J M G Le Clézio se L’Africain praat Afrikaans: kroniek van ’n kennismaking in die taalpaar Frans-Afrikaans

Abstract

In 2008 the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded for the fourteenth time to a French author, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. Although several of his texts are available in English, German and Swedish, until recently, Afrikaans-speaking readers were dependent on Dutch to read the keystone of his oeuvre, L’Africain. On the one hand, the 2010 publication of Die Afrikaan by SUN PReSS serves as a case-study of the position of French/Afrikaans literary translation. On the other hand, the mainly autobiographical text constitutes essential reading for the recognition of themes, events and characters also appearing in other Le Clezian novels. Mapping the various steps in the publication process revealed certain of Le Clézio’s language reservations which can only be explained by thematic links to other similar, autobiographical novels in his oeuvre, interviews with the author and the insights of the best-known authorities on Le Clézio. It is a unique case of the translation process shedding light on the deeper meaning of a literary text.