Abstract

As the first instance of naturalization of a foreign work into a new environment, the preface combines the hybrid role of speech and action guaranteeing the author a reception preceded by laudatory recommendations. I propose a translational context to analyze the ways in which the novels of francophone Caribbean writers Simone Schwarz-Bart, Maryse Condé, and Raphaël Confiant are recontextualized within the anglophone literary system. The issue of the original French and/or Creole language versus an English translation will highlight the new transcultural dimension of reading that effectively reconfigures our modes of understanding these literary texts. What I am concerned with is not so much potential inaccuracies in translation, but rather the interpretation and the reception of these authors such as they are articulated in ancillary texts, which depend on the linguistic mediation of translation. How are these cultural transformations marketed for predominantly metropolitan audiences? How are they made available and legible for their new consumer readership?

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