The language of languages : reflections on translation / Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo, 1938-2025, author.

Series:

Africa list (Seagull Books)

Africa list

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Translating and interpreting.

African languages--Social aspects.

African languages.

Physical Description:

vi, 100 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Seagull Books, 2023.

Summary:

'With clear, conversational prose, this is the first book dedicated entirely to Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo's writings on translation. Through his many critically acclaimed novels, stories, essays, plays, and memoirs, Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo has been at the forefront of world literature for decades. He has also been, in his own words, "a language warrior," fighting for indigenous African languages to find their rightful place in the literary world. Having begun his writing career in English, Ngũgĩ shifted to writing in his native language Gikũyũ in 1977, a stance both creatively and politically significant. For decades now, Ngũgĩ has been translating his Gikũyũ works into English himself, and he has used many platforms to champion the practice and cause of literary translations, which he calls "the language of languages." This volume brings together for the first time Ngũgĩ's essays and lectures about translation, written and delivered over the past two decades. Here we find Ngũgĩ discussing translation as a conversation between cultures; proposing that dialogue among African languages is the way to unify African peoples; reflecting on the complexities of auto-translation or translating one's own work; exploring the essential task translation performed in the history of the propagation of thought; and pleading for the hierarchy of languages to be torn down. He also shares his many experiences of writing across languages, including his story The Upright Revolution, which has been translated into more than a hundred languages around the globe and is the most widely translated text written by an African author. At a time when dialogues between cultures and peoples are more essential than ever, The Language of Languages makes an outspoken case for the value of literature without borders.'--Publisher description.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Translation: Towards a Global Conversation among Languages and Cultures

Finding Our Way: Dialogue among Our Languages Is the Way to the Unity of African Peoples

Translation, Restoration and a Global Culture

Encounters with Translation: A Globalectic View

Languages as Bridges

Preface to the Kurdish Translation of Decolonising the Mind

An Archipelago of Treasures

Adventures in Translation

The Politics of Translation: Notes towards an African Language Policy.

ISBN:

1803090715

9781803090719

OCLC:

1304345253