1887
Volume 18, Issue 3
  • ISSN 1932-2798
  • E-ISSN: 1876-2700
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

This article examines translation strategies applied in the Russian version of Mariama Bâ’s francophone novel (). The novel, which is often described as feminist, was translated into Russian during the period of late socialism, which was characterized by gradual societal changes involving the liberalization of the social order. Drawing on Spivak’s theorization of the subaltern and feminist translation, this article explores how the francophone African novel was translated into Russian and how specifically Soviet feminist discourses are reflected in the translation. Ultimately, this article argues that, by employing feminist translation strategies, the subaltern women characters in were represented as less dependent on patriarchal structures and ‘inserted’ into the target culture as hegemonic subjects.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/tis.20029.kas
2023-02-07
2024-10-06
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Acholonu, Catherine O.
    1995Motherism: The Afrocentric Alternative to Feminism. Owerri: Afa Publications.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Ajayi, Omofolablo
    1997 “Negritude, feminism, and the quest for identity: Re-reading Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter.” Women’s Studies Quarterly25(3–4): 35–52.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Arkhangelʹskai͡a, Marii͡a Naumovna
    2021 “An interview with M.N. Arkhangelʹskai͡a.” Interview byMukile Kasongo. Transcript, 1–17, unpublished PhD data. University of Birmingham.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Assiba d’Almeida
    Assiba d’Almeida 1986 “The concept of choice in Mariama Bâ’s fiction.” InNgambika: Studies of Women in African Literature, ed. byCarole Davies and Anne Adama Graves, 161–73. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bâ, Mariama
    1989So long a letter. Trans. from French byModupé Bodé-Thomas. London: Heinemann.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Ба, Мариама [Bâ, Mariama
    ] 1986Такое длинное письмо [So long a letter] Trans. from French byM. Arkhangelʹskai͡a. Moscow: Khudozhestvennai͡a Literatura.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bâ, Mariama
    2005Une si longue lettre [So long a letter]. Saint-Amand-Montrond: Groupe Privat/Le Rocher.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bassnett, Susan and Harish Trivedi
    1999 “Introduction: Of colonies, cannibals and vernaculars.” InPost-Colonial Translation: Theory and Practice, ed. bySusan Bassnett and Harish Trivedi, 1–18. Translation Studies. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9780203068878
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203068878 [Google Scholar]
  9. Blair, Dorothy S.
    1984Senegalese Literature: A Critical History. Boston: Twayne.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Byford, Andy, Connor Doak, and Stephen Hutchings
    2020 “Introduction: Transnationalizing Russian Studies.” InTransnational Russian Studies, ed. byAndy Byford, Connor Doak, and Stephen Hutchings, 1–34. Liverpool University Press. 10.2307/j.ctvwvr2t8.6
    https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvwvr2t8.6 [Google Scholar]
  11. Clark, Shelley and Sarah Brauner-Otto
    2015 “Divorce in sub-Saharan Africa: Are unions becoming less stable?” Population and Development Review41(4): 583–605. 10.1111/j.1728‑4457.2015.00086.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00086.x [Google Scholar]
  12. De Jong, Sara, and Jamila M. H. Mascat
    2016 “Relocating subalternity: Scattered speculations on the conundrum of a concept.” Cultural Studies30(5): 717–29. 10.1080/09502386.2016.1168109
    https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2016.1168109 [Google Scholar]
  13. Edwin, Shirin
    2009 “Expressing Islamic feminism in Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter.” Gender, Place & Culture16(6): 723–40. 10.1080/09663690903279161
    https://doi.org/10.1080/09663690903279161 [Google Scholar]
  14. Ergun, Emek
    2020 “Feminist ethics of translation.” InThe Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics, ed. byKaisa Koskinen and Nike Pokorn, 114–130. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781003127970‑10
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003127970-10 [Google Scholar]
  15. Ezeigbo, Akachi
    2012Snail-sense Feminism: Building on an Indigenous Model. Lagos: University of Lagos.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Galastri, Leandro
    2018 “Social classes and subaltern groups: Theoretical distinction and political application.” Capital & Class42(1): 43–62. 10.1177/0309816817692122
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0309816817692122 [Google Scholar]
  17. Griffiths, Claire
    2011Globalizing the Postcolony: Contesting Discourses of Gender and Development in Francophone Africa. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Guèye, Médoune
    1998 “La question du féminisme chez Mariama Bâ et Aminata Sow Fall.” [The question of Mariama Bâ and Aminata Sow Fall’s feminism] The French Review72(2): 308–19.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. hooks, bell
    2015Feminism is for everybody: passionate politics, second edition. Routledge: New York.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Iukina, Irina
    2007Russkiĭ Feminizm Kak Vyzov Sovremennosti [Russian feminism as a challenge of modernity]. Sankt-Petersburg: Aleteĭi︠a︡.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Kempem, Laura C.
    2001Mariama Bâ, Rigoberta Menchú, and Postcolonial Feminism. Oxford: Peter Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Klumbytė, Neringa, and Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
    2012Soviet Society in the Era of Late Socialism, 1964–1985. Lanham: Lexington Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Kolawole, Mary E. M.
    1997Womanism and African Consciousness. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Kollontai, Aleksandra
    1909 “The social basis of the woman question.” www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1909/social-basis.htm. Last accessed17 May 2022.
  25. Latha, Rizwana H.
    2001 “Feminisms in an African context: Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter.” Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity501: 23–40.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Lefevere, André
    1992Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Li, Victor
    2009 “Necroidealism, or the Subaltern’s Sacrificial Death.” Interventions11(3): 275–92. 10.1080/13698010903255478
    https://doi.org/10.1080/13698010903255478 [Google Scholar]
  28. Lievois, Katrien and Elisabeth Bladh
    2016 “La littérature francophone en traduction: Méthodes, pratiques et histoire.” [Francophone literature in translation: methods, practices and history] Parallèles28(1): 2–27. CitetononCRdoi:10.17462/para.2016.01.01
    https://doi.org/Cite to nonCR doi: 10.17462/para.2016.01.01 [Google Scholar]
  29. Maggio, Joe
    2007 “Can the subaltern be heard?’: Political theory, translation, representation, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political32(4): 419–43. 10.1177/030437540703200403
    https://doi.org/10.1177/030437540703200403 [Google Scholar]
  30. Massardier-Kenney, Françoise
    1997 “Towards a redefinition of feminist translation practice.” The Translator3(1): 55–69. 10.1080/13556509.1997.10798988
    https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.1997.10798988 [Google Scholar]
  31. Moudileno, Lydie
    2009 “The Francophone novel in sub-Saharan Africa.” InThe Cambridge Companion to the African Novel, ed. byF. Abiola Irele125–40. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CCOL9780521855600.008
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521855600.008 [Google Scholar]
  32. Mutunda, Sylvester
    2007 “Women subjugating women: Re-reading Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter and Scarlet Song.” Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies331: 2–3. 10.5070/F7332‑3016489
    https://doi.org/10.5070/F7332-3016489 [Google Scholar]
  33. Murtuza, Miriam
    2003 “The marriage and divorce of polygamy and nation: Interplay of gender, religion, and class in Mariama Bâ and Sembène Ousmane.” InEmerging Perspectives on Mariama Bâ: Postcolonialism, Feminism and Postmodernism, ed. byAda Uzoamaka Azodo, 175–205. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Nnaemeka, Obioma
    1998Sisterhood, Feminisms, and Power: From Africa to the Diaspora, ed. byObioma Nnaemeka. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. 2003 “Nego-feminism: Theorizing, practicing and pruning Africa’s way.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society29(2): 357–385. 10.1086/378553
    https://doi.org/10.1086/378553 [Google Scholar]
  36. Ogundipe-Leslie, Molara
    1994Re-creating Ourselves: African Women & Critical Transformations. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Ogunyemi, Chikwenye O.
    1985 “Womanism: The dynamics of the contemporary black female novel in English.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society11(1): 63–80. 10.1086/494200
    https://doi.org/10.1086/494200 [Google Scholar]
  38. Opara, Chioma
    2005 “On the African concept of transcendence: Conflating nature, nurture and creativity.” International Journal of Philosophy and Religion21(2): 189–200. 10.26593/mel.v21i2.1022.189‑200
    https://doi.org/10.26593/mel.v21i2.1022.189-200 [Google Scholar]
  39. Orabueze, Florence O.
    2015Society, Women and Literature in Africa. Port Harcourt, Nigeria: M & J Grand Orbit Communications.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Plant, Deborah G.
    1996 “Mythic dimensions in the novels of Mariama Bâ.” Research in African Literatures27(2): 102–11.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Ruthchild, Rochelle
    2017 “Feminist dissidents in the ‘Motherland of Women’s Liberation.’” InWomen’s Activism and “Second Wave” Feminism, ed. byBarbara Molony and Jennifer Nelson, 4–12. Bloomsbury. 10.5040/9781474250542.ch‑005
    https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474250542.ch-005 [Google Scholar]
  42. Santaemilia, José
    2011 “Feminists translating: On women, theory and practice.” InTranslating Gender, ed. byEleonora Federici, 55–77. Bern: Peter Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Simon, Sherry
    1996Gender in Translation: Culture Identity and Politics of Transmission. Abingdon: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Spivak, Gayatri C.
    1988 “Can the subaltern speak?” InMarxism and the Interpretation of Culture, ed. byCary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, 271–313. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. 2000 “The new subaltern: A silent interview.” InMapping Subaltern Studies and the Postcolonial, ed. byVinayak Chaturvedi, 324–40. London: Verso.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Stringer, Susan
    1996The Senegalese Novel by Women: Through Their Own Eyes. Bern: Peter Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Tyulenev, Sergey
    2011 “Women-translators in Russia.” MonTI. Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación31: 75–105. 10.6035/MonTI.2011.3.3
    https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2011.3.3 [Google Scholar]
  48. Vahabzadeh, Peyman
    2008 “The conditions of subalternity: Reflections on subjectivity, experience and hegemony.” Socialist Studies3(2): 93–113. 10.18740/S45G6H
    https://doi.org/10.18740/S45G6H [Google Scholar]
  49. Von Flotow, Luise
    1991 “Feminist translation: Contexts, practices and theories.” TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction4(2): 69–84. 10.7202/037094ar
    https://doi.org/10.7202/037094ar [Google Scholar]
  50. 1997Translation and Gender: Translating in the “Era of Feminism”. Manchester: St. Jerome. 10.1353/book6616
    https://doi.org/10.1353/book6616 [Google Scholar]
  51. Walker, Alice
    1984In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. Orlando: Harcourt.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Witt, Susanna
    2011 “Between the lines: Totalitarianism and translation in the USSR.” InContexts, Subtexts and Pretexts: Literary translation in Eastern Europe and Russia, ed. byBrian James Baer, 149–70. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/btl.89.13wit
    https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.89.13wit [Google Scholar]
  53. Zakharova, Natali͡a K., Anastasii͡a Posadskai͡a, and Natalʹi͡a Rimashevskai͡a
    1989 “Kak my reshaem zhenskiĭ vopros” [How we solve the woman question]. The Communist41: 56–65.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/tis.20029.kas
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): feminist translation; francophone African; Russian; Soviet; Spivak; subaltern
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error