An assessment of the application of foreignization to contemporary postcolonial translation

Abstract

This study examines the application of Venuti‟s (1995) foreignizing approach in the contemporary African postcolonial translations. The foreignization approach is an unconventional translation approach whose basic principles counter the need by equivalence theorists such  as Catford (1965) and Nida (1982) to achieve basic target culture acceptable equivalent structures. As a progeny of the „cultural  turn‟ ideology of 1990, Venuti‟s foreignizing approach has been mostly accepted by the postcolonial translation scholars, since it  concretises the major wishes of this group of thinkers. However, there have been heavy criticisms on its impracticability in translation as  well as acceptability. To achieve its intended objectives, this research analyses three selected case studies of postcolonial African literary  translations published between 2008 and 2017 to identify conformity with the foreignizing strategies, particularly in instances of  syntactical strangeness and distinctions. These translations were selected considering the popularity and international recognition of  their source texts. They include: No home by Yaa Gyasi, L‟autre moitié du soleil and Autour de ton cou by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  Through a focused examination of translation choices used in these three cases, this research proves that the foreignization approach is  still relevant in postcolonial translations.