Abstract:
My thesis includes a translation of Déwé Gorodé’s third novel, Tâdo, Tâdo, wéé! (2012) and a commentary on the translation approaches and strategies used. Published in French in New Caledonia, this previously untranslated post-colonial novel portrays the Kanak people’s continuing struggle for independence and provides insights into the Kanak culture and belief systems. My translation has been prepared for publication for an Anglophone audience, particularly from countries in the Pacific and around the Pacific rim. Although much of the cultural information contained in the novel is explicit, designed for a non-Kanak readership, Gorodé assumes Francophone readers’ familiarity with complex layers of local and French politics. I discuss strategies I have chosen to transmit implicit information about the Kanak culture and French New Caledonian politics. These choices raise ethical issues about foreignisation and domestication and the degree to which translator visibility is appropriate in the target text. Recognising the views expressed by Eugene Nida, Hans Vermeer, Lawrence Venuti, Philip Lewis, Susan Bassnett, Barbara Godard, Edwin Gentzler, Maria Tymoczko, Theo Hermans, Raylene Ramsay, and Deborah Walker-Morrison, amongst others, I argue the need for responsive, hybrid, translation strategies that enable rewriting and reformulation of the text so the target audience enjoys a literary and cultural experience that is functionally and dynamically equivalent to reading the source text. I focus on strategies for translating Gorodé’s lively, idiosyncratic literary style, influenced by Kanak orality (Mokaddem 2008) and spirituality (Poédi 1997). Although my translation is necessarily abridged, I have retained the overall structure and themes of the ST and aimed at reproducing the vitality of its language and imagery. My translation shows the racial, land, and political issues New Caledonia still faces. These issues continue to resonate in New Zealand and Australia, as they do in Pacific rim countries where indigenous peoples are still struggling for political independence. The long-promised referendum on New Caledonia’s independence from France will heighten interest in the history and future of this French colony, whose autonomy, if achieved, is likely to have an impact on cultural and political relationships in other Pacific countries. I hope my translation will contribute to Anglophone interest in New Caledonia and in the rights of Kanak.