Join us for a conversation between Nfor Njinyoh (editor, Bakwa Books), Mariette Tchamda (éditions Nuances) and Nchanji Njamnsi (translator) on language variations and translation as an art form.
Taking as a start point Walter Benjamin in ‘The Translator’s Task’, when he describes the task of the translator as “to find the intention toward the language into which the work is to be translated, on the basis of which an echo of the original can be awakened in it” and literary provincialism, which, among other things, seeks to acknowledge national particularities in languages, A Glossary of Things We Need To Unlearn is a celebration of translation and an invitation to perceive translation as a form of creative, artistic writing and a literary intervention in its own right, that doesn’t seek to slavishly adhere to every source text feature as is common in language classes and grammatical exercises but rarely functional in literary realities. Instead, echoing Barthe’s theories on the ‘death of the author’, the written source text becomes a thing of the past––historic and static––simply inspiration, until the translator breathes new life into it, creating a version that allows the text to live on and be interpreted afresh in its new and “original” form.
Organized by Bakwa Books and the University of Bristol, A Glossary of Things We Need To Unlearn consists of interconnected conversations on publishing translations, language variants, writing for local audiences and the importance of local translations, which will be followed by a translation slam by Marie-Hélène Ngoah and JG Ngo Ngom, facilitated by Jessie Ndjeya.
Place: The Forest Creative Loft, Bali, Douala.
(620, Rue Richard Bell, Carrefour Montagne Manga Bell. Bali, Douala)
Date: 12/06/2022
Time: 4pm