Abstracts
Abstract
Colonial domination entails a struggle over interpretation. The colonizers establish whose version of reality will be codified and become the dominant one. Breaking with that dominant, authorized account implies a struggle against hegemony. Translators have always played key roles in colonization as agents of the colonizer. Subaltern translators and interpreters have often served in this role. But they often contest dominant meanings. They subvert dominant meanings as they transform them across the colonial divide. Theorizing translation practices from that point of colonial conjunction or contact, this essay adduces two examples to see how a decolonial methodology to study translation and power can shed light on how, in the hands of an astute translator, a translation can offer a counter-narrative that deconstructs colonial systems of meaning. The two examples: Frederick Douglass’ intralingual translation of the meaning of the Fourth of July (1852) and singer Caetano Veloso’s recording of Augusto de Campos’ translation (1979) of John Donne’s “Elegy 19: To His Mistress Going To Bed” (1654). Three interconnected characteristics make the translations decolonial. (1) They are abusive (Lewis, 2000; Venuti, 2013). (2) The target language or culture is an imagined world, better and more just than the world we live in now (Santos, 2014). (3) They are performatives insofar as they begin to bring that imagined world into existence through performing the translation (Austin, 1975). As a deconstructive embrace, this kind of translation draws attention to the colonial legacy and to the colonial context, and also to itself—that is, to its own selective appropriation (Spivak, 1995, p. 31).
Keywords:
- translation,
- colonialism,
- slave narratives,
- subaltern studies,
- decolonial
Résumé
La domination coloniale implique une lutte d’interprétations. Les colonisateurs établissent quelle version de la réalité sera codifiée et deviendra dominante. Rompre avec ce récit dominant et officialisé comporte une lutte contre l’hégémonie. Traducteurs et interprètes subalternes ont souvent servi d’agents des colonisateurs. Cependant, ils contestent souvent les significations dominantes. Ils renversent les significations dominantes, car ils les transforment à travers la division coloniale. Théorisant les pratiques de la traduction de ce point de conjonction ou de contact colonial, cet article s’appuie sur deux exemples pour montrer l’utilité d’une méthodologie décoloniale pour éclairer la façon dont, entre les mains d’un traducteur astucieux, la traduction peut offrir un contre-discours qui déconstruit les systèmes coloniaux de sens. Les deux exemples sont la traduction intralinguale de Frederick Douglass de la signification de « the Fourth of July » (1852) et l’enregistrement par le chanteur Caetano Veloso de la traduction de Augusto de Campos de l’oeuvre de John Donne « Elegy 19: To His Mistress Going To Bed » (1654). Trois caractéristiques interreliées rendent une traduction décoloniale : 1) la traduction est abusive (Lewis, 2000; Venuti, 2013); 2) la langue ou la culture cible est un monde imaginaire, meilleur et plus juste que le monde dans lequel nous vivons (Santos, 2014); 3) la traduction est performative, dans la mesure où elle commence à donner vie à ce monde imaginaire par la performance de la traduction (Austin, 1975). Comme une étreinte déconstructive, ce genre de traduction met en lumière l’héritage colonial et le contexte colonial, voire le genre lui-même, c’est-à-dire son appropriation sélective (Spivak, 1995, p. 31).
Mots-clés :
- traduction,
- colonialisme,
- discours d’esclavage,
- études subalternes,
- décolonial
Appendices
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