L’écriture comme métaphore de la traduction dans le champ littéraire algérien

Abstract

Writing as a Metaphor for Translation in the Algerian Literary Field

This article seeks to explore the translation paradigm in the production of Algerian novels. It is not about considering translation from the usual and traditional categories that tend to approach it from the perspective of a dichotomous relationship between " source language" and "target language". In the context of Maghrebian and, in particular, Algerian literary creation, the act of translation does not relate to issues of comparison between the original and its translation(s). Instead, this paper will attempt to account for “writing” as a translation that does not have an original work as a reference. We, therefore, intend to present some of Mohammed Dib's most interesting texts in the contemporary Algerian literary field to better understand this phenomenon. We will particularly insist on ‘Neiges de Marbre’ and ‘L'Arbres à Dires’. Based on the premise that the theories of reception mainly focus on the modalities of reading, setting aside the implication of a translation process, and that, on the other hand, the theories of translation give very little interest to the creative aspect of translation, it seems important to us to dig into / go through / contrast and correlate/ throw light on the different approaches and perspectives, to reach a better understanding of the specific role of translation in the creation and reading of the Maghrebian text and, above all, of its importance in the redefinition of the poetics, symbolic and ideological aspects of the text. This being so, one cannot forget - let alone minimize - the anthropo-historical and poetic depth of the Algerian (and more generally Maghrebian) literary adventure. In fact, as previously mentioned, the crossbreeding of languages and imaginaries is a process that goes back very deep into the collective history of North African communities. Given this essential dimension, it can be said that Algerian literatures illustrate, in a particularly original way, a set of phenomena common to all artistic creation, whatever the cultural area or epoch. In a way or another, for the writer, it has always been about creating a new language (one’s “own language”) from and within the one(s) in which he/she has been shaped since childhood.