Writing translation: On the question of ‘Writing Back’ in post-colonial translation

Abstract

Languages have many functional roles with regard to their social and cultural position. Hence, unless the contextualization of linguistic constructions is successfully processed, the cultural features of any community will remain inaccessible. Accordingly, many Indian and African writers have chosen the language of the colonizer as a medium of expression, for they wanted their voice to be heard outside the borders of their country and even because they are not competent enough to use their mother tongue in their writings. On this basis, their use of the colonial language is not considered as a manifestation of the French or English assimilation process which by definition stresses the superiority of the colonizer and his culture over the colonized. The purpose of this study is to show the extent to which the usage of the colonizer’s language reflects an act of translation, as it strives to make the experience of the local people known and readable for the colonizer. Said’s theory of orientalism allowed to explore the different mechanisms deployed by the colonizer to implant the idea of subordination in the minds of colonized people, especially through the imposition of his language.