Translating Slavery, Volume 1: Gender and Race in French Abolitionist Writing, 1780-1830

by Doris Y. Kadish (Contribution by), Françoise Massareier-Kenney (Contribution by)

Overview

A new, revised, and expanded edition of a translation studies classic

Translating Slavery explores the complex interrelationships that exist between translation, gender, and race by focusing on antislavery writing by or about French women in the French revolutionary period. Now in a two-volume collection, Translating Slavery closely examines what happens when translators translate and when writers treat issues of gender and race. The volumes explore the theoretical, linguistic, and literary complexities involved when white writers, especially women, took up their pens to denounce the injustices to which blacks were subjected under slavery.

Volume 1, Gender and Race in French Abolitionist Writing, 1780–1830, highlights key issues in the theory and practice of translation by providing essays on the factors involved in translating gender and race, as well as works in translation. A section on abolitionist narrative, poetry, and theater has been added with a number of new translations, excerpts, and essays, in addition to an interview with the new member of the translating team, Norman R. Shapiro.

This revised and expanded edition of Translating Slavery will appeal to readers and students interested in women’s studies, African American studies, French literature and history, comparative literature, and translation studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612770925
Publisher:	Kent State University Press
Publication date:	10/06/2012
Series:	Translation Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	525 KB

About the Author

Doris Y. Kadish, Distinguished Research Professor of French and Romance Languages at the University of Georgia, continues to promote the emerging field of French slavery studies. Her publications include Slavery in the Caribbean Francophone World: Distant Voices, Forgotten Acts, Forged Identities, Sopie Doin, LaFamille noire, and Charlotte Dard, La Chaumière africaine. Two other edited books are forthcoming: Marceline Desbordes-Valmore’s Sarah and Charles de Rémusat’s L’Habitationde Saint-Domingue.

Françoise Massardier-Kenney is professor of French and Director of the Institute for Applied Linguistics at Kent State University. She is the editor of the American Translators Association Scholarly Series and coeditor of the journal George Sand Studies. Her publications include the monograph Gender in the Fiction of George Sand (2001) and translations of Sand’s Valvèdre (2007) and Antoine Berman’s Toward a Translation Criticism: John Donne.

Table of Contents

Preface Doris Y. Kadish vii

Part 1 Theory, Practice, and History

1 Translation Theory and Practice Françoise Massardier-Kenney 3

2 Translation in Context Doris Y. Kadish 19

Part 2 Olympe de Gouges, 1748-1793

3 Olympe de Gouges, Feminism, Theater, Race: L'esclavage des noirs Marie-Pierre Le Hir 65

4 Translations of Gouges "Reflections on Negroes" Sylvie Molta 89

Black Slavery, or The Happy Shipwreck Maryann DeJulio 93

"Response to the American Champion" Maryann DeJulio 125

5 On Translating Olympe de Gouges Maryann DeJulio 130

Part 3 Germaine de Staël, 1766-1817

6 Germaine de Staël, Translation, and Race Françoise Massardier-Kenney 141

7 Translations of Staël "Mirza, or Letters of a Traveler" Françoise Massardier-Kenney 153

"An Appeal to the Sovereign" Sharon Bell 164

"Preface to the Translation" Sharon Bell 167

"The Spirit of Translation" Doris Y. Kadish 170

8 Black on White: Translation, Race, Class, and Power Sharon Bell Françoise Massardier-Kenney 175

Part 4 Abolitionism, 1820-1830

9 Translations of Abolitionist Narrative, Poetry, and Theater Sophie Doin

The Black Family (excerpt) Françoise Massardier-Kenney 191

"A Black Woman and a White Man" Doris Y. Kadish Françoise Massardier-Kenney 196

"A White Woman and a Black Man" Doris Y. Kadish Françoise Massardier-Kenney 205

"The Slave Trader" Lisa Van Zwoll 212

Marceline Desbordes-Valmore "The Young Slave Girl" ("La jeune esclave") Norman R. Shapiro 219

"Creole Awakening" ("Le réveil créole") Norman R. Shapiro 220

"The Black Man's Vigil" ("La veillée du nègre") Norman R. Shapiro 221

"The Slave" ("L'esclave") Norman R. Shapiro 222

"A Young Slave's Song" ("Chant d'une jeune esclave") Norman R. Shapiro 223

Abolitionist Poems M. Dumesnil, Slavery (L'esclavage) Norman R. Shapiro 224

Victor Chauvet, Néali, or The Black Slave Trade Norman R. Shapiro 234

Charles de Rémusat L'habitation de Saint-Domingue (excerpts) Norman R. Shapiro 246

10 Translating Abolitionist Poetry and Theater Doris Y. Kadish Norman R. Shapiro 253

Appendixes

Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Poems 269

M. Dumesnil, Slavery (L'esclavage) (excerpts) 273

Notes 279

Works Cited 297

Index 306