A stylistic Study of the French Translations of

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

and Anthills of the savannah.

BY

AKINTAYO, OLUWAKEMI ITUNU

MATRICULATION NUMBER- PG/FRE/16/015

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1:1 Background of the study

1:2 Statement of Research problem

1:3 Objectives of the study

1:4 Significance of the study

1:5 Research Method and Theoretical Approach

1:6 Justification of the study

1:7 Hypotheses

1:8 Research Questions.

1:9 Scope and Limitation.

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 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1:1 Background to the Study

The interdisciplinary nature of translation studies has encouraged translation

experts over the years to adopt methods from literary studies in order to
study style. Style is the characteristic manner of expression in literary
works. A writer’s style is known from the way he chooses or even constructs
his sentences. In essence, in every piece of writing, the writing style is the
essential characteristics. It is actually the outcome of every writer’s
personality and his emotions at the moment of writing. In addition, we can
also say that the writing style is also a function of the meaning of the text. It
is the choice that the author makes out of all the options he has, based on
the purpose of his writing.

In effect, it is universally acceptable that every writer has a literary style and
this is usually reflected in their writings. We can safely conclude that
different literary works have different styles and thus different translators
have different styles in the translation of different literary works. However, it
is crucial to understand that in recent years, the traditional view of
specialists in the field of translation who associate the translation of literary
style with only the original texts has been challenged by many researchers.
This traditional view of the notion of originality and fidelity viz a viz the
original author has been upheld over the years by various specialists. One of
their theories is known as the Intentional Theory.

Here, it is the author’s intention as conveyed by the style of his language

that is important in translation. They believe that translators in their
capacity as readers have to look for the meaning of the source texts in
terms of the authorial intentions to recreate the original meaning. In
addition to this, Lefeverre (1988:17) also calls the essentialist approach to
literature as the corpus approach which is based on the romantic notion of
literature. They also see the author as quasi divine creator possessing
genius. He is believed to be origin of creation that is original, unique,
organic, transcendental and hence sacred. However, this has been faulted by
Russian Formalists and American structuralists like Roland Barthes(1988)
and Stanley Fish(1970)

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They dismissed the intentional theory as a fallacy. They believe that what is
called the writer’s intention is a phantom, inaccessible, and unattainable.
This assertion seems to be too extreme because actually the author’s
intention is very real and it is the essence of his writing. It is what gives
credence to the choice of language he uses among various options. This is
why the translator should be concerned with the style of the text and how its
diverse stylistic features reveal the meaning to be rendered into the target
language.

Considering Peter Newmark’s definition of translation, he says “It is

rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way the author
intended.” (1888:12). He said a text may be pulled in different directions.
For example, a translator could use his own individual style or the idiolect of
the source language author. He mentioned many other areas of tension in
translation. E.g dichotomy between sense and sound; the figurative versus
the literal etc. Following the same notion is Eugene Nida,(1969) he said that
in translation there is need to guide the intention of a text i.e. the author’s
attitude. He said that “translation consists in reproducing in the receptors
language, the closest natural equivalence of the source language message,
first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style”(pg12) From this,
we can conclude that the safe place for the translator in all of these
arguments for and against the author’s intention is for him to be concerned
with the style of the text and how its diverse stylistic features reveal the
meaning to be rendered into the target language.

In recent times, the debates have now moved further than that. It is now
debated whether translators can have their own styles, or if they must follow
the original author’s style line hook and sinker. Some theorists believe that
the translator should not be seen or heard in the translation, he must not be
visible at all. Moreover, we have seen in contemporary times, literary works
having more than one translation in the same language and when they are
compared most times, the style of the translators could be different and
their approaches and strategies are also different.

This school of thought has also given rise to the question of whether
translation is a reproduction or a new production. The traditional views on
this debate have favoured the views of faithful translation which must
replicate the author’s style but with no trace of the translator’s presence.
Here also the author is sacred.

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This has been challenged by specialists like Hermans (1996), Baker (2000).
For them, the question is not if translators should or should not make their
presence visible in the text because they assume that any translator will
leave traces of their intentions in the target text. They have come to
challenge the notion that translators should preserve the dignity, richness,
and spirit of the source texts without having an input in the production of
the translated texts. For Mona Baker ,(2000),she posited that researchers
applying the notion of style to translation like those of House (1977, 1981,
1997) , Trosborg and Parker (1998) are all tied to the traditional notion of
faithful reproduction of the original with little regard for the individual role of
the translator. She added that this is so because translation has been longed
viewed as a derivative activity and that translators were not expected to
develop their personal style since their primary duty was to duplicate the
original as closely as possible. But in actual practice she argued that it is
impossible for a translator to translate a text impersonally without leaving
his/her individual finger prints on it.

This assertion made by Baker is a good place to bring to the fore the
purpose of this research study because actually theorists have argued back
and forth on the notion of the interference between the author’s style and
the translator’s style, because actually while translating it poses a challenge
to the translator to keep his own style from interfering with the author`s
style. That is why this study is very crucial because here, we would provide
an in depth study on the stylistic features of the French translations of
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Anthills of the savannah by the
translators.

We will find a balance between the debates whether the translator does have
a style or all he does is to replicate the style of the translator, line, hook and
sinker even if there are lacunas in the original text. There is a general school
of thought that believes that the biggest challenge in literary translation is
the balance to remain true to the original author while creating an entirely
unique piece that evokes the same response as the original piece because
on the long run it is very important to capture the feeling and the emotions
of the author as revealed in the text through the style the author chose
among many options.

We would consider the opinions of various specialists on style in translation

e.g Boase Beier, Susan Bassnett, Ghazala, Peter Newmark to mention a

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few. For example according to Boase Beier (2006), style in translation
attempts to preserve not just what the source text said but how it is said.
This will pursue in essence all nuances of style and stylistic choices. The
problem investigated in this present study was whether the translators of
Chinua Achebe preserved the style of the original author or they followed
their own style in the translation. Efforts were made to show if the
translators have captured the stylistic features in the original texts and if
such features were accurately conveyed to the target language. (A
comparative Approach).

This is because we will have to make comparatives of the translations

against the original texts and this entails degrees of equivalence and
faithfulness because this is a prescriptive perspective. In this study, we are
not explaining the translated texts in their own terms but as reproductions of
original work. This also generates a lot of challenges because of the need to
stay faithful to the original author which I would prefer to use the term
‘accuracy’ in the parlance of Peter Newmark and also the need to be creative
as a translator, bringing to the target readers something unique and
distinctive that will evoke the same feelings and response as the source
readers in accordance with what Eugene Nida calls “closet natural
equivalence”. I think this is all about creating the atmosphere of the original
text. This has finally brought us to the issue of the role of style in
translation. Style, according to Leech&Short (1981) is an integrated part of
the source text because a form without a soul is merely a walking skeleton.
He posited further that no literary translation that fails to bring out the soul
of the source text deserves a place in the literary world.

The importance of style in translation as we have reiterated before cannot

be over emphasized. Boase Bieier in her article titled Stylistics and
Translations (2006), she posited that the nature of literary translation is
closely related to the act of recreating the style of literary texts. This means
that if a text will be well translated, the translator’s knowledge of stylistics
and competence for analysing the stylistic features of original as manifested
in source text is important.

In addition, Mao Dun(1984) also reiterated that a literary translator should

reproduce in the target language ,the artistic flavour of the original and
thus the translation can excite, delight and inspire the target language
readers.(PG25) In other words, if the style of a literary text is compromised,

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the effect of the text on the target audience will be different from those of
the source text audience. This is a major reason why translators must be
mindful of the stylistic elements of a literary work. Its recreation in
translation is of utmost importance. Based on the theory of functional
equivalence, the function or the purpose of a text is what determines the
options that the author will choose from and that becomes his style.
Therefore, a translator must keep in touch that same function and style in
the target text.

In effect, this study has the purpose of showing how the apparatus of
linguistic description can be used in analysing the style of a prose text
translated from English to French. Stylistics is usually linked to the study of
language in literature. According to Toolan (1998), “it is simply the study of
language in literature”. It is usually applied to the teaching, analysis,
reading, studying and interpretation of literary texts with language being the
core of any stylistic analysis. In this study we are concerned with literary
stylistics. It is concerned with both the interpretation and the appreciation of
literary texts through the investigation of language organisation. This
stylistic interpretation is text centred and it can only be derived and
confirmed by the stylistic features and functions of the language. In effect,
this study has the purpose of showing how the apparatus of linguistics
description can be used in analysing the style of a prose text translated from
English into French. This analysis of style is an attempt to find the artistic
principles underlying a writer’s choice of language.

According to Simpson, (2000) to do stylistics is to explore creativity in

language use because it enriches our ways of thinking about language.
Simpson gave a list of the major levels of language and their related
technical terms in language study. These are phonology (The sound of
spoken language; the way words are pronounced).

Graphology: The patterns of written language, the shape of language on the

page.

Morphology: The way words are constructed and their constituents’

structure.

Syntax: The way words combine with other forms, phrases, and sentences.

Lexique: The words we use, the vocabulary of language.

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Semantics: The meaning of words in sentences.

According to him, these basic levels of language can be identified and

teased out in the stylistic analysis of a given text and this will make the
analysis more organised and principled although these levels are
interconnected and interrelated.

However, according to Leech & Short(1981),stylistic features are defined as

the occurrence of a linguistic or stylistic category in a text. They posited that
by combining literary and linguistics discrimination, we should be more alert
to those particular features of style which calls for more careful
investigation. Such salient features are called style markers. In this study,
we will be guided by the style markers of Leech&Short (1981).They are
placed under 4 general headings which include,Lexical
Categories,Grammatical Categories,Figures of Speech and Cohesion and
Context.The conceptual frame work of this study is based primarily on the
style markers propounded by Leech and Short,(1981).

They are of the opinion that the smallest detail of language can unlock the
soul of literary work. They conclude that language of literature cannot be
understood without a proper appreciation of how language works. The
language question in African Literature has been on for ages with different
specialists bringing their own perspectives on the issue. Since literature is a
manifestation of people’s culture, it cannot be completely separated from
language. Also; the imagination that will be on display in any literary works
will be conveyed by the use of language. This is why we will take a good look
at the language of Chinua Achebe because his hallmark is the revitalization,
exposition and celebration of the African Heritage.Chinua Achebe himself
who chose to write in English has this to say in response to a question
quoted by Satia E E by Obiwale “Dead End Of African Literature”.(
1976:67)“I chose to write in African English to express a new voice coming
out of Africa, speaking of African experience in a worldwide language. I have
been given the language (English) and I intend to stretch it to accommodate
my African thoughts’’.

These are profound words from the world acclaimed master of African
Literature. This is exactly why we have decided to analyse the language use
in Things Fall Apart that represents Achebe’s classic on the colonial situation
of Nigeria in particular and also Anthills of the Savannah which also
represents his most articulate ideology on socio-political situation of post

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colonial Nigeria. According to Awa(2014),Achebe has extended the frontiers
of English to accommodate African thought patterns by including some
distinctive features of the African literature. It is this distinctive style of
Achebe that this study is all about. Especially, how these stylistic features
have been translated into their French versions by his translators Michel
Ligny and Etienne Galle respectively.

In this study, efforts will be made to take a critical look at the style of the
source text as perceived by the translator and how it is conveyed or changed
or to what extent it is or can it be preserved in translation. In effect, a style
centred approach to literary prose translation is being suggested in this
study. This involves a thorough stylistic analysis of the source text and the
meticulous application of translation procedures that fits under it. At the
end, this study will lead to a better understanding and appreciation of both
the source and the target texts.

In addition, it will result in a deeper appreciation of Achebe’s stylistic choices

and also encourage more researchers to explore further the place of
stylistics in the translation theory and pract

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1.2 Statement of Research Problem

The history of translation has long been wrought with arguments for and
against translation of content and style. The major challenge according to
Boase Bieier (2004:29) is that style rather than content embodies meaning.
She explained that this is because the style of a work of literature provides a
direct link to the work’s basic thematic concerns and the kind of experiences
it attempts to convey.

In this study, efforts will be made to take critical look at the style of the
source texts as perceived by the translator and how it is conveyed or
changed into the target text or to what extent it has been preserved in
translation. In effect, a style centred approach to literary prose translation is
being suggested. This will involve a thorough stylistic analysis of the source
texts and the meticulous application of translation procedures that fits within
its translation framework. This has become paramount because for many
translators, style comes only second in priority after the meaning.
Considering Nida’s definition of translation, he gave priority to meaning over
style. However, the role and effect of style in translation cannot be
overemphasised since it is not only the “what” of translation that should be
known but also the “why”. This is why Boase Bieier (2004) posited that “It is
only natural that a good form conveys the content in more sufficient and
adequate ways. Furthermore, in translation discussions, emphasis is always
placed on the faithfulness of the translator to the content, but for the
translator to be faithful to the stylistic choices of the author, it poses a major
challenge.

This study is therefore majoring on the area of style since it is a basic factor
to consider when translating prose works. Talking about the importance of
style Mao Dun (1984) quoting the Goethe, the German literary translator,
posited that “Without style, a piece of writing is not valued as art nor is the
writer an artist”. He says “A literary translator should reproduce in the target
language the artistic flavour of the original….thus the translator can excite,
delight and inspire the target language reader the same way it delighted and
excited the source text readers.

Most often translators often want to compromise or even change the

style of the original work and if this is done, the messages of the source
language will be distorted and in the words of Mao Dun they cannot be
excited, delighted or inspired by the translated work and this can lead to

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mistranslation or translation loss. In essence, the war of sense over style is
still on and most times, sense wins over style because for many specialists
in translation, the meaning of text is sacred. In this study however, what we
intended to put forward is that the spirit and the force of the source
language text is bound up in the style of the original. In ascertaining this, we
would do a stylistic study of the French translations of Chinua Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart and Anthills of the Savannah. This is because these books
are great master pieces acclaimed all over the world and some of the traits
that gave the books their global status are majorly the stylistic features and
techniques of writing. These works are full of oral traditions which include
stories, songs, proverbs and so on. Oral tradition is the basis of modern or
written literature and this explains why Achebe uses illusions, proverbs, Igbo
speech patterns to blend the Standard English in order to enlarge the
resources of his literary creation. This work will on the whole fill the gap that
exists in this aspect of translation studies since much work has been done on
the translation of cultural aspects of Chinua Achebe’s works.

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1.3 Objectives Of The Study

The problem investigated in this study is to ascertain whether the translators

of Chinua Achebe preserved the style of the original text or they followed
their own style in the translation. Efforts were made to show if the
translators captured the stylistic features of the original text and if such
features have been accurately conveyed to the target text. In specific terms
this study will

1 Identify the stylistic features in the original texts.

2 Identify the stylistic features of the translated texts.

3 Examine the level of accuracy in the stylistic equivalence between the

source and the target text.

2. Examine and assess the effectiveness of the strategies that were

used in the translated texts.

4. Investigate what factors impacted on the style of translation.

6. Ascertain whether the equivalent features of the important stylistic

features in the original are present in the translation.

7. Identify through comparison of the source text and target text, the
recurring patterns in the target texts that are either similar to those in the
target texts or represent deviant stylistic behaviours.

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1.4 Significance of the Study

This study will help translators, language experts, and researchers to

understand better the importance and the role of style in translation because
it has often been neglected and not given the attention it need. In addition,
the study will help translators and language experts in the application of
stylistic approaches to literary translation with special reference to English
and French translations. Moreover, the study will help to accentuate the
effects of style in literary translation because according to Boase Bieier
(2006:24) “The sense of what style is will affect how the critique of
translation will interpret what the translator has done”. In effect, the study
will help translators and researchers to increase their competence for
analysing the stylistic features of any given text following the basis of
analysis of the Leech and Short’s (1981) style markers. This is because
stylistics helps to explain the relation between language and artistic
functions.

Basically, this study on style in relation to translated texts is very significant

and important because style is an integral part of the source text and if
translation practice is invested with artistic attributes and functions, then the
translator is expected to be mindful of stylistics features. A study of this
nature will help translators to draw evidence for the implied meanings
emanating from stylistic functions. This stylistic function in a sense is the
reason behind stylistic features. The findings of this study will also help to
sensitize policy markers on the need to ensure the sustainability of French as
a foreign language in Nigeria. This is because the French language has
become a major language of diplomacy, commerce and business around the
world and Nigeria cannot be left behind.

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1.5 Research Method and Theoretical Approach

The research method of this study is both descriptive and analytical. This will
help to present a very systematic analysis of the French translations of the
two texts, Things fall apart and Anthills of the savannah. It does not require
the use of questionnaires, interviews or any of the variety of sampling
techniques available. Both primary and secondary data are gathered through
content analysis of literature relevant to the area of study. Having collected
the data, the analysis and discussions will be made according to our findings
from the collected data. We are proposing the Textual approach so that we
will be able to gather as much data as are relevant to the study.

For this study, we are proposing the Eclectic theoretical approach while we
will base our conceptual framework for the stylistic features to be selected
for analysis on Leech and Short (1981) style markers. They are of the
opinion that in undertaking a stylistic study, the features to be analysed
need to be selected based on certain categories. They referred to the salient
feature of style as style markers. These include lexical categories,
grammatical categories, figures of speech, cohesion and context.

Some of the stylistic features to be examined will include, metaphors,

proverbs, pidgin English, code mixing etc. We also propose to base our
theoretical framework on Peter Newmark’s(1988)semantic translation theory
and Eugene Nida’s(1969) formal equivalence theory. The study will follow a
comparative analysis which lines up the translation side by side with the
original.

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1.6 Justification of the Study

In this study, our selected texts are very important and the aspect of style in
translation is also very germane. As we have reiterated earlier, the clue to
literary language is the set of features of literariness that makes literature
into what it is. In essence, the translation of literature must give attention to
the features of the language of literature i.e. the style of literary language.
Since style is the source of creativity in literary translation and it is the
master key as it were to understanding, interpreting or translating, the more
appropriate method of translating literature can be based on literary style.
This is what justifies this area of research in the first place.

In spite of the fact that style is important in translation, there are not
much detailed or satisfactory discussions or researches on its role in
translation studies. This is why this study is taking a stylistic approach to
translation studies. What we are saying is that literary translation is not
merely transference of sense but of style, so it must include a careful
stylistic analysis of the source text. Moreover, one of the interesting aspects
of the theory of translation is the problem of transfer of the stylistic devices
of language. This aspect is scarcely developed and continues to attract the
attention of researchers and translators. This is why this research work is
aimed at carrying out a stylistic study of the French translations of Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Anthills of the Savannah. This study will help
to explore the significance of stylistics in translation and how style operates
actively in the translation process. Invariably this study is justified because it
will lead to a better understanding and appreciation of both source and
target texts. This study will result in a deeper appreciation of Achebe’s
stylistic choices. This will also encourage more researchers to focus on this
aspect of translation studies and bring more scholarly contributions on the
issues of style in translation.

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1.7 Research Questions

1. Does the translator qualify to share with the original author, the
authorship of the work he has helped to translate?

2. What constitute constraints on the style of the translated text?

3. What is the middle ground; staying faithful to the author or creating

something unique and distinctive that will evoke the same responses as the
original audience?

4. Is translation a reproduction at its best or production on its own?

5. How did the language use of the original author affect the translated text?

6. What were the strategies used by Achebe’s translators in rendering the

texts to French?

7. What are the problems of transference of stylistic features and devices in

the target text?

8. What are the factors that impact on the style of translation?

9. What is the significance of style and stylistics in translation?

10. Do the translators’ style have any impact on the rendering of the stylistic
features from English to French?

11. To what extent has the stylistic features of Things Fall Apart and Anthills
of the savannah been transferred into their French versions.

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1.8 Research Hypotheses

1. Achebe deliberately deviated from standard language to enhance the

realization of aesthetics in his texts.

2. The style of the translated text is a product of both the original author
and the translator

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1.9 Scope of the Study

This study is inevitably limited to the source and target texts respectively;
‘Things Fall Apart’(Le monde s’effondre) and ‘Anthills Of The Savannah’(Les
termitieres de la savanne). Though at various times references will be made
to other texts that are relevant to the study at hand in order to carry out a
well informed study on the stylistic analysis on the original texts viz a viz the
translated texts . Our corpus and data are drawn directly from the selected
texts and the analyses are done based on the data collected from the texts.
In the course of the analysis, we will adopt Leech and short(1981) style
markers as conceptual Framework, while Newmark’s semantic translation
theory as well as Nida’s formal equivalent theory will be our theoretical
frame work.

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