In the current study, I propose an analysis of style in literary translation, a branch of translation that involves aesthetic texts like novels. I take the author’s style to be a defining component of such texts. The author reveals values, identities, emotions, personalities, feelings, and ideas inherent in his or her cultural background and expresses them in specific, unique ways.
Translating, therefore, both the what and how of an author’s message, according to Nigerian translation studies scholar Damola Adeyefa, enhances the progress, development, and sustenance of the source culture by rendering it (more) visible to other communities (“Translation” 54). The question necessarily arises of whether the translator, as an individual with their own values and identities, has a style, too. This thesis intervenes in these debates to support the position that translation studies must take the style of the translator into account in considering questions of his or her presence or absence in a text. If a text is to be understood in detail, it matters both what the author says and how they say it. And traditionally, the translator is considered an invisible agent, expected to be faithful while reproducing the source text’s style. However, as this research progresses, I will be defending a view that translation is a dynamic form of cultural mediation in which the translator’s style or presence is significant.
Introduction available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399267382_Introduction_on_Cultural_Mediation_Challenges_of_Stylistic_Translation_in_the_Francophone_African_Novel.
Full Text Citation: Achodo, David. “Cultural Mediation: Challenges of Stylistic Translation in the Francophone African Novel.” Master’s Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2025. (Available at https://voljournals.utk.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=16266&context=utk_gradthes. Also available with DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23367.15522).
This text is archived by Zenodo with the DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19600646
David Achodo 