Abstract
Drawing from Cameroonian drama written in French and translated into English, this paper demonstrates how Cameroonian literature written in European languages and translated into other European languages is characterized by linguistic and stylistic innovation. It examines the reasons and motivations underlying this phenomenon, first from the perspective of the ambivalent situation of the Cameroonian and African writer writing not in his native language but rather in a European language, and secondly in the light of the prevailing literary creative trend and attitude of Cameroonian and, indeed, African writers in general. In this context, it is argued and posited that Cameroonian literary works are heavily tinted with linguistic and stylistic innovations such that the source texts actually intervene and exert considerable influence on the mode of their translation into the target language, particularly if the translator is to preserve the Cameroonian/African aesthetic which informs them and constitutes their driving force.
Highlights
Original PaperStudies in Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2573-6434 (Print) ISSN 2573-6426 (Online)
As a result of Africa’s turbulent history marked by imperialist interventions, European languages have had to pay a certain price as vehicles of communication in the former European colonies of this continent
I have translated Malinké into French by breaking up the French language so as to recreate an African rhythm.]. It can even be asserted without any fear of contradiction that such translation activity is unavoidable and, the fact of the matter is that, by his educational exposure and intellectual experience the African writer has acquired a metropolitan literary inheritance and in most cases has mastered the European language of his literary composition, his head and ears have remained tuned to the rhythm and expressions of his indigenous language which he transliterates into the European language. This means that the literary work of the Cameroonian/African writer writing in a European language released to the public by the publisher on behalf of the writer is a combined version of other literary by-products resulting from an indigenous speech pattern, thinking pattern and world view, all of which are transliterated into the European language
Summary
Studies in Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2573-6434 (Print) ISSN 2573-6426 (Online). Suh Joseph Che1* 1 ASTI, University of Buea, Cameroon * Suh Joseph Che, ASTI, University of Buea, Cameroon
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