Cultural and Linguistic Liminality: Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The Book of Not as (Self-)Translation

Mazza, A. V. (2020) Cultural and Linguistic Liminality: Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The Book of Not as (Self-)Translation. New Voices in Translation Studies, 22, pp. 39-65.

Abstract

Since the end of the 20th century, some postcolonial literatures written in European languages are recognized as a form of (self-)translation, whose contestatory nature lies not only in its content, but also in its re-appropriation of the former colonial language. Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The Book of Not (2006), a novel with a strong anticolonial standpoint, offers a rich example of this kind of process. However, there seems to be an inconsistency between the text’s psychological and sociopolitical message and its formal and linguistic characteristics. This article analyses the Anglophone novel’s normalizing and foreignizing strategies (Klinger 2018) through the methodological approach of Descriptive Translation Studies, in order to explore this inconsistency via the identification of Dangarembga’s initial norm (Toury 1978). It argues that the author resorts to a problematized adequacy of her text to more effectively convey her main character’s lack of perspective as a native student in the colonial education system.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Descriptive Translation Studies, liminality, postcolonial (self-)translation, Tsitsi Dangarembga.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Mazza, Ana
• Authors: Mazza, A. V.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania; P Language and Literature > PR English literature
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities
• Journal Name: New Voices in Translation Studies
• Publisher: International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies
• ISSN: 1819-5644
• ISSN (Online): 1819-5644
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 The Author
• First Published: First published in New Voices in Translation Studies 22:39-65
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with the permission of the publisher