Literêre vertaling as kruiskulturele kommunikasie: <i>Kortonnen dozen</i> van Tom Lanoye in Afrikaans

Abstract

Literary translation as cross-cultural communication: Kartonnen dozen by Tom Lanoye in Afrikaans Literary texts are more frequently translated from Afrikaans into Dutch than vice versa. The translation of the popular Flemish writer Tom Lanoye's short novel Kartonnen dozen by Daniel Hugo is indeed one of the very few examples of the latter. In this article I explore, inter alia, the politics of translation which may underlie this imbalance; literary translation as a way of "opening up" a foreign culture; the ideology of translatability. To establish whether Hugo's translation may be seen as adequate, and thus as functioning effectively within the Afrikaans (target) literary system, a comparative analysis is made of the two texts (i.e. Kartonnen dozen and Kartondose) in respect of certain textemes which I regard as imperative for the target text to convey the intention of the source text. In conclusion, I voice my opinion on a literary translation such as Kartondose and its role in the endeavour of decolonisation to resist globalisation.