L’éthique de la différence en traduction : le cas de deux romans africains francophones et de leur restitution en anglais

Abstract

Translation advances the cause of the international community as it plays a vital role in global development and understanding. The literary text needs to be translated before readers from diverse linguistic communities can apprehend and enjoy it. To a large extent, the success of the translation enterprise is a function of the accuracy of the target text. With illustrations drawn from two Francophone African masterpieces, Ahmadou Kourouma’s Les soleils des indépendances and Mariama Bâ’s Une si longue lettre, this article seeks to determine the extent to which the target texts in English respect the spirit and the letter articulated by the source texts. The article will, in the main, be underpinned by the principle of the ethics of difference as enunciated by Venuti.