Translingual Francophonie and the Limits of Translation

Translingual Francophonie and the Limits of Translation proposes a novel theoretical lens for the study of translation as theme and practice in works by four translingual, francophone authors: Vassilis Alexakis, Chahdortt Djavann, Nancy Huston, and Andreï Makine. In particular, it argues that translation allows for the most productive encounter with otherness when it is practiced in its "estuarine" dimension. When two foreign bodies of water come into contact in an estuary, often a new environment is created at their shared border that does not, however, invalidate the distinctiveness (chemical, biological, geological etc.) of either fresh or sea water. Similarly, texts translated from one language to another, should ideally not transform into but rather relate to their new host's linguistic and cultural codes in ways that account both for their undiluted strangeness and the missteps, gaps, and discontinuities, the challenging yet novel and productive articulations of relationality that proliferate at the border of the encounter.