Writing and Translating Francophone Discourse

This book is a much needed contribution to interdisciplinary research on the intersection of French and Francophone Studies and Translation Studies. It highlights the symbiotic relationship between the two disciplines whereby theories and concepts developed in translation studies provide useful models and paradigms for studying francophone literature, while major concepts that hold sway in the francophone world provide a solid basis for elucidating and understanding translation phenomena. The book is at once a contribution to the growing field of postcolonial francophone studies and the sub-area of postcolonial translation theory. Contributors are experts from a variety of disciplines and hail from various regions across the globe. What unites them is their interest in translation and its conceptualization both as an interlinguistic practice and a metaphor for intercultural communication and transcultural relations. The contributions draw on literature, film, historical documents and critical theories by French and francophone thinkers, highlighting the significance of translation for African, Caribbean and migrant francophone discourse.

“This edited collection takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of texts in the francophone African and Caribbean world, drawing on theories and concepts from francophone postcolonial studies, translation studies and related fields. The essays are diverse in terms of subject matter, from the “semiotics of the hyphen” to the translation and communication of the history of the Basotho people, and they focus not only on written literature and philosophy but also orality and film. [...] Édouard Glissant’s Poétique de la Relation is used as a point of departure for many of the essays, which form a culturally, linguistically and geographically diverse collection. […] this is a fascinating compilation of essays that engage with philosophical, metaphorical and practical translation issues and take a unique and multidisciplinary approach to our understanding of cultural communication across space and time in relation to the Caribbean, Africa and its diaspora.” - Georgina Collins, University of Glasgow, in: Translation Studies 9.3 (2016), pp.327-329