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Language and Translation in Postcolonial Literatures

Multilingual Contexts, Translational Texts

Edited by Simona Bertacco

To Be Published October 12th 2013 by Routledge – 256 pages

Series: Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures

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  • Hardback: $125.00
    978-0-415-65604-7
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Description

This book explores postcolonial literatures from a translational perspective and argues that postcolonial studies should become a discourse of and on translation in order to be responsive to the complexity of the textuality, and even the literariness, of postcolonial texts. In a world where bi- and multilingualism have become quite normal, this volume considers translation a basic feature of postcolonial cultures, using translation scholarship as a critical tool for approaching postcolonial textuality. It makes a timely and strategic intervention into debates in literary studies (especially postcolonial studies, comparative literature, and world literature) as well as in discussions of globalization and cosmopolitanism, carrying out the convergence of the linguistic and literary approaches to postcolonial literatures by joining them with translation studies. The volume asks what happens when we acknowledge hearing more than one language in the background when reading a postcolonial writer, and what kind of reading is demanded by a textuality that explicitly toys with several languages. An impressive group of scholars in the field contribute original essays in what will be an important contribution to postcolonial studies on the whole.

Contents

Introduction: The Invisibility of Language in Postcolonial Literatures Simona Bertacco Part I. The Language Issue in Postcolonial Literatures 1. The Language of Postcolonial Literatures Bill Ashcroft 2. Othering English in African Literatures Chantal Zabus 3. ‘Weird English’ and Twenty-First Century Literature Evelyn Nien-Ming Ch’ien 4. Bilingual Games Doris Sommer 5. ‘What Language Is It In?’ Alastair Pennycook 6. Postcolonialism and Translation Ismail S. Talib 7. Translation and Comparative Literature Stephanos Stephanides Part II. The Gift of Translation to Postcolonial Literatures 8. The Gift of Translation to Postcolonial Literatures Simona Bertacco 9. Translation and Identity Michael Cronin 10. Translation and Urban Histories Sherry Simon 11. Translation and/as Literary Creation Franca Cavagnoli 12. The Courtesies of Exchange: The Ethics of Intercultural Dialogue Biancamaria Rizzardi Perutelli 13. The Politics of Translation in Postcolonial Pacific Literature Michelle Keown 14.Translationalism and African Literatures Raoul Granqvist

Author Bio

Simona Bertacco is Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature at the University of Milan, Italy.

Name: Language and Translation in Postcolonial Literatures: Multilingual Contexts, Translational Texts (Hardback) – Routledge 
Description: Edited by Simona Bertacco. This book explores postcolonial literatures from a translational perspective and argues that postcolonial studies should become a discourse of and on translation in order to be responsive to the complexity of the textuality, and even the literariness, of...
Categories: Post-Colonial Studies, Literature & Translation, Translation