Literary Translation in the Context of China-Africa Cooperation
Kathryn Batchelor
Visioconférence le 1er mars 2024 à 11h
Lien Zoom : https://u-paris.zoom.us/j/896075...
In the context of competing and conflicting discourses around the intensification of relations between China and Africa in the 21st century, this talk explores the variety of roles played by literary translation in the deepening of Sino-African ties. These include the cultivation of good political relations at the highest levels, the careful control of a particular image of ‘Chinese culture’ for foreign audiences, and the promotion of Sino-African friendship itself. The talk asks whether such translation projects can be, or should be, classified as tools of ‘soft power’ (Nye 2004), and reflects more generally on the usefulness of the soft power concept for Translation Studies.
Kathryn Batchelor is Professor of Translation Studies and Director of the Centre for Translation Studies at UCL (UK). Her research interests encompass translation theory, translation history, philosophies of translation, and translation in or involving Africa. She is the author of Decolonizing Translation (2009) and Translation and Paratexts (2018), and has co-edited six volumes of essays, including: Intimate Enemies: ‘Translation in Francophone Contexts (2013), co-edited with Claire Bisdorff; Translating Frantz Fanon Across Continents and Languages (2017), co-edited with Sue-Ann Harding; and China-Africa Relations: Building Images through Cultural Cooperation, Media Representation and Communication (2017), co-edited with Xiaoling Zhang.
