Writing from other margins. Difference, exception, and translation in the portuguese-speaking world: counterpoints between literary representations and critical paradigms

Abstract

Translation as a conceptual framework for the study of the so-called Postcolonial Literatures represents a complex critical paradigm that opens up a number of theoretical paths with which to read and place literary representations within a global perspective. Regarding what can be defined as African Europhone Literatures (Zabus, 2007), the concept of translation offers the possibility of problematizing several critical issues, particularly those relating to questions of “cultural difference” (Bhabha, 1994) and, thus, the textual “embodiment of the other” (Ahmed, 2000). In this respect, translation becomes an operational concept not only for a textual hermeneutic, but also for a wider epistemological reflection, allowing for a discussion of paradigms that characterize the critical reception of the African novel, and therefore the very field of African literary criticism. Through the exploration of authors and texts from the so-called Lusophone African Literatures, this article aims to draw a critical journey that highlights the theoretical possibilities that the concept of translation can offer, in order to address literary representations as crucial “epistemological experiences” (García Canclini, 2012, 50) with which to read and understand changes, challenges and transformations of our time.

Keywords

• portuguese-speaking world
• african literatures
• postcolonial theory
• translation