THE CREATIVE CIRCLE: ARTIST, CRITIC, AND TRANSLATOR IN AFRICAN LITERATURE

Translation, in all of its dimensions, was the theme of the 2001 African Literature Association Conference held in Richmond, Virginia.

Translation encompasses more than the movement of expression from one language to another and includes the translating of one culture into another. The particularities of historical experience translated into the broader grasp of humanity and the specific personal experience translated in that broader grasp are also part of this complex process.

The four African writers whose addresses to the conference are included in this volume—Assia Djebar, Emmanuel Dongala, Nuruddin Farah, and Nadine Gordimer—all speak of translation as a personal experience into breadth of vision.

Of the ten papers in this collection, the first three are concerned with problems in translating language and culture, the next four focus on the African writer as translator, and the last three deal broadly with the way history and culture are translated into literature. Contributors include André Djiffack, Gillian Gane, Raoul J. Granqvist, Kwaku A. Gyasi, Olabode Ibironke, Lisa McNee, Philip A. Noss, Michael A. Toler, Ann Elizabeth Willey, and Christopher Wise.