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- Convenors:
-
Nathalie Koenings
(Hampshire College)
Irene Brunotti (University of Leipzig)
Franziska Fay (Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Linguistic and visual (de)colonialisms
- Location:
- Room 1098
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 8 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
In this panel we ask: What can 'response-able' translation bring to the decolonization of relations with, to, and in 'Africa'? And how might the response-ability for decolonisation generate new meaning for the question of translation?
Long Abstract:
We explore translation as a response-able practice of decolonisation. Both translation and decolonisation are defined by the commitment "to respond, to be responsible and take responsibility for that which we inherit from the past and from the future" (Barad 2019). We ask: What can 'response-able' translation bring to the decolonization of relations with, to, and in 'Africa'? And how might response-ability for decolonisation generate new meaning for the question of translation?
This response-ability shapes decisions about which texts are rendered into other languages for other audiences. It defines our responses to existing 'texts', and which will be accessible for, and eventually inherited by, whom. For decolonisation, too, response-ability for stories of the past, in what languages, for whom, how, and why they are told, is essential.
Response-able translation and decolonisation are collaborative. They are relational projects of reflexive sense-making that (ideally) bring into conversation perspectives from across Africa and Europe. Response-able translation honours multiple onto-epistemologies. Like decolonisation, it attends to the violence inherent to all forms of representation, and diversifies socio-political debates.
Contributions might engage the following questions:
How can translation (word-based, visual, and other) contribute to decolonisation? What does honouring the materiality of wor(l)ds - their historicity, temporary, relational situatedness - and of translation itself require us to acknowledge and articulate? How may the idea of 'text' itself conceal the multiple objects of translation? How might questions of self-translatability and untranslatability be negotiated? How can we locate response-ability in our diverse relations, both within and outside of 'texts'?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 8 June, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
This paper takes the visit of Kofi Awoonor to Beijing in 1963 as an example. It argues that translation as an event on the textual, diplomatic and epistemological level was used to form transnational solidarity and emotional bonds among the newly independent nations in a joint decolonizing movement.
Paper long abstract:
Translation has never been a one-way travel and cannot be detached from the context. On August 25, 1963, Kofi Awoonor, still known as George Awoonor Williams, dressed up in traditional clothes and performed his poems Black Eagle Awakens with an African drum in a poetry recitation concert in Beijing. His performance and translation of the poem together with Chinese writers’ travelogues about Africa formed Chinese understanding and literary representations of Africa. The event was also part of the literary decolonization among the “Third World” in the 1960s. Coming to China as the secretary of the Ghana Society of Writers and editor of the magazine Okyeame, Kofi Awoonor actively engaged with the Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau and the Ghanaian politics. How national, international and global politics gave rise to textual and cultural translations? What kind of power dynamics, relationality and strategies were involved in the translating process? And how oral and written texts as well as paratexts feature in the process? This paper takes the visit of Kofi Awoonor to Beijing in 1963 as an example. It argues that translation as an event on the textual, diplomatic and epistemological level was used to form transnational solidarity and emotional bonds among the newly independent nations in a joint decolonizing movement.
Paper short abstract:
This study explores the various ways and ploys employed in translations and adaptations. The study uses adaptation theory to expand the focus of the art of translation and/or adaptation while denoting the relationship or otherwise of the politics of translation conveyed in text and performance.
Paper long abstract:
This study explores the various ways and ploys employed in translations and adaptations in text and performance. Long before extant ancient Greek plays were written, they existed as performances. These performances were created from existing myths in their societies. The plays addressed societal ills and issues while keeping its audience entertained. In recent times, these plays have become a cradle and inspiration for playwrights. Among the extant ancient Greek plays, Sophocles’ Antigone remains the most performed, translated, rewritten and adapted. Perhaps, it is the underlying ancient myth and the ambiguities of the play that has been a major influence to playwrights and has as well led to the variations in its interpretation—at different times and in different places and contexts, Antigone connects with people differently. In spite of its adaptability, it is Antigone’s tragic persona—her defiance for tyranny, her rebelliousness and her claim to advance human freedom—that has been pivotal in enabling its continuous appropriation as text and in performance. The probable fundamental impetus for its prolific interaction with the present is the urgency of contemporary political situations. Femi Osofisan in his translation / adaptation titled Tègònni, reiterates his quest to address issues regarding race and personal courage and nonetheless, bemoans the complexities of political freedom in a colonial era. However, in its performance, and with a different cultural setting, the probability that a different political and cultural ideology or stance would be conveyed is key.
Paper short abstract:
This paper will consider methodologies for response-able translation through the case of my own experience translating into English for a US-based publisher the Swahili language poetry collection N’na Kwetu (I Have a Home) by Pemba-born Tanzanian poet Mohammed Ghassani.
Paper long abstract:
Response-ability to Poetry’s Publics: Translating Swahili Poetry in the United States
This paper will consider methodologies for response-able translation through the case of my own experience translating into English for a US-based publisher the Swahili language poetry collection N’na Kwetu (I Have a Home) by Pemba-born Tanzanian poet Mohammed Ghassani. Drawing on specific examples and counter-examples from the poems themselves and in conversation with American poet and translator John Keene, among others, I will consider the risks and possibilities inherent in assimilating the politically weighty formal and linguistic choices of the poet within the context of Swahili literary convention and Zanzibari political history to the aesthetic norms of Anglo-American poetics and the generic expectations attached to the appellation “African Literature” within the specific racisms of US publishing.
Paper short abstract:
In this presentation, I will focus on contemporary Swahili extranslations into English, German and Italian to highlight the role of cultural mediators and their negotiations/struggles within their respective publishing markets, to promote the visibility of Swahili literature.
Paper long abstract:
In this presentation, I will focus on contemporary Swahili extranslations into English, German and Italian to highlight the role of cultural mediators and their negotiations/struggles within their respective publishing markets, to promote the visibility of Swahili literature.