FYI (seen on H-Africa). Interesting topic, but thinking about translation as a two way proposition, it seems that literary, cultural and historic materials get translated from African languages to ELWCs, while didactic materials sometimes get translated from ELWCs to African languages. IOW, a lack of symmetry or complementarity.
Don Date: Friday, 12 October 2007 From: Natasha Himmelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CALL FOR PAPERS for a 34th ALA Annual Conference PANEL 22-27 April 2008 Western Illinois University http://www.wiu.edu/ala2008 Translating African Literature/African Literature in Translation This panel seeks to discuss the discursive significance of translation within the context of "African Literature." Rather than interrogating the pragmatics of translation itself how it is done, various methods of translation, etc. this panel seeks to bring new depths to the language question in African literature through critical analysis of the discursive transactions involved in translating African literary texts. Within the context of globalization, there are clear and obvious benefits to writing in English, French, Italian, and Portuguese (i.e. larger audience, self-representation, financial gains), but how do these benefits change or transform when African literature is translated into these languages? In what ways are these respective benefits complicit within hegemonic, global systems of knowledge and production (i.e. capitalism)? What are the consequences of such complicity? Lacking an "original" in an indigenous language, in what ways does African literature written in global languages contest and/or collude with these systems? Conversely, how does translation, which retains the original, contest and/or collude with these systems? What forms of discursive agency are made available when writing in global languages? What forms of discursive agency are made available through translation? What kinds of knowledges are prioritized? Those interested in participating in this panel can send their abstracts to Natasha Himmelman at [EMAIL PROTECTED] by November 1, 2007. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
