TS Paper, initial thoughts

Here are some initial thoughts on my research paper:

Research question:

For my research paper I’m planning to look at three recent Haitian Creole translations of Jacques Roumain’s celebrated novel Gouverneurs de la rosée (1944). One of them, Clotaire Saint-Natus’s Mèt lawouze douvanjou (2007) was written for a Haitian audience, while two, Maude Heurtelou’s Fòs lawouze (2000) and Jan Mapou’s stage adaptation Mèt lawouze (2012) were intended primarily for the Haitian diaspora in the United States. I would like to know how these three authors dealt with the challenges of translating a work of formal literature into an emergent literary language. I will draw from André Lefevere’s systems approach to literary studies to analyze how Saint-Natus, Heurtelou and Mapou’s refractions are shaped by the patronages and poetics of their milieus.

Initial Bibliography:

Fosdick, Charles. “Translation in the Caribbean, the Caribbean in Translation.” Small Axe 48 (November 2015): 147-162.

Heurtelou, Maude. Fòs lawouze. Coconut Creek, FL: Educa Vision, 2000.

Lang, George. “Translation from, to and within Atlantic creoles.” TTR 13 no. 2 (January 2000): 11-28.

Lefevere, André. “Mother Courage’s Cucumbers: Text, system and refraction in a theory of literature.” In The Translation Studies Reader, 1st ed., edited by Lawrence Venuti, 233-249. New York; London: Routledge, 2000.

Mapou, Jan. Mèt lawouze, play. Miami, FL: Sosyete Koukouy & Libreri Mapou, 2012. DVD.

Richman, Karen. “Militant Cosmopolitanism in a Creole City: The Paradoxes of Jacques Roumain.” Biography 34 no. 2 (Spring 2012): 303-317.

Saint-Natus, Clotaire. Mèt lawouze douvanjou. Port-au-Prince: Editions Henri Deschamps, 2007.