La traducción al español de las pasivas y adverbios franceses en «Un chant écarlate» de Mariama Bâ: LTAEDLPYAFEUCEDMB

Abstract

The Spanish Translation of French Passives and Adverbs in «Un chant écarlate» by Mariama Bâ: LTAEDLPYAFEUCEDMB

This article offers a translation into Spanish of a series of passages taken from «Un Chant écarlate» (1981), the second and last novel by the Senegalese writer Mariama Bâ and unpublished until now in Spain. This narrative, it is worth mentioning, relates not only the intercultural conflicts that can arise between Africans and Europeans, but also the harm caused by polygamy and the suffering of African women, often reduced to slaves by their husbands or mothers-in-law. It consists of three parts, which are further subdivided into untitled chapters. Although she did not use the epistolary structure, the author incorporates into this long narrative of 377 pages some letters which, although they do not have the same status as in « Une Si longue lettre » (1979), play a very important role in the way she structures certain parts of the novel, which sometimes adopts a lyrical register and sometimes a pathetic register to highlight the dilemma in which each of the characters finds herself. The use of letters inserted into the narrative thread also allows the author to distance herself from subjective expression while at the same time lending a certain realism to the action. This essay also analyses the passives and adverbs of the original text and reflects on the possible solutions to these translation problems. Prior to the analysis of these morphosyntactic elements, a brief survey of Senegalese literature, dominated mainly by the indefatigable defender of Negritude, Leopold Sedar Senghor, will be made. Within this, feminist literature, which began in the 1980s, is included. In this sense, the writing of the woman who was the spokesperson for African women in general, and Senegalese women in particular, will be examined. A member of several feminist associations, including the "Optimistic Sisters", which she herself created, Mariama Bâ was known and recognised worldwide for her first novel «Une si longue lettre» (1979), which won the Noma award in Frankfurt in November 1980.