While reading about Itamar Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory and the potential centrality of translated works in a national literature, I couldn’t help but think about Haiti. The author identifies three contexts in which translation can play a central role in the development of a national literature: (1) when a literature is “young”, (2) when it is “weak” or “peripheral”, or (3) when it encounters turning points, crises, or vacuums.1 Haiti has a strong literary tradition in French, stretching back to the nineteenth century, but its national literature in Haitian Creole (the first language of the entire population, and the only language of the vast majority), only began to develop in earnest in middle of the twentieth century. In fact, the birth of Haitian Creole literature can be positively dated to 1953, and the appearance of two important works by one highly influential author. Even-Zohar would be delighted to know that one of them was a translation.
The translation in question, a Haitian Creole version of Sophocles’s Antigone written by a young civil servant named Félix Morisseau-Leroy, was performed throughout the republic—including for large audiences of illiterate peasants—and was later staged in cities as remote as Paris, Dakar and Montreal. There had been works in Creole prior to Antigòn, most notably a collection of fables adapted from La Fontaine, Cric? Crac! (1901), by the lawyer and poet Georges Sylvain. But the sustained production of Creole literature began with Morisseau-Léroy in 1953. There is no doubt, then, that Morisseau-Leroy’s Antigòn marked a major turning point in Haitian Creole literature, and is thus a perfect example of Even-Zohar’s notion of the important role that translations can play in the crystallization of national culture. Even-Zohar explains that in the case of an embryonic literature, translated works are able “to put into use its newly founded (or renovated) tongue for as many literary types as possible in order to make it serviceable as a literary language and useful for its emerging public.”2 Morisseau-Leroy’s explicit intention was to demonstrate the expressive capacity of Creole. He considered Antigone to be one of the masterpieces of world literature, and thought that by translating it into the Haitian popular language he would prove once and for all that Creole is an acceptable literary language.
Morisseau-Leroy transplanted the action from Ancient Thebes to the contemporary Haitian countryside, substituting King Creon with a local chef de section and Greek religious concepts with those found in Haitian Vodou. Even-Zohar notes that it is in the purview of peripheral translations to find “ready-made secondary models for the foreign text.”3 Yet, although it was strongly adapted to the norms and conventions of Haitian culture, Morisseau-Leroy’s play was surely not a conservatory work. By its very nature, Antigòn broke new ground. Considering his intended audience was the nation’s illiterate peasantry, it is easy to see why the author chose to prioritize acceptability. As Even-Zohar explains: “the adopted translational norms might for a while be too foreign and revolutionary, and if the new trend is defeated in the literary struggle, the translation made according to its conceptions and tastes will never really gain ground.”4 Although an adequate translation (i.e. one that is faithful to the norms of the source text) has the most innovation to offer to the target polysystem, there is also a time for catering to the target audience.
It is interesting to note that Antigòn was followed by several imitators, including a translation of Œdipus Rex the same year. Yet although a large body of serious dramatic works in Creole have emerged since 1953, the translation of foreign plays into Creole has not been a major component in this sub-system of Haitian literature. Perhaps, though it was necessary to move the polysystem forward at the time, the ongoing translation of ‘classics’ would have taken on a conservatory, peripheral position in the polysystem as time went on. Still, one cannot help but wonder if Creole literature is missing something by neglecting this aspect of its polysystem
Matt Robertshaw
26 October, 2017
Notes:
1 Itamar Even-Zohar, “The Position of Translated Literature Within the Literary Polysystem,” in The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd ed., ed. Lawrence Venuti (New York; London: Routledge, 2012), 163-164.
2 Even-Zohar, “The Position,” 164.
3 Even-Zohar, “The Position,” 167.
4 Even-Zohar, “The Position,” 166.
Sources:
Even-Zohar, Itamar. “The Position of Translated Literature Within the Literary Polysystem.” In The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd ed., edited by Lawrence Venuti, 162-167. New York; London: Routledge, 2012.
Thank you very much Matt, this is most informative. I knew nothing about Haitian literature and your emphasis on translation as being one of the first texts published in 1953 is very interesting. I wander, though, why that emphasis did not continue. In most cultures there is often a phase (a few decades at least) where translation assumes the pivotal role, and once foreign ideas and genres are fully transferred, original production starts. It would be interesting to research why that was not the case in Haiti. I wandered about your sources, too. What was your source for Haitian literature? You need to add it to your bibliography.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post, Matt. I found it extremely interesting, as most of my knowledge of Haitian Creole literature involves works from a later period. Your final comment stood out to me; I think that in the case of Haiti it's important to consider that it is a former colony that was liberated through a rebellion against slavery and colonialism. While not devaluing the literature that was not translated into Haitian Creole, I would like to suggest that the Haitian Creole literary polysystem is not "missing" anything. I think that there is great power in translating, but also in not translating. By moving on quickly from the phase of translating classics, they avoided giving more power to colonial literature and instead had the opportunity create their own tradition with what would become their own classics. I view it not as a missed opportunity, but as a step towards decolonization. If we view it in terms of a polysystem of national literatures, by not translating more works from French, to a certain extent Haitian authors rejected the central position of French literature and the peripheral position of their own.
ReplyDeleteI think this post ties in well with Annie Brisset's (1996) article about translation into Québécois. It sounds as though Morisseau-Leroy's desire to show that Haitian Creole had the capacity to be a literary language was not dissimilar to the desire to elevate Québécois to the level of referential language. What is interesting, though, the fact that, unlike in Haiti, in Quebec the emphasis on translating into the national language continued.
Works Cited
Brisset, Annie. (1996) 2000. “The Search for a Native Language: Translation and Cultural Identity.” In The Translation Studies Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti. London; New York: Routledge, 343-375.
Hi Laura,
DeleteYou're right that the conscious choice not to translate can be interpreted as a stance against the continued French influence on Haitian society. I don't think this is a fair assessment of the situation in Haiti, however. Because of the relatively recent use of Creole as a literary language and the poverty and illiteracy of most Creole monolinguals, the Haitian Creole literary polysystem has not yet reached maturity, and I believe it could benefit greatly from translated texts. Although most educated Haitians are most familiar with French literature there's no reason why new translations need to draw from the former colonizer. As far as I am aware there are no translations of African novels in Haitian Creole. Chinua Achebe or Ousmane Sembène or Mariama Bâ or Calixthe Beyala's novels could definitely enrich the polysystem. In particular, I believe there needs to be more children's literature translated into Creole, as there has yet to be a widely established base of Creole literacy, and the lack of engaging literature for young people in the language is a major impediment to the process. Le Petit Prince was translated recently, but other than that most of what is written for children in the language are strictly educational materials. Part of why we learn to read in English is because it gives us access to a boundless world of imagination and wonder, but that motivation doesn't exist for Creole monolingual (i.e. the vast majority of Haitian children). The increased translation of excellent works of children's literature from around the world could play a foundational role in the maturation of the Haitian Creole literary polysystem.