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Tous droits réservés © TTR: traduction, terminologie, rédaction — Les auteurs, 1993 Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ Document généré le 22 août 2020 12:26 TTR Traduction, terminologie, re?daction Translation as Culture Transfer: Evidence from African Creative Writing Paul F. Bandia Traduction, mixité, politique Volume 6, numéro 2, 2e semestre 1993 URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/037151ar DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/037151ar Aller au sommaire du numéro Éditeur(s) Association canadienne de traductologie ISSN 0835-8443 (imprimé) 1708-2188 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Bandia, P. F. (1993). Translation as Culture Transfer: Evidence from African Creative Writing. TTR, 6 (2), 55–78. https://doi.org/10.7202/037151ar Résumé de l'article Traduction et transfert culturel : le cas de la création littéraire africaine — La tradition orale africaine exerce une influence marquée sur le langage de la création littéraire africaine en langues européennes (le français et l'anglais) qui pose des problèmes de traduction particuliers. La présente étude décrit les diverses techniques et les divers procédés de traduction utilisés par les traducteurs d'oeuvres africaines écrites en langues européennes. La discussion de ces procédés conduit à aborder des concepts bien connus dans le domaine de la traductologie : la traduction sémantique et la traduction communicative de Newmark, la #x00ab; overt translation » et la « covert translation » de House, la traduction primaire et la traduction secondaire de Diller et Kornelius et enfin la traduction ethnocentrique et la traduction hypertextuelle de Berman. La traduction comme transfert culturel, particulièrement en ce qui concerne des langues de cultures très éloignées l'une de l'autre, a été abordée entre autres par des théoriciens tels que Mounin, Nida et Snell-Hornby. La traduction d'oeuvres africaines est une « double transposition » : (1) l'auteur exprime la « pensée » africaine en langue européenne; (2) le traducteur effectue un « transfert » de la pensée africaine d'une langue européenne à une autre. La variété africaine de la langue européenne constitue un défi pour le traducteur, qui doit surmonter les problèmes particuliers que pose la traduction d'une telle variété « non standard » de langue européenne. Une analyse des divers procédés utilisés par les traducteurs d'oeuvres africaines en langues européennes révèle une préférence marquée pour une traduction plutôt sémantique, transparente (« overt ») et littérale, dans laquelle, pour emprunter à E. Nida, Y équivalence formelle l'emporterait sur l'équivalence dynamique. Cette approche est la plus apte, selon les traducteurs, à assurer une représentation efficace des réalités sociolinguistiques et socioculturelles africaines en langues européennes. Translation as Culture Transfer: Evidence from African Creative Writing Paul F. Bandia Introduction It is generally agreed that African creative writing in European languages has been greatly influenced by African oral tradition (Obiechina, 1975; Chinweizu et al, 1980; Gérard, 1986; Bandia, 1993). This influence has given rise to a variety of the European languages of writing (French and English) that can safely be considered African. The nature of these Africanized varieties poses specific problems for translators of African works. We wish to illustrate the various processes and techniques used to cope with these difficulties. Translation is an intercultural activity as well as an intralingual one as it deals with (at least) two linguistic systems embedded in two different cultures1. However, the difficulties inherent in the translation process vary proportionately with the degree of distance between the languages and the cultures involved. Translation of African works into European languages 1. Our definition of culture is similar to Snell-Hornb/s, when she points out that culture is not understood here "in the narrow sense of man's advanced intellectual development as reflected in the arts, but in the broader anthropological sense to refer to all socially conditioned aspects of human life [...]" (1988, p. 39). 55 is an example of a translation between non-related languages and cultures. It is a translation of an oral "text" into written form, on the one hand, and a translation from one language culture into an alien language culture, on the other. It has been pointed out by Snell-Hornby (1988, p. 41), among others, that "the extent to which a text is translatable varies with the degree to which it is embedded in its own specific culture, also with the distance that separates the cultural background of source text and target audience in terms of time and place." I. Choosing a translation approach Contemporary approaches to the study of language have provided us with tools with which to study the process of translating from an orally-based language-culture into a Western language-culture, and to assess the impact that such translations may have in the receptor Western language-culture. Contact between two alien cultures amounts to a confrontation between two heterogenous sensibilities that are deeply rooted in the intrinsic value systems of their respective cultures. Cultural value systems are difficult to grasp as they are intricately woven into the texture of the native language. A conscientious translator2, therefore, must be willing to make the extra effort that is required to unearth the full cultural meaning hidden in the language. He must be alive to the two sociocultural systems with which he is working in order to narrow the gap that separates them. His task becomes even more complicated when he is working between two languages of divergent sociocultural backgrounds and the issue takes another twist when the translation is between the languages of the "colonizer" and the "colonized." The translator must then be particularly careful about how he handles the material of the source language in his desire to be faithful to the target language and culture. Although 2. The term is used here to mean an African author writing in a European language or a translator of African works. 56 this is true of any translation, what sets it apart is the fact that the translator should strive to avoid exacerbating tensions created by past historical events (colonialism), by ensuring that no "negative stereotyping11 due to ignorance of the source culture occurs in the translation. An unbalanced approach might ultimately undermine the quality of the translated material. In a nutshell, while being aware of the sensibilities of the target language reader, the translator should also endeavour to preserve the sociocultural content of the source language. 1. A Source-Text Oriented Translation A. Prospective versus retrospective translation The most recent approaches to translation, according to Snell- Hornby, are an "orientation towards cultural rather than linguistic transfer, [a view of] translation, not as a process of transcoding, but as an act of communication, [an orientation] towards the function of the target text (prospective translation) rather than prescriptions of the source text (retrospective translation) [and a view of] the text as an integral part of the world and not an isolated specimen of language" (Snell-Hornby, 1988, pp. 43-44). These new perspectives can throw some light on the difficulty of translating African oral literature. As Snell-Hornby continues in her description of these approaches, she points out that: The text is embedded in a given situation, which is itself conditioned by its sociocultural background. The translation is then dependent on its function as a text "implanted" in the target culture, whereby there is the alternative of either preserving the original function of the source text in its culture I...] or of changing the function to adapt to specified needs in the target cultu [our italics]. (1988, p. 44) This is the dilemma facing the translator of African works who, for the most part, has elected to "preserve the original function of the source text in its culture." Thus, while Snell-Hornby places emphasis on situation of source text and function of the translation (1988, p. 112), the translator of African works is mainly concerned 57 with preserving the "situation of the source text." The translation process involved here defies the traditional approach which views translation as a mere substitution of linguistic and cultural equivalents. It is certainly not in unison with the view of Bible translators (Nida, Taber, among others) and other proponents of ethnocentric translation, who endorse a form of translation practice that quite often results in the re-creation of a piece of art into something far removed from the reality of the culture of the source language. It is a translation process which, in House's (1977) terms, is overt and not covert; it is a primary and not a secondary exercise (Diller and Kornelius, 1978)3, semantic and not communicative (Newmark, 1981). It is not literal translation per se, but translation written at the level of the source-text culture, in order to ensure that both the translator and the reader are receiving the message at the level of the source-text culture. Hence, it is not a free translation, and consequently hardly any effort is made to "filter" or adapt uploads/Societe et culture/ bandia-translation-culture-transfer-africa.pdf