ON TRANSLATING FRANCOPHONE AFRICAN AUTHORIAL STYLE IN PROSE: HOW TRANSLATORS’ CHOICES AFFECT ENGLISH AUDIENCES

~ David Achodo

This conference presentation is an adaptation of my M.A. Thesis, 2025.

African literature often employs linguistic and culture-bound stylistic elements within colonial languages, such as French and English. This poses certain difficulties in translation. In the current study, attention is drawn to the authorial style as a central part of African literary texts. Existing studies on Francophone African prose have predominantly focused on just literary and linguistic concerns, with little attention paid to exploring stylistic figures through translation. I aim to conduct a stylistic investigation of selected Francophone African novels and their English translations, to identify and explore cultural and linguistic challenges encountered by the translators.

Full abstract available here.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20680985

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Published by David Achodo

David Achodo is a PhD candidate and Graduate Teaching Associate in French at the University of Tennessee, USA. He is the Primary Organizer and Founding Member of the “World Languages and Cultures Graduate Student Association,” University of Tennessee. A French, English, German, Fon, and Yoruba speaker, Achodo is a Scholar, Translator, Interpreter, Poet and Preacher.

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