to broaden the scope of research by mapping out aspects of transference in translation in terms of analysis and transfer strategies that have been, or could be, used. A selection of major translated works have been compared with their originals, to give textual examples indicative of transfer strategies. Current issues in African literature as well as typical features of the literature in French and English have been explored in order to examine differences between them and English and French literatures. The implications of these differences (at the levels of content, cultural setting, peculiar use of English and French, and the target audience) for translation are considered, and a brief historical survey of the translation of African literature provides insights into how translators have approached, and continue to approach, literary texts as well as cope with their target readership. Furthermore, dominant trends in literary translation studies (mainly in the West) are explored to determine if, and in what ways, they relate to translation studies in Africa. The analysis of transfer strategies focuses on the distinctive features of francophone African literary texts, drawing on relevant Western literary translation theories and models, on African literary theory and criticism, as well as on other disciplines likely contribute to an informed understanding of the texts. Finally, a case study applies the analysis to a text which is translated, and transfer strategies discussed.