HomeTranslation and Translators in the Colonial Context

Translation and Translators in the Colonial Context

La traduction et les traducteurs dans le contexte colonial

الترجمة والمترجمو ن في السياق الكولونيالي: أدوار، وظائف، وسرديات

Roles, Functions and Narratives

Rôles, fonctions et récits

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Published on Monday, July 29, 2024

Abstract

The chronological reading of colonial contexts allows us to identify the “organic” link between translation and the colonial project, before, during and after the military occupation. Translation has acquired several functions; highlighting the role of the translator between the narratives of the colonizer and that of the colonized. Until 2000, seventy percent of the world's population had a “colonial” past, either as a colonizer or as a colonized. (Etemad, 258), which suggests that more than seventy percent of the world's population have been affected, and perhaps still are, through the prism of translation. The Conference will attempt to understand how translation was put at the service of the colonial project? What translation approaches have been adopted by translators and interpreters? How did translational discourse influence the cultures of the occupier and the occupied?

Announcement

Argument

The colonial project, among its expansionist objectives, accorded a significant status to translation; its functions and strategies of use multiplied according to the contexts of the project and contrasting narratives. The narrative of life itself (Barthe, 1977, 79);   provoking confrontations, tensions, conflicts, and wars (Mona Baker, 2018, 41),  explains the manifestations of the colonial phenomenon that reached its peak in 1938 when colonial Europe, with 1.3 percent of the area, extended to control 41 percent of inhabited lands in Africa, Asia, and America (Etemad, 2000, 258); and justifies the adoption of translation as an essential instrument of the colonial operation and its contexts.

A diachronic analysis of these contexts highlights the intrinsic interweaving between translation and the colonial enterprise, from the pre-occupation phase, when missionary missions used translation to refine Christianity and denigrate ancestral religions in the service of the colonial project (Bandia, 2005, 959). Besides the translation of cultural references of the territories targeted by occupation, this approach constituted a preliminary phase to the military invasion (Messaoudi, 2010,1). During the occupation, translation became an instrument of domination, as it was formally structured within the military institution (Mopoho, 2001: 7). From orality to scripturality, ancestral cultures were translated, considering the natives as primitive and belligerent, within the framework of an eternally renewed comparison with the idealistic figure of the white man, adorned with the virtues of civilization and peace (Cheyfitz, 1991, 115). These translation operations gave birth to a linguistic stratification within which the idioms of the colonial powers prevailed, relegating to the background, or even eradicating, the languages of the indigenous populations (Boulanger and Chagnon, 2015, OIC.ca). After the political independence of the colonies, postcolonial studies demonstrated how translation was used to produce and reproduce differences in symbolic capital and its ability to transform them into scientific and economic differences between producing and consuming cultures. Translation has always been a fundamental institution, serving as a lever for imperial and expansionist projects, both in the past and present (Baker, 44).

Postcolonial studies also revealed that translation is an essential condition for achieving the military through the political, in a context of tensions between linguistically different nations (Baker, 43). Thus, it has endowed itself with several functions, the most important of which seems to be translation as a tool of espionage:  it can be represented by the attempt to translate the book “Examples” by Ibn Khaldun into the colonial context, carried out at the official request of the French government (1840-1863), with the aim of revealing the weaknesses that undermined the population of the region (Lacoste, 1998, 9). Similarly, translation as an identity project: highlighting the preferences and values of the authors. Irish translators, for example, in translating British texts, tend to ignore the dominant discourse of their culture and replace it with a discourse reflecting their own culture, with a pride that is its reflection (Tymoczko, 1999, 82). Furthermore, translation as a tool of resistance is manifested in the adoption by Indian translators of a strategy, called "counter-hegemonic translation", allowing the transposition of English works into a language that reflects their own cultural identity, defined as "Indian English" (Ramakrishna and Nehru 2000).

The multiplicity of functions assigned to translation, in the colonial context, highlights the translator's responsibility in the production of translational discourse. Postcolonial theory, as understood by Homi Bhabha, insists on "the third space", allowing the act of translation far from the duality of the dominant and the dominated (Bhabha, 1994). On the other hand, narrative theory, under the aegis of Mona Baker, emphasized the importance of considering the changing position of translators in relation to texts, authors, and the dominant ideology (Baker, 27). This perspective underlines the necessity of considering how these relationships evolve and reflect in the translated product, whether oral or written.

It seems clear that translation has a decisive influence on the colonial process, before, during, and after military occupation. Until 2000, seventy percent of the world's population had a "colonial" past, either as a colonizer or as a colonized (Etemad, 258), and according to the transitive relationship, it can be assumed that more than seventy percent of the world's population has been affected, and perhaps still is, through the prism of translation, which demands increased attention to its subject. Hence the importance of organizing an International Conference, starting with the awakening of awareness about the role of translation in the erosion of the dominant narrative "the West, the center of the world", to discuss the rereading of the history of translation in this wake of decolonization, as well as the possibility of correcting the historical transgressions and excesses caused by translations in the service of colonialism (Medjahed, 2019, 89). Thus, as Algeria commemorates the seventieth anniversary of the outbreak of the victorious liberation revolution, the international conference will focus on translation experiences across continents, in the light of postcolonial theory according to Homi Bhabha and narrative theory according to Baker, to attempt to understand how translation was put at the service of the colonial project? What translation approaches were adopted by translators and interpreters? How did translational discourse influence the cultures of the occupier and the occupied?

Axes of the Conference

  • Translation in the colonial project: How was translation a strategic tool omnipresent in all colonial projects throughout history? What are the distinctive features of these strategies? How was it used to serve or not serve this project?
  • Translation and the legitimacy relationship between languages: How did it shape the complex history of interactions between the languages of colonizers and those of the colonized? How did it contribute to defining, institutionalizing, and hierarchizing the languages of colonizers and colonized, thus creating linguistic and cultural hierarchies? What is its relationship with processes of marginalization and extinction of languages? How has translation not been able to protect languages that no longer exist?
  • The translator and interpreter in the colonial context: Who is the translator and interpreter in this context? How were they trained and employed? What translation approaches were adopted by translators based on the legitimacy of languages and the authenticity of cultures? How were they judged for their involvement or non-involvement in the colonial project? What is the social status of the translator and interpreter within the group of belonging? Who are the notable personalities in the field of translation and interpretation?
  • Postcolonial translational discourse: What is the level of awareness regarding the role of translation in consolidating or questioning the dominant narrative, "the West as the center of the world"? How do postcolonial translators and interpreters position themselves between the culture of origin and the colonizing culture? How effective are Baker's narrative theory and Bhabha's postcolonial theory in terms of limiting and resisting the dominant narrative? How do postcolonial translations contribute to valuing and enriching the dominated culture? What are the merits of postcolonial translations in reducing the gap between active and subordinate cultures?

Participation

Abstracts (with a maximum of 4000 characters, including spaces) should be submitted along with brief curriculum vitae via email:  traduction.contexte.colonial@crasc.dz

Important Dates:

  • Abstract submissions deadline: August 31st, 2024.

  • Notifications for acceptance of abstracts: September 8th, 2024
  • Final papers submission deadline: October 8th, 2024.

Scientific Committee

  • Mohamed Korso, Historian, and Member of the National Committee for History and Memory  Algeria 
  • Saïd Boutadjine, Professor in the Department of Translation, Translator, Novelist and Critic, University of Mostaganem Algeria
  • Keltouma Aguis, the Head of the Unit for Research on Translation and Terminology URTT/ CRASC Algeria
  • Mustapha Tijet, the Head of the Center for Research on Amazigh Language and Culture, CRLCA Algeria 
  • Djazia Fergani, Professor and Head of the Institute of Translation, University of Oran 1 Algeria
  • Chakib Benhafri, Historian, Translator, and Director of the Laboratory for Studies and Research on the Ottoman Heritage in Algeria 
  • Saïda Kahil, Translator, Head of the Laboratory for Translation and Language Education, Annaba University  Algeria
  • Mohamed chawki zine, Professor of Philosophy and translator, University of Tlemcen Algeria
  • Amar Mohand Ameur, Historian, Center for Research on Social and Cultural Anthropology CRASC  Algeria
  • Malika Rehal, Historian, researcher, National Centre for Scientific Research CNRS, CRASC  France
  • Malik Tahar Chaouch, Sociologist, Institute of Historical and Social Studies, University of Veracruzana Mexico
  • Reda Mami, Professor of Spanish literature, translator, and a member of the North American Academy of Contemporary World Literature  Tunisia
  • Djamel Abdel Rahman, Professor of Translation and Translator, National Center for Translation
  • Maria Pilar Garrido Clemente, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Translator, University of Murcia Spain
  • Yolanda Guardi, Professor of Arabic Language and Translation, University of Macerata Italy
  • Antonio Rey, Professor of Islamic History, New University of Lisbon Portugal
  • Luis Miguel Peraz Cañada, Professor of Translation and translator, School of Translators, Toledo

Références

 بيكر منى)2018(، الترجمة والصراع: حكاية سردية، ترجمة طارق النعمان، المركز القومي للترجمة، القاهرة.  

Bandia. Paul (2005), Esquisse d’une histoire de la traduction en Afrique, Meta Journal des traducteurs 50(3), p 957-970. 

Barthes. Roland (1977), Essays Selected And Translated By Stephen Heath, Fontana Press. 

Boulanger. Pier-Pascale, Chagnon. Karina (2015), Traduction, altérité et résistance dans le contexte colonial canadien, Montréal: OIC, Uqam,

https://oic.uqam.ca/mediatheque/traduction-alterite-et-resistance-dans-lecontexte-colonial-canadien  

Cheyfitz. Eric (1991), The poetics of imperialism: translation and colonization from the tempest to Tarzan. New York: Oxford University Press.

Etemad. Bouda (2000), L'Europe et le monde colonial. De l'apogée des empires à l'après-décolonisation, Revue économique, n° 51-2, pp. 257-268.    

Hubert. Claudine (2004), Traduction et présentation du texte "L'engagement envers la théorie", de Homi Bhabha,. Masters thesis, Concordia University,  https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/8188/  

Lacoste. Yves (1998), Ibn Khaldoun: naissance de l’histoire, passé du Tiers-monde. Paris: la Découverte.  

Medjahed. Milouda (2019), «Traductions coloniales et (post)coloniales à l’épreuve de la neutralité». Dans  Et si la recherche scientifique ne pouvait pas être neutre? Sous la direction de Laurence Brière, Mélissa Lieutenant-Gosselin et Florence Piron, chapitre 6, pp. 81-93. Quebec: Éditions science et bien commun.

Messaoudi, Alain (2010), « Entre érudition et colonisation, de Slane éditeur et traducteur d’Ibn Khaldoun (1840-1868) ». Dans Figures d’Ibn Khaldûn: réception, appropriation et usages: Actes du colloque international organisé à Alger les 17, 18 et 19 juin 2006. Alger: Editions du CNRPAH.

Mopoho. Raymond (2001), Statut De L'interprète Dans L'administration Coloniale En Afrique Francophone, Meta Journal des traducteurs, vol. 46, no 3, p. 615-626,  https://open.unive.it/hitrade/books/MopohoStatut.pdf    

Ramakrishna. Shanta, et Nehru. Jawaharlal (2000), « Cultural Transmission Through Translation: An Indian Perspective ». Dans Changing the Terms. Translating in the Postcolonial Era. Sous la direction de Sherry Simon et Paul St-Pierre, p. 87-100. Ottawa; University of Ottawa Press.  

Tymoczko. Maria (1999). Translation in a Postcolonial Context. Early Irish Literature. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.  

Places

  • Technopole USTO Bir El Djir
    Oran, Algeria (31000)

Event attendance modalities

Hybrid event (on site and online)


Date(s)

  • Saturday, August 31, 2024

Keywords

  • translation, translator, colonial context, Narratives, postcolonial studies, crasc, Algeria

Information source

  • Keltouma AGUIS
    courriel : traduction [dot] contexte [dot] colonial [at] crasc [dot] dz

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Translation and Translators in the Colonial Context », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, July 29, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/123s6

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