Welgevonden revisited : a new translation of Sewe Dae by die Silbersteins, and its literary-critical rationale

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis re-evaluates the writing of seminal Afrikaans modernist Etienne Leroux from aSouth African English perspective. The present author's new translation of Leroux's prizewinningnovel Sewe Dae by die Silbersteins (1962) is the focal point of an enquiry into how'rewriting, in translation theorist André Lefevere's coinage, has shaped the reception ofLeroux's work outside the Afrikaans literary system. It is shown from a literary-historiographicalviewpoint that translation played a crucial role in Leroux's rise to internationalprominence and subsequent eclipse. It is demonstrated that Leroux's standing within theEnglish literary system rests predominantly on extant translations of his novels, withouttaking into account the cyclical quality of his fiction, especially the overarching nine-novelcycle – the basis of Leroux's renown in Afrikaans. The distortions produced by this fact arecritiqued. In particular, the received idea of Leroux as an apolitical obscurantist is challenged,the work of J.C. Kannemeyer especially showing that Leroux's politics and artwere much more integral and radical than previously (mis)understood. A case is made forLeroux's re-evaluation as a seminal contributor to modern South African fiction comparableto J.M. Coetzee, and for the production of fresh translations of his work to facilitatethis re-evaluation. A detailed account of the translation process behind the present author'snew translation of Sewe Dae by die Silbersteins follows. A series of close readings comparesthis new translation to the first translation by Charles Eglington (1964), shows howEglington's translation obscured certain textual strategies vital to a full comprehension ofLeroux's text, examines the difficulties inherent in restoring them, and argues for the newtranslation's success therein. A mise au point in which insights yielded by this process feedback into an assessment of Leroux's relevance today concludes the thesis. Leroux's techniqueis shown to have immunised his texts against the desuetude into which time-bound'committed literature often falls. In particular, Sewe Dae by die Silbersteins, or its newtranslation, emerges as a satirical anatomisation of subjectivity under late modern capitalismentirely in tune with contemporary cultural representations of apartheid as metaphorfor global capitalism.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University