Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

Linguistic Layering in Fictional Urban Speech: Translating Within and Between Languages

Résumé

In this paper, I propose to explore the concept of multilingualism in translation, within and between languages, through the prism of the layers of language present in fictional texts that offer lexical and morphosyntactic features sourced from a range of spaces and varieties. These ideas will be unravelled by relying on a selection of novels by Alex Wheatle, both in their original English-language version as well as in their French translations. Born in 1963 to Jamaican parents and raised in social housing in England, Wheatle has written over 15 dialogue-driven novels since the 1990s. East of Acre Lane, published in 2001, is set in Brixton, south London, and features characters of Jamaican heritage speaking a variety of urban English heavily influenced by Jamaican vernacular and tinged with London slang. It was translated into French by Nicolas Richard and published by Au Diable Vauvert in 2003, republished in 2021 in light of the success of the episode of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe miniseries dedicated to Wheatle’s life and on the 40th anniversary of the Brixton Riots. As well as the various ethical and aesthetic issues of representativity tied up in translating East of Acre Lane from English into French, which in Richard’s case hinges on the establishment of a fictionalised francophone creole, I would also like to consider the intralingual process of self-translation that Wheatle has undertaken when writing the four books of his Crongton series for young adults since the mid-2010s. Indeed, Wheatle set aside the more overt style of multilingualism used in his novels for adults in favour of a form of more immediately understandable expression in his work written for a younger audience. Given that the Crongton books have also been translated into French, it will be possible to work through questions related to supposed authenticity and accessibility when it comes to pitching books marked by linguistic and cultural otherness to audiences of a range of ages and backgrounds.

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Dates et versions

hal-04917705 , version 1 (28-01-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04917705 , version 1

Citer

Tiffane Levick. Linguistic Layering in Fictional Urban Speech: Translating Within and Between Languages. Multilingualism in Translation, Université Paris Nanterre; Université de Lille, Mar 2024, Nanterre, France. ⟨hal-04917705⟩

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