Cover not available

In:Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology
Edited by Luc van Doorslaer, Peter Flynn and Joep Leerssen
[Benjamins Translation Library 119] 2016
► pp. 181–200

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

How Algeria’s multilingualism and colonial history are obscured

Marketing three postcolonial Francophone Algerian writers in Dutch translation

Published online: 25 February 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.119.11sch
This chapter focuses on filtering and adaptation in translation into Dutch by taking a closer look at publishers’ paratexts surrounding three translated postcolonial Francophone authors from Algeria. A postcolonial framework will be used to ask whether the “otherness” is blurred in the paratexts and whether the translation of postcolonial literature is “brought home” in a monolingual, monocultural context. In using the concept “paratextual framing” (Watts 2004) an attempt will be made to answer the following question: in what way does this kind of framing shape a new image of the translated author? Translations of Assia Djebar, Malika Mokeddem and Tahar Djaout will be discussed.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Bilingual or polyglot writers in French
  • The language of the former coloniser
  • A literature that transcends the cultural spaces of the Maghreb and France
  • Francophone Algerian literature as a non-existent category
  • Packaging Djebar in Dutch translations
  • Algerian colonial history obscured
  • Oppressive Bedouins or oppressive colonisers?
  • Djaout ethnicized in translation
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (30)
References
Bandia, Paul. 2001. “Le concept bermanien de l’Etranger’ dans le prisme de la traduction postcoloniale.” TTR: traduction, terminologie, rédaction, 14:2, 123–139. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. “Postcolonialism and translation: the dialectic between theory and practice”.” In Translation as Creation: the Postcolonial Influence, ed. by Aline Remael and Ilse Logie, 129–143. Linguistica Antverpiensia: 2.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Batchelor, Kathryn. 2013a. “Introduction: Translation – Formidable Enemy or needed Friend?” In Intimate Enemies. Translation in Francophone Contexts, ed. by Kathryn Batchelor and Claire Bisdorff, 1–14. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013b. “Postcolonial intertextuality and translation explored through the work of Alain Mabanckou.” In Intimate Enemies. Translation in Francophone Contexts, ed. by Kathryn Batchelor and Claire Bisdorff, 196–216. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buzelin, Hélène. 2004. “La traductologie, l’ethnographie et la production des connaissances.” Meta, XLIX, 4: 729–746. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Calle-Gruber, Mireille. 2001. Assia Djebar ou la résistance de l’écriture. Regards d’un écrivain d’Algérie. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Djaout, Tahar. 2011. De bottenzoekers. Vertaald door Hester Tollenaar. Met een voorwoord van Abdelkader Benali. Amsterdam: Atheneum Polak en Van Gennep.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Djebar, Assia. 1991. De schaduwkoningin. Roman. Vertaald door Jan Versteeg. Breda: De Geus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. De verdwenen vrouw. Roman. Vertaald door Jan Versteeg. Breda: De Geus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Het verloren woord. Roman. Vertaald door Jan Versteeg. Breda: De Geus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gafaïti, Hafid. 2005. La diasporisation de la littérature postcoloniale. Assia Djebar, Rachid Mimouni. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghazoul, Ferial Jabouri. 2007. “Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War (review).” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 3,2: 120–122. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Helm, Yolande Aline (ed.). 2000. Malika Mokeddem envers et contre tout. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jager, Marjolijn de. 2013. “Translation – A listening Art.” In In Intimate Enemies. Translation in Francophone Contexts, ed. by Kathryn Batchelor and Claire Bisdorff, 109–116. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janssen, Lies, van Toorn, Willem (ed.). 1997. Manuscripten branden niet. Censuur in de twintigste eeuw. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij De Balie.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keil-Sagawe, Regina. 2001. ““Ce tangage des langues…”. Das Problem der Übersetzung und die Übersetzung als Problem maghrebinischer Literatur französischer Sprache am Beispiel von Assia Djebar.” In Wenn Ränder Mitte werden. Zivilisation, Literatur und Sprache im interkulturellen Kontext, ed. by Ch. Adobati, M. Aldouri-Lauber, M. Hager and R. Hosch, 266–277. Vienna: WUV Universitätsverlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Khaïr-Eddine, Mohamed. 2011. Leven en legende van Agoun’Chich. Vertaald door Hester Tollenaar. Met een voorwoord van Asis Aynan. Amsterdam: Atheneum Polak en Van Gennep.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leerssen, Joep. 2011. Spiegelpaleis Europa. Europese cultuur als mythe en beeldvorming. Nijmegen: Vantilt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mehrez, Samia. 1992. “Translation and the postcolonial experience: The Francophone North African text.” In Rethinking Translation. Discourse Subjectivity Ideology, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, 120–139. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Le Cour Grandmaison, Olivier. 2005. Coloniser. Exterminer. Sur la guerre et l’Etat colonial. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mokeddem, Malika. 1995. Dromen en moordenaars. Uit het Frans vertaald door Eveline van Hemert. Breda: De Geus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. De blauwe mensen. Uit het Frans vertaald door Désirée Schyns. Breda: De Geus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruano, Rosario Martín. 2003. “Bringing the other back home: the translation of (un)familiar hybridity.” In Translation as Creation: the Postcolonial Influence, ed. by Aline Remael and Ilse Logie, 191–205. Linguistica Antverpiensia: 2.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schyns, Désirée. 2009. “Le butin de guerre et la tunique de Nessus: traduire le rapport au français chez Malika Mokeddem et Assia Djebar.” Cadernos de tradução, 2, 24: 31–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. La mémoire littéraire de la guerre d’Algérie dans la fiction algérienne francophone. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “Een verhouding van spanning en integratie. Literaire meertaligheid in vertaling” (A relation of tension and integration. The translation of literary multilingualism). Filter, tijdschrift over vertalen, 21, 3: 50–62.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thum, Bernd. 2007. “Orientalism.” Imagology. The cultural construction and literary representation of national characters. A critical survey, ed. by Manfred Beller and Joep Leerssen, 389–393. Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watts, Richard. 2004. Packaging Postcoloniality. The Manufacture of Literary Identity in the Francophone World. New York: Lexington Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yildiz, Yasemin. 2012. Beyond the Mother Tongue. The Postmonolingual Condition. New York: Fordham University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Cedergren, Mickaëlle
2025. Le Maghreb perçu par le Nord : un Maghreb déraciné ? La médiation de la littérature maghrébine de langue française en Suède. In Passages francophones du Maghreb et transfert culturel, ► pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
Jünke, Claudia
2023. Transcultural memory and literary translation: Mapping the Field (with a case study on Lydie Salvayre’s Pas pleurer and its Spanish translation). Memory Studies 16:5 ► pp. 1280 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue