Je traduis donc je suis: l'impossible entre-deux des fictions créolitaires

The present thesis deals with the translation challenges posed by the prose writing of two French postcolonial Caribbean writers whose claim to a different identity is embedded within the coloniser’s language. Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant ‘translate’ their Creole selves into their French narrative prose in order to articulate the paradox of being both the Same and Other. Their ‘in-between’ position presents challenges for the reader, who confronts a language at once familiar and yet different, and the translator whose ‘task’ is to arrive at a solution which conveys in the target language the ideological narrative stance taken by the authors. The thesis addresses the question of translation from different perspectives, seeking first to show how the authors through their theoretical writings respond to being ‘translated men’; next the concept and the potential of the ‘in-between’ is explored to illustrate how a ‘diglossic’ situation is used to inform their narrative prose and construct identity, and last comes the ‘critique’ itself. The theoretical perspectives of Antoine Berman help to examine the translation into English of two French Caribbean novels while an analysis of a translation from English into French by Raphaël Confiant offers an opportunity to discuss whether his ideological stance on writing has permeated his translation of an Anglophone Caribbean novel. The thesis provides an innovative approach of the dilemmas faced by the translators of postcolonial literature.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Dublin City University

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Denis, Morwena

• Translating and interpreting
• French language

Language dc:language

fr