le 10 mai à 11h30: Atelier III : Traduire et interpréter l’Autre (54, bd. Raspail)

(11h30-13h30)
Atelier III :
Traduire et interpréter l’Autre
(salle 445bis au 54, bd. Raspail)

Présidente : Anne-Marie Picard-Drillien (AUP)
Penser la réception du néo-travaillisme dans la gauche socialiste française à l'aune du concept de traduction. Thibaud Rioufreyt (France. Institut des Etudes Politiques, Lyon)
Power, Indigenous Language and Medical Interpreters in Northern Canada, 1930-1970. Myra Rutherdale (Canada. York University)
Bridging Cultures: John Reed’s Translation of Le Vieux Nègre et la Médaille. Felix Awung (Lesotho. National University of Lesotho)
Jacques Ferron – both writer and translator. Angela Feeney (Irlande. ITT, Dublin)

Abstracts /Résumés/ Zusammenfassungen

Penser la réception du néo-travaillisme dans la gauche socialiste française à l'aune du concept de traduction. Thibaut Rioufreyt.
Travaillant sur la réception du néo-travaillisme britannique dans la gauche socialiste, le programme lancé par Pierre Bourdieu sur la circulation internationale des idées constitue l'une des approches les plus fécondes[1]. Toutefois, certains postulats présents dans la théorie bourdieusienne et repris dans les travaux qui s'y réfèrent sont problématiques[2]. Partant de la thèse selon laquelle les mécanismes à l'oeuvre dans la traduction au sens le plus restrictif (comme opération de transposition du sens d'un texte d'une langue à une autre) sont analogues aux mécanismes à l'oeuvre dans la circulation internationale des idées, je me propose donc, à travers un cas empirique, d'opérer un examen critique de certains postulats bourdieusiens et de montrer la fécondité du concept de traduction pour y pallier. Ma contribution portera sur deux questions connexes : la sociologie des acteurs (pensés non plus comme des intermédiaires mais comme des médiateurs) et les logiques de réception d'une idée (en ne réduisant pas les discours au statut de support expressif des positions sociales).
[1] BOURDIEU Pierre, « Les conditions sociales de la circulation international des idées », Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, n° 145, décembre 2002, pp. 3-8.
[2] Voir notamment DEZALAY Yves & GARTH Bryant G., La mondialisation des guerres de palais. La restructuration du pouvoir d’État en Amérique latine. Entre notables du droit et « Chicago Boys », Paris, Le Seuil, 2002, et François DENORD, « Le prophète, le pèlerin et le missionnaire. La circulation internationale du néo-libéralisme et ses acteurs », Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, n° 145, 2002, p. 9-20. Voir également HEILBRON Johan et SAPIRO Gisèle, « Pour une sociologie de la traduction : bilan et perspectives », version anglaise parue dans WOLF Michaela (dir.), Construction a Sociology of Translation, Benjamins Press, 2007, pp. 93-107.

Power, Indigenous Language and Interpreters: Approaching Colonial Encounters In Canada’s North, 1930-1970 by Myra Rutherdale.
This paper focuses on the experiences of Aboriginal Canadian interpreters/translators who worked in tandem with doctors and nurses in Aboriginal communities across Canada’s north in the period from 1930 to 1970. In Translation and Power Maria Tymoczko and Edwin Gentzler recognize the powerful position occupied by translators in the colonial process, especially in the making of knowledge and the creation of colonial citizenship: “translation has been a key tool in the production of such knowledge and representations,” they argue. Yet, it was not always the colonizers who had the power and knowledge. On both sides of the colonial divide, the role of the interpreter was vested with power. Sometimes, in fact, Aboriginal interpreters determined the parameters of the working relationship. The paper will make three interrelated arguments. First, it is apparent that the doctors and nurses who attempted to introduce westernized medicine to Aboriginal patients were dependent upon Aboriginal interpreters to carry out their work successfully, a dependency that often went unacknowledged. Secondly, interpreters were the quintessential people in between two cultures, and as such often felt compelled to protect both their own people and the newcomers. For example, they often changed the meaning of the sometimes harsh words used by nurses and doctors. Thirdly, a new understanding of the relationship between interpreters and newcomers has the potential to dislodge the traditional binary between the colonizer and the colonized. The proposed paper casts light on the place of translation within colonial and post-colonial contexts in which “the other” was being constructed and reconstructed. This paper will bring to the conference perspectives on shifting power dynamics based on representations of power and language within the interpreter’s role in Canada’s far north.

Bridging Cultures: John Reed’s Translation of Le Vieux Nègre et la Médaille. Felix Awung.

The works of Ferdinand Oyono have become classics in the English speaking world thanks to translation. This demonstrates the enormous contribution translation can make and has made to literature in general and African literature in particular. However, even though much has been said and written about the success of these works, little credit has been given to the translators who have bridged the intercultural gaps to make these works available in English. It should be observed that translating African culture from one European language to another can be quite a challenging task, especially if the culture is foreign to the translator. This difficulty, as Bandia (1993) says, is due to the fact that cultural value systems are difficult to grasp as they are intricately woven into the texture of the native languages. Such a task is even more intriguing when dealing with African literature since the original text is in itself a form of translation, initially conceived in the African language of the author before being rendered into a European language. Looking at John Reed’s (1967) translation of Le vieux Nègre et la Médaille (1956), this paper seeks to examine how the translator has managed to overcome the obvious difficulties inherent in such a task, to pass across the cultural world view of Oyono into English. Given that literature portrays the norms, beliefs, and tradition of a particular society, the paper specifically examines the strategies used to translate the cultural bound terms of Oyono’s Bulu society into English. The questions that arise would seek to know the choices he makes, the reasons for them and how they conform to or conflict with relevant theories on the subject. Does the fact that he is working on what is already a translation make his task easier or more challenging? These are some of the questions this paper will be attempting to answer.

Jacques Ferron-both writer and translator, by Angela Feeney.

This paper proposes to examine issues of translation in the writing of Quebec writer Jacques Ferron. It is intended to examine the general issue of translation of his work into English against the backdrop of a French-English bilingual community. In addition this paper proposes to present Ferron as a translator within his own work and why he chose to act as translator and writer at one time. His work proves to be very interesting from the point of view of a writer himself translating across two ‘unequal’ cultures. In his novel ‘La nuit/ Ferron inserts a French translation of an English poem. In doing so, he draws the attention of the reader towards the act of translation itself and the role the translator plays in the transmission of culture. Ferron seems to force us to ponder such questions as what is the function of translation in a French-Canadian context and when translating what factors are at play in choosing what to translate and how to translate it. This aspect of Ferron’s writing is an excellent example of translation ‘within’. It is an excellent example of how writers can make comment on cultural issues not only through their writing but through the use of translation.

BIOS:

Thibaut Rioufreyt : Doctorant en science politique à l'Institut d'études politiques de Lyon, Thibaut Rioufreyt travaille dans le cadre de sa thèse sur la traduction du néo-travaillisme dans la gauche socialiste française. Ses recherches se trouvent ainsi à la croisée de la circulation internationale des idées, la socio-histoire des intellectuels, la sociologie du Parti socialiste et l'histoire des idées. Co-organisateur d'un séminaire de recherche intitulé sur « Perspectives critiques autour de la notion de champ dans la sociologie bourdieusienne » (http://triangle.ens-lsh.fr/spip.php?rubrique352), il a publié un article sur « Les mutations de la gauche contemporaine à l'aune du concept de social-libéralisme » (à paraître fin 2010 dans un ouvrage collectif sous la direction de Jean-Pierre Potier, Jacques Guilhaumou et Jean-Louis Fournier à ENS éditions, Lyon).

Myra Rutherdale: is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at York University in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of Women and the White Man’s God: Gender and Race in the Canadian Mission Field (2002). She co-edited Contact Zones: Aboriginal and Settler Women in Canada’s Colonial Past (2205) and edited Caregiving. On The Periphery: Historical Perspectives on Nursing and Midwifery In Canada (2010). She studies colonialism and is most interested in race relations in northern Canada, particularly relationships between Aboriginal people and newcomers to the north. Her particular focus is on Inuit interpreters.

Felix Awung: holds an MA in translation and currently teaches French language and translation theory and practice at the National University of Lesotho. He is also enrolled in a part–time PhD programme in translation studies at Wits University in Johannesburg, and his PhD focus is on the translation of African culture. Mr Awung has seven years of experience working as a language teacher/lecturer, and a freelance translator and interpreter. His preferred fields of research are cultural translation and sociolinguistics.

Angela Feeney: Lecturer in Humanities at the Institute of Technolgy Tallaght Dublin, Ireland, and a Member of the Franco-Irish Centre.