Translations/Traductions

Structural weaknesses continued to impede English-French and French-English literary translation in Canada in 2013. Translation activity remained very limited and heavily asymmetrical. Francophone publishers once again showed proportionately much greater interest in their official “other” than their anglophone counterparts did. A telling sign of translation’s poor stature and visibility, it is virtually impossible to obtain a comprehensive list of translations published each year in Canada. Stringent cuts to the Department of Canadian Heritage and Library and Archives Canada mean that no statistics are available with respect to what percentage of the books published in Canada in English, French, or one of the First Nations’ languages are translations. Although they do not necessarily include all translations published, the lists of titles submitted for the Governor General’s Literary Awards for translation and traduction are the only readily available general indication of translation activity. These lists show a small increase in the number of translations published in 2013: 33 translations each into French and English, compared to 26 translations into French and 24 translations into English in 2012. If we take into account the demographic difference between the two groups, however, anglophone publishers should be translating some five times as many books as their francophone counterparts to demonstrate a comparable interest in the culture of the other official language community. Since the rate of bilingualism is much lower among anglophone Canadians than francophone Canadians, the present situation means that the overwhelming majority of anglophones are deprived of access to many significant literary and cultural works in French. To put these figures in yet another perspective, while both groups of publishers released some 33 translations in 2013, in the same year anglophone publishers produced at least 220 fiction titles and 163 poetry titles, and francophone publishers some 141 works of fiction and 81 volumes of poetry. Overall, translations constituted only 2 per cent of all works in English and 4 per cent of all works in French submitted for a Governor General’s Award.

Exacerbating these quantitative issues are market pressures and trends that undercut the potential of translation as a positive force for intercultural exchange. Publishers in both languages remain very ambivalent about marketing translations as translations. Unless translations form a separate identifiable collection, which is now exceedingly rare, there is no way to search a publisher’s website to see what translations they have in their catalogue. In the last few years, I have found it increasingly difficult to obtain review copies from publishers. Commonly, as a reason for this refusal, publishers cite a policy to provide review copies only for books published within the last three months. While this thinking in terms of commercial shelf life is short-sighted for all literary works, whose cultural contribution may only develop over time, the effect on translations is to eliminate already rare opportunities for promotion and further reduce cultural exchange. The continued fragility particularly of the English-Canadian publishing sector remains a major concern. As multinational companies drive out local publishers, their international (read American) mercantile priorities take over, and local cultural concerns are marginalized. As a result, works chosen to be translated are not necessarily those that could most contribute to French-English cultural exchange in Canada, and some choices even risk exacerbating Canadian intercultural tensions.

Translations of works for children and young adults

The translation practices of the American-based children and young adult publisher Scholastic and its Canadian subsidiary, Scholastic Canada, offer a good illustration of the negative, even perverse effect globalization can have on translation’s potential to provide young Canadian readers with access to alterity in a way that counters stereotypes and builds tolerance. This year Scholastic Canada published a French translation of Storm the Fortress: The Siege of Quebec. William Jenkins, New France, 1759, a title by American-born writer Maxine Trottier, from its I Am Canada series. Significantly, the series title in French is simply Au Canada (In Canada). The book plays on the young male adventure story theme. William accompanies his parents by ship from England to Halifax, where they hope to obtain land and a better way of life, and then finds himself...